There are untold millions of small businesses operating in the United States alone. Many of these businesses face a constant challenge to expand or even maintain current operations.
Why?
If you go to any good bookstore, you will see racks of books attempting to answer that very question. They talk about motivating your management team, expanding your profit centers, marketing more effectively, getting noticed on the Internet, and much more. There are textbooks on small business management and standard procedures for financial management. You can go to any number of qualified universities and study Business Administration towards an MBA.
Many entrepreneurs come from backgrounds where they lack either formal business training or a complete education in running all aspects of a business. Thus, more education under these circumstances would be warranted to help improve their circumstances.
But there are aspects of running a business that are all but utterly ignored by classic business management texts.
It’s the personal part, the personal issues of the entrepreneurs and members of their executive team. I would say that greater than 50% of the business failures I have seen were the result of personal issues at the top of the company that were never resolved. Personal issues are the “elephant in the parlor” that nobody wants to talk about.
It’s not hard to understand why this is so. It is much more comfortable for everybody involved to chalk up business difficulties to quantifiable forces- “Our sales are down because our industry is currently in a recession” Or, “We continue to have payroll problems because we are not managing our spending according to standard practices”. And, these would be right! The problem is, there may be more to the story that prevents good business practices from taking hold within the company on a sustainable basis.
Personal issues are messy. And, they can be difficult to correct, particularly if the individuals involved are in a state of denial about their circumstances. And frankly, it can be uncomfortable to finally face up to the issues involved, even if you know what they are in the first place. Many people have never had the kind of friendly, neutral support necessary to allow them to really explore their own needs and motivations. And as a result, they continue on with patterns and behaviors that repel real, stable success.
Here are a few examples of personal issues that could affect the success of a company:
- An entrepreneur being pressured by a spouse or disrupted by family problems such as a divorce;
- An entrepreneur who refuses to trust and delegate to others, justifying this by believing that he is the only person who really knows what he is doing;
- An entrepreneur who always operates on “hyper-overdrive”, expecting the same from others and creating chaos that others have to manage;
- A husband and wife management team where their relationship spills over into the workplace, creating situations that the employees have to tip-toe around
- An entrepreneur who constantly destabilizes his company with impulsive and rash business decisions;
- An inventor with poor social skills who believes that others want to thwart the success of his inventions;
- An executive team that unknowingly mirrors their own individual family patterns with one employee delegated as the “favorite son” and the others jealously trying to gain favor;
- An executive covering up a substance abuse issue;
- An entrepreneur who thinks he is always right and refuses to listen to the good advice of others;
- An entrepreneur attempting to force himself to build a company up when what he REALLY wants to do is to be a photographer (or play the guitar, or write short stories, or work on cars, or…)’
- An executive who routinely underpays everybody, pays bills slowly, and negotiates with others ruthlessly, creating a suppressed antagonism where others want him to fail;
- An entrepreneur working for long hours with little pay because she secretly feels she doesn’t deserve to be highly compensated…
The list could go on and on. The disruptive actions of the individuals mentioned above may be partially or completely unconscious to them, or even justifiable in their own eyes. The businesses affected by these behaviors will struggle or never reach their full potential. Still, it’s also important to acknowledge the talent, drive, and accomplishments that these people have brought to the table. It’s just that counter-productive patterns and behaviors should be acknowledged and the individuals supported to move beyond them.
Personal problems can be dealt with in a helpful, compassionate manner. The support team could consist of consultants, coaches, counselors, and even therapists depending on the severity of the issues involved. The first step as a CEO is to acknowledge that personal issues can and do inhibit the success of your company.
In summary then, business issues really fall into two broad categories:
- Problems of business competency and proper execution
- Personal problems that may be disguised as regular business problems
Business competency and execution issues can be corrected by identifying the areas that are being mishandled and adopting a proper program of education and correction. Personal issues must first be acknowledged and then a strategy adopted to reduce their negative influences on the work environment. Correcting either business or personal issues can be challenging but require different approaches and styles. And, the two types of problems may be interwoven.
Fix business problems by looking for what has been overlooked and ignored. Self-examination and scrutiny is a good quality in an entrepreneur when it is not carried to extremes.
By Robert Coleman, President Pacific Venture Club
Copyright 2010 Robert Coleman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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