As a fellow entrepreneur I understand that you went into business because you just love what you do. I bet you are super creative and loved the excitement and buzz of starting your own company. With loads of ideas and energy you were just what the business needed at that time. But, assuming your business has been a success, are you still the right person to be running the business. Maybe it is time to fire yourself?
So why do I say that? Well time and time again I come across successful entrepreneurs still trying to run their business as a start up when in fact it is an established business and leading it requires a very different skill set.
Just as each year goes through the five seasons and has a natural rhythm to it so does your business. Businesses follow cycles as illustrated in the Five Energy Dynamic below, which is why it is rare to find the same companies being the best performers, year on year.
When a business is just starting out it needs lots of Wood Energy for creating the vision and coming up with the strategy. Wood energy is Spring type energy, it gets things moving. Then the business moves into a phase of growth, represented by Summer and Fire energy. Here you find companies acquiring market share and presence by connecting and collaborating with others.
Then business moves into the late summer phase represented by Earth energy and consultation. This is a time ,when a business established in their niche, needs to focus on looking after customers. Then the business moves into autumn (Metal energy) which is all about consolidation and calculation – getting more from the business by closely monitoring the numbers. Then the business moves into Winter and Water energy. At this point the business typically reflects back on what has and hasn’t worked. It begins to look for ways to expand its product offering with product extensions and so the business moves back into creation mode and the Spring energy. It’s a virtuous circle
So what season is your business in? The best way to figure this out is to examine which season you have just passed through. If you have a great product that has proven itself in the market, you are out of Spring and into Summer, where you will be focusing on building your market.
If you have many new customers and sales are coming in easily, you are out of Summer and into late Summer focusing on serving your customers well. If your customers are happy and your team members are settled, you are out of late Summer and into Autumn, where your focus will be on analyzing and measuring how the business performed and then you move into Winter where you will reflect on what occurred and seek ways to enhance performance before moving back into Spring
The big error that many business owners make is that because they fail to realize when they have moved from one season to the next, they keep adopting the same old strategies when a new approach is needed. Oftentimes the wrong type of leader is running the business in the wrong season and when this occurs the results can be disastrous.
So, I urge you to honestly look at your business and consider whether you are the right person to be leading the business through this phase of its development. And if not, be brave, swallow your pride, and fire yourself from the CEO role because the consequences could be dire for your business if you don’t.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
