What Changes When You Lead in an Employee-Owned Company
Making the move from a traditional corporate environment to an employee-owned company is a bigger shift than most leaders expect. In a recent NCEO webinar, Susan Bunz and Brian Kingery of Stellar Industries, a 100% employee-owned work truck equipment manufacturer, shared reflections on what that transition looks like from the inside. Their conversation, facilitated by leadership coach Melisa Gillis, surfaced some honest lessons for leaders at any stage of the ESOP journey.
The First Surprise: It Starts at the Top
For Susan, the difference revealed itself in an early conversation with Stellar's CEO. Coming from a publicly held company where proposals were quickly filtered through budgets and bottom-line questions, she was startled when the response to her suggestion was simply: "How is this going to affect our employees?" That shift in the very first question, from margin to people, signaled a fundamentally different operating philosophy.
Brian's moment came during a board presentation where he was bracing for pushback on a significant capital expenditure. Instead, the board asked whether it could give him more money to move faster. Both experiences pointed to the same truth: in an employee-owned company, the leadership framework itself is different.
The Assumption That Gets Leaders Into Trouble
Perhaps the most common mistake leaders make when joining an ESOP company is assuming the structure does the heavy lifting. Susan described it plainly: the instinct is to think, "We have an ESOP, so recruitment will be easier, and retention will be easier." That assumption was challenged quickly. The ESOP is a meaningful benefit, but it doesn't replace strong culture, clear communication, or a genuine employee voice. As Stellar moved from 52% to 100% employee-owned, the leadership team discovered that the announcement itself changed nothing on the ground. What mattered was deliberate, ongoing work that had to follow.
What Leaders Have to Unlearn
Brian and Susan both came from large organizations where quarterly earnings drove decision-making. They had to unlearn this habit in order to think in terms of the long game. Leaders at employee-owned companies make decisions based on what is genuinely right for the business and its people, including during difficult economic cycles. While the instinct at a public company might be to reduce the headcount, an ESOP company is more likely to ask how it can retain its employee-owners and come out stronger.
That longer horizon also changes how leaders engage with new ideas. Susan described having to shed a deeply ingrained reluctance to bring forward requests outside of budget season. In an employee-owned company, the door is open year-round, and leaders need to walk through it.
Sparking an Ownership Culture Takes Intentional Work
When Stellar's leadership team asked why their employees weren't acting more like owners, the harder question turned it back on them: how were the leaders themselves acting differently? That honest reckoning led to a shift away from a production-first environment and toward one that prioritized people. It also led to initiatives like an "Ideas Are Free" program, where any employee can implement a change of up to $250 without approval if it improves their work environment—a small but tangible signal that ownership is real.
If you're trying to take stock of where your own organization stands on this front, the NCEO's Ownership Culture Survey is a practical tool for understanding what's working, what employees are experiencing, and where the gaps are between your ownership structure and your day-to-day culture. Additionally, our 2026 Recruitment and Retention survey report can help you get a sense of how ESOP companies writ large are dealing with this recurring issue.
The second half of this conversation dives into how Stellar reshaped leadership team dynamics, what it took to build psychological safety, and how leaders can move from knowing what good ownership culture looks like to actually living it. Watch the full replay on the NCEO website. If you're not yet an NCEO member, this is a great example of the peer-driven learning available to you year-round. Join the NCEO to access this session and the full library of member resources.