Business owners – how well balanced are you?

I was very close to my grandfather, who was a hill farmer in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. He inspired me with his range of skills, from being a champion shepherd, to working horses, mending tractors, hedging, de-horning calves, teaching neighbouring farmers to castrate piglets, the list went on and on. I read a poem at his funeral by R.S. Thomas contrasting the notion of a simple farmer with that of a master of many trades. Another of his skills was carpentry and one of the things that he made was a milking stool that ended up with me after his days were over. The short three legged stool holds such vivid memories from when he taught me how to milk cows by hand, when I was about 11 years old. The memories are strong because emotions were running high. As anyone who has ever milked by hand will know, there is a variety of risks at the business end of cows involving tails, bottoms and hooves, and in that particular situation, believe me the last thing you want is a wobbly milking stool…

What, you may ask, has all of this got to do with coaching business owners towards better business results? The answer lies in the entrepreneurial myth (originally from Michael Gerber’s book “The E-Myth”), often expressed as an analogy with a milking stool. The myth lies in the misplaced belief by people who start up their own businesses that because you have the technical skills, you have the ability to run a business with a technical element. Irrespective of whether you are a farmer, an electrician, plumber, vet, lawyer, builder or a clinical scientist the temptation is to believe that, because you have qualifications and experience in delivering a specialist service or product, then you have the knowledge and skills to run a business.

Business owners need to play three roles in their business, and just like the legs of a milking stool, they each need to be of equal size and strength:

• the technical specialist, who lives in the present “if you want it done right, do it yourself” is the mindset with an interest in doing the specialist technical things with ever growing skill and with a strong dislike for systems
• the manager, who lives in the past and loves the systems, control, monitoring and reviewing
• the entrepreneur, who lives in the future and thrives in the land of leadership, strategy, people development, vision and goals

Given the contrasting needs and perspectives that business owners need to simultaneously hold, it is little wonder that their milking stools wobble and fall over…