Leadership, Not Ownership

It’s time to keep working on this month’s theme, that is, reopening in the post-pandemic economy.  But more importantly, reopening the business you truly enjoy rather than a business that is simply a job you happen to own.  

No one can simply grow a company willy-nilly and expect to enjoy the trip.  Even when Hewlett and Packard opened the doors nearly a century ago, they did so with the goals of leadership and not merely ownership.  

Yes, they were going to have to do a great deal of the work to be done – production and sales and development – but they also did that with the expectation they would soon be leaders of a growing company and not simply men doing a particular job.  

But time and again, I see so many of my clients – tired and frustrated by things nobody should be sore about.  

It might be the lack of a system here, or anyone designated to handle certain tasks (for many small businesses, no offense, things like bookkeeping, payroll, and accounts payable and receivable always seem to be “unsystemized” when my team and I begin to work with these companies – and they cause no end of frustration to many owners and leaders)

Remember a few weeks ago, when I asked you to make a list of everything that frustrated you about your business?  

Have you begun to take action on those items?  

Why or why not?  (And I’d love to hear of the progress you’ve made or even why you haven’t been able to make progress – shoot me an email back)

This week, though, I want you to approach some of those things as a leader in your company, not the owner.  Why?  Well, the leader would look at the problem as one to be solved – either through the addition of systems to be built to rectify the problem or as a job to be created, trained, and undertaken by a member of the team.  

An owner, though?  In my experience, they see problems as “more work” they will be called upon to do, even though they already don’t have enough time to complete the tasks they already have!

So as we continue to … dream?  Imagine?  Rethink?  How your business can actually reward your work and give something of greater value to you, as the entrepreneur, remember, sometimes you will have to get out of the mindset too many business owners have – the job they have created is simply more and more tasks to be done by them.  

Please, please, please:  begin to think like a leader and watch how so many of the annoying things that clog up your schedule can be made to simply go away with the right strategies and training in place.

All the best-