Waves crash against the shore in a consistent, comforting rhythm. This has always been an illustration of God’s power and faithfulness to me. Truth is consistent. God is truth. We are called in our daily walk with the Lord to be more like Him. Yet, for the humans God created who call themselves entrepreneurs, consistency is not usually an adjective they would use to describe themselves.
Entrepreneurs appear hardwired to start things. They tend towards spontaneity. Yes, they see themselves as a crashing wave at times….but mostly they just disrupt the rhythm.
As a Christian entrepreneur striving to be more like Jesus, yet gifted….or cursed…with the call to new businesses, I work diligently on creating a balance. Once upon a time I put consistency in the category of ordinary, normal, even boring. In my Christian walk, I see it in it’s true light.
It is the mark of leadership.
Consistency Is The Mark Of Leadership
As Jesus pointed out in His shepherd parables, sheep follow the voice of the one they know. They pick up on the consistent tone of their shepherd’s voice. Jesus was also hyper-consistent with the gospel message. The world even made wristbands engraved with WWJD. Why? Because His principles, His truth, the Gospel, will stand consistently to, and through, eternity.So why do we entrepreneurs ignore our inconsistency? We do ignore it. Inconsistency shows up in various forms. We own our own business right? Therefore….
- We come and go as we please, not on a schedule. We don’t answer to anyone, so we don’t have to tell our team when we will be in.
- “Yes Mr. Customer, we can do that for you”, said the entrepreneur (even though we have never ever done it before). It is revenue, isn’t it?
- I decided on this vendor, this new hire, this piece of software…because my gut told me it was the one. I make decisions based on intuition.
And yes, often we have good intuition. Many times we can make a few extra bucks on the fly.
Businesses Won’t Grow Long-term Without Consistency
We can definitely make it all happen when we are a business of one, or maybe even three or four. But, I believe that without consistency we will hit a self-imposed glass ceiling quickly. Entrepreneurs cannot grow and sustain a business long term on their individual, spontaneous ways. And a business can’t grow if it is limited by how far the owner can expand his reach to stay on top of it all.
This is probably why 9 out of 10 businesses fail.
Or, why serial entrepreneurs grow the concept to the point that systems and consistency are needed, then sell the company, and start something new.
Only sometimes does an entrepreneur challenge themselves to build predictability and stability into their make-up. Other times they hire talent around them to provide these traits. This new leadership is able to continue to grow the business beyond its’ founder.
An Honest Assessment
Many scenarios, many choices. The first step…take a hard look at yourself.
- Can your employees predict what you would do in a difficult circumstance or when making decisions?
- Can your team and customers count on you to do what you say, consistently?
- Can you stay on course and lead your organization to growth and vision achievement?
The first step to fixing something is awareness.
So, tell me…after reading this…are you consistent?
You’re getting better all the time. This came just at the right time for me. Dealing with many personal distractions over the last few months it motivates me to re-engage with the long-view and sustainability; to work “on” my business instead of “in” my business. Love to you and Jim. See ya’ll soon?
Thanks Rich! Heard you have started a new venture. You have done it before and I am sure this will be another entrepreneurial notch on your belt. Keep us posted and come eat with us!