Good financial management or appalling employee engagement strategy?

Elon Musk buys a company (Twitter), then sacks half the staff (thousands of people) and tells the remaining staff they must “work long hours at high intensity” to make the company viable.

He says he works 100 hours a week and still sleeps at the office. Now he wants Twitter staff to do the same.

Reportedly, he is said to have used the same tactics at his other companies Tesla and SpaceX, where the cutting-edge environment has possibly made the employees more likely to stick around and less likely to rebel than those at Twitter.

Meanwhile he takes home over $50 million dollars in salary as CEO of Tesla.

Does he, as CEO, have a realistic appreciation for what he is expecting of staff?

Why should they work long hours at high intensity?

Have their roles substantially changed?

Have they been encouraged to contribute, or have they been pressured to do more?

But consider the bigger question: Is he alone in his thinking?

How many founders, business owners or CEOs expect their staff to be as committed as they are, but without getting the benefits that accrue for owners? And in some cases, without getting any extra reward or recognition.

Is there a lack of awareness among founder CEOs about the impact of their expectations?

The Entrepreneurs Mirror

From my work across many founder-led businesses I’ve coined the phrase ‘Entrepreneurs Mirror’. This is when the business owner/founder expects the mindset and dedication of staff to match their own; in other words, for staff to think and act like a business owner.

Importantly there is science behind the Entrepreneurs Mirror. The underlying cognitive bias, defined in 1977, is called the Consensus Bias (or the False Consensus Effect).

Consensus Bias is a pervasive cognitive bias that causes people to see their own behavioural choices and judgments as relatively common and appropriate to existing circumstances. In other words, they assume that their personal qualities, characteristics, beliefs, and actions are relatively widespread through the general population.

Simply, the Entrepreneurs Mirror is a version of ‘projection’, the idea that people project their own attitudes and beliefs onto others.

Many founder CEOs are heavily committed to the company they started. And they want to believe that all their staff are equally devoted to the success of the business.

But in most businesses that’s not reality.

Employees are usually treated as employees. Nothing wrong with that. However problems can appear when they are treated as employees yet are expected to act like a business owner, take more responsibility, and have a more entrepreneurial mindset.

What does ‘acting like an owner’ look like?

While there is no one definition there are a number of factors which contribute to the end result, such as:

• Thinking ahead and acting to avoid problems occurring.
• Risking their sense of security by proposing new ideas.
• Rising above conflict with colleagues to focus on the bigger picture.
• Being comfortable with uncertainty, hazy boundaries, and vague plans.
• Working longer or at a higher intensity, usually at their own expense, because it would be good for the company, such as by increasing sales, resolving problems or keeping customers happy.

Which brings us back to the situation at Twitter and the impact of the Entrepreneurs Mirror.

Is Elon Musk alone in his thinking?

If we take a broader view and consider the expectations other founder CEO’s have of their staff, we could ask the question…

Is there a lack of awareness among founder CEO’s?

In defence of founder CEO’s, it’s easy to understand why they could get caught up in the Entrepreneurs Mirror. Founders fight through many challenges as they grow their business, and they know how hard it can be to bring everything together to create success.

Their worldview can easily become one that expects others to do as they have done. After all – they may think – that’s how the business has progressed to where it is now.

And for sure, early employees (usually selected by the founder) may often adopt many aspects of the business owner mindset, either through osmosis working side by side with the owner, or by the fact they’re attracted to the early-stage business environment with all its uncertainty, flexibility, reactivity and excitement.

However once the business progresses beyond recruiting the first handful of employees, additional staff members are much less likely to embody the mentality of the founder CEO.

And certainly, once the business has grown to where managers other than the founder are making recruitment decisions and employing new staff, the impact of the founder mindset can become very limited.

How can founder CEOs avoid the Entrepreneurs Mirror and be more aware?

Many founders will maintain strong connections with their team as the business grows. Yet in other situations the founder may find themselves caught up running the business and they may become somewhat distant from individual team members.

There is always room for improvement and founder CEOs may wish to consider these initiatives to regain connection and a deeper understanding of their team.

1. Get structured feedback from staff, and being anonymous may be helpful to encourage people to share their honest unfiltered views.
2. Be seen to be listening, make time to discuss changes and decisions.
3. Involve the team in your thought processes. Let them know why decisions have been made a certain way, which can help them learn how to make better decisions themselves.
4. Make changes that reflect feedback, demonstrating respect for their input and that there is a willingness to evolve.
5. Create properly defined roles, with Position Description’s and expectations clearly outlined. Not only does this create certainty for individual team members, it can also help the owner CEO see what particular staff are focused on so they can appreciate the impact of problems and potential changes.
6. Reflect on your own mindset as owner/founder, have you created unconscious expectations of how your team will think and behave? Have you been receiving feedback and been actively listening?
7. Overall create a culture where staff feel safe and empowered and are willing to step up and make an impact on the company, doing more than just their strict job requirements.

If you’ve read this far you might be making numerous connections between the actions suggested to avoid the Entrepreneurs Mirror and actions for creating a highly engaged workforce.

And you’d be right.

But it’s worth keeping in mind, even if there is currently a highly-engaged work environment the level of engagement will most likely decrease if employees ultimately don’t feel they are being rewarded or recognised for their extra business-owner-level effort.

A highly engaged workforce will desire to be proactive as they feel they have some agency and know their input is heard and respected.

The challenge for founder CEO’s is to recognise when the Entrepreneurs Mirror might be affecting them and taking action to create a culture where team members proactively contribute, and thereby think like a business owner.

If you would like to explore how to implement changes in your business you’re invited to contact us for a complimentary initial consultation.