The Superhero Mentality is Kryptonite for Small Business Owners
For the last two decades, pop culture has been dominated by the age of the superhero. The classic superhero story shows a young person who initially rejects a new power or identity, later choosing to shoulder some grave responsibility—at the expense of personal wants—and saves the day.
The superhero mentality in business is similar. The small business owner runs ragged working in the business, micromanaging every aspect of it and linking its success or failure to their effort, with no plan or ambition to free themselves from the workaday responsibilities.
Of course, being a business owner requires a certain amount of hustle, but what may be a positive trait can also be incredibly damaging, not just for one’s personal life but for the business itself.
The “go-getter” mentality is often what gets small business owners moving and what separates them from someone who just daydreams about business ownership. But it’s dangerous to become too self-reliant on personal ability alone.
There was a time when I felt like I held my first business together by the sheer force of my will. And I would continually find it fraying at the edges in my absence. A simple vacation could easily turn into a crisis. Pretty quickly, the dream of freedom that I’d hoped to build as a business owner shattered under the real weight of responsibility. Instead of a badge of honor, my sixteen-hour workdays became depressingly Sisyphean.
If this sounds familiar, you may be stuck in the same loop.
Playing the superhero in your business comes from a good place—a passion for what you are building. And no one will ever care as much as you do about the business. So, why would you let anyone else do the work? Continuing to be the superhero—micromanaging any and all tasks, even if they are relatively prosaic — may also come from a fear of vulnerability. It is a fear of trusting others with something important to you.
That fear turns your business into a war of attrition. On one side are the milestones of success, and on the other are your time, energy, and willingness to carry the whole thing on your back. Michael E. Gerber, author of “The E-Myth Revisited,” says, “If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business—you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!” (More succinctly, “You don’t own the business, the business owns YOU.”) And he’s right.
Instead of working in the business, you need to be able to work on the business. To do that, you must overcome the fear of being vulnerable and spend those long-hour days creating ways to get the best work out of others. Otherwise, the looming question becomes not if but when burnout will strike.
A Path to Growth
The solution lies in strategic delegation and systematization, not in solo heroics. No one will ever be as invested in the business as you are. So, let that criteria go. I like Dan Martell’s 80 percent rule of good. Concerning delegation, He says, “You don’t aim for 100 percent perfection. Instead, shoot for 80 percent. Yes, lower your expectations, because here’s the deal: 80% done by someone else is 100% freaking awesome.”
While most new hires may be at 80 percent of your ability, I think that over a short period of time, you can do far better than 80 percent by using standardized systems and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to onboard and train new hires.
The key is to invest your time in creating systems for everything. Put together checklists and step-by-step procedures for every part of the business. Then, when you hire someone to take over that part of the business, you give them the procedure. They own it and are tasked with updating it when they find a better way.
Most people want to improve their work, and when they have ownership over it, they are far more likely to exceed that 80 percent threshold. So much so that if you hired correctly, used standardized systems and SOPs, and on-boarded and trained them well, that hire—in my experience—will surpass your ability for that role in their first year of employment.
Micromanaging will always force you to work more, create urgency, and undermine your business relationships. Planning for the future by creating robust systems and SOPs can ensure that your business runs smoothly, even when you aren’t looking.
Then, you can work on your business, which is the real freedom of business ownership.
