Chaos junkies

Entrepreneurs are interesting characters. They tend to thrive on chaos. It’s the fuel that empowers their engine, so to speak. I like to refer to them as “chaos junkies.” They realize that chaos provides opportunity. It’s their job to face the chaos and make order out of all of the craziness. They not only see things differently but they also think differently. While most individuals flee from chaos and seek safe harbors, the entrepreneur, like a surfer catching a 40-foot wave, seeks it out and rides it to shore.

The late management guru Peter Drucker taught us the difference between leaders (entrepreneurs) and managers in his classic book, “The Effective Executive.” Managers, he said, make sure things get done right. Leaders, on the other hand, make sure the right things get done.

It’s all about perspective and priorities. Leaders focus on effectiveness while managers focus on efficiency. It’s the difference between strategic and tactical issues. I often use the terms big picture vs. little picture to distinguish between the two.

Anecdotal statistics.

Over the past thirty years, I’ve noticed that approximately 12 percent of green industry contractors reach $1 million in annual sales. Roughly 2 percent reach $5 million in annual sales. Amazingly, about 75 percent of all green industry contractors have annual sales of $500,000 or less.

Question: Why do so few green industry contractors make it to $1 million in annual sales?

Answer: They think differently.

How it works in the field.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that entrepreneurs should only think about the big picture and ignore the daily minutia that’s involved in running a business. Effective executives build a high-performance team that requires minimal supervision to take care of the details. Notice that I didn’t say “no” supervision but “minimal” supervision.

They build an effective management team that takes care of all of the daily minutia (operations, ordering, scheduling, accounting, payroll, etc.). This allows entrepreneurs to concentrate on strategic issues such as: building the team (recruiting, hiring, training, etc.), building the systems (accounting, job costing, career paths for staff) and monitoring future threats and opportunities.

This is where well-thought out job descriptions are needed. Everyone in the organization, including the CEO, should have a thorough job description tied to the remuneration for the position in question. Most important, everyone in the organization should be able to perform their job description with minimal supervision. If they can’t perform their assigned job description, they may need additional training.

Or they may simply be the wrong person for the job. According to Jim Collins, author of “Good To Great,” it’s your job to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats. Collins goes on to say that the CEOs studied in “Good To Great” spent approximately 50-60 percent of their time building their teams. Get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, and the bus goes merrily on its way.

today’s market.

I’m not saying that it’s easy, especially in today’s market. Hiring, training and maintaining good staff is the most difficult task that you face today. Virtually every entrepreneur that I worked with in 2015 echoed this fact. Labor is the number one most challenging issue being faced in today’s market place. That’s why you have to understand that the majority of your time must be spent building and maintaining your team.

You need to learn to think and respond differently if you and your business are going to grow in spite of the craziness of today’s labor market. You need to learn to be a chaos junkie and thrive on chaos. Interestingly, this was the theme of Tom Peter’s 1987 blockbuster book, “Thriving On Chaos.“

Opportunity awaits.

Philip B. Crosby wrote in, “Quality is Free,” “Good things happen only when planned. Bad things happen on their own.” This is so true. It’s a new year and time to plan for success. To do so, you need to think differently. You also need to re-think everything. It’s time to re-engineer your thinking and then your planning.

If you haven’t done so, read (or listen to) “The Effective Executive,” “Thriving On Chaos,” “Good To Great” and “Quality Is Free.” Learn how to think like Drucker’s effective executive. Become a chaos junkie like Peters suggests. Learn to thrive on chaos and realize that it breeds opportunity. Listen to Collins when he tells you to spend more time building your team. Be proactive and plan for good things to happen.

The good news is that 2016 will contain as much (and probably more) chaos than 2015. The better news is that the New Year will bring even more opportunity than 2015 – that is if you are prepared to recognize and take advantage of it. Happy New Year!