When You Need Excellence, Do You Want Employees or Stakeholders?

You’ve got work to be done and customers to serve. Whom do you want taking care of your customers, employees or stakeholders? Merriam Webster (dictionary) defines an employee as ‘one employed by another usually for wages or salary and in a position below the executive level.’ In other words, someone coming to work and punching the clock for a paycheck. On the other hand, Merriam Webster (dictionary) defines stakeholder as ‘one that has a stake in an enterprise.’ This means caring deeply about the product or service provided and ‘getting it right’ for the customer! Stakeholders are more focused on the value that they put into the work rather than the dollars that they get paid to do the work. Not that money isn’t a priority, it just isn’t the ‘highest’ priority. The Bottom Line. If you want to provide customers with excellence, it is necessary to have the right leadership, culture, and stakeholders that value their work.