It’s lonely at the top but the view is nice and you should eat better
When you are an entrepreneur, it can be lonely at the top. And whilst the view can be nice and the food better, having someone to talk to in confidence can be invaluable.
But having that person to confide in about business is not always easy to find, especially someone who understands what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.
Five reasons why it’s lonely at the top
There are many reasons why it’s lonely at the top, but here are five reason why it can be so.
Power reduces trust in others
Trust is a social connect. Trust is what bonds people together, whether in romantic relationships or in business partnerships and between employees and their boss.
If a trust is broken in any relationship, it becomes very difficult to build that trust again, if ever. This will depend on the people involved of course and the type of trust that’s been broken.
When I was running my manufacturing business, it came to my notice that my right-hand-man was not only stealing from my factory, but was also doing work on the side stealing my customers.
It goes without saying that this was a huge trust issue. What made things worse is the person involved denied any wrong doing. He denied he’d stolen from my business despite my having a list of 10-12 employees giving evidence to the contrary.
Due to his lying and determined denial, it took a several months of an HR battle to sack him for gross misconduct. During which I had to make sure every ‘T’ was crossed and all the ‘i’s’ were dotted.
This was a lesson learnt for sure. The lesson here or a remind is that it’s not always the case that we can judge others by our own moral standards and level integrity.
In the same business where this trust was broken, there were many other trust-breaking incidents, which can all add to a general mistrust of individuals or employees.
This lack of trust creates an invisible barrier between a boss and their employees, whereby a certain amount of distance is required. This is not to say you cannot have trusting relationships with your employees, but it does show that you need to be wary of certain individuals.
When I look back, my gut was telling me that something was wrong. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. As you get older and wiser, and with more business years under your belt, you become hardened to these types of event. My business colleague often tells me that he wasn’t born a cynic! Nor was I, but you can’t help but become one.
The big lesson for me was to never underestimate the need for systems and controls in a business. But also, always look for the possibility of any collusion within a businesses systems and processes. For example, in the case described above, there were two other employees implicated in the same scandal too.
Keeping a respectful distance
When you’re the boss and at the top of a business, it’s important to keep a respectful distance between yourself and your team.
This distance is to safeguard yourself and to avoid any conflict in the future. This is especially true of personal relationships with team members. An office romance when you’re the boss can lead to a disaster. So don’t do it no matter what the temptation.
Imagine what might happen if you fall into a relationship at an office party, which all goes sour. Plus remember that office parties, which includes the Christmas party, are work time for you and for your team. If an employee misbehaves at an office party they can suffer the consequences of a disciplinary after the event. I know this, as I had to take disciplinary action against a team member after they caused a fight when drunk at a Christmas Party.
The same rules apply to you too.
There’d be nothing to stop an employee bringing a claim against you for sexual harassment after the event. You’d only have yourself to blame and you would have opened yourself up to a potential legal battle.
Keeping your distance must be maintained for your own protection. But of course at the same time as it protects you, it also creates a level of isolation too. You’re not like one of the team. You must keep your distance, which adds to the “it’s lonely at the top” syndrome.
Your power and earnings removes connection
Human nature is sometimes people’s worst enemy. There are many people, including your employees, who are the jealous type. Jealousy creates a rift between people and can cause barriers.
One of the biggest jealousy types is around money, which is probably second to jealously of friendships and partner relationships with the opposite sex.
More than likely you as the business owner will be earning more than most, if not all of your employees in the company. If any of your employees are the jealous type, they will be envious of you for sure.
This will form a barrier between them and you and will mean they’ll not relate to you very well, or you to them for that matter.
This barrier helps to cement the lonely at the top scenario even more.
There are certain business situations that cannot be confided in with your employees
There are times when you need to discuss certain aspects about your business, but are of a nature that you simply cannot discuss them with a member of your team.
Examples of this may include your decision to sell or exit the business, or where the business is going through tough times and a round of redundancies may be on the cards. Or perhaps the business is suffering from cash flow issues and you don’t want to discuss them with employees to avoid worrying them.
This situation creates a void for you and it’s never a good idea to bottle difficult situations up. It’s much better to be open and discuss them with someone, but it’s finding that someone to talk about the situation. Someone you can trust.
You need to be able to find a person, like your accountant or another entrepreneur, who you can confide in who will be objective about your problem. Getting another opinion or getting input about a challenge is mostly the best thing you can do.
Another option is to engage the services of an part time FD. It’s even better to find one who’s had business experience and been an entrepreneur themselves. This way the person will understand more the situation you are describing, because nine times out of ten, they will have had the exact same situation as you did.
Be careful not to distance yourself from employees that offer generosity
Many times business owners can become more cynical over time. An employee might well be doing something for you in your business out of their good nature. They may be staying on late or working extra hours to help you in your business. Be careful not to misunderstand the gesture, as this may well isolate you from this person or other employees in the business.
It is therefore important for you as an employer to reciprocate where an employee has gone above and beyond. Failing to do so may drive a wedge to increase the distance between you and your team.
This will bring about more of a lonely at the top situation for you unnecessarily.
I hope you enjoyed this article about it’s lonely at the top
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