“Do The Tough Things First” is Ray Zinn’s motto. Part of that is asking yourself the tough questions first. In this podcast, Ray Zinn explores what signals show that your are the problem and you are the bottleneck in your own startup.
Rob Artigo: We have another great question from a San Jose State University student who is part of the ZinnStarter program, your program that you founded. He or she asks, “What signals show that I’m becoming the bottleneck in my own startup?”
Ray Zinn: That’s part of doing the tough things first. You’ll read that in our book, The Tough Things, and also The Essential Leader. So those two books actually cover this topic.
Ray Zinn Cont: So how do you recognize when you’re becoming the bottleneck is when you start rejecting others’ ideas and comments, when you think that you know it all and you’re starting to get people turned off. In other words, they refuse to innovate, help you. They’re losing enthusiasm. They’re coming in to work late, going home early.
So that’s the sign that you have become the bottleneck, is when you see that you’ve lost your team.
Rob Artigo: Nobody wants to think of themselves as the bottleneck either. It’s like if they’re the problem, all they’re doing is seeing everybody else as being the problem, but they’re not recognizing that they might be the problem, correct?
Ray Zinn: Exactly. No, that’s the key. I mean, if you don’t see your role as an encourager, as a grateful leader of your company, then you have become the bottleneck.
Rob Artigo: Yeah. I heard somebody, pretty smart guy, recently tell me that he was out doing something, and one minute he’s running into somebody who’s not cooperating and they’re being a jerk, and now he’s kind of upset. And then he’s driving down the road and then somebody cuts him off, and that person’s a jerk. And then the next thing you know, somebody else is a jerk.
And then at the end of the day, he said he’s sitting there thinking to himself, “Hmm. I wonder if it wasn’t me who was the jerk all day long.”
Ray Zinn: Exactly.
Rob Artigo: So why do so many smart founders fail to see that they’ve become the bottleneck? What’s the wall that they put up that they just fail to see that maybe they’re the one who’s being the jerk?
Ray Zinn: They’re not a people person. All they can see is the nose and their face. They’re up against the mirror. They’re not stepping back and looking at the whole picture. They’re not a people person. To be a good leader, you have to be a people person.
Rob Artigo: And that’s not always very easy to do because you… do you think you have to start out as a people person, or can you develop that as a leader as you go along? I know that The Essential Leader, your book, discusses this a lot, which is, the interpersonal relationships we have with people are as important, if not more important, than most other aspects of doing business.
Ray Zinn: Yeah. Can you be a people person? Well, obviously there are people who are naturally people people, but you can learn to be if you’re willing to accept the fact that you’re lacking that talent. You have to, first of all, ask yourself, “Am I a people person?” If it’s obvious, people want to be around you, they want to be associated with you, then you’re a people person.
If you don’t have a lot of friends, if you don’t see a lot of people wanting to be involved with you, then you’re not. And you can change, but it’s harder to change than if you’re naturally a people person.
Rob Artigo: Pretty much everything, every book you’ve written has at some point included the fact that you have to be very honest with yourself, look at yourself in the mirror, and really do a self-assessment. And it sounds like this is a definite self-assessment kind of situation.
Ray Zinn: Exactly.
Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, we have more questions. On the next podcast, we’ll let another student from San Jose State University ZinnStarter program ask another great question. And these have been fantastic podcasts based on those really great questions. Are you hoping to get more questions like this?
Ray Zinn: Yes.
Rob Artigo: Thanks for listening to the Tough Things First podcast. If you’re feeling like the bottleneck in your startup, take an honest look and start delegating this week. That means get other people involved, you can’t do everything yourself. Drop your experiences in the comment section here, subscribe, and share this episode with another founder who needs to hear it.
Ray Zinn: They can also ask their own question too. They don’t have to be a ZinnStarter student to ask a question. So feel free to ask a question in the comment section.
Rob Artigo: Exactly. Dive deeper with Ray’s books, Tough Things First, and, as we’ve talked about here, The Essential Leader, as well as the Zen of Zinn series. If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, do the tough things first, starting with owning and fixing your mistakes, right, Ray?
Ray Zinn: Yeah. Do it daily, though, not just monthly.
