At our core, we are three people inside the mind of one being. Depending on your personality, of those three, one is usually the strongest and loudest of the three. That one might even be a bully, forcing the other two to be quiet because it doesn’t understand them and makes them nervous. You may also be of the caliber who allows all three to have equal participation in your life. The fact remains. We are three. We are entrepreneurs. We are managers. And we are technicians. Entrepreneurs are lunatic visionaries that live in potential futures they dream up but are often incapable of executing their own lunacy. Managers are pragmatists that struggle to come up with their own visions of the future, so they take those bananas dreams from the entrepreneur and put each piece into a structured set of drawers to divvy out to the proper people in order to make the vision a reality. Technicians are the doers who just want to work and not worry about the future or how the bigger picture works.
What’s the point of this concept? The point is to better understand not only yourself, but everyone around you. Knowing how each person works is critical when implementing any process, system, or technology into an organization. Too strong in one of the three areas, and you leave the other two lost and confused. What’s valuable to a sales rep may not be valuable to a mechanic. What’s valuable to a mechanic, might not be valuable to a director of operations.
I first came across this concept in Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth book — which is a MUST read, folks. For me, personally, I was astounded by its simplicity and undeniable truth. I took the knowledge he imparted upon me and put it to the test. First through deep introspection, then by extending it outwardly. I spoke with the people I knew to see if I could identify which of the three they were, just by the way they carried themselves and spoke about any topic relating to themselves or their life. I was astounded, to say the least. I struck up conversations with people I normally wouldn’t have out in public, and again, was astounded. How could I have missed this after all this time? I’m a little slow to catch on, sure, but wow. It was often clear which of the three each person within just a few minutes of speaking to them. Then there is one in maybe twenty that are three voices in one. Carefully measured, confident, energetic, and purposeful.
Balance
Mr. Gerber outlines how critical it is to recognize, for yourself, which of the three is your driver. Are you a dreamer? A pragmatist? A doer? Do you live in the future? The present? Or are you a hybrid of each? The good news is, there’s no wrong answer here. Each of the three are wonderful and absolutely critical to the success of any society. But in a business, like a society, an imbalance of the three can become problematic. If there’s no vision, there’s nothing to make a reality. If there’s no reality to build, there’s nothing to do. And the organization collapses. Either quickly, or slowly, it dies. If there’s too many visions, there’s no great way to organize a satisfactory reality, thus ensuring mediocre execution and results. If there’s a vision, no organization, but a lot of doers, chaos ensues. You can mix and match any of the realities here, but the point is that we need all three persons, but in the right proportions. Let’s dig into each to get an idea of what sort of head cases we’ve got going on inside our own.
The Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are often lunatics. In the best way possible. Lunatics that dream up fantastical futures (or mediocre, it’s a sliding scale) and provide a wonderful vision to work towards. The problem is, they’re often so distractible, impatient, and often incapable of actually making these visions a reality. Details tend to be their kryptonite because their mind can barely handle what’s going on in there as it is. Their strength is in providing a vision, purpose, and sparking a flame within people.
This group also tends to love to poke and prod in the name of innovation. This love of innovation, perceived or otherwise, also tends to inevitably disturb the peace for everyone around them. Imagine an organization is a game of Jenga. The entrepreneur had a dream of how the stack ends up. The manager carefully figures out the best way to do so. The technicians work so hard to make it happen. Then the entrepreneur, forever chasing innovation, imagines and dictates a different future and then this happens when they do so. The manager is then charged with cleaning up the mess and going back to the drawing board. As they’re doing that, the entrepreneur looks back expectantly and asks what’s the problem? Why isn’t this done yet? Which earns incredulous looks.
This person often struggles to wait. They often resort to bullying, harassing, criticizing, flattery, yelling, and pretty much anything to get things moving faster. To an entrepreneur, people are in the way of their dream and often perceived as constantly dragging their feet, quite likely never really realizing or accepting their role in the process.
The Managers
These are the pragmatists. They often live in “reality” and need structure. One thing they are very good at is recognizing a compelling vision of someone else that can clearly communicate it. They see the potential and come alive when they’re granted the opportunity to build towards making it a reality. They require things like clarity, rules, data, and consistency. Most of which are, as we said, kryptonite for the entrepreneur. These things, however, inform the manager on where they can put each piece of the vision.
I picture an old library card cabinet with a ton of little drawers. Each drawer holding a critical piece of the vision that the manager will assign to the proper personnel. It’s incredibly organized with a lot of thought behind it. It’s not that they can’t pivot at a moment’s notice, but it can be quite challenging to accept because they planned everything out so carefully so as to hit everything the vision outlined.
Another thing managers love to do is optimize and improve efficiency. Their goal is already set. Make product or service A. Over time, they realize that they could improve this part of their business by implementing a new technology. They also see an inefficiency there so they consolidate resources. They then see an opportunity to make additional revenue without adding any overhead or additional strain on the operation (e.g., selling sawdust). They are very good at managing, AKA maintaining, an operation. But building on it, in a meaningful way, is a point in which is not their strength. Which is why a manager and an entrepreneur maintain a necessary bond because they desperately need each other.
The Technicians
The technician is who gets things done. They just want to work. To be provided with tasks and clear expectations. They do not want to deal with the whole operation, or figure out how to allocate resources, or where to improve, or manage people, or what the future of the company should be. They just want to live in the present, do the job each day, and rarely ask “why” the job is done the way it is. They also tend to understand that admin work is necessary, but they loathe it. It’s so much detail-oriented nonsense that gets in the way of them actually doing what they love. This is probably the most honest side of yourself. It’s super simple, “I want to work.” That’s it. Give your technician a job that’s fair and they’re happy.
The Unicorn
The Unicorn is simply the person who can balance all three of these sides of themself. This person has mastered the art of wearing multiple hats, but they only allow themselves to wear one at a time. They can dream up an inspired future for themselves. They then take the critical steps to turn their dream into a reality through strategic planning and implementation. They then execute on the tasks that are required of this dream. This type of person is exceedingly rare but always a real treat to meet and learn from. We all have the ability to get there too, it just takes conscious effort to bring each side of yourself up to speed and allow them their time in the sun.
Practical Application
Try this out for yourself. Do you know people who tend to have a lot of dreams but never seem to act on them? Do they live in the future or the present? Do some people you know poke holes in dreams you share with them? When you ask someone what their goals are, how do they respond? If you ask them what books they’re reading or what they’ve learned recently? What do they say?
Each person you interact with will very clearly tell you which of the three sides of themself is the strongest. Once you notice it, it’s impossible not to. More importantly, in a group of leaders, you’ll either be wildly alarmed or quite comfortable with what’s in place, depending on who shines through each leader.
Ultimately, this life is much richer the more we learn and explore. In this case, it’s just about being curious about and understanding ourselves so we can better approach situations we find ourselves in, identify any gaps that need addressed, and leverage the talents we surround ourselves with. This way we can ensure we’re able to make the greatest impact. We’re in this thing together, after all.