Are You
Becoming the "I" of the Storm?
If
you fear that things are starting to slip, the first course of inquisition may
have to be you. Keep an eye out for these four telltales that the boss may need
to have a talk with the boss.
Executive director, Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation
and Tech Entrepreneurship, Illinois Institute of Technology
Now is
the time of year for some quiet reflection. Yet it's hard to make the time
because entrepreneurs aren't particularly introspective or self-aware, as most
of them are quick to admit. They rarely like looking in the rear-view mirror or
rehashing old news or past mistakes. If you need a current poster boy for this
attitude, look no further than the Zuck, who's all about future fixes and
moving on and not interested in the least in talking about past failures and
the damage done.
This
"full speed ahead" attitude is actually a source of some considerable
pride among the more arrogant execs in the Valley as they continue to lecture
the rest of us on solutions to world problems and on how to improve our lives
and society without opening their own kimonos to take a look at the messes
they've made. We used to describe this approach as "often wrong, but never
in doubt" and, in reality, it's clearly both a blessing and a curse for
most business builders.
A
blessing because the best entrepreneurs focus on possibilities more than
problems--winning rather than worrying--and, above all, tomorrow and not
yesterday. This astute and calculated ignorance is actually a competitive
advantage for the newcomers who are building startups. Because when you don't
know, or focus obsessively on, what you're not supposed to be able to do, or
what you're actually qualified for, or even capable of, often you just go right
ahead and simply get it done. You don't ever have to be bound by the
limitations of others. That's the good news.
The
curse is when you spend so much time seeing the "big" picture,
setting the vision, and steering the ship not around, but through the tough
times. That's when you can lose sight of yourself and how and whether things
are still working for you. This isn't good news. Being the boss of any business
is hard enough, but it's even tougher running a struggling startup (an oxymoron
for sure, because who isn't sweating every day in their business to get
better?) and it's almost impossible to do it well if your own head isn't fully
in the game.
I
wouldn't say that we should expect to be or need to be "happy" to
take on these challenges, but we do have to believe in our hearts and heads
that what we're doing is valuable, meaningful and likely to make a difference.
Otherwise it's easy to become bitter. As always, Springsteen says it best
in Devils and Dust when he sings:
What if what you do to survive
kills the things you love.
Fear's a powerful thing baby. It can turn your heart black...
If you
find yourself angry more often than amused--upset more often than uplifted--
and pissed more than proud, it's time to take a break and take a close look at
yourself. This is a difficult topic to take up because having a heart-to-heart
conversation with yourself isn't easy but it is essential, and
now's as good a time as any. I've written about this issue before in terms of
when it's time to do something different, but here I'm talking more about a tune-up rather than a termination.
If you
want a quick and easy way to getting the process started, your own
conversations may be the key. I call this "the I's have it" approach,
a shorthand way to see if things are starting to slip and are going to require
further examination and work. Listen carefully to how you're talking to your
people and about the business. If too much of the talk is about "I"
and not "we", it's a good bet that you're feeling angry or sorry for
yourself or both and need to get yourself back on track.
Watch
for these negatives:
(1) "I
don't really care..."said NO entrepreneur ever. Of course, you care -
it's your business and your baby. This is just a way of telling the team that
you're unhappy without being honest enough to put it out there. So, you sulk
and shut down. It's not just your unhappy employees who can suffer from "whatever" sickness. The good
news about this is that sitting on the sidelines isn't in your DNA and you'll
be back minding everyone else's business soon enough.
(2)
"I didn't know..."about someone. As often as not, you
did know or should have known, but this is just a handy way to deflect
responsibility and blame someone else for something you should be doing or
should have addressed. Great entrepreneurs sweat all the small details and
there's very little that goes on or matters in their companies that they miss.
And even if they missed it, there's always a parade of people waiting at their
door to give them the unhappy news.
(3)
"I wasn't asked..."about something. This is an
especially sad cop-out because you built the whole business on people taking
chances, risks and initiative and now you're whining that they didn't ask
nicely for your permission. Or maybe you saw what was going on (and wrong or
sideways) and you decided to be willfully ignorant and let the chips fall where
they may. This isn't you either and it's pretty close to cutting off your nose
to spite your face. Get over yourself and get busy fixing the problems.
(4)
"I didn't have..."X or Y or Z. And I'd like
to grow 10 inches taller and play center for the Chicago Bulls. Of course, you
didn't have certain things. No one ever has it all - that's why you make do and
do the best you can with the people and resources that you do have. It's just
another part of the job. If it was easy and everything was handed to you on a
silver platter, it wouldn't be much of a challenge. Entrepreneurs know that
it's the journey-- the work that you put into filling these gaps, inventing new
work-arounds and solutions, and making these things happen-- that's
the real joy in building a business.
Bottom
line: this has been a tough year in some ways for nearly everyone. And it's
easy for an entrepreneur to feel lonely and unappreciated. Sometimes the
hardest work is thankless, but that work is still important and still needs to
get done and done right. Take some time to take your own temperature and listen
to yourself; suck it up, and then get yourself back in the game.
And
remember that great entrepreneurs don't do this stuff because they want to;
they do it because they have to, and they wouldn't be caught dead doing
anything else.