adminI hope all of you have been able to take time off to rejuvenate your creativity and reinforce your drive for this great year ahead. I will be continuing to write weekly on Thursday in the hope that I produce juicy bites of encouragement and clear points of application that you can action in the weeks to come. Please feel free to contact me on [email protected] with any of your thoughts, comments or jokes. God Bless you at this start of 2012.
Michael Gerber describes it perfectly in “The E-Myth Revisited”, but I’ve elaborated a little here on the concept. You’re standing on top of your very own building with your hands neatly attached to your waist.
The building shouts with a clear Gold Font: ME (YOUR NAME) CORPORATION. With the wind in your hair and your “hero” cap flapping in the wind behind you, crowds of people are looking up in admiration of your abundant achievement as a businessman. And they applaud you with a loud roar because you have been the icon and the individual that has accomplished so much. You’re soaking up all of the glory, and you think you deserve it.
If or when this sort of thing ever happens it would be a straight track lie and probably the start of the crash of ME CORP. The people that got you there would leave and feel unappreciated. Your partners would be disgusted at your absent mind that forgot to acknowledge their hand in your achievement. When it’s all about you – you better be ready to rely on yourself for everything.
The CEO’s seat or the chairman’s chair is not only a distinguished position where you make sure the bottom line is on an upward curve. But it is to carefully ensure that everyone who is smarter than you (which is
probably most of the staff) is having their needs met financially, career wise, and emotionally. There are enough people in the world that does not care, but when a leader cares he develops loyal workers and not clock punchers.
Bob Burg’s latest book entitled “It’s Not About You”, where this premise is explained in depth, describes a short story of a large investment firm taking over a company that is struggling to keep its head above water. The leader of this acquisition is a young man that has so much confidence in his pitch that he forgets the people that he’s pitching to have souls.
The approach was synthetically mapped out and came down to a sentence that basically said, “you guys have done good in the past now YOU need me”. It was all about why they should walk away from the steering wheel and let a larger firm drive. After meeting with each board member he realises that the company is a family, not just a money churner. No matter how incredible the pitch looked, the concern was whether or not there’d be true concern for the “family” since the focus on his pitch was really on him and how great him and his firm were.
After this young facilitator realises the 30-year story behind the company, and recognises the personalities, ethics and selfless attitudes of the owners he realises that they don’t need him. The two owners had created an environment where the focus was centred on helping everyone become the “best versions of themselves”. People don’t want to hear about you, they want to know that you understand, that you care and that they matter.
Accomplishment can be attributed to an individual, but success happens because of a team. Businessmen who have been jaded by cut-throat corporate life or who have simply forgotten this gold nugget of truth can often begin to look at employees like pawns on a chess board, or the same way a lion views a wounded impala (expendable and possibly good for lunch). A few good testing points to vet your “Not About You” vibe in your business is how birthdays are celebrated, if at all?
Have you ever visited a co-worker or employee in hospital? Do stories of employee success filter onto your desk and, more importantly, do you respond? Are you helping your partners become the best version of themselves, and affirming their “mattering to the world” or is your business all about you? Perhaps it is time that ME CORP folded up business and takes a genuine interest in the lives of others.
Online Reporter