On a recent flight, I had the opportunity to visit with my indirect seatmate. We connected quickly, while the middle seat person took a personal break. This new acquaintance shared his excitement about the company he was launching. With 5 people already on board, he was quickly finding himself involved in the “people” side of things. Confessing that he is much more comfortable with the tactical side of the business, he wanted to make sure he got help with the people side of things in order to build a sustainable organization. He recognized that his lack of talent in the people area could quickly mean bad news for his company. The approximate age of my seatmate – under 35 years.
With my focus on strengths based development, I was thrilled to hear a business owner so quickly acknowledge a weakness with which he needed support. For so many of us, myself included in times past, it is difficult to say we are not great in some areas and need support. We tend to think “how does that reflect on my leadership if I don’t have all the answers?”
A few hard knocks and some maturity later, most of us come to recognize that attempting to do it all as a small business owner is a misguided approach and we reach out for assistance. I am going to guess that my new friend had a few “not so great” people experiences in the past that lead to his insight.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared about the importance of employee engagement in determining the productivity and profitability of an organization. As you will recall only 30% of the U.S. workforce is engaged in their jobs. This lack of engagement costs billions of dollars in terms of lost productivity, directly impacting the enterprise bottom line.
To this point, you may have agreed with the conclusions that have come from decades of research, yet as a small business owner you are challenged with how to do anything beyond running the business. How on earth are you going to develop the skills and strengths that make one a great manager? Or if your team is big enough how do you hire for that position(s)? This is not what you got into business for, you started your company to develop or deliver a product or service that you are passionate about. You didn’t get into this to manage people. Ahhh…the downside of growth.
As my new friend so clearly stated, look for support in this area. Outsource your area of weakness. Find a resource willing to share insight, expertise and serve as a sounding board for you to strengthen your team as well as yourself. There is something immensely freeing in the recognition of “I don’t have to do it all.” Let me know…how can I help?