Who are these ‘stewards’?

Well, many options are possible. The choice for steward-ownership goes together with the decision regarding who can hold voting rights. The guiding question sounds something like:
“Which individuals contribute entrepreneurially to the idea, take full responsibility for the company, and are suitable in terms of their skills and values to become co-owners?”

Steward-owned companies practice a multitude of different approaches to the distribution of voting rights, individually chosen and implemented by the company in their legal DNA.
The principle of Self-governance stipulates that only people who are closely associated with the company are able to take over the steering wheel of the company. They control the voting rights, as steward-owners.

Unlike common ownership models, voting shares cannot be speculatively sold or automatically inherited by individuals. Rather, they are passed on in trust to individuals closely connected to the business, through pre-determined principles.

Ultimately, every company has its unique culture, and so are the ownership designs.

𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧(𝐬) 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝-𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫(𝐬)?
Many companies decide that steward-owners are solely the managing directors. Others choose a more democratic approach (while most steward-owned firms use meritocratic rather than hyper-democratic approach).

One of the most commonly used criteria in defining a steward is: "the person must work for the company for a certain amount of time, and for at least X years/months"

Stewards - Many options are possible

But, as with any incorporation, the question remains: How should voting rights be distributed? Should voting rights be held by a single person, a few individuals, all members, or will they always remain with certain groups of people?
A question we have been working on a lot lately.

We distinguish about six common typologies:
[1] (Closed) Fix Founders: A limited group of stewards, with a strong focus on the founders.
[2] Source / Guardian: Extra voting rights for the ‘source’ of the company, acting as guardian of the vision.
[3] Growing Representatives: As the company grows, the number of stewards grows proportionally.
[4] External View: A portion of voting rights is allocated to individuals or non-profits that share the same purpose and/or have crucial expertise.
[5] Open End: Stewards are trusted to further determine their own pathway.
[6] Election of Everyone (within criteria): Within an agreed framework, anyone can become a steward, often with elections and term limits as logical outcomes.

Or – as you might expect – sometimes it's a smart combination of several.
 
Who should be the stewards?
 It remains a challenging question. To make it easier for you as a leader to visualize, let’s reframe the question: If you are no longer there, who would be most suited to exercise the voting rights of this company?

Who are deemed most aligned and capable to run the business?

Lets think about.