Entrepreneurship - How to Face Dysfunction
The freedom of enterprise means being able to be your own boss and starting your own business, and that, of course, implies that you have to be entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurship is a long term endeavor, and it shouldn't be seen as a short term endeavor designed to replace a job; it should be looked like a business. Entrepreneurship means that you have to be driven to succeed and that you have to have a high degree of flexibility to act on the ideas that you have at the moment.
The title of this article includes "How-to-Face-Dysfunction," the challenge of dysfunction can be an exciting one, but it is not something that you can expect quickly deal with. The kind of dysfunction that entrepreneurs face can be simple or complex, depending on how you see it and tackle them. Some common dysfunction that visionaries and entrepreneurs face include:
Dysfunctional leadership team or turf wars
Inability or lack of precise business measurements (KPIs)
Allowing a personal problem overwhelm effectiveness
Misrepresented roles within your leadership team
Constant pivoting (Visionary Problem)
Backbiting and backstabbing within your leadership team
Refusal to establish operating procedures
Lacks operational efficiency (not tracking key metrics)
Confusion about scorecard goals
There are so many different and potential dysfunctions; those listed above are just a few common ones we have seen when working with potential clients, past and present clients.
Sometimes the Visionary and integrator fail to align or don't work well together. This strained relationship can blind the two leaders from the dysfunctions of the business. These dysfunctions and others can cripple your business. If you don't get these under control quickly, your broader team will lose trust in the leadership team, you will miss your sales targets, and your customer satisfaction will be impacted.
How to Face Dysfunction?
The first step to facing dysfunction is for the Visionary and integrator to be on the same page about how they see the business. This could be accomplished through visionary/integrator coaching with a third party, which typically is an outside that can facilitate positive interactions and work through solutions between these two essential leaders.
The second step to facing dysfunction is for the Visionary and integrator to address each individually together and implement ideas around how the two of them should resolve the issue. If the problem requires the broader leadership team's involvement, these issues should be placed on the issue list and worked through the issue, decision, solution process with the more extensive team.
If the dysfunction is between one or more people within the leadership team, the Visionary and integrator must address the issue with the individual. You could resolve the issue by hiring a coach/mentor that can work closely with the individual to treat the dysfunction. Sometimes dysfunction such as confusion around scorecards can be dealt with by ensuring your team members know the system and process in how to work. It might be a fundamental behavior shift or insecurity that your leader needs to work through.
When the problem is with the Visionary, such as pivoting weekly every Monday morning, issues like this could be a dysfunction in the Visionary and Integrator relationship again. Someone like your implementer or another coach work through how to properly handle new ideas from the Visionary without disrupting the entire organization.
Get to the source of the problem.
Sometimes organizational dysfunction and the resulting issues are not the core problem. It's essential to work deeply as a team to understand what the core problem is. Sometimes symptoms or dysfunction are not the main issues. For example, Dysfunctional leadership team or turf wars, the real issue is lack of trust. Inability or lack of precise business measurements (KPIs), the core issue here is clear direction and goals by Integrator and Visionary.
Getting the core problem or issue is essential in eliminating dysfunction. It may be a single person that is the core problem; it may be a behavior of the Visionary, it may be a lack of clear goals and direction, or it could be a combination of things that are at the center of the dysfunction. Think of this as a marriage; if a marriage is stifled in dysfunction, often married couples turn to therapy. Now we are not saying your team needs a therapist, but coaching can help.
Therapy is about working through your issues and addressing the dysfunction. Coaching is about asking the right questions to allow your team to come to its conclusion. Sometimes, actually in most cases, having an outside, third-party to uncover the core problem or issue is essential in resolving the dysfunction.
If your team faces dysfunction and you want to work through the issue or problem, our team has experience coaching and mentoring leaders from the top down. Check out our coaching and mentoring page https://www.gcestrategicconsulting.com/coaching-mentoring