On Leadership: Julia Rouse

Working All Day and All Night? 
Julia Rouse

Does entrepreneurial leadership mean pouring all your energy into your business? Working all day and evening and sleeping little, as Margaret Thatcher claimed to? Does being a business leader mean forsaking family or personal life? Does that exclude mums and modern dads from entrepreneurship?

Well, let’s face it, running a small firm is very demanding, particularly at certain phases such as start-up. And, on average, business owners do work longer hours than employees.

But working long hours does not necessarily equate with being productive. Leaders of small firms have to master multiple skills. It is the lucky few who are good at working their networks, getting service delivery right and doing the books. For most of us mere mortals, skill (and motivation) gaps reduce productivity. Which means we spend more time than we should getting certain stuff done.

Productivity can be improved by working smarter. How? Well, first of all by investing in skill development to get better at the things that take too much time. All business owners master basic book-keeping eventually – so experience helps. But sometimes it is more productive to invest in learning up-front – go on a course or get someone in your network to coach you.

The demands of small business can also be shared or delegated. In fact, team-led businesses may have more growth potential. Not surprising really – more leaders means more time and skills invested. Working in a team can be particularly helpful if you want to work part-time but have the vision for a full-time business.

Once you have the capital and demand, delegating to employees is an obvious route. Although independence-minded business owners find it hard to delegate. And, to be fair, finding good staff that you can trust is not easy. Again, getting some expert advice on how to structure your new opportunities may help. Depending on your sector, you could also try the associate model – drawing in skills from other self-employed workers when you need them and gaining work from these contacts when they’re overwhelmed, or bidding with them to win bigger contracts. 

Before the big time sets in, business owners have long relied on family and friends to share their workload. Blagging help may help. But don’t be tempted to employ these folk if they’re not productive at what you need them to do!

Lastly - maybe if we try to be more systematic about the opportunities we’re pouring our energy into, we could we stop doing some of the stuff that’s keeping us away from our families?

Oh, before I go, I’ve been enjoying ‘Follow the Leader’ on Radio 4 – catch it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xckjw. Apparently leaders can be anti-social – all the more reason to make sure you keep up the social niceties via a social life!

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Julia is a highly experienced researcher who has received awards from prestigious funding bodies including the Leverhulme Trust and Economic and Social Research Council. With Professor Lynn Martin, she leads research in the Centre for Enterprise. She is passionately committed to knowledge exchange drawing maximum value out of new knowledge creation by informing policy and practice and creating new knowledge by working with small businesses and their supports in the real world.