The Trinity of Management (ToM Blast) by Dr. Ernesto Sirolli

The very first thing about business, if you're not passionate, don't even try. The word passion comes from the Latin and it means to suffer. If you are not prepared to sacrifice and suffer for your business, don't even go there. It’s not worth it. Go and do something that you love to do. If you embark in a business, oh my god, you're going to be knocked back.

So unless you're passionate, you're not going to stand up again and keep fighting. That's the meaning of passion.

Your Role on the Team

When I meet a passionate entrepreneur who needs help starting a business or

running a business, he is currently trying to manage a loan, first thing I do is ask him

to tell me his story. Then I grab a piece of paper and a pen and draw the diagram

introduced previously. The smiling face represents you, the entrepreneur.

While the three boxes underneath it represents the three main areas of the business.

The first box P signifies the product or service, which is the foundation of your

business. It must hold appeal for customers in order for the business to make money.

The second box M stands for the company's marketing department, which must get

the word out about the product or service.

No matter how brilliant its product, a company will fail if no one knows that it exists.

And finally, the third box FM represents the financial management arm of the

business, which works to ensure the company remains profitable. If more money is

being spent to make and market a product or service than the business earns in

profits, the company will definitely not survive.

You already know that you need to pinpoint the area of business that matches your

personality, your skills, and most importantly your passion. If you could do what you

truly love to do in your company, what would it be? Would you choose to be in a lab

or studio making a product or spending days and nights on the road trying to sell it?

Or would you rather be handling financial reconciliations, entering data on

QuickBooks, and making fiscal projections from the comfort in a law office? In short,

your first task is to figure out which box most accurately describes you. What you

currently do in your company, which may be a little bit of everything, is not the issue

here.

You must ask yourself what you would choose to do if you had the opportunity to

focus on only one aspect of your business. What do you love to do? The responses

I've received to this question are diverse, but they're always revealing and often

regretful in tone. As a farmer my life is growing organic crops.

I would love to be able to do only that. I love sales and excel at it, but unfortunately

I don't have any time to actually sell to customers since I'm too busy delivering the

product and keeping bankers at bay. I started this business because I had created

some really outstanding and innovative software programs, but now, I'm always

trying to market and sell them which is leaving me frustrated and unhappy, I don't

enjoy my work anymore, I wish I could do what I truly love about this company, what

inspired me to start in the first place.

I love making frames but now I spend all my time counting debtors and paying my

own overdue bills. I dread coming to work each morning because I never know what

new bills will find their way into my inbox. I used to be a bank auditor for a federal

government agency. I really enjoyed working with a team of accountants dealing with

financial issues.

But since opening my own practice I've been struggling to find new clients. I would

love to go back to dealing with numbers instead of people. Drawing the three box

diagram reflecting on the best fit from your view is meant to trigger an aha moment

when you realize this is me. This is why I started the company in the first place.

This is what I do best. As your company's founder this is your opportunity to hire

yourself to do the job that you love instead of trying to fill every position in your

business. Take a minute to draw an arrow linking the smiling face with the box that

best describes you. Now that you know who you are and the trinity of management,

the next step is to find the right people for the other two areas.

Dr. Sirolli briefly explains the self assessment and why it is important.

What you are going to do now, you are going to, assess your own character by answering our questionnaire. The questionnaires, are ten questions about product, ten questions about marketing, ten questions about finance. You read the question and then check your mind and check your heart. And remember, when you answer the question, you have to think, this question, would I do this eight hours a day for the rest of my life?

Please complete this quick self-assessment:
Click on the link below (in RESOURCES) to begin the assessment

It should take about 5–7 minutes.

This will help you:

• Identify what your a most interested in

• Explore what you are most passionate about

• Begin to identify who else you should add to your team

Note: The assessment is for your personal reflection only. Your responses are private and will not be graded.

Interpreting Your Self-Assessment Results

Your self-assessment results likely reflect patterns we've seen historically across many participants. Some of you may have scored very high in one area while scoring much lower in the other two.

For example:

• If you scored a 7 or 8 in Product but lower (3, 4, or 5) in Marketing and Finance, you are likely a Product-focused person.

• If you scored highest in Marketing, you probably have a Marketing personality.

• If your top score was in Finance, you likely have a Finance-oriented mindset.

Sometimes, it’s common to score high in both Product and Marketing, but lower in Finance.

Also, many people confuse Product sales with Marketing — for instance, someone might say, "I love selling my product," and therefore score high in both areas. Keep in mind that activities related to selling often overlap with marketing, so - which do you prefer to do? Create or sell your product?

Now, here’s an important reflection:

If your company grew so much that you couldn’t manage multiple areas yourself, which one would you let go of first?

• Which area would you trust a partner to take over because you prefer to keep control of the one you love most?

For example, you might have scored 8 in Product, 8 in Marketing, and 5 in Finance.

At first glance, you might think you are equally strong in both Product and Marketing.

But if you had to choose just one to stay personally involved with, your choice would reveal where your true passion lies.

• Or What If You Scored the Same (or nearly the same) on All Three?

If you scored equally across Product, Marketing, and Finance, it suggests you have a balanced skill set.
You are likely a generalist — someone who can adapt and operate across multiple areas of a business effectively.

However, even if your scores are the same, you probably still have a personal preference.

That's why asking yourself:

"If I had to give up two areas and only keep control over one, which would I choose?" becomes so important.

Your answer to this question will help you discover — deep down — where your true passion lies, even when your abilities are broad.

Find the right people to help you!

As you know each branch of Trinity of management must be filled for a

business to succeed since you are the CEO of your business it is your job to make sure

that all three roles are fulfilled by competent passionate individuals. For many of you

the concept of bringing new people into your company is new. I have known

entrepreneurs who struggled for years and yet never hired or asked anyone for help.

There are many reasons why you may have found yourself steering the boat alone

battling water from the bilges metaphorically seeking speaking. Excuses I hear often

include:

1. I thought the small size of the company would make it easy to manage so I

   haven't hired anyone

2. I haven't looked for people to help me because I believe as long as I budget

   my time I will be able to handle it all

3. Business isn't great I don't have the money to hire anyone

4. My partners are ill suited for their positions or unwilling to do the work

5. I hired the people but I still try to control everything myself

I found that this last problem of micromanagement is especially common

amongst entrepreneurs. Frequently business owners act as though their employees

are merely holding down the Fort and their positions which is another way of saying

you handled the job until I have the time to do it the right way. But this management

style is never effective it's completely counterproductive to hire people to oversee

finances create products and come up with the marketing ideas and then overall all of

their decisions.

This is just another way of trying to do everything yourself. Too many

entrepreneurs are afraid to relinquish control; They believe they have to be involved

in every decision, even in areas about which they know nothing or very little.

Although they have a team in place, they do not let the team do what they were

hired to do. It's like owning a restaurant hiring a top-rated chef and constantly

running into the kitchen add salt pepper and some other spice to his dishes. This kind

of micromanagement weakens the business. You need to trust and let others do what

they do best.

Remember the death of an entrepreneur is solitude they'll put it in another way

that death of a business is a solitary entrepreneur. Look at your drawing at the two

boxes that still need to be filled was going to assume responsibility for those two

areas of your company? If you need a market or ask yourself, who do I know in my

community or among my friends and family that has personality skills to sell my

product to customers?

Think about all of your options. Do you know anyone who is unemployed,

underemployed, retired, and willing to reenter the workforce, or simply willing to

work Commission? Is there anyone whom you can trust to take on those challenges so

that you can discuss so that you can focus on your passion? You might also want to

consider finding distributors, agents, or other interested parties who are willing to

represent your work, such as a gallery owner.

If your company lacks a financial manager, you should look for a retired

accountant, bank manager, or controller looking for something to do to keep them

busy. Popular belief among entrepreneurs is that you have to pay people right away

to work your company when in fact this is not always true.

Instead, you must talk to people, let them see how passionate you are about

your business, tell them exactly why and how you need their help. You are likely to

discover that your passion is contagious and that there are people out there who

believe in your work and want to be a part of it. Very often people do not need a

guarantee of immediate financial rewards, they will want to help people because

you're offering them opportunity to do what they love, to forge new partnerships and

business connections, to reenter the workforce, to showcase their skills, to feel fulfilled

or all of the above.

Once you find the right people, each box will be filled by a smiling face this is

the true beginning of your company although there is more work to be done you now

have a team ready to play the game before your business was barely inside the

ballpark. One thing that's important to remember is that your business team is likely

to change perhaps several times period different external forces push and pull

companies in various directions sometimes personal changes are necessary.

Sometimes business owners work with the same team for years without

realizing that is the source of their problems. The same goes they cannot see the

forest for the trees. Business owners must remember the importance of adapting two

changes in the marketplace. The economy and yes even people.

Your brilliant marketer may not be brilliant in a few years if he does not update

his strategy to address changing markets, changing technologies, and changing

economic and cultural climates period of course this does not mean that you cannot

train your team members should stay on top of trends in their respective fields. But at

the same time, you should not feel obligated to hold on to your team member unless

the contribute to the team and makes an effort to boost his job performance.

It's important for you as a business owner to pay attention to the operations of

your company and be honest with yourself if you see a problem period it's easy to

become so absorbed in your work that you begin to overlook the bigger picture come

period to solve this issue, I've decided an assessment tool called the total quality of

the company this assessment as a way of allowing you. You, the business owner to

get a better look at your company, and to evaluate each area as honestly and

objectively as possible.

For the past 25 years I have worked to instill in aspiring and struggling entrepreneurs

the idea that the sooner you know what your passion and skills are, the sooner you

will move your business in the right direction. Knowing who you are and what role

you play in your business is essential for making the trinity of management model

work for your company.

When you are distinctly aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you'll be better

able to put together a team that fulfills all of your business's most important needs a

product or service, a marketing strategy, and good financial management. Yet, one

thing is for sure, entrepreneurs are continually seeking help for their businesses

because they are not succeeding as they had hoped.

About 99 percent of the time, the reason is the lack of management. Sometimes

insufficient management is the result of an entrepreneur attempting to run his business

alone, despite lacking necessary skill and passion for certain areas. In other cases,

there may be a business team in place that is deficient one or more areas or is being

micromanaged by a controlling business owner.

Whatever the specific circumstances may be, inadequate management is usually

responsible for the demise of the business. We next will take a closer look at

common problems faced by struggling entrepreneurs and present some steps you can

take to be more effective as you apply the trinity of management model to your

business.

What happens when a P - or Product person runs the show with little to no collaboration? Hear about Phillip - and why he failed.

Like the bad 'P' - M's need help! Going it alone can quickly lead to failure.

The purpose of business is to make money...right? Well...putting an FM in charge can sometimes lead to disastrous results!

Like successful married couples, successful business teams must know how to listen, compromise, and respect the other's opinions. Furthermore, the most successful couples are those whose skills and personalities complement each other, thereby allowing them to work well as a team. For example, one might handle the finances while the other performs home repairs, one might plan family vacations while the other packs and drives the car.

This cooperative effort must also be active in a business. Just as people have certain roles in a family, so too do members of a business team. When every person knows his part and does it well, the business can succeed. Thank you for listening. We look forward to hearing about your team's ongoing success.

Ten lessons learned from Dr. Sirolli's 45+ years of work in he;[ing over 65,000 people start business globally!