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Ambiguity… the Entrepreneur’s Friend

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“Ambiguity” — may be the largest force in the entrepreneur’s life and ecosystem.  Funding, customers, product development — all beyond the control of the entrepreneur.  The ability to handle ambiguity is a factor that I’ve encountered again and again in not only startups, but in real life, particularly the harsh environment of the emergency first responder.

Incomplete data, incomplete facts, partially completed product, inconclusive market data, partial context… limited time… what do you do?  Is this a threat?  An opportunity?  A distraction best ignored?

And as a leader, is this “business as usual” or does the environment shake you to your core? render you frozen with indecision… Is ambiguity  “comfortable” or at least familiar?

Is ambiguity your friend, or your foe?

In any uncertain situation whether business, or a traffic accident, I believe it is essential that the leader, or a leadership team, be comfortable with ambiguity.  So how do you spot this rare animal in a leader (or potential leader)?

Use the test here: http://jasonseiden.com/handling-ambiguity/ because his simple tests… resonate with my experience:

  • Comfort with unclear social settings
  • Intellectually curious
  • Strong and demonstrable “action orientation”
  • Good judgment

I couldn’t agree more.  Time and again I’ve found that leaders with those qualities/attributes… do fine with ambiguity.  And leaders not “comfortable” (an odd word, in this context) with ambiguity… they’ll drive themselves nutty, or at least their families.  Been there, done that.

Don’t have what it takes?  Don’t fret… it probably means your normal.  The ability to handle ambiguity, while “impressive” in the abstract, isn’t “normal” — in fact, these leaders can be hard to live with, hard to follow, hard to understand.  Don’t believe Hollywood’s projection of a leader… just because your leader is comfortable with ambiguity doesn’t mean they’re right.  Or easy to follow.  You may be a top performer in the leadership team precisely because you are not comfortable with ambiguity.

Most high performance teams need a combination of leaders comfortable with ambiguity, and members of the leadership team that insist on unambiguous decisions and stratetgy — wisdom and superior execution are a complicated combination of both perspectives.

Metrics… for Life

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My clients will recognize my constant encouragement to set measurable objectives, and then utilize consistent process to apply metrics consciously and mindfully… for business goals and career goals.

Now there’s a book that helps define the benefit of this philosophy for your personal life, particularly if you are a busy and forward-driving executive or entrepreneur.

Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School wrote How Will You Measure Your Life? after a series of life events propelled him to share his point of view (an amazing and moving story).

He writes that his first clue that there was a problem with ensuring a happy and successful personal life was when he attended an HBS reunion to discover that nearly every member of his class had been spectacularly unsuccessful (and generally unhappy) in their personal and family lives, despite many accomplishments in their professional lives.  Sound familiar?

I appreciated Christensen’s realization that his classmates were extraordinarily gifted, with both talent and opportunity, trained to cast sophisticated strategy into aggressive business plans, and execute accordingly.  It wasn’t that they had planned to be unsuccessful in their personal lives, it was simply that they had no plan for their personal lives… and perhaps predictably, the results weren’t what they had assumed.

This realization is at the core of mindful and thoughtful coaching.  Set measurable objectives, explicitly and thoughtfully, and then scrupulously measure progress against the objectives.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough for every entrepreneur and business person; get it and read it.

Accountability and Swift Termination

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Most experienced entrepreneurs will agree that they almost always took too long to terminate key employees when they don’t work out.

In World War II, the U.S. Army grew from 190,000 soldiers in 9 Divisions to 8,000,000 soldiers in 61 Divisions. General George Marshall is credited with instilling accountability in the officer ranks, including generals.

Below are excerpts from the Harvard Business Review article that I strongly recommend you acquire:

“As transformational leaders tend to do, Marshall began by focusing on people. He truly was ruthless in getting the right people in the right jobs—and the wrong people out of them. When Brigadier General Charles Bundel insisted that the army’s training manuals could not all be updated in three or four months and instead would require 18, Marshall twice asked him to reconsider that statement.

“It can’t be done,” Bundel repeated.

“I’m sorry, then you are relieved,” Marshall said.”

Can you imagine that in today’s army?

As you’ll learn in the article, the U.S. Army is no longer run that way (generals are almost never terminated, and certainly never swiftly when held accountable to a leadership goal).

Which way do you run your startup?  With accountability?  With swift action?

Doctor Heal Thyself

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I love that Norm Brodsky, long-time columnist and startup expert for Inc magazine… turned his formidable skills on himself, to diagnose the need for experiments and metrics in his own startup, the recently launched Kobeyaki.

Read this to get a taste of why (and how) they measured their new restaurant in order to establish profitability… and next they will experiment with location, in preparation for expansion.

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