Why you shouldn’t hire an entrepreneur — the uncageable birdie
While many companies are tempted and eager to on-board entrepreneur-minded individuals, they fail at both attracting and keeping such individuals in their seats for very long. I’m sure there are many reasons that doesn’t make this relationship gel, but one that I have faced and observed repeatedly is the following:
One shouldn’t bring on an entrepreneur-minded individual to operate on an already-established product, process or workflow if the aim is to keep things the way they are and only make slight improvements. If you have something going and it is working well for you, then don’t bother with the founder-types and instead bring on excellent operators to build on what is already working for you.
Every company at one point or the other faces the growth question, and at that juncture they often want to bring on someone disruptive to help take them to new heights, however, the company asks these out-of-the-box-thinking-talents to stay within a certain framework of thought — a thought-process which has not been effective for the company to begin with.
Why not?
Here’s one way to look at it — you want a bird for her ability to observe and report of what’s happening miles ahead, but you don’t want her to fly. It is in the very nature of a bird to fly, so don’t fool yourself or them thinking otherwise. The golden cage you may offer them is a piece of metal, valuable only to you. The bird does not understand and will never appreciate a metallic-anything, let alone if it is a cage. Birdie knows how to flap her wings to stay above the ground, push her way into new territories and move with the unpredictable wind — gracefully and without hesitation.
So whether you want a Birdie or another animal to take your company further is a dilemma which you need to deal with, not something that you should throw on the person you’re hiring — unless you’re paying them to find a solution for that problem for you; and you should if you need a structured pathway transitioning to uncharted territories.
But that said, if you have something that is new, innovative and pushes the boundaries of what has been done and can be done in whatever space you are working on, then go ahead, bring on the entrepreneur-types, the best one you can attract, explain what you need done and then get out of her way.
A formula:
A good rule of thumb I’d like to suggest is that if you are looking to grow/change/modify between 10–15%, then a great operator may be able to achieve that, but if you are looking to bring on tangible changes and looking at a growth-rate of above 15%, then you are talking about drastic changes in your business strategy, processes and culture and need someone with the right chops to be able to conceive those changes with you and help you sail in the desired direction — and for that you need your uncageable birdie.
The inspiration
This article came to mind today as I was listening to two architects explore their careers on a podcast and one saying how he could never make a good employee. Here’s that video by 30X40 Design Workshop if you fancy a good talk between two creative-entrepreneurs:
