S1E10: Becoming an Employee-Owned Business to Free Yourself | Eric Rieger

Eric Rieger, founder and CEO of WEBIT Services, discusses becoming an employee-owned business and shares how to trust your team and focus on the mission.

Despite having a love-hate relationship with technology, Eric’s entrepreneurial story is a classic example of seeing a problem in business ethics and taking the leap to fix it. He points to how his dad, a poor businessman, inspired him to build his own business. 

Eric discusses his resistance to processes early on and how it took reading Get a Grip to help him see the value EOS® would have for his company. He credits the book as a catalyst for his business’s success. Additionally, Eric emphasizes the significance of having a neutral third party to facilitate healthy conflict and assist the Visionary in making informed decisions.

Technology companies are constantly evolving. WEBIT is a prime example of how that evolution can empower a Visionary to continually develop new ideas and challenge the team to grow into their roles. 

Eric explains how the structure provided by EOS has influenced his approach to sharing ideas, while also enabling each team member to lead their own division without feeling pressured by him. 

Taking this step, Eric reveals how it’s helped bring the Right People into the Right Seats and how it nurtures a checks and balances system. Eric opens up about his trust issues and how they’ve influenced how he leads. 

Eric points to how becoming employee-owned enables new leaders to impact the company and highlights the challenges of getting to this point 

Transparency sits at the core of Eric’s mission of holding his team and himself accountable. Eric talks about equity in the business as a path for self-discovery for a Visionary:

[21:40] “From the beginning, I believed in equity and in people. To me, just having myself be the only beneficiary of a successful business. People think a bag of money solves all the problems. And it’s unfortunate because when you become part of this movement you’ve created, it’s this path of self-discovery. You’re starting to understand your place in the world and how your business can impact other people’s lives.”

Paul Detlefs, EOS Implementer® for WEBIT, talks about how Eric’s focus on people and mission shapes how he works as a leader. It’s this mission-based nature of the business that directs its target market.  

Paul points to the way he and the Integrator™ act as bumpers for Eric and touches on how WEBIT being employee-owned has helped Eric grow into his role and influenced how he leads.

Eric breaks down the employee-owned model and shares the impact it’s had on company culture and how he sees himself adding value to the business. He shares how he’s living The EOS Life® and how Running on EOS™ has helped create more time for him to give back to his community. 

Links

• Eric Rieger | LinkedIn
• TRACTION: GET A GRIP ON YOUR BUSINESS
• GET A GRIP: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL FABLE