Entrepreneurs start a business for various reasons: to attain more freedom, control of their life, or income; to build something great; or to make a difference (or for all these reasons!). As entrepreneurs expand their leadership team, the new leaders typically want the same things.
But what frustrations do entrepreneurs encounter while pursuing their dream? During my three decades of working with them, I’ve noticed that most experience the below five frustrations.
- Lack of control. Typical entrepreneurs want to feel in control of their life and business, but most find that their business controls them and their life. I’ve heard comments like, “I’m overwhelmed,” “I’m exhausted” “I have no personal life” from more entrepreneurs than I can count. They want to control their time, yet the needs and demands of customers, potential customers, and employees often dictate how their time is allocated.
- Nothing’s working. When leaders keep trying to improve their organization and nothing helps, it can cause desperation, anxiety, and depression. I recently had three coaching sessions with an entrepreneur I last worked with 11 years ago. He had a great run, and his business made the Inc. 5000 fastest growing private companies in the U.S. several years running. He recently came in because his top line and net revenue had significantly decreased the past three years. He had hired several consultants and implemented everything they suggested, but nothing significantly moved the needle, leaving him slightly depressed.
- Revenue, profit, and cash flow challenges. The entrepreneurial dream almost always has a financial win, usually a big one. However, especially in the early years, there’s often a month-to-month struggle to bring in revenue, be profitable, pay the bills, and make payroll. Almost every entrepreneur has, at some point, lost sleep because they feared they couldn’t make payroll. When there’s a cash flow issue, the entrepreneur typically either doesn’t take a salary or takes a small salary until the cash flow can support it. In contrast to the animal world where the alpha of the pack eats first, in the entrepreneurial world, the original entrepreneur—and often the other leaders—eat the leftovers (if there are any) when times are tough.
- People problems. This is one of the most prominent and persistent of all frustrations. In a survey by EOS Worldwide, the company that teaches the Entrepreneur Operating System® (EOS®), 82 percent of the leaders who came to them for help cited employee problems as their biggest concern. In fact, a CEO once said to me that his company “would be a great business except for the employees and customers.” He wasn’t exactly a people person, but he drove home the point. Just this week a CEO asked my advice on how to deal with a member of the leadership team that hadn’t been meeting expectations. During every EOS quarterly planning session with leadership teams, we address the question, “Are there any right people right seat issues”? Then we go through a issue solving process to determine how to address it.
- Hitting the ceiling. Every company hits ceilings, it’s normal. How the company has prepared for them and or how it reacts when it happens determines which of the three outcomes is the result.
A little irony. I was on a flight to Costa Rica when I wrote this article. I wasn’t going there for a vacation—I was implementing EOS (the leadership and management system designed for entrepreneurial companies) with a corporate team of over 400 people in one of the 10 largest companies in the world. Here’s what amazed me: This team’s leader expressed the same five frustrations outlined above (even the financial struggle)!
This team and company are growing so fast that their new systems and processes are practically out-of-date by the time everyone is trained on them, they have difficulty finding enough qualified people, accountability is spotty, and priorities keep changing. Chaos is pervasive! The leaders often feel out of control and work frantically to keep things working as best as possible, but they end up hitting the ceiling as a team.
I have less experience with Fortune 500 companies than I do with entrepreneurial companies, but it seems that it’s not just entrepreneurial leaders who experience these frustrations. Maybe all leaders experience them during a growth phase.
These five frustrations are mostly resolvable (never 100 percent—what fun would that be?!). The solutions have various parts, some specific to the individual company, but there are three requirements that a company or team always needs to maximize growth and minimize frustration:
- A high-performing leadership team that has a great leadership and management system that scales for growth
- A culture where people thrive
- An environment where almost everyone is in a role where they are in their brilliance
Before you hit your next ceiling, or if you already have, consider addressing these three requirements to maximize growth and minimize frustration. Because EOS is a complete leadership and management system and it not only provides the three requirements, but also the tools to have everyone in your company fully comprehending your vision, executing on it with discipline focus and accountability and building a healthy leadership team that deeply enjoys working together can debate healthfully, make great decisions, and have a unified voice to the organization.
