Employees can be entrepreneurs too.

Entrepreneurship runs in my blood. My Father is a lifelong entrepreneur and both of my Grandfathers were too. In my teens and early twenties I dreamed of owning my own restaurant and couldn't wait for when I would become the boss. Eventually my chance arrived and I handed in my notice to go and open my own eponymous restaurant. 

I vividly remember that final service at Mosimann's Dining Club when I flippantly said to Anton as he passed me in the corridor; "Hey Chef, today is my last day as an employee!" 

Later he quoted that back to me in a speech during my leaving party when he said it was a very bold and brave statement and wished me all the best. His words have stayed with me to this day since I hadn't really thought about how profound my statement was. It seemed I had set myself a challenge that I could NEVER go back to being an employee again. Now that became a scary idea at the time. But also a very exciting one...

Of course what I learned over the years is that you actually never stop being an employee. Even as he made that speech, Anton Mosimann himself was an employee since any Director of a Limited Company technically becomes an employee of 'The Company'. I also found that as much as I liked to think of myself as 'the boss', I still had to answer to business partners, and bank managers, and auditors and stakeholders and ultimately, our customers. Yes I could make my own decisions, but effectively I never stopped working for someone else. Did I ever stop being an employee? No, not really. I just thought I had for a short while.

That realisation made the decision to join a large company as an employee an easier one from that philosophical point of view, since I had now exorcised the demons of curiosity and found out for myself what it was like to be my own boss. It came with amazing highs, but also had incredible lows and the challenge since then has been to find that happy medium. As it happens, I think I may have found it.

When I joined my current employer, my biggest concern was in making sure I did not make any rash or bold decisions - decisions I would normally have made as an entrepreneur - until I knew the outcomes were going to be 'safe'. Learning all of the policies and procedures on my induction was a daunting experience. Furthermore, I was encouraged to 'manage the feelings' of one or two colleagues that I was to work with. This didn't bode well. As much as I tried to avoid 'rocking the boat', I began to lose confidence in my own decision-making instinct and constantly deferred to my line manager. I had gone from one extreme (of risk-taking) to the other (of safety) and got myself stuck in management quicksand. Something had to change if I was to become effective again. 

Eventually, a senior manager asked me a very simple question that gave me my Eureka moment; "Thomas, if you ran this location contract as if you owned it, what would you do?". I balked at the question and gave two or three quickfire solutions to some of the issues we were facing. "So why don't you do that?" was the reply. This really helped me figure out how to think about any future issues or challenges I was to face. I needed to get back in touch with my entrepreneurship as it was my secret weapon to becoming a better manager and leader.

Idea on the Horizon

Since then, I have tried to inject that momentum of energy and thought process into everything I do at work. By encouraging my team and colleagues to take more ownership of the challenges we face - just as I would as a business owner - they have become better managers themselves. I find myself constantly looking at how company systems can be tweaked and modified, initiatives kick-started (or improved), or how colleagues can be supported either directly from myself or from within the company culture. I know this approach might grate a few people the wrong way, but I have to believe that's their problem. 

Like friendship, I believe that entrepreneurship grows and strengthens the more you offer and share it. It is the foundation upon which the company I work for was founded. It is also the foundation upon which my own character was moulded. Doesn't it make sense that each should benefit the other for the greater common good?


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Baby Steps

I've been thinking about baby steps recently. Someone said we must proceed with caution on a new project and used 'baby steps' as the analogy. I wasn't sure that was the right approach as it came from a position of fear and caution. And usually that position leads to inertia. Nothing gets done and we describe our progress as 'baby steps'.

But baby steps are anything but cautious. Let's have a look...

Thinking back to my own daughter as a tiny toddler making that transition from crawling to walking, what struck me was that her baby steps were a perfect analogy for any new project, not because they were cautious, but because they were bold and brave.

Thinking about that, the first thing I noticed was that to make those first steps, a baby will embrace trial and error. This is something most project teams need to get those ideas and initiatives off the ground.

And how many times have you seen a nappy-clad toddler wobble two steps and collapse onto their bum, only to get right back up and try again? Failing small and failing often is a fundamental part of the learning process for that child, as it should be for any project or business team. After all we learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

And once that toddler has grasped the concept of combining balance and motion, guess what? They're off! And there's no stopping them. The number of times we had to run to the stairs or fireplace to ensure her safety was ridiculous, but it demonstrates how babies have no fear once they start to make those first awkward steps. Once they figure out, through mentorship and assistance from us as parents, where the dangers are, they adapt to their environment, continuously improving until success becomes second nature. 

So yes, the project group should take baby steps. But in reality this means:

...Relentless trial and error until success is in sight.

...Embracing a culture of testing & trialling so that failing small but often leads to learning and adapting.

...Bouncing back quickly from any mistakes or missteps.

...Proceeding with courage, rather than fear since fear leads to inertia. 

As you can see, Baby Steps are important, but not for the reasons most people think. 

And remember, even a journey of a thousand miles begins with just a few small steps. Usually brave and usually bold.

Social Media and Social Business: Distant cousins

Over the past few months I have been very lucky to meet some key thought leaders in digital marketing and chat with them over pizza about latest happenings in the world of Social Media and Social Business. There is certainly some astounding stuff happening at the bleeding edge of innovation, but for one reason or another, I haven't written about it up to now. Hopefully this will go some way to putting that right before I stop being invited for that inspirational banter. Or pizza. Which wouldn't be very social at all.

The first question I guess is What is social media? 

We need a starting point, so let's begin with a loose definition of what social media communication looks like for most people, although this is changing faster than I can type.

Many colleagues and friends I talk to are very confused with all the brands they hear about. 'There is so much Facebook this and Twitter that', they tell me as they shrug their shoulders and in the end they give up before they've even tried to understand. 'Tis better not to engage, than to look foolish, seems to be the logic.

To be fair, I can't blame them, so perhaps this image might help to illustrate the various channels that most people are communicating through currently. And apologies for the uncouth spelling. Ugh. No really, 'ugh' is missing from every doughnut...

Now that's not an exhaustive list. My daughter for example, uses Snapchat and Kik as her social networks of choice. (No, I don't either.) Nor does it include Blogger, Wordpress or Tumblr (recently bought for $1.1B by Yahoo) which are kinda like personalised websites people like me use to write blogs (derived from the word 'weblogs'). This post you are reading is hosted on the Google-owned blogging platform Blogger.

What then, do we mean by Social Business?

This is a little more difficult to explain, but essentially it is similar to what a person would do in the above scenarios, but in the context of a business or brand talking to it's customers, stakeholders (think suppliers or employees for example) and each other. 

Please remember this is not a full answer to the question posed, just a starting point to get the conversation moving. First however, let's take a look at another graphic that I picked up from Sarah Duncan's blog promoting her fab little consultancy called Sleeping Lion. (Lions. I know, right?) It certainly correlates nicely with the previous image and helps to give some direction on how you might use social media in your business. 

I'm sure the Swindon factoid is tongue in cheek, but you get the idea...

In the next few posts I am going to try and explain more fully what I mean by 'Social Business', why this is such a perplexing challenge and most importantly, why this is so crucial to your business today.