If during my interview I'd been asked to explain what “acting like an owner” meant to me, I wouldn't have had a great answer.

Our website states: “We hired you because we think you’re smart, please use that knowledge to help us better this company and speak up when you have an opinion. Good ideas do nothing when left unsaid.”

After more than three years and a few thousand experience hours within Kognitiv, I can more clearly define it and, when I meet with prospective clients or colleagues, I explain it so they know if they'll be a good fit for our company.

More than having an opinion or being an intellectual, acting like an owner embodies this primary characteristic: taking initiative. I'll break this down into smaller pieces to clarify what I mean.

Initiative = Actions

An employer cannot give you the ability to assess and initiate things independently. You have to want to do it. Certain cultures may not inherently embody the ability to take initiative, but at Kognitiv, it's part of our life.

1. Not waiting to be asked to do something you know needs to be done.

So many actions in life require nothing other than initiation. Look around the room. If you see an empty glass, left out after being used, or notice the floor is covered with your dog's footprints, do you go ahead and take care of the cleanup or wait until someone mentions or does it for you?

The same goes for work at Kognitiv. If a ticket arrives in your queue and you have the time and the knowledge to take it, do so. Own it and see it through. Not only does this provide service to our clients, it displays initiative to the rest of your team.

    2. Seeing big-picture and sharing information.

If you're working with a client on an issue they logged and notice something else that's unrelated, it's your job to say something. No one will know about it otherwise, and that's the opposite of acting like an owner. It might be that a client isn't taking advantage of a new feature or functionality, or they haven't set something up correctly, or you identify a cross-functional impact not otherwise noted. Whatever it is, you found it and it's always worth sharing.

    3. Trying new things / taking on new challenges

Your leader may encourage you to take on new opportunities to grow your experience, but it's up to you to fully engage and to see other ways to enhance your skills. Fancy trying out a role in a different department? Go for it! Worst case scenario, you decide it's not for you and change back or to something else later, but you undoubtedly gained additional expertise in the meantime. Furthermore, if there isn't a formal opportunity to undertake but you see something you'd like to do, create it for yourself!

Initiative = Opportunity

Taking initiative has given me a view into how I can more easily find my passion. My parents may have come from the age of working at one employer for a lifetime, but there are far too many options nowadays to live like that.

Curating my professional goals around the opportunities I find myself endeavoring in keeps me more engaged. I don't feel stuck as long as I'm always looking for ways to own my career. And trying out new things opens up ways for others to do the same, such as when I moved into a Project Manager role and left a vacancy on my production support team.

Initiative = Ownership

I don't believe that acting like an owner is something we inherently know how to do, but once we figure out what it looks like and learn to lean in, there's really no reason to stop! It quickly becomes a positive, cyclical process of seeing a gap, taking initiative to fill it, and knowing that the result is, in fact, important to both you and your organization.