Managing your company’s most important asset - YOU

1 © Australian Centre for Business Growthcentreforbusinessgrowth.com

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Immediate Business Acceleration Program - Topic 9

Many people who start a company think they will have more freedom, flexibility, and independence if they work for themselves than someone else. But, just like bringing up children, growing companies require time, attention and energy. And you need to be ready to deal with an endless stream of risks and opportunities as your “company child” grows from being a baby, to child, teenager, and maturity.

Endless game of whack-a-dooSome business owners can maintain a façade of “cool, calm and collected”, but behind the scenes they are playing a game of “whack-a-doo”. Just when one problem gets fixed, another pops up! Maybe it’s a key employee who had an accident and won’t be back, or a cyber-attack, or equipment break-down, a leaking roof, a loan payment due and not enough cash because someone forgot to invoice a customer, delays in shipping a key component which will impact ________________ (fill in the blank)… the list goes on and on. And it’s not that any one of these problems cannot be resolved. It’s that these problems are all happening concurrently – and when one gets fixed, another one pops up in its place!

Managing your company’s most important asset - YOU


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Owners need to be broad-gauged Being a business owner requires a broad array of skills – from sales, to finance, to managing people, to marketing, to strategy – plus the ability to multitask. The physical, mental and psychological stamina required to handle the cognitive load is far more than most people expected.

Firstly, there are the business issues related to the product: supply chain, design and development, manufacturing or production, and shipping and delivery. Then there are issues related to marketing: 3Cs and 4 Ps, branding, messaging, channels, selling and closing sales. Then there are issues related to the externalities – things which cannot be controlled but will impact the business: other competitors, technology, regulations, interest rates, geopolitical, climate change. Most people think that growing a company is simply developing a product or service, selling it to a customer, and figuring out what to do about competitors – but that’s the least of your worries when you’re growing a company.

Figuring out your strategy and then understanding how to build an organisation that supports the strategy requires considerable thought. And as you grow you need to hire the right people, bring in an executive team, change how you lead, understand what stage the company is in, play the right roles and fulfil your responsibilities accordingly. You need to make sure you create the right culture, that you communicate clearly, have a plan, and create a high performing organisation that executes, learns from its mistakes and is filled with people who are passionate about delivering value to customers.

Oh yes – and by the way – your personal wealth is tied up in this enterprise. You have most likely loaned the company money, and you’re working for “sweat equity” as you continue to work for less than you would be paid if you worked somewhere else. You don’t take as much salary or dividends out of the company as you would like because you need to reinvest that money back into the company so you can hire more people, develop more systems, open more offices, do more marketing, and grow!

In addition to investing your time and life-space, loaning the company money, and reinvesting profits, you need to understand how to invoice, collect and manage your company’s finances, review its profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow projections on a regular basis and make decisions accordingly.


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And always there is the issue of financing growth and getting the working capital you need to pay your bills between the time your customer orders and finally pays. Should you borrow money from the bank or sell a piece of property and invest that money into the company? Who can help find those government grants everyone talks about - and write proposals for grant money? Should you consider bringing in an outside investor? Is your company even investable? If it is, which venture capitalists should you talk with? How much of the company should you be prepared to sell?

Leading, managing and growing a company requires many skills and a multitude of decisions – and, crucially, the ability to manage yourself.

Managing me, myself and IThe first step in “Managing Me” begins with “managing yourself”: your body, your mind, and your psyche. Although the three are tied together and come as a “package” called “you”, let’s look at them separately:

• Let’s start firstly with your physical body. You need to eat nutritious meals; drink lots of water; exercise for at least 30 minutes 3 times per week; drink alcohol moderately; don’t do drugs; and get 7- 8 hours of sleep at night. Why? Because growing a company is like running a marathon, you need to be ready and prepared to make important decisions, whenever required.

• Secondly, you must learn to manage your mind. Learn to focus and think for periods of time without being distracted – because you need to stop doing “ready, fire, aim - oops” and move to “ready, aim, fire”, i.e., think about what you are going to do before doing it.

• Thirdly, you need to be a clear thinker. Social media, FOMO, and 132 character sound bytes have resulted in superficial thinking. To rally people, you need to be able to describe your mission – the company’s reason for being, i.e., its WHY. You also need to be able to define the company’s values, and describe the vision, i.e., where you can see or “envision” the company being in three to five years. It takes time and thought to figure this out, but it’s much easier to keep the company on track after you do! Five or 10 minutes of meditation after breakfast can help you get centred for the day, and some time blocked out on your calendar for “thinking time” will create spaces to think about and get clarity around big, important issues.


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• Finally, you also need to worry about the psychological well-being of that person (you) who’s sitting in the chair of the CEO/Managing Director, making so many critical decisions. How do you handle the highs and lows of business, e.g., the contract that didn’t come through; the need to lay-off employees; the bank asking for more collateral; or a key member of your executive team having a heart attack? You need to be able to manage yourself through disappointment, anger, crises, maintain confidence, and not become manic-depressive or go into the “spiral of destitution”.

The need to “manage me” is real and requires time, thought, and practice. Ignore this requirement at your company’s and your own peril.

Managing me: familyIn addition to the focus on your body, mind, and psyche, there’s another dimension to “Managing Me”, which is your relationship with your partner/spouse and family. This includes your partner, your children, your parents, siblings and aunts, uncles and cousins.

Managing to “be there” for your family when you have an unending series of issues at work is hard. The division of time and attention between your family and the business is often in favour of the business. Sometimes we tell our family, “I’m doing this for you/for us – so we can have a bright future.” And they say, “No you’re not. Be honest! You’re doing it for yourself because you love the adrenaline rush! But if you’re really doing it for us, then you need to know that we’d rather have some more of your time and attention, than waiting until ‘sometime in the future’.”

I’ve known quite a few CEOs who have discovered, too late, the consequences of ignoring their family relationships in favour of the business. They didn’t notice that their partner and children developed a whole life without them. When they sold the business and finally had the time (and money) to enjoy their family, the children were grown up, were off with friends and no longer wanted to do things with their parents; their partner had developed a separate life and now wanted a divorce. I remember a story from a book I co-authored, Lessons from the Edge; the CEO had a dream that he was standing on a mountain with more money than God, and all alone. He woke up in a cold sweat, mentally walked himself down the mountain, and made huge changes in his relationships with his family.


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And of course, all this is much more complicated when you are in business with your partner/spouse, mother, father, uncle, brothers, sisters, cousins, or other members of your extended family. Many CEOs find it useful to develop and operate under a set of “ground rules”, a family business “constitution” or shareholder agreements.

Managing me: executive team and employeesA third part of managing me is the relationship that you have with your executive team and the other employees in your company. Although you will always be grateful to those who believed in you and joined when the company was not much more than a “wing and a prayer”, your executive team operates at a much higher level, with a completely different skill set than a start-up required. These are people who can help co-lead the company and who will help you think through the strategy, help assess the risks, look at the opportunities, make some of the hard calls about people, customers, and products, i.e., people with whom you share the leadership of the company. You cannot grow without a strong leadership team where everybody is on the same page, shares the same vision, values, mission, and are working together to accomplish the vision and grow the company.

The relationship that you have with your employees is also critical. Research done by Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy proved that people perform at the highest level under leaders that are warm and competent. They will put up with managers who are cold, as long as they are competent. People begin to leave the company when leaders are warm but incompetent because employees lose confidence in their decisions. Managers who are cold and incompetent do a lot of damage to employees and to companies.

Employees are looking for competence and they’re looking for warmth, i.e., a manager who is happy, smiles, acknowledges them and the work that they’ve done, gives them honest feedback, helps them learn and grow, shares the good/bad/ugly, and makes them feel important to achieving the mission and vision.

Managing me: my communityThe next issue in “managing me” is deciding how much you engage with, get involved with, and contribute back to your local community. People will ask you to speak, join a panel, have lunch with a visitor, guest lecture at the university, join this club, or be on that committee, or become a sponsor, mentor or board member. Time is a finite, non-renewable resource, so time spent


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on community activities usually means time away from the business or your family. Although we all need to “give back” and “pay forward”, it’s important to decide how to manage those requests. A few simple “decision rules” might be useful, i.e., no more than two board or committee assignments a year, or X number of hours per month for community activities, and the willingness to say, “What you are describing sounds interesting, but I cannot take on any more commitments at this time.”

Managing me: national and international organisations Finally, how do you manage your relationships with national and international organisations? Again, you may be asked to give speeches, do presentations, chair committees, or sit on boards. The contribution that you want to make to these national and international groups needs to be carefully assessed because it will require even more time, i. e., travel time. But sometimes these associations are good for business, provide new perspectives, and introduce you to new customers – and you can combine these trips with some personal or family time. But if not, then recognise that these commitments will require time away from the business, away from your family, away from your employees, and from your community.

Time is preciousWe all have a finite amount of time on this earth. The average life expectancy of an Australian is 83 years - 30,295 days, 4,316 weeks or 996 months. You might want to do a little calculation and see how many weeks or months you have left before you are 83!

But regardless of what our average life expectancy is, any of us can get “hit by a truck” at any time! So, no matter when you’re on your deathbed – I want to be sure that none of you regrets…

1. Spending so much time at the office, especially doing work you didn’t enjoy. 2. Trying to live the life others expected of you, instead of the one you wanted to live.3. Not having the courage to express your feelings. 4. Not challenging yourself more.5. Not keeping up with your childhood friends (or people who know the real “you”).6. Not being happy – because happiness is a choice.

An hourglass reminds people that time is our only non-renewable resource. You can find another employee, another product, or even another customer, but you can never find another yesterday.


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That time is gone forever. So, it all comes down to the best use of time every single day of your life. Hopefully you are using your life-space to build a company with a mission that’s near and dear to your heart and are doing work that you enjoy. The challenge is to surround yourself with people who share your values, believe in the mission, and will work hard to help you achieve that vision.

Growing a company is a marathonGrowing a company is not for the faint of heart! It’s a marathon. You’re the runner and the most important determinant of whether the company will win the race. It’s not the product, the price, the whizbang technology, your board, or whether you get venture funding. It’s whether you can manage yourself and your company to achieve its growth potential. Given you are your company’s most important asset, learn to manage that asset well – and watch your company grow!

Managing your company’s most important asset - YOU

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