BREAK THE ENTREPRENEURS TRAP
Owners and Founders have a difficult time getting out of their own way. Success can make Entrepreneurs feel like they are invincible. To an Entrepreneur, everything looks like an opportunity. Too many opportunities can become threats if not managed properly. Entrepreneurs can get into trouble by having so many irons in the fire, they get burned by most of them.
They often have a system that they try to put in process to relieve the stress and gain some sense of control. Most of these systems still reside in the head of the founder. There simply isn’t enough process the company can rely on outside the skill set of the entrepreneur. Soon their skill sets become a strangle-hold on the company and the company stops growing. The company can hit a major crisis and the organization begins to flounder. This is the Entrepreneur’s Trap. It is when the enterprise becomes constrained by the non-productive patterns of behavior of the founder. We show entrepreneurs how to break the dysfunctional patterns of behavior and allow the organization to succeed beyond their own skill sets.
Success can make Entrepreneurs feel like they are invincible.
To an Entrepreneur, everything looks like an opportunity. Too many opportunities can become threats if not managed properly. Entrepreneurs can get into trouble by having so many irons in the fire, they get burned by some of them.
In most rapidly growing, entrepreneurial organizations, processes, procedures and systems have not been fully developed. Many of the systems and procedures remain in the “head” of the Entrepreneur.
They have not created enough duplicatable systems that the company can rely on, outside the identity of the Entrepreneur.
As a result, the Entrepreneur becomes stressed because there is too much to do. She wonders whether she is a “human doing” instead of a “human being”. They are so overworked they look for anything to relieve the stress and have their company become successful. They then create rules, policies and procedures designed to gain some sense of control.
But who is the first to violate them? That’s right. The Entrepreneur. The Entrepreneur in her attempt to escape day-to-day management, (which they don’t do well to begin with) delegates authority to someone else. when they return, they inevitably find something they don’t like and all hell breaks loose.
The frustrated Entrepreneur once again, find themselves with too much to do. And now…delegation is out. They must resume control. This creates tremendous anguish, stress and pain. It is a manic relationship they have with their companies: “You are in charge. No, I am in charge. No, you are in charge.” His or her entrepreneurial skill set then becomes a strangle-hold on the company and the company stops growing. There can be tremendous uncertainty. Employees are overworked, frustrated and confused. At this point the enterprise can hit a major crisis and the organization begins to seriously flounder.
This is the Entrepreneur’s Trap.
It is when the enterprise becomes constrained by the non-productive patterns of behavior of the founder. This translates into unproductive and dysfunctional patterns of organizational
behavior. Both sets of behavior perpetuate each other.