Let me ask you an odd question. Are your employees thinking about their jobs in the shower?

To be successful, your employees don’t have to be thinking about their jobs every minute of the day. But, in those ten or fifteen minutes when a person is is getting ready for work, they should be thinking about the day ahead. They should be spending those precious minutes of alone-time, without the distractions of cellphones and televisions, thinking about how to make their jobs better.

Almost every business owner spends a lot of their time thinking about ways to solve problems that plague their organization. Leaders aren’t obsessive, but their minds can’t help but ponder breakthrough innovations and ways to help their business grow. As a leader, you’re engaged. You’re enthusiastic. You can’t wait to try new things, and see your company prosper. Right?

So, why aren’t your employees doing the same thing?

During their daily work, employees should be listening – to each other, and to your customers – about ways to strengthen the business. When they hear a great idea, or think of something new, what do they do? Does your organization have a method of collecting those innovations and acting on them?

Every business needs a platform, an operating system, to collect great ideas and implement better methods. In my previous business, Restaurants on the Run, we used the Vital Factor system, a method of accountability that helps businesses listen, understand, and act on the things your customers find most important. This kind of engagement is the intersection of owners, CEOs, managers, and their people, to the company’s most important asset: your customers.

To really drive the business, employees need to think like owners. They need to understand the company’s path forward, and clearly their place in that growth. Every single employee needs to believe in the company’s vision, and be excited about its progress. That’s where accountability plays in. when employees are accountable, and see how their actions help the business, they become enthusiastic about their contributions. And when they’re enthusiastic, they’ll keep thinking about new ways to innovate and make the company better – even in the shower.