 "From hero to strategist")
Being an entrepreneur is a beginning, but to build a successful and sustainable business you'll need strong leadership and management. Which role will you play and how will you get there? Are you just the innovator or are you the owner-manager? Can you graduate from being the owner-manager to being a leader and, if so, what obstacles will you have to navigate along the way?
In order to begin the journey, it's important to recognise that management is not the same as leadership. They are not interchangeable. The function of leadership is to do the right things, whereas the function of management is to do things right.
Reducing owner-dependency. The journey to leadership
In their book Growing Your Business: A Handbook for Ambitious Owner Managers, Gerard Burke, Liz Clarke, Paul Barrow and David Molian describe the owner-manager as developing across specific roles over time. These roles include 'artisan', 'hero', 'meddler' and 'strategist'.
They put forward the proposition that the majority of owner-managers start businesses in areas and disciplines in which they have a degree of expertise or skill. "A plumber who plumbs, an accountant who accounts, or a solicitor who solicits is an artisan [emphasis added]," explains Gerard Burke.
As they generate sales and customers, the next phase of their development involves recruiting or subcontracting to help them deliver their increasing workload. This can often be one of the busiest points in the journey. As the individual with the most skill in the core area of the business, but also the boss, the owner-manager thus evolves into the 'hero'. Not only are they still working in the business and servicing customers, but they are also getting the business in and getting the invoices out, while simultaneously managing and training their staff.
As a consequence of this pivotal (but hopefully temporary) role, a huge part of the early-stage owner-manager's time is spent fighting fires. Everyone comes to them as the main point of contact customers, staff and suppliers. They are the hub and the hero of the business, the person that the entire business revolves around and depends upon. This is self-perpetuating. The more problems they solve for others, the more likely they are to retain their role as chief firefighter.
Unfortunately, this period of development can be self-limiting and will often prevent the business from growing. The owner-manager is typically too busy to focus on growth, with his hands tied to turning the daily handle.
So what's the way forward? Put simply, the way to break through this frustrating glass ceiling is to begin to build infrastructure, recruiting additional management to take on some or even most of the responsibilities that were once the domain of the owner-manager. In practice, however, human nature and an all-too-common reluctance to let go can make this fundamental behavioural shift particularly difficult.Breaking through the barrier of owner-dependency can take the entrepreneur through a transition from 'hero' to 'strategist', empowering the team and enabling the business to reach prosperous new heights.
However, it can also lead to the ambitious entrepreneur unsettling the business by seeking new and disruptive levels of heroism (e.g. the introduction of new business ideas or diversification) or assuming an unwanted role; that of the 'meddler'. Either way, the business can be held back and its growth stunted.
FROM VISION TO EXIT
The Entrepreneurs Guide to Building and Selling a Business
AUTHOR: Guy Rigby
PUBLISHER: Harriman House
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9789381639313
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Copyright Harriman House. All rights reserved
In order to begin the journey, it's important to recognise that management is not the same as leadership. They are not interchangeable. The function of leadership is to do the right things, whereas the function of management is to do things right.
Reducing owner-dependency. The journey to leadership
In their book Growing Your Business: A Handbook for Ambitious Owner Managers, Gerard Burke, Liz Clarke, Paul Barrow and David Molian describe the owner-manager as developing across specific roles over time. These roles include 'artisan', 'hero', 'meddler' and 'strategist'.
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They put forward the proposition that the majority of owner-managers start businesses in areas and disciplines in which they have a degree of expertise or skill. "A plumber who plumbs, an accountant who accounts, or a solicitor who solicits is an artisan [emphasis added]," explains Gerard Burke.
As they generate sales and customers, the next phase of their development involves recruiting or subcontracting to help them deliver their increasing workload. This can often be one of the busiest points in the journey. As the individual with the most skill in the core area of the business, but also the boss, the owner-manager thus evolves into the 'hero'. Not only are they still working in the business and servicing customers, but they are also getting the business in and getting the invoices out, while simultaneously managing and training their staff.
As a consequence of this pivotal (but hopefully temporary) role, a huge part of the early-stage owner-manager's time is spent fighting fires. Everyone comes to them as the main point of contact customers, staff and suppliers. They are the hub and the hero of the business, the person that the entire business revolves around and depends upon. This is self-perpetuating. The more problems they solve for others, the more likely they are to retain their role as chief firefighter.
Unfortunately, this period of development can be self-limiting and will often prevent the business from growing. The owner-manager is typically too busy to focus on growth, with his hands tied to turning the daily handle.
So what's the way forward? Put simply, the way to break through this frustrating glass ceiling is to begin to build infrastructure, recruiting additional management to take on some or even most of the responsibilities that were once the domain of the owner-manager. In practice, however, human nature and an all-too-common reluctance to let go can make this fundamental behavioural shift particularly difficult.Breaking through the barrier of owner-dependency can take the entrepreneur through a transition from 'hero' to 'strategist', empowering the team and enabling the business to reach prosperous new heights.
However, it can also lead to the ambitious entrepreneur unsettling the business by seeking new and disruptive levels of heroism (e.g. the introduction of new business ideas or diversification) or assuming an unwanted role; that of the 'meddler'. Either way, the business can be held back and its growth stunted.
FROM VISION TO EXIT
The Entrepreneurs Guide to Building and Selling a Business
AUTHOR: Guy Rigby
PUBLISHER: Harriman House
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9789381639313
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Copyright Harriman House. All rights reserved