The Glass Ceiling

I was asked to expand a little on one of my previous posts where I suggested that businesses in general don't move forward but rather accept getting locked in to their current position. Sometimes managing to keep place with inflation, often not.

So what's holding them down under this "Glass Ceiling?"

Here's some possibilities : -

1) The owner's sense of work/life balance is off in favour of life i.e. I'll be off all next week cuz it's my wife's birthday or sorry, I have to cancel our meeting today, my little girl has missed the school bus so I need to take her in etc.

2) The owner has simply run out of energy and ideas.

3) The owner's skills and knowledge has gotten the organisation this far but to go on new people (either full time or outside consultants) need to be brought in but there's a reluctance to do that for reasons of pride and/or worries regarding the cost.

You may think "So What? it's their business" and yes I can see the argument for an owner's philosophy aligning with all or some of the above.

My problem is this : -

To stay still in business is to lose ground. When enough ground has been lost, it's terminal and whilst the owner might get out OK what about the staff.

I say, you owe it to your staff to strive to make your organisation the best that it can be. So if that means fairly pulling your weight, then you need to do just that and not take liberties that you wouldn't be able to do if you weren't the boss..

If its time to delegate to others with more appetite and energy, do it.

Look at your capabilities (I'm useless with graphics and aesthetics amongst many other things) so I always get people in where those things are needed. Swallow your pride and accept that we all have knowledge and skills gaps. Have the confidence and courage to reach out to those experts, explain where your budget is at at the outset. I think you'll be surprised about how different skills and perceptions can really help you move the needle.

Leonard Brown talks a lot about the importance of Benchmarking and I fully agree with him on that. By seeing how your competitors are doing you will get a good idea of where your own performance lies. Make that honest assessment, put in those corrective actions, start to move forward again.

Now, what say you? Do owners have a moral responsibility to continually strive to improve their business or do pundits like me have no right to comment.

As always, I'd be interested to hear your views happy holiday!