Control. Freak!
I'm not a control freak, but you're doing it wrong.
Entrepreneurs and founders are passionate people.
When you launch and lead a business or organization that is driven by a mission or focuses on creativity, you’re going to have strong opinions about it.
I am often engaged by business leaders who have come to recognize they need a partner to help them navigate the business of their business and make well-informed decisions. The path to that recognition can be a rocky road.
It’s common for me to step into a working relationship where my client is in a place of frustration, overwhelm, anxiety and exhaustion. They have been trying to do it all - to control everything.
Maybe a key person has quit. Maybe a client is unhappy. Maybe they lost income or spent too much on something because they didn’t see the forest for the trees, they reacted instead of planning and are feeling defensive instead of pro-active. Whatever the fundamental reason, I’m often referred, recommended or contacted when an entrepreneur is exasperated and throws up their hands - when they feel like they’ve tried everything and it isn’t working.
It isn’t working for them.
Everything has a context, nobody works in a vacuum. Every business has to collaborate with others: clients, customers, employees, partners, vendors, banks, the government. Even automated digital transactions flow through interfaces that function on rules-based code. Each entity does their things their way.
One route to success is learning how to navigate all the touch points in mutually beneficial ways, to clearly communicate, to effectively connect.
There’s a difference between being decisive and being stubborn. That difference is rooted in consideration, not restriction.
History (distant and recent) has demonstrated that forcing authority and dictating actions from a myopic viewpoint breeds discontent and rebellion.
I’ve often said: you can want whatever you want, but that doesn’t obligate anyone to give it to you. What you bring to the table is as important as what you take away.
You can only control your own actions, and your own reactions.
In other words, be coachable. Take direction. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Consider context and stand in others’ shoes. Communicate, don’t dictate.
You may have founded a business, but your business is not only you even if your name is on the door.
Influence, guidance, leadership - these are all synonyms for control that incorporate relationships, collaboration, and connection.
Sometimes you just need someone to tell you what to do.
Or not do. Or how to do it. Or why something may a good thing to do.