Protect your Creative Thinkers and Entrepreneurial Employees
Creative thinkers
You’ve seen founders, visionaries, and creatives that chart a new course and change the world. You may not like them (Steve Jobs, Winston Churchill), you may not agree with them, (Elon Musk, Mark Zukerburge), you may not have believed in them at the time (Tomas Edison, The Wright brothers), but you can not disagree they made the impossible possible.
All business founders are on some part of the creative spectrum; they bridle against conformity, hate complacency, they are disruptors, they are innovators – they are entrepreneurs. And they are few: only 9% of people take the risk and start a company.
Many creatives found companies because they don’t “fit” into the established mold. Their quirky differences from 90% of the population are protected by the fact that it is their own company. They find a process and execution co-founder, partner, or team to support their vision, but it only seems to work when the executor is number two, because the creator bridles against being constrained or controlled, and the executor needs conformity to understand the world and manage a company.
Sometimes when a company turns to scale, or stability, the creative can be cast aside by partners, boards, or investors seeking process and procedure. Founders don’t always have the skills to scale a big team or run a big company without a supportive number two. But without them companies would not exist, and once they are gone can not adapt through adversity.
Sound like you?
Entrepreneurial employees
Not all creative thinkers found companies, some work as employees, maybe even in your company. If you are lucky enough to employ one: you have to protect them! They are your entrepreneurial employees, they are where ideas come from that others can execute. A company that is all project managers, accountants, and process oriented MBA’s can increase revenues, decrease expenses, grow shareholder value, it can do 360 reviews and team building afternoons. But it can not survive a change, and the only constant is change.
Companies are built for stability. Creatives are needed for when the market changes, the environment changes, sensibilities change, or there is an unforeseen threat. Unfortunately stable company processes, bureaucracy and politics tend to force them out. The military calls them Mavericks, they are forced out by bureaucracy during times of peace, and become heroes in times of war (Patton, Thomas H. Dyer)
“Take the mavericks in your service, the ones whose ideas are so offsetting that they actually upset the people in the bureaucracy. One of your primary jobs is to take the risk and protect these people, because if they are not nurtured in your service, the enemy will bring their contrary ideas to you.” — General James Mattis
How do we protect entrepreneurial employees?
First we have to identify them. Entrepreneurial employees don’t always work well on teams, but neither do jerks so we need some other signs. Entrepreneurial employees will show lots of energy when applying their skills to a problem, they may make risky decisions that set them aside from risk averse employee types. They won’t stand up and leave at 5 if they are in the creative process. They will come up with out of the box ideas, challenge the status quo, create new things and share them with you, they will constantly be asking you why? If you’ve ever worked for someone else, picture yourself!
Tell them why?
Give Entrepreneurial Employees the objective and let them create. Creatives do not like being told what to do or think, they want to know why? They want to know that their efforts are important to the greater cause. They want to know the vision and mission, and then push the boundaries towards them. They want to figure things out, not utilize that solution for the rest of their days.
Think about when you get really focused on something in your business, you’ll work 80 hours a week to solve a problem or build a solution, then you teach the doers how to use it. If your entrepreneurial employees believe in the why? – the vision and the mission you challenge them with – they will work non stop to solve problems and build solutions for you too.
Give them responsibility
In western (and Ukrainian) special forces the person in tactical command is the one being shot at, not the highest ranking person at the back who can’t see the fighting. When your company is small, you know every shot fired. As you scale, you will get further and further from the front lines. You need an entrepreneur in the trenches to solve problems, innovate, and adapt to change.
The Russian army on the other hand is a bureaucracy, the people at the front will wait for orders as enemy tanks roll by. This is like a large stable company full of project managers, accountants, MBA’s and employees that are not entrepreneurial, that are risk averse, and that are working for a paycheck instead of being empowered by your vision and mission.
Give them flexible hours
Some entrepreneurs are creative in the morning, some in the middle of the night. Some creatives can do a full day’s work in 3 hours while in the zone, but then crash and need to step away to recover. Think about your own energy cycle with your own business. When I was in Video Games (my only real job) I could do what was a day’s work for the rest of the team in 3 hours. Then the boss would dump another day’s work on me because the corporate value was on 8-12 hours with your bum in a seat, not your deliverables. I started my own company and haven’t looked back.
Give them challenges to solve
Don’t give entrepreneurial employees too many rules, give them a problem and get out of the way. Let them challenge the way things have always been done, let them try new things and give them plenty of room to fail and learn from their mistakes. Create a micro environment like the one you are in as a founder. Once they’ve created a new solution, hand it off to the executors and give them a new problem to solve!
Final thoughts
A company that supports its creative and entrepreneurial employees will be more innovative, more profitable, more efficient, and more resilient to change than one that does not. It will be better suited to scale with like minded entrepreneurs in the trenches. Protect them and treat them like an important asset. Because If you treat them like a regular employee, you will probably face them again, building a competitor that is more resilient to change.
Want to read more?
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About Me
Hi, I’m a founder-CEO with 20 years of experience growing companies, building relationships, imagining the future, and creating new things. I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2002 when I founded my first company, creating visual effects for Hollywood TV shows, where I won an Emmy for ‘Lost’ and received four nominations.
In 2010, I founded an aerospace and defense technology startup and led the company through unbridled naivety, survival, bootstrap, dogged resilience, and scaling. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to sit on numerous boards and round tables comprising diverse companies, communities, people, and points of view. I’ve successfully sold to Hollywood giants like SyFy, Fox, ABC, and Disney, to aerospace leaders such as Boeing, Lockheed, and Babcock, as well as the Canadian government, securing multi-year multi-million dollar contracts.
Now, my mission is to help fellow founder-CEOs by bringing proven strategies and customizable playbooks into their businesses. I coach them on building a solid team and executing their plans while focusing on what they love to do, ensuring their business thrives. My coaching expertise lies in strategy, business development, B2B & B2G, marketing, sales, and creative problem-solving. I’m here to help you get your business working for you, not the other way around!
Awards
1 Emmy, 4 Nominations, News Maker of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Team of the Year, Tech Company of the Year, Top 5 Moments in Television History (Lost – Pilot), 4 Time Top 75 Defence Company
Achievements
TEDx Talk, FuckUp Night Talk, Host of Western Innovation Forum, Trade Show Panelist, and Speaker.
Boards
Victoria Innovation, Advanced Technology & Entrepreneurship Council (VIATEC) Western Canadian Defence Industry Association (WCDIA), The Alternative Board (TAB), Vancouver Island Aviation Association (VIAA)
Hobbies
Painting, Running, Sailing, Hiking, Camping, Traveling, Reading, Cooking.
Great Books
Scaling Up, Unfuck Yourself, Good to Great, Everything is Fucked, The Untethered Soul. How to Sell an Elephant