“Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck: What It Takes to be an Entrepreneur…” by Anthony Tjan, Richard Harrington and Tsun-Yan Hsieh (Harvard Business Review Press, $25.)
Many of us have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test that measures dominance of personality factors. The assessment shows how we process information, how we relate to others and situations where we “fit.” The authors’ Entrepreneurial Aptitude Test (EAT) identifies entrepreneurial DNA. EAT shows and explains how the traits of Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck mesh in various “I want to build it” personalities.
To understand the interaction between the traits and their relational context in the book, take the EAT self-assessment. Chapter 10 has an abbreviated version; the full version is at HSGL.com. Let’s look at the business-builder’s traits.
Heart: Purpose and passion drive the ideas of Heart-dominant personalities. They are vision and values driven and always see the big picture. Emotions may override logic and judgment — while thinking big is fine, they have to remember that they’re starting small. They may also see themselves as “king.” If they do, they’ll have trouble developing a talented team.
Smarts: Able to connect their dots to those of others; Smarts-dominant builders excel at analysis and strategy. While great at conceptualizing and framing situations, they can get bound up in details. While the devil is in the details, it comes at the price of forgetting the big picture.
Guts: Measuring progress, performance and execution, Guts-driven builders focus on action. They “hate losing” more than they “love winning.” Yet, they may have difficulty recognizing that what it takes to start a business differs from what it takes to reach Stage 2 and beyond.
Luck: Those who are lucky develop relationships that turn hard work into “being in the right place at the right time.” They understand that they’re not the smartest in the room and use their intellectual curiosity to acquire and share knowledge through networking. They also understand that bad luck happens to everyone and there’s always an upside when you’re upside down.
All the traits mesh based on basic personality — remember that Myers-Briggs assessment. The authors use profiles from successful entrepreneurs to show that there are many ways to build a business — if you understand who you are.
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“The Un-Game: Four-Play to Business as UNusual” by Ingrid Martine (Your Leaders’ Edge Press, $19.95.)
Martine believes that the “unaware life to be incompatible with success.” There are so many unquestioned conventions that go unchallenged. An “It is what it is” acceptance stalls creativity and progress.
She introduces the COSA management process (Choose, Observe, Say Yes, Act.) Don’t just manage. “Choose” to be a catalyst rather than a drone, controller or corrector will make you unsettled, but it constantly expands your comfort zone — and those of your staff.
“Observe” deals with ridding ourselves of “monkey mind” — the Buddhist metaphor for self-limiting talk. The monkey mind often says “I can’t,” but really means “I won’t.” It usually interprets situations in terms of what we’re willing to do, rather than what we can do. Observation helps change our minds because it shows us other perspectives. How we choose (there’s that word again) to respond depends on how the monkey mind affects the message.
“Say Yes” involves changing our mindset by understanding that uncomfortable can lead to “aha moments.” The monkey mind fears “Yes” because it piques intellectual curiosity and forces us to look at things differently. Practicing continuous improvement is difficult. Blindly following procedure is easy. Only continuous improvement moves you from where you are to where you want to be.
“Act” deals with engaging others, not telling them what to do. While most managers know SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound), Martine replaces Realistic with Relevant. Engagement deals with “what’s in it for us” relevance. Showing people why, gets them thinking about how.
COSA helps managers uncover their potential and that of their team.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
