3 Signs You Are Your Own Worst Business Enemy

It's hard to be objective about ourselves but if we really pay attention our colleagues will reflect how we are perceived and what it means for the business.

Sometimes, it’s hard to get out of your own way.

Entrepreneurs and business owners have to keep all the trains running on time, as well as figure out the next place they’d like those trains to go, metaphorically speaking. It’s a huge, complex job. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to realize that in many cases, the problem behind an under performing company is the boss.

How do you know when it really is “just you,” though? We human beings have a notoriously difficult time being objective about our own behavior and choices.
So, try looking for the following signs in the people and circumstances around you.

1. Your employees seem unusually tense or flat lately.

Has the camaraderie vanished? Is the workplace one big collection of really bad moods, most of the time?

Of course, the boss’s mood can infect the entire office. As the leader of your team, you set the example and the atmosphere, and your employees follow your lead.

Getting along with others, both inside and outside your company, is imperative for success. If your employees and customers sense a negative change, then it’s worth examining your behavior. These signs could be symptoms that you’re becoming a toxic boss.
To address this, first make sure you’re acting with integrity and in accordance with your personal values. Next, make an effort to demonstrate empathy with your employees. You don’t have to agree with every single point they make to do this. Respect their boundaries and try to see the issue from their perspective.

Finally, make sure you listen deeply. Employers who simply command and demand compliance find themselves stuck with the “toxic” label all too quickly. Instead, be curious about your employees’ perspectives and problems. Ask open-ended questions to get them to tell you more, and listen to what they say.

2. You feel deeply frustrated with your employees.

Are you feeling unusually impatient around new workers? Do you find yourself snapping at experienced workers over small annoyances or accidents?

If so, there could be some deeper issues at play.

Insisting on perfection, or even just on competence in an unreasonable amount of time can eventually sour your entire workforce and drive away valuable employees. You’ll have a hard time attracting and retaining talent if you create an awkward, uncomfortable or outright hostile environment.

Instead, try practicing a “talk-down” method on yourself. When you feel your impatience or annoyance growing, mentally talk yourself down from these emotions to a state of greater calm. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• On a scale of one to 100, how bad is this, really? 
• What’s the worst that can happen here, realistically speaking? 
• If that happened, how would we respond? 
• Is this more important than my relationship with my employees? Or my reputation?

In most cases, reflecting on these questions helps you keep small issues in check. You’ll also want to give some thought, however, to whether there’s a bigger issue just beneath the surface. Using smaller problems as a diversion from the bigger ones provides an effective distraction from tackling life’s larger challenges, but doesn’t do much to help us solve underlying issues.

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3. Minor projects are infinitely refined and “perfected” but your company hasn’t come up with a strong new idea in ages.

One of the most common ways entrepreneurs become their own worst enemies is by focusing too heavily on things that don't deserve so much attention. For whatever reason -- be it fear of failure, fear of success, or something else altogether -- people fall into the habit of spending too much time perfecting existing projects when they should be thinking about what’s next.

Not giving yourself enough time to create and innovate is one of the biggest ways to become your own worst business enemy. Your primary job as the business owner is to create that overarching vision for your company, and then work with your team to figure out how to achieve that vision. If you’re not even allowing yourself the time to do so, you’re fighting an uphill battle without reinforcements. After all, no one else can really do this kind of work for you.

To combat this tendency, try keeping a log of your time for two weeks. Track your time in fifteen minute increments to help figure out where you’re spending the majority of your attention and energy. Then carve out uninterrupted “CEO time,” and schedule it as if it’s a firm appointment you cannot reschedule or miss. Give yourself at least three hours a week to work on new ideas for your company.

Takeaways

It’s hard to be objective about our own behavior and surroundings. Instead, use your colleagues, employees, and environment as a mirror to reflect back to you the reality of how you are perceived and the ways that perception is impacting your business. Then take the appropriate action to mitigate those challenges.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/
Image Credit: Eric Herchaft | Getty Images



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There's No Guarantee Sudden Startup Success Will Last. Here's What You Need to Do to Achieve Long-Term Growth.

Investing in a startup within the first year can be both thrilling and nerve-wracking, but it's best to keep your heart rate steady, your mind open and your eyes clear. Once they've had a taste of success, entrepreneurs tend to shy away from outside help with raising money or improving their innovations. They think they should steer clear of outside influence for fear of losing momentum and trajectory.

Based on my 25 years of senior management experience in startups and publicly traded technology companies, through many investments and success stories, as well as misses, I've learned that this just isn't the case. Of course, there are always the edge-case scenarios, but let's be honest, we can't count on that any more than winning the lottery or a starting position in the NBA. I've seen far too many entrepreneurs put blinders on and refuse help that could have been a pivotal factor. In almost every case, high-caliber outside resources actually help startups grow -- they apply real-world pressure on the nascent business to be bigger, better and more competitive.

For many talented entrepreneurs, there's a spike of success -- a surge in sales, customers, investors or publicity -- that feels like confirmation you're doing everything right. At this stage, many feel they know exactly what to do -- even to the point of turning down help, advice or funding. And so begins one of the biggest mistakes young businesses make. You can't afford to believe that the spike will last, or that your trajectory will stay in a straight line. Business doesn't follow Newton's laws, and anyway, there are plenty of outside forces to throw you off the straight-ahead line of momentum.

The trick is to be ready, willing and able to adjust quickly -- much easier said than done. Small-business owners and entrepreneurs have to identify what creates forward progress toward your vision and focus on that. It might seem obvious that you want to follow an upward course, and you want the energy to be all about sales. But, that instinct isn't always the right one for achieving sustained success. If you're only focused on making profits right away, you'll miss important feedback and lessons from the market.

The most important thing for startups to learn and engage with, especially if they've had a spike of success, is why customers like and use their product. There are nuances here: Find the customers who are actually using the product, not just trying it. Understanding why they continue to use it may be illuminating in unexpected ways. Based on this understanding, you might step on the accelerator (we got it right, let's keep going that way, faster!) or you might need to pump the brakes. If customers are using your product in different contexts or patterns than planned, that should give you cause for reflection. Does the unexpected use present an opportunity to explore new features, use cases and markets? Or does it mean your customers have misunderstood, rejected or missed your selling points?

If you're not seeing anything enlightening in how your customers use your product, don't assume your work is done. Make sure your assessments are honest, and circle back for another go around after some time has passed to see if use patterns or contexts have changed. If you suspect you can't see it objectively, ask for help from someone with an unbiased view.

Build a moat around your customers. Protect them and keep them at the center of your kingdom. Think every day about how to delight them. Read online comments and reviews, and pay special attention to the middle 60 percent to 80 percent. High praise and severe criticism represent outlier experiences, but you need to understand the experience of the more typical user. You need that middle bulk of customers to stick with you. Sustainability, after all, is everything. No one goes into business to be a one-hit wonder, stuck playing low-rent venues (or vanished into obscurity) for the duration. To ensure long-term success, always stay focused on what's best for the customer. There will be occasion to focus on the bottom line, but in the early days, it shouldn't be the guiding force.

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It's not easy for entrepreneurs to stay open to outside advice and criticism. They have a deep sense of ownership (rightfully so) over their ideas and the fruits of their hard work. It's difficult to absorb advice you don't want to hear, especially if it means changing something you consider essential or special about your product or service. It's very hard to hear "slow down" when you're on a roll, hitting every shot -- nothing but net, as they say. But, the great players are always refining their moves, working on their stroke or swing. Hard as it may be to believe in the heady flush of early success, there will come a time when you aren't winning every play, and you'll be glad you put in the time working on refinement, resilience and resources.

I like to use the Google as an example, which you can read in detail in The Google Story. The founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were just over two years down the road when they brought in an outside CEO, Eric Schmidt from Novell, under the advisement of VCs John Doerr and Michael Moritz. Even though they are arguably among the world's most brilliant and successful innovators, Page and Brin brought in an experienced set of hands on the steering wheel and let Schmidt drive them toward growth and sustainability. Yet, no one takes any of the credit for Google's dominance away from the founders; their legacy stands.

I advise entrepreneurs to check themselves regularly to maintain a clear self-awareness. The No. 1 question is, "Would I eat my own dog food?" If you wouldn't enthusiastically use your own product or service, why are you selling it? Try your product every day. Pretend to be a customer and write anonymous comments to your team. Do they act on it? Does the feedback make its way to you? Follow through and use your powers of ingenuity and insight to solve customer problems in a way that results in lasting, positive changes for your product.

It's a big, competitive world out there. It's easy to get lost in the fray when you're a small business or rising entrepreneur. Scaling up is a particularly fraught time for startups. During periods of intense growth and expansion, be sure to stick to your true north. Don't branch out into being too many things to too many people, or trying to set up too many revenue streams. As a startup trying to make your mark, it's better to be great to a small group than just average to a larger group.

Use the energy generated by your early success and best ideas to attract help and talent, instead of assuming that one spike means you've got it all figured out. In the long run, the discipline required to control your acceleration, check your hubris, center your customers and listen to advice will become the framework that keeps your business vibrant, competitive and profitable.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Image credit: Igor Emmerich | Getty Images

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business organization focused on providing our members and guests with an extraordinary networking experience, bringing business professionals together for the sole purpose of generating new relationships and developing new business opportunities. Not a member, learn how you can become a member and join this awesome group of professionals to connect and grow your business.

Stay Connected with WNFP!