Everyone on your team is either a co-signer or an authorized user.
You might be familiar with the difference between the two — especially if you are a parent to a young adult, or if you’ve ever needed help building your credit. A co-signer on an account takes a shared responsibility for payment, but an authorized user simply has access to the credit line. While this is typically a financial conversation between parents and children, within this concept lies a powerful leadership lesson for anyone leading a team. Every employee is one of the two. Which would you rather have?
In other words, are you building a culture of co-signers or authorized users? It’s quite simple to tell the difference. You know you have a team full of co-signers when everyone feels a personal attachment to your mission, vision and bottom line. And I’m not talking about individuals who have equity in your company — I’m referring to employees, not shareholders.
When you have team members who care about the soft side of culture building and organizational health — and they’re not in your HR department — you know you’ve built a team of co-signers. And when your team is willing to roll up their sleeves, double down on projects and make personal sacrifices in the face of low projections, you have a team of co-signers.
A team of authorized users looks quite different. They might be worried about the consequences of a bad quarter, but they’re not willing to go beyond their scope of work unless you talk about overtime pay or some sort of incentive. Authorized users would obviously like a positive work environment, but if something needs to be fixed, it’s someone else’s problem. And if a team member is willing to jump ship to a competitor, regardless of how much you’ve invested into them, you know they were an authorized user.
