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Forbes - Head Coach
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Thursday, 30 July 2009 00:00 |
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Think there's a slumbering go-getter within? Start by asking yourself these questions.
My last column, Self-starters: Blessing or Bane?, begged a follow-up question: Can non-self-starters summon an inner gumption or must they resign themselves to a life of waiting to be told what to do?
Would that I could "tweet" the answer in 140 characters or less. What I can do is run through three queries I put to wannabe entrepreneurs looking for confirmation that they have what it takes to make it on their own steam.
Not an entrepreneur but looking to jump start your inner self-starter? Keep reading: This analysis is for you too.
In short: If the answer to the following questions is "Yes!", then spring from your cubicle and dare to be great. If not, find comfort in the fact that millions of white-collar professionals enjoy life, even if they lack the inner flame that elates entrepreneurs.
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Forbes - Head Coach
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 00:00 |
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In 30 years as a psychotherapist and coach to entrepreneurs, I have not worked with one who failed to tell me, irrespective of how it was faring at the time, that his business would ultimately succeed.
What entrepreneurs don't realize (and, yes, dear reader, I am talking to you) is that an "I am born to win" bravado blocks them from responding in an optimal manner when things inevitably go awry. In those moments, rigid thinking is the path to perdition. If business owners hope to survive, they must have the cognitive capacity to adjust, redirect and rebound.
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Forbes - Head Coach
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Friday, 24 April 2009 00:00 |
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Bob Blackburn did two tours in Vietnam. He spent much of that time at the controls of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter transporting troops and equipment in and out of battle--an experience that inspired him to buildExecuCopters, an air chauffeur service for business moguls, politicians and other powerful people, within months of his discharge from the war. ExecuCopters now operates out of 18 hubs on the East Coast of the U.S.
I met Bob a week after he fired his son, Bob Jr. (all names have been changed here), who had been vice president of sales and marketing at the company, and who was the logical successor when Bob chose to step down. While their pain is all too common among family-run companies, it doesn't have to be that way.
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Forbes - Head Coach
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Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:00 |
Seasoned management consultant Harry Levinson wrote a book called Ready, Fire, Aim: Avoiding Management By Impulse. Its core message: Only after considering a series of options--and not just the ones apparent in the heat of the moment--can you hope to make consistently decent decisions. In short, it's about the importance of listening.
Obvious stuff, right? And yet, no matter how eloquently (or persistently) conveyed, somehow that message doesn't really sink in--especially with the entrepreneurial crowd. Blame it on DNA: Entrepreneurs by nature are anti-authoritarian juvenile delinquents. Taking advice isn't their thing.
Pile those instincts on top of a natural inability to listen that comes from being, well, human. Scores of studies have demonstrated that people accurately comprehend or internalize a dismal 25%-50% of what they hear. Think about it: What's the most common gripe among unhappily married husbands and wives? "You're not listening to me!" Why do talented managers jump from one corporation to another? When they feel that senior management has all but turned a deaf ear to their needs and concerns.
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Forbes - Head Coach
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Tuesday, 19 May 2009 00:00 |
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Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, observed: "When brothers agree, no fortress is so strong as their common life."
Bonds of brotherhood come in handy in business. Scads of studies indicate that family-owned companies (which account, by some estimates, for 50% to 70% of global GDP) have a competitive edge over the rest. But those bonds can unravel at a frightening pace too--and plenty of families don't see it coming.
Here's the all too typical arc: When brother-owners first face a common enemy--interest payments, ornery customers, feckless employees--they tend to work in tireless harmony. There is no time for dusty, unresolved conflicts. (If your livelihood is threatened, who cares if Dad spent more time with your brother than you?) It's when things start getting good that those old ghosts start jangling their chains.
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Forbes - Head Coach
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 00:00 |
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Real entrepreneurs are bulletproof. Now get your lieutenants to believe they are, too.
As the U.S. Congress goes further in hock to stem the economy's decline, I can't help but think of the words of Thomas Paine: "I seek opportunity ... not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen ... dulled by having the state look after me … I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence."
Paine's words are more than a surgery ode to capitalism--they cut to the very heart of the entrepreneurial spirit. Paine mapped the DNA of any successful business builder: self-reliance, fearlessness and the need to conquer obstacles. In psychological jargon, people who feel this way have an over-abundance of self-efficacy.
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