The Executive's Desk Guest Commentary 120th year, No. 244

www.abqjournal.com Business Outlook Thursday, August 31, 2000

Memo to founders: Beware of the guru trap

By Michael H. Shenkman

Shenkman: Guest writer holds a mirror up to business

From the Executive's Desk Name: Michael H. Shenkman Title: President Company: Strategic Development Group, Keystone International Inc.

Founders of new businesses, take heed: There is a trap out there, lying hidden, waiting to ensnare you on your path to success. You don’t have to use a metal detector to find it; you need a mirror. That trap is you.

That is, businesses may fail for many reasons, but from my observations as a consultant during the past 20 years, I am convinced that they most certainly fail when founders think they are indispensable. I call this the “Guru Trap.”

These telltale signs are sure indications of your proximity to the trap, and we offer some suggestions that can keep you on solid ground.

If you demand “loyalty” from employees, instead of taking note of everyone’s contribution, you are buried in the Guru Trap and you may not get out. Gurus create an “in crowd” among the employees in which the “ins” feel special and taken care of while the “outs” feel vulnerable and undervalued.

The guru often compounds the problem by hiring “friends.” These aren’t the people who will be likely to push for growth. Expanding the company might actually be a threat to their status and security.

To start digging out, immediately find someone to run day-to-day operations. Make sure this person has the respect of everyone in the company or has the potential to earn that respect quickly. Let the company grow by hiring people who are comfortable with their own abilities and who don’t look to you for emotional support.

If you find yourself in the position of not being able to take a vacation, your anxiety is actually vertigo from staring down the abyss of the Guru Trap. If you also find yourself saying, “It has to be done fast, so I have to do it myself,” consider yourself having one foot in the Guru Trap and the other on a banana peel. Face it; no one is that indispensable, including you. Consider this: If you have to do it yourself, or even if you can do it yourself, why do you need a company?

Get back to solid ground by creating a compelling mission and clearly state the values of the company so that employees know what you expect from them. And then, let them succeed. Encourage innovation, especially innovation that goes beyond what you started.

Delegate—even up to the point that an operation is failing. If that happens, have your team identify the trouble spots, fix them, promote and rearrange people’s positions, ad then do it again until it comes out right. Don’t do it yourself. Keep the pressure on, provide insights, but let these people arrive at their own solutions in their own way. Will that be hard to do? You bet. But the price for not doing that is a company that won’t be able to grow.

Do you say “not good enough” every time you are presented with a solution? You are being lured toward the black hole that is the Guru Trap. Founders of engineering and scientific companies often spend inordinate time and capital making marginal improvements to a product in order to get it perfect. But as we know, making those last little improvements can be more costly than valuable.

Make your product or service usable, stable, intelligible and get it out on the street for testing, beta sales and final sales. Have a good service backup plan. Then use every encounter as an opportunity to find out what customers want and make improvements they want on the next iteration.

Do you find yourself alone at your desk day after day and too busy to get out? You are unknowingly walking straight for the hidden edge of the Guru Trap. The founder’s job, when the company is new, is to bring in the news from the outside world, filter it, prioritize it and instigate appropriate actions from that information.

Your most important constituents are your company’s customers. Spend at least 25 percent of your time face to face with customers and prospects. Another important constituency is that of community leaders and opinion makers. Join key organizations; visit the local press. Get the good spin going on your company. That spin can help when you need referrals in order to hire people; when you need permits, easements or industrial bonds for additional space; or when internal conflicts become public and you need some good will.

Avoiding these traps won’t guarantee success if you are undercapitalized or if you misjudged the market, pricing or demand. But at least avoiding the Guru Trap is under your control. Avoid these traps and you will go a long way toward staying in your company long enough to see it grow and succeed.

Michael Shenkman, Ph.D., is founder and president of the Arch of Leadership (www.archofleadership.com), a leader mentoring company. This article was adapted from his new book, The Arch and The Path, the Life of Leading Greatly (Sandia Heights Media, 2005).