VIEWPOINT

Why you should never trust anyone who says "trust me"

You MDs of growing businesses are a unique breed - a certain blend of determination, arrogance, genius and, yes, a ' je ne sais quoi'.

You are not just someone who happened to fall on a great business idea and suddenly have a turnover of a couple of million, employing 30 people or so. It just doesn’t happen that way. And so you are your own worst enemy.

Success breeds its own downsides. People start to be polite rather than honest; it becomes easier for them to appear to agree than to be seen to disagree. Your advisers start playing you for the long game; they don’t want to lose their fees as a result of a minor indiscretion.

Like some fabled hero you start to believe the stories that have been perpetuated; myths and legends of past victories abound and you start to believe your own PR machine. This is a dangerous place to be.

It is at this time, riding high, when you're starting to feel like you are invincible, that things heat up. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Who wouldn’t? Everyone tries to jump on the bandwagon and the best way to do that is to ‘brown nose’ you. Despite what you think, flattery will get them everywhere.

When MDs don’t know who to believe or trust, their ability to separate the dirt from the diamonds becomes seriously impaired.

What MDS want is support and help to maintain their position and business profitability - to make life easier. They want to feel like they are making the right decisions. They want to feel like they know what they are doing. They want people to support their self-image.

Like Elvis, Hendrix, Joplin, or any other deluded rock star, they start believing the weasel words of sycophantic ‘advisers’ ahead of the tough love common sense of their real friends. What MDs need is the truth. What they get is parasite advisers pandering to their every wish in the hope of winning or keeping some business. The trap is all too easy to fall into.

As we and our businesses grow, we become out of touch. Time for a rethink. Who do you trust?

Who do you trust to tell you how it really is, irrespective of how it might affect their (financial) relationship with you?

It is lonely at the top, but that doesn’t justify surrounding yourself with a bunch of sycophantic ‘yes’ men and women.

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publication details

First published in Growing Business Magazine, February 2011.