Complement Yourself
You’re an entrepreneur with something to prove. You are a quintessential go-getter, ambitious and determined to make this work. And because you’ve made it this far wearing ten different hats, by being Ms. Resourceful, figure-everything-out-by-hitting-the-pavement-solo, you may find it incredibly different to let go of the reins at stage 0.5. “I’m doing just fine, thank you very much.”
The answer to personal growth and scaling your business is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and/or more capable than you in their discipline. In other words, you have permission to complement yourself with experts to take your business to the next level in certain aspects so that you can shine as the founder/vision leader/steward. There will be glorious days ahead, as well as dark days. Having a diverse group together to problem solve will help you prevail.
Anyone who knows me will gently call me Type A….okay, maybe Type A Control Freak, and maybe they’ll omit my borderline neurotic and OCD attributes. This goes for family life, friends, organization leadership teams, management boards, agency teams, and startup partners. While I try to have a decent level of self awareness, sometimes I need to remind myself that others might operate differently, on a different timeline with independent priorities. I can still count on others to do their core competency according to their process, whether analog or meandering or touchy feely. Their approach usually integrates with what I have created. And I’ve actually dramatically mellowed out in recent years, and I will go with the flow in the spirit of collaboration.
At interTrend, Imprint Venture Lab, and at Built By She there have been complementary teammates who are blessed in design, creative writing, sales, accounting, legal, product design, or marketing. Sometimes it may seem that this long laundry list means that your skillset as a business generalist is cheapened, but that is absolutely not the case. Think provocative discussions, productive debates, and lively ideations that just aren’t possible with you and yourself.
And I have learned something during the past couple of decades.
Don’t go it alone. Why would you?
Even if you are a gifted, elite Superwoman (and of course, we know you are), you don’t need to be in this by yourself. Besides, it is more fun.
Step 1: Acknowledge. Identify your strengths as well as what you’re not so good at and areas that you avoid or dislike.
Step 2: Build. Attract and round up a team to reinforce the gaps and supplement/extend in your areas of need. Create a unifying culture.
Step 3: Lead. Inspire the team with your vision and empower each individual to make decisions, own their work, take measured risks, and problem solve.
Step 4: Listen. But then also listen, be malleable, commit to open minded collaboration with your diverse team of colleagues and advisors.
Finally, if you’re not a tight manager type, be willing to be managed. This is not about a power play, it as about efficiency. And if your complementary associate happens to be a badass operational and organized project manager, then be prepared to get out of the way.
A community sounding board, like Built By She will offer peer-to-peer advice. Our mentors will be able to give your business a wellness check consultation as well as identify your customized list of complementary players. Joining the tribe means expanding your circle and perspective with people who can help you unveil new discoveries.
So please take this as a compliment to you….complete yourself and complement your team with accomplished and devoted believers, and pseudo clone yourself by mentoring and growing your team.
