Entrepreneurs & Leaders

BCD + Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs face a unique set of challenges with an immensity of variables all of which can make you feel the friction of starting a business. There are setbacks, failures, and a few successes after a lot of hard work. All of this sets an entrepreneur up with a lot of material to Blame, Complain, and get Defensive (BCD) about. And while it's certainly necessary, at times, to let that frustration find an outlet that allows you to keep building, that outlet should be anything but BCDing. 

Tactically speaking, BCD isn't a good enough outlet, and can weaken your efforts and dampen your mindset towards what you're building. Despite what you may think, no one wants to hear you BCDing about what you're building. Sure, they would love to hear about your ventures, the challenges, the failures, the successes. The difference is the relationship of ownership between sharing your experiences, and BCDing your ownership away on variables that are out of your control or failures you are responsible for. 

This isn't even to mention the team that relies on your leadership, the example you set for them, and the vision you cast for the business. As your business grows and scales you will need a culture to guide it, and that culture has no room for BCD. The competition and variables you're facing don't allow for it. Download The 10 Ways To Manage Your BCD to launch your business free of BCD. 

BCD + Leaders

First and foremost, did you read my blog post from a few weeks back? Leaders: Prepare for the second wave and I don’t mean COVID. If you haven't read it, hop over there and then come back. 

Leaders have a responsibility, a call to action when it comes to stopping the spread of BCD. This can't be accomplished until you address your own struggles with BCD first. Then you can begin to focus on those you lead and the culture you have created in your shared environments. 

As a leader you are given the responsibility of giving those you lead the best possible experience and platform for being successful that you possibly can, doing so aligns the human side of your business with the numbers side of the business.

You give them the tools they need for the job, sometimes the training they need, you discuss strategy, tactics, goals, etc. And I don't think it's an overstep to say that while those things are important and good and help you collectively move towards your shared goals, having a culture that allows for BCD usurps all of those efforts. It does so by endorsing blaming over responsibility, complaining over ownership, and defensiveness over high confidence/low ego. And while your business can continue forward in such fashion, and you may even hit your goals here and there, it will never reach its true potential and will certainly feel the pressure from competition before too long.