The real reason your employees don’t care (and how to make them)
I was born and raised in Munteme village, present-day Kikuube district, where we were made aware of the simple rule “If you want something done, make people feel it’s theirs.” It was easy to mobilize community members to clean the communal open water well because they knew it was theirs. Whether it was a communal road or a school project, people showed up and gave their best when they believed it mattered to them. And the local leaders emphasized it: this is your project. Yet, in boardrooms across the region- and the world at large- I meet CEOs who ask the same question: “Why don’t my employees care?”
They assume the issue is motivation, but it’s not.
Your employees don’t care because they don’t feel ownership. They see your business as just another job, not their mission. And that’s a leadership problem, not an HR one.
The illusion of motivation
Five years ago, I was retained to support senior managers at an insurance company in Kenya to grow sales. As part of understanding the business, I noticed several incentives and bonus promises to high producers. They kept throwing money at incentives bonuses, commissions, and perks but the needle barely moved. That was surprising, and I decided to explore further on the issue. I sat down with high achievers, underachievers, and the next best achievers. I wanted to know the causes of the gaps. My discovery was surprising. The reason? The employees saw their work as a transaction, not a mission. They did just enough to get paid but not enough to drive real growth.
One staff member said to me bluntly, “If I am not motivated or feeling the company, increasing my bonus or pay won’t fix it. You just make me more paid, unmotivated staff. True, I need the money. But that I expect when I do a great job. What I do not expect is a leader making time for me or my team. Showing us what is the mission and purpose, and what it means when we do a good job beyond a paycheck which is contractual.” If leaders want staff to do more, they must also do more.
Leaders love to think money is the biggest motivator. It’s not. If money were the ultimate driver, no millionaire would wake up early to go to work. People crave meaning, recognition, and ownership far more than a paycheck.
Why most corporate cultures kill ownership
When I was leading a strategy formulation project at a financial institution, I noticed something disturbing. Middle managers were scared to make decisions. Every idea had to be approved by the executive team. Employees followed procedures like robots. The result? A slow, bureaucratic mess where no one cared beyond their job description.
Ownership dies when employees feel:
- Their opinions don’t matter.
- Their leaders micromanage everything.
- They are disposable, and easily replaced by the next hire.
- d) There’s no clear path to growth.
If you want employees to care, treat them like owners, not laborers. Like leaders, not followers.
How to make employees care
- Give them a stake in the outcome
In the above case in Kenya, I suggested something radical tie bonuses to team performance, not just individual results. After three months, things started to change. Employees weren’t just clocking in and out. They started holding each other accountable. Productivity increased by 37% by the sixth month.
Stop rewarding mediocrity.
Make employees feel the company’s success is their success. Whether through profit-sharing, performance-based incentives, or clear career growth plans, show them that their efforts directly impact their future.
- Make them part of decision-making
In Munteme village, we had no formal leadership structure. If something needed to be done, the elders consulted everyone farmers, traders, and even the youth. That way, when a decision was made, people owned it.
At a telecom company in Rwanda, I ran leadership workshops where I challenged managers to do one thing ask employees for solutions before dictating policies. It changed everything. People started taking initiative, productivity shot up, and engagement soared.
Your employees have frontline insights you don’t. Listen to them. Let them shape policies, and you’ll see how much they care.
- Stop micromanaging
The fastest way to kill engagement is to suffocate people with rules. I once worked with a logistics firm in Zambia where managers had to approve every tiny decision. Employees spent more time waiting for approvals than actually solving problems.
I advised the CEO to trust his team. Give them autonomy. Set clear outcomes, but let them figure out how to get there. Within a year, efficiency improved by over 40%.
- Recognize effort, not just results
In Kenya, during staff engagements, I discovered that one of the best salespeople was about to quit. Why? Because leadership only rewarded the top performers. Yet, this guy had been mentoring half the team, coaching them to improve. When I pointed this out, the company created a new recognition program not just for top sales but for team contribution. Employee retention skyrocketed.
Appreciation fuels engagement. If you only recognize results, you’ll lose the people who build the culture behind those results.
The hard truth: It starts with you
Your employees don’t care because you haven’t given them a reason to. If your leadership style is transactional, don’t expect them to be emotionally invested. If they don’t feel ownership, they won’t act like owners.
Fix this, and you won’t have to keep asking why your people don’t care. You’ll see it in their actions.
Your company’s success is not about how much you pay your employees, but how much they feel it’s their company too.
