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Is there such a thing as a classic entrepreneurial personality?If you pondered the seemingly divergent personas of Donald Trumpand Bill Gates, you'd think not. But a recent study by theHagberg Consulting Group in Foster City, California, shows thatentrepreneurs do in fact tend to share certain characteristics thatset them apart from their Fortune 500 counterparts.
"We compared the 400-plus entrepreneurs in our databasewith executives of top companies," says Richard Hagberg, thecompany's president, "and found 10 traits in whichentrepreneurs showed a statistically significantdifference."
Yet, lest a superiority complex sprout up, Hagberg points outthat not all these characteristics are healthy for a company'sgrowth. For example, he says, entrepreneurs tend to betask-focused, which makes them "not particularly sympatheticto issues or to people outside of that task. This gets in the wayof the long-term loyalty and bonding necessary to sustainrelationships. An entrepreneur might go charging up the mountainwith guns blazing and, if he's not careful, turn around andfind there's nobody behind him."
Interestingly, the study reported discrepancies between the wayentrepreneurs characterized themselves and the way others perceivedthem; for example, a large majority see themselves as introverts,though many of their employees and peers characterize them asextroverts. The emergence of technology may contribute to theirisolation; however, Hagberg hints at some deeper reasons.
"A lot of entrepreneurs are borderlineextroverts/introverts who can put on a mask and appear to be veryoutgoing," Hagberg says. "But leadership is a lonelything, and people who seek leadership tend to be independent, lonertypes who happen to have good social skills."
Another perceptual gap exists in the area of vision."Entrepreneurs in particular tend to be visionary people, butthey tend to believe they've communicated their vision morethan they actually have," says Hagberg. "Entrepreneurstypically eat, sleep and breathe their business--they'rethinking about it all the time--so they may think they'vecommunicated their vision clearly to others when they actuallyhaven't."
Entrepreneurs' strong personalities may also create whatHagberg calls "a false consensus because entrepreneurs arehard to challenge. They walk out of a meeting thinking everyoneagrees with them, but people are simply afraid to challenge whatthey've said."
Though asking someone to change his or her personality is aboutas effective as asking a dog to meow, Hagberg believes the studycalls for a behavior adjustment. "Many of the traits that helppeople succeed in the entrepreneurial stage of a company becomeproblematic in the long run," he says. "The bestentrepreneurs are able to modify that cowboy mentality and becomesomewhat more like the CEOs of bigger companies--a little lessseat-of-the-pants, a little more deliberate. You have to makeadjustments as the company grows."
Drum Roll, Please
Learn teamwork without missing a beat.
By Debra Phillips
Time to lower the boom on your employees. For entrepreneurs whofear their workplace isn't nearly as harmonious as it could be,Arthur Hull's percussion-based team-building exercises might bethe key to drumming up a little esprit de corps.
Don't worry: You don't need to boast Ringo Starr-caliberchops to participate in the musical village that Hull, founder ofSanta Cruz, California-based management consulting firm VillageMusic Circles, helps companies create. The key is simply foremployers and employees to drum their way towards greaterappreciation of one another.
"It's not about learning how to play the drums or anyother instrument," says Hull, a former music instructor."Mostly, it's about listening and interacting."
Entrepreneurial companies and big corporations the likes ofApple Computer, Levi Strauss and Sun Microsystems have all partakenof Hull's approximately two-hour program. "We use villagemusic as a metaphor for team-building," explains Hull."We bring drums, percussion [instruments] and fun into [theworkplace]."
What starts with voices, hands and tubular instruments known as"boom whackers" concludes--quite literally--with a bang.At the end of the program, says Hull, "we're at what wecall `celebration mode' with all the drums and stuff. It'sa very powerful experience."
Powerful enough, in fact, to have taken Hull to places as exoticas Moscow and Bangkok, Thailand, to guide other companies throughhis musical exercises. We gotta say it: Business is booming.
Happy Days
Entrepreneurs top satisfaction survey.
We've long supposed that small-business owners are moresatisfied with their work than their corporate executivecounterparts, but a recent study seems to prove it. Bothsmall-business owners and top-level executives at largecorporations agreed overwhelmingly that small-business owners reapmore business satisfaction, according to a survey conducted byThe Wall Street Journal and Murrysville, Pennsylvania-basedresearch firm Cicco and Associates Inc.
"We figured the small-business owners would be prettyhappy," says Tom Robinson, market research director for TheWall Street Journal. "But the missing ingredient was howthe big-business guys would react. We were surprised by the numberwho think the grass is greener on the other side."
More than 62 percent of corporate executives surveyed feltsmall-business owners boasted "the more satisfying businessexperience"--a number that carries even more weightconsidering the position of these respondents. "You'dexpect the number to be fairly high among people on a midmanagementlevel," says Robinson. "But [our respondents were] peoplewith top management titles at large companies, so the assumption isthat [they] are the ones who are paid well and have a lot ofresponsibility."
Given that fact, the survey results "may suggest a secretdesire on the part of a lot of executives to run their ownshop," says Robinson. "I don't know if the head-linecan read `Corporate America Is Not Happy,' but [this survey] iscertainly an indicator."
Robinson points out that the survey did not ask corporateexecutives whether they had any firsthand experience in a smallbusiness or whether their answers were based purely on perception.Regardless, those who do have firsthand experience withentrepreneurship are even more enthusiastic: Almost 80 percent ofthe small-business owners surveyed were confident that theirsatisfaction levels were superior. --J.C.
Contact Sources
Mr. Blackwell, (800) OKIDATA;
Graduate Management Admission Council, http://www.gmat.org email: gmacmail@gmac.com;
Hagberg Consulting Group, 950 Tower Ln., 7th Fl., FosterCity, CA 94404, (415) 377-0232;
Village Music Circles, 108 Coalinga Wy., Santa Cruz, CA95060, (408) 458-1946.
