For the past year, I’ve started two companies, a People Strategy and HR Consulting Business, Momentum People Solutions, and an AI HR Tech Business, MgrWorkbench.ai. In my corporate career I’ve enjoyed being part of diverse teams made up of individuals that have different superpowers!
As a solopreneur, my weaknesses come out in spades – daily. Upon reflection, I think this is a significant barrier for individuals to successfully transition from a corporate environment to solo endeavors.
I was personally struggling with focus and doing many of the tactical things necessary to build a business. Why? I certainly read plenty about business start-ups with guidance on things I needed to do to build a great business. But I was failing. Huge execution risk.
Michael Gerber, the author of E-Myth revisited helped me a great deal by sharing that solopreneurs must be three people, all at the same time, and those three people don’t get along. The people are: Business Development, the Manager and the Tactician. Ah, I felt much better. I like the Business Development role, followed by the Tactician (if the work is interesting) and lastly the Manager. Unfortunately, Michael shares that I can only spend 20% of my time in the Biz Dev role. Dang!
My inquiry didn’t stop there. I dug into my favorite psychometric assessment, the Core Values Index to discover why I felt best in one of the three roles. And here’s what I discovered!
The core value of Merchant is Love (the nurturing of core values in self and others) and core value of Innovator is Wisdom (to see the way things are & know what to do about it). Because my personality is so lopsided, I have zero tendency to naturally access the Builder core value of Power (personal energy applied to make a positive difference) and the Banker core value of Knowledge (knowledge is available to ALL & used appropriately). Here’s a breakdown of the communication styles and techniques.
With the insight of Gerber and the CVI a solopreneur, to be more successful, must become conscious to the activities and tasks that are not hardwired into your personality. A solopreneur must, be four people depending on the context and being neglectful to your weak areas is a derailer.
Starting with your psychological tendencies is key to being successful, and well, coaching yourself.
Example: “Kevin, this is a highly detailed important activity, and you must behave like a BANKER – right now. No, Kevin you can’t write a blog or go to a networking event or create a new solution set for an interesting problem. You, Kevin, can do this, and you have lots of example of where you’ve focused, and it led to good results – like more free time to join another club!”
Please share with your solopreneur curious and solopreneur friends. Have them reach out, I would love to meet them and be distracted from my Builder responsibilities!
