Emma Warren – A Portfolio Life – Work, Country & Family. - a portfolio life: entrepreneur – businesswoman – mum

You dragged the business up out of the ground, probably kicking and screaming….you’ve had the sleepless nights, the tears and the tantrums and the pleasure of seeing it grow and finally you seem to be getting somewhere.  If you’re a parent, this probably sounds very like the joy, trials and tribulations of bringing up children, but I think there’s a difference.  We all expect our children to grow up and take the next steps in their development – in fact we’re eagerly awaiting some of them (like walking and talking) and happily push them forwards.  We do feel a bit lost and aimless when they leave home (I’m imagining this bit, my boys are only 7 and 5!!), but we know they need to assert their independence and accept their rites of passage.

But when it comes to business – it seems to be a lot harder to let go.  As entrepreneurs, we’ve done some really hard work to get it started, we were the ones who made everything happen and just when it finally seems that we’re actually getting a bit of success and some recognition, things start getting harder again.  Quite often this is the point at which some entrepreneurs realise, (usually a little bit too late really), that they need to employ someone. The problem is, the business is you and everything you do, and along comes someone else and the temptation is, because it’s all about you, to insist that they do things your way – because obviously it’s the best way   Often, we don’t listen to ideas and we don’t take advantage of those fresh eyes in the business to examine what we’re doing for better ways of working.  But, the sad thing is that what we’re actually doing is failing our business, we’re like a parent who isn’t letting our child taste independence, or to spend time with anyone else to broaden their thoughts.  We’re not doing this maliciously, it’s usually an outcome of the fact that to get the business started we had to be single-minded and driven, and we forget that we need to moderate that as the business grows.  Just like our roles as parents change as our children grow and become more capable, so should our role as leader of the business.

As new input comes into the business, we need to clearly communicate our vision and what’s expected and in the early days we may still be working alongside people,therefore need to remember that how we are is likely to set the long-term culture for the business.  If we’re domineering and blame people, it’s very likely that we will stamp out any sparks of initiative within the business, if we create a culture of trust and respect, then people are more likely to follow suit.

We also need to recognise that in order for the business to grow, other people have to be empowered as we can’t possibly do everything ourselves.  It’s still all about you but in a different way – and here’s where the parenting bit comes in again - we should be looking ahead for the times when the areas we focus on change - and making sure that we, as leaders, are equipping ourselves and the business to cope with those changes.  It is still all about you -but to succeed you need to become a much more selfless you, who is motivating and leading people, who you trust to get on and do the job – or, at the very  least, to recognise that style of operating is what’s needed and find someone to do that bit for you.

So, back to the parenting analogy – did your children learn to walk, or did you teach them????   How does that apply that to your business, as an ancient proverb says “the best leader is the one who the people do not notice.  When the best leader’s work is done, the people say “We did it ourselves”….”

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