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Entrepreneurship Illusions

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Illusions of Entrepreneurship

Scott Shane from Case Western has just published (in the US) The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By.

“People start businesses based on the myths we tell ourselves about entrepreneurship and then are hurt when confronted by reality. Investors believe these myths and invest money and they’re disappointed when they don’t hold true. Policy makers make policy based on these myths and then wonder why the economy isn’t growing with all these entrepreneurs now in it.”

Try taking his entrepreneurship test. I scored a massive 50%!

Clearly care will have to be taken in translating the US research to the UK context – but I am sure this will provoke some interesting conversations. You can pre-order the book here.

Action Yearning

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‘Santiago taught me about turning dreams into reality – he taught me how yearning has a dynamic to it that is incredibly powerful.  It is important, simply to be open and alive to possibility, to encourage people rather than to be suspicous of them, and to see the potential for success rather than the potential for failure.  This is where true knowledge and learning can be found…’

The Social Entepreneur – Andrew Mawson 

Much wisdom in this piece – whether you are a manager trying to get the best from a team or whether you are supporting entrepreneurs.

The book is a great read too!

Qualifications or Achievement?

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I am often asked whether I would ever consider linking the Progressive Managers’ training to an external qualification such as a management NVQ or similar.  There are several reasons why I resist this.

I work best with managers who are interested in developing their practice – not theory.  Managers who want to make things happen and achieve outstanding results.  Not managers who want to spend time sharing their thoughts on case studies and texts or preparing evidence of what they can do for an assessor.

Most learning does not happen in the workshops that I run. It happens when people go back to the workplace and start to follow the recipes and routines that they have been taught.  I know that what I teach is useful, practical and effective.  I also know that the best results are obtained when managers take what I teach, apply it and then develop it based on their own experience, context and culture.  It is only those that apply what I teach and learn from it that should be recognised.  Not anyone who happens to show up for training.

Why pay an awarding body or an assessor to make judgements about what you know and can do?  Let your results speak for themselves.  Focus on being recognised by your peers, reports and your boss as an outstanding manager who achieves outstanding results – both in terms of performance and people development.  As long as you keep your CV up to date with clear descriptions of what you have achieved you will be as attractive to a future employer as any MBA.

I know very few people that really trust management qualifications.  Management qualifications are increasingly becoming devalued.  The qualifications are poor proxies for what someone can actually do.  Do any serious recruiters really pay much attention to whether you have an NVQ level 4 in Operational Management or not?  Certainly not the ones that I talk with!

This devaluation is partly because assessment, although expensive in time and effort, is very weak.  Having a qualification is, in my experience, no guarantee that you can achieve results as a manager.

The complexity of most management qualification structures does not help either.  Nearly all have a ‘core and options’ structure that means Sherlock Holmes might struggle to understand from a qualification what you know and can do.  Indeed in the UK if you look up management qualification there are over 400 recognised on the National Database of accredited qualifications.

Now please don’t get me wrong.  There are some great managers who have worked hard to get qualifications.  The problem is that there are also many average and poor managers who have the same qualifications.  If you want to make a positive difference and develop a successful career then focus on developing your practice – not picking up qualifications.

And if you are one of those good managers with the qualifications then don’t rely on the qualification to make you stand out from the crowd.  Emphasise the responsibilities that you have held and what you have achieved in relation to those responsibilities.  If you are a good manager then this will get you recognised by your bosses, peers and recruiters.

Leaders are Readers?

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I had a great break over the holiday season and managed to do loads of reading . 10 books read and not one of them disappointed! This shows that ideas and inspiration are easy to find and cheap.

Putting them into practice is what matters and is where the majority of people – me included –  fall down.  In fact much of my work with PMN is to get great ideas and turn them into simple recipes that can be applied and made to work well.  Because the real learning happens not when we read the book – but when we try stuff out in practice.

So here are a couple of the books I read over Christmas that you can expect to see influencing future PMN workshops and blog posts.

Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly tells the story of management at Admiral Janitorial Services and how they managed to significantly reduce staff turnover and increase sales and quality.  They did this by spending time listening to employees, encouraging them to talk about their aspirations (home ownership, provide a proper Christmas for the family, sort out debt problems etc.).  They then put in place a service to help employees develop and put into practice plans to make these dreams happen.

By developing connections between peoples’ aspirations and their work, employees become significantly more engaged in their work.  This enabled the company to experience phenomenal growth.

In the book Kelly shows how hiring a ‘Dream Manager’ to work confidentially with employees once a month on their dreams and (CRUCIALLY) the plans to make them happen can transform the workplace.

I loved this book and read it in a couple of sittings as it is short (150 pages), well written and with an engaging storyline.

Eddie Obeng’s Money Making Machine is a business fable designed to help entrepreneurs think about their business idea as if it were a money making machine. It provides powerful insights into how to build the machine most effectively to achieve financial success.

Now it is very rarely that I find myself working with anyone who simply wants their business to be a money making machine. Most want their business to make a ‘positive difference’ as a first priority. Making money is a necessary – but by no means sufficient criteria for most successful entrepreneurs. As well as providing some really practical insights this book got me thinking about what a ‘Progress Making Machine’ might be like. Watch this space for the outcomes from that piece of thinking.

You can see a full list of the Xmas reading here.

PMN Bookstore

Blame is a primitive response – Entrepreneurship is a much better one

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“If journalists spent as much time studying the lives of the poor as they do gazing at the rich, it would help us all keep our heads on straight.

We would marvel at a world economy strange enough to sustain such gaps.

We’d learn not to blame the rich for the poverty of the poor, but we’d also learn not to blame the poor themselves. Blame is a primitive response. Entrepreneurship is a much better one.”

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs ,the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University