Today's Business Lessons
Nitty gritty
This is such a familiar scene. An entrepreneur discovers brilliance.
Sees an opportunity others ignore. Scrape up some money, boldly opens a
business, and grows it. Then grows it some more. The growth continues
with an unbelievable streak of success and expansion. The company grows
so much, becomes rich and yet, the owner could not enjoy the wealth
gained.
Why is this so?
Life is funny. Business owners often invite me to do trainings for
their organizations. I usually do an exhaustive Training Need Analysis
to find out what their needs and challenges are before I do the actual
training. Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.
The same principle applies to consultancy work. I cannot just go into
a setting with canned programs. I need to know what my clients’ needs
are and how to meet them. Training or speaking is not a magic wand that
solves all the businessperson’s business challenges and problems.
Take this for example. I politely turned down many lucrative offers
for my services after I concluded that the company does not need it.
After interview, I conclude what clients really need and if my
service is best suited to it, it is either that or they simply need to
have someone fix their organizational development.
Usually, a good HR person would do the trick, by simply implementing
strategic moves facilitated by the HR person. When strategy is in place,
when objectives are apparent and expectations are clear, then comes the
training. Many appreciate the effort, but others label it as offending.
“Is my money not good enough for you, Francis? That you are turning me
down?” If the attitude is like this, then the more I realize that the
businessperson is not yet ready for
training.
The nitty-gritty details of business are what wear the business owner’s energy.
The owner started the business as a one-man-show. And now that the
business has grown, has become more complex, every single decision is
still centralized and has to go through the owner’s decision-making
process.
The nitty-gritty of business stresses the owner. As the owner grows
older, the energy level decreases and is not as vibrant as during the
days of the youth. The money is there, but there is no opportunity to
enjoy it. This should not be the case.
As a business owner myself, I have come to the conclusion that I may
be in charge, but I do not always know what to do. When the leader wants
to do everything, the leader may turn out not doing everything well.
The leader is in-charge, but he does not have all the answers and the
punch line is this; everybody in the organization knows.
The bigger the organization grows, the more it increases in terms of
complexities. This can suffocate the real genius of the business owner
and that’s the business owner’s ability to cast vision, spot
opportunities and spend time-consulting conversations with the top 20
clientele and to build new ones.
As business owners, we may be in charge but we may not always know
what to do. We may be the top honchos, but we may not have all the
answers. We may be the leader, but we may not be the smartest person in
the room.
One of the worst things a leader can do is to pretend to know
something they don’t. The constant pressure to pretend is not healthy.
Hire good talents, train your leaders and let them do what they do
best while you continue to do what you do best. It may be a humbling
thing to do, but it must be done.
Enjoy the fruit of your labor by sharing it with those who do it
better. Prepare a succession plan and of course, this one is important,
pay your good people well for they grow the business for you.
You cannot succeed alone. Even Batman has Robin and Lone Ranger has Tonto and you are no super hero either.
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