Tweet

Are you Mad to be a Director?

Written by: Nicholas Fraser

Article Overview: You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps! We all know this phrase from office notice boards and the like but there is an element of truth in it for Director/Owners of SME’s. For the disturbing reality is that they are driven mad by the schizophrenic nature of their role.

Are you Mad to be a Director?

You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps!







We all know this phrase from office notice boards and the like but there is an element of truth in it for Director/Owners of SME’s. For the disturbing reality is that they are driven mad by the schizophrenic nature of their role. Namely

v A Shareholder,

v A Director

v An Employee

Business mentors recognise this and when we ask the question about the proportion of time spent focused on each of these three roles the reality is that a good 80% is spent on employee type activities, 15% on directing the business and a paltry 5% of the time focused on the needs of the shareholder(s).

This imbalance leads to a build up of frustration that at some point needs to be resolved. Robert Townshend wrote on the front of his seminal book “Up the Organisation”

“If you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing it for?”

So this is a key question – what the hell are they doing it for? This needs to be clarified and examined in detail. Mentors ask BDQ’s (Bloody Difficult Questions) helping this usually strong minded individual to see the wood from the trees. Together they

1. Clarify the Shareholder Objectives – be they business or lifestyle

2. Having done that get the Director to write plan for the business to achieve these

3. This plan then sets the agenda for the employee modified only by the shareholder objectives

Mentors work in very close concert with the MD/Owner to

v Achieve what they really want be that sales, team related, working hours etc

v Understand that they need to focus on what is important for them

v Not let the business drive them.

If you wish to appoint a Mentor then it is best to meet for an hour or so (with no obligation) to see if you can work with the Mentor involved. The Mentor can transform the MD and his business with improved self awareness, growth in self confidence, clarity of roles and a more strategic view of the business. A mentor is not a psychiatrist but he will surely help the schizophrenic director to focus on the key issues.

Related Articles
  Should you consider hiring an Outsource Franchise Director of Sales & Development?
  360 Degree Appraisals
  Top Five Responsibilities of Nonprofit Board Members
  Save (UK) tax and national insurance with your limited company
  Leaders Make it Happen

Article Tags: compatibility, div, endif, family auto, fareast, font definitions, footer, gte, level1, mso, object classid, orphan, panose, paper source, pitch, signature, style definitions, times new roman, xml, zoom



Related Forum Posts
Job titles - [quote:3shpwvxj]In fact, I've had friends tell me that "Founder" is better than "Owner" since it's less possessive.[/quote:3shpwvxj] For myself, I don't care for the term "Founder" [i:3shpwvxj]because [/i:3shpwvxj]it's not possessive. You can be the founder of a company and have sold it - so it no longer belongs to you. However, if you call yourself "Owner" - people know the company is still in your hands. But I don't like Owner, either. I'd prefer President or Director, because one can be an absentee owner, whereas if one is a President or Director, people assume you're involved in the day to day activities. Manager, on the other hand, wouldn't work if its your business, because (to me, anyway) that implies that you "manage" for someone else - like at a restaurant.
Re: HRPreneur - Evan, I am looking for new clients and to see if my business model resonates with Entrepreneurs. Thanks Joey Walters, CHRP, H.R.C.C.C. Managing Director HRPreneur Inc. C. 647-534-4774
Updating your status - Hi Richard - unfortunately it's either all or nothing. We either make the field editable by the user or we don't at all. We can't put in the user's level (ie Level 5 - Director) and have them edit the rest of the field. It's an unfortunate limitation of phpbb.
Let's talk franchising! - Hey everyone! I'm Sebastien Page, Director of Marketing for the World Franchising Network. I've been browsing the site for quite a bit but never signed up. But here I am today. I don't have much time for browsing the web anymore but I will do my best to help out on any franchise related matter. Talk to you soon! Seb
Re: what position to request? - What do you think of: Executive Manager? Director of Product Management? I am not interested in working as a freelancer. As I mentioned, the purpose of what I am doing is to get involved into a startup that may become successful in the future. This is a situation when a group of people get together to launch something promising and invest into this their time and energy and even may be money.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What Aweber Can Do For Your Online Business

10 Reasons Your SBA Loan May Be Declined

Coaching - An Effective Tool for Managers

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.