82 ◾ The Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Create Wealth for Your Company
20% of the time) be assigned a higher priority. If time management aims to
maximize productivity, these tasks should receive higher priority. Thus,
Quadrant 1 is reserved for critical activities (decision-making, instructing,
commanding, coaching, raising capital)
Quadrant 2 consists of important goals (mentoring, empowering)
Quadrant 3 may contain interruptions (reghting, crises)
Quadrant 4 activities should be totally disregarded (trivia, reading mail,
long phone calls)
Applying the Pareto principle (as described earlier) depends on the
method adopted to complete the task; that is, there is always a simpler and
more efcient way to complete the task. Employing a complex way will be
time-consuming, so the efcient entrepreneur should always try to nd out
alternate ways to complete each task.
32
This is summarized in Figure4.23.
4.9 Conict Management
“Fight as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong.”
If you are running a fast-paced organization, you will surely face organi-
zational conict. Conict is a natural, recurring, and inevitable outcome of
group dynamics. How will you manage conict?
Table4.9 Time Management Principles
“Work expands so as to ll the time available for its
completion.” —Cyril Parkinson
1. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.
2. Organize your day around productive activities.
3. Say “no” to unnecessary commitments.
4. Manage your time like money.
5. Clarify goals and delegate as much as possible.
6. Do the ugliest things rst.
7. Make and keep deadlines (no exceptions).
8. Keep teammates informed and involved.
9. Touch each document only once.
10. Keep meetings productive and short.
The Entrepreneurial Environment ◾ 83
Regarding organizational conict, leaders come in two avors: (1) the
production or task-oriented leader and (2) the people-oriented or accom-
modative leader. Of course, these are two polar opposites, and many leaders
fall somewhere in between. Neither extreme is necessarily right or wrong,
but instead will depend on the situation. It is useful for you to understand
your inherent leadership characteristics so you can devise a suitable solution
when conicts inevitably arise.
A useful framework for analyzing yourself is the Blake-Mouton
Managerial Grid, also known as the Leadership Grid.
33
This model originally
identied ve distinct leadership styles based on concern for people and
concern for production. The optimal leadership style in this model is based
on Theory X and Y.
34
(In Theory Y, management assumes employees are
ambitious and self-motivated,and typically exerciseself-control. In Theory
X, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work
if possible because they inherently dislike work. Not surprisingly, Theory X
has been proven counter-effective in most modern studies.)
The grid plots your task-centeredness (i.e., concern for production) vs.
your people-centeredness (i.e., concern for people). By plotting “concern for
production” on the abscissa against “concern for people” on the ordinate,
we can surmise that leaders who place too much emphasis in one area
at the expense of all others will likely experience lower productivity and
Quadrant 1
Important and
urgent
Quadrant 2
Urgent but
not important
Quadrant 3
Not urgent
but important
Quadrant 4
Not important
and not urgent
Manage these
activities above all
Focus on these
as time allows
Avoid these activities
like the plague
Reduce these
activities
Urgent
Important
Figure 4.23 Urgent-important matrix—Differences between urgent and important.
84 ◾ The Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Create Wealth for Your Company
prolongation of conict. While the grid does not entirely address the ques-
tion of which leadership style is “best,” it provides an excellent starting place
for critically analyzing your own performance and improving your leader-
ship skills.
35
This is shown in Figure4.24.
The Managerial Grid is based on two behavioral dimensions:
◾ Concern for People—The degree to which a leader considers the
needs of team members, their interests, and areas of personal develop-
ment when deciding how best to accomplish a task.
◾ Concern for Production—The degree to which a leader emphasizes
concrete objectives, organizational efciency, and high productivity
when deciding how best to accomplish a task.
4.10 Entrepreneurial Rewards
“My idea of risk and reward is for me to get the reward and others
to take the risk.”
The American dream involves two characters: (1) the entrepreneurial
hero and (2) the industrial drone. Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert
Impoverished
Minimum work to sustain
team membership
Authority – Compliance
Eciency, accountability
Results oriented
Middle of the road
Balancing work with morale
Country club
oughtful attention to personnel
Friendly atmosphere
Team Management
Committed team
Trust and respect
Concern for production, results
Concern for people
High
High
Low
Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid
Figure 4.24 Blake-Mouton managerial grid—A useful framework for self-analysis as
a leader.
The Entrepreneurial Environment ◾ 85
Reich described the two as “the inspired and the perspired.” These
characterizations highlight the difference between the entrepreneur, the
seeker of opportunity, and the administrator, the guardian of resources
and procedures.
Any entrepreneurial hero will tell you that individual recognition is more
important than salaries, bonuses, and promotions. For many people, the dream
of charting their own destiny and being self-sufcient is enough to stimulate
the pursuit of opportunity and a willingness to invest time and money.
Figure4.25 summarizes the most compelling rewards listed by entrepreneurs.
4.11 Entrepreneurial Types
“Find your sweet spot.”
Not all entrepreneurs are born the same. Pioneering studies by Cole
36
dened four distinctive types of entrepreneurs. More recently, researchers
have rened the style categories as:
1. Lifestyle
2. Innovator
Entrepreneurial Rewards
Being your own boss
Working on something you
like
Independence
Legacy
Motivation to excel
Financial incentives
Monetary independence
Create own destiny
Peer recognition
Self-esteem
Altruism
Figure 4.25 Entrepreneurial rewards—More than just money, entrepreneurs are
showered with many non-monetary rewards.
86 ◾ The Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Create Wealth for Your Company
3. Empire builder
4. Serial
Lifestyle—The lifestyle entrepreneur has decided to build a business
strictly to satisfy his or her own personal motivations. This entrepreneur
would like to create a successful company, butbuilding a public companyis
denitely not a necessity or the main driving force. Such businesses are typi-
cally high cash generative businesses. A good example of the lifestyle entre-
preneur is Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Innovator—If you operate your business predominately by innova-
tion, you are focused on using your company as a means to improve the
world. A business owned and operated by an innovator is full of life,
energy, and optimism. Such a company is life energizing and makes cus-
tomers feel the company has a “get it done” attitude. Innovators include
Gordon Moore, Intel’s founder, and Malcolm Forbes, founder and pub-
lisher of Forbes Magazine.
Empire builder—Also called a visionary, an empire builder will build
a business based on his or her future vision. The empire builder requires
a high degree of curiosity to understand the surrounding world and devise
plans to avoid the landmines. An example of an empire builder is Bill Gates,
founder of Microsoft.
Serial—This entrepreneur’s main motivation is to build a business with
a clear exit strategy (to “harvest” the enterprise). Often this entrepreneur-
ial type is ignored by many angel investors because the serial entrepreneur
may have mixed priorities, and may have started numerous business ven-
tures and then moved on! Interestingly, some angel syndicates actually do
prefer to invest in the serial entrepreneur because this entrepreneurial type
is focused on the exit or sale, and the cash payout isthe main motivation.
37
Serial entrepreneurs include Donald Trump, founder and CEO of Trump
Hotels & Casino Resorts.
4.12 The Ten Commandments of Leadership
1. Thou shall balance inuence with good judgment.
2. Thou shall speak authoritatively and clearly.
3. Thou shall prioritize achievable goals.
4. Thou shall delegate to motivate.
5. Thou shall promote diversity of skills.
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