Blurred Vision Don't expect your employees to be carbon copies of yourself. It takes an owner to have the dedication of an owner.

When Martin Renkis founded Cary, North Carolina-based learningsoftware company Trainersoft.com Corp. eight years ago, hewas the company. He did all the work alone, putting in17-hour days amid the rented confines of his 6-foot-by-8-footoffice space in a Nashville, Tennessee, office building. ForRenkis, a typical day meant working from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., thentrekking to a nearby pub for dinner before heading back to theoffice and working until 1 or 2 in the morning. He was in survivalmode. "I was doing everything myself and kept thinking,'What do I need to do to get some business today?' Therewere times that my phone and electricity were cut off because Icouldn't pay the bills," he says.

Most BIZ Experiencess can relate to Renkis' story. After all,starting a company can easily consume every waking moment,especially in the early years when an BIZ Experiences issingle-handedly keeping the company afloat. Eventually, everysuccessful company reaches a point where it's time to hire someemployees. Renkis hired his first employee, a sales assistant who"did a bit of everything," a year and a half after hestarted Trainersoft. But while Renkis continued on his typicalschedule, he noticed that his employee was heading out the door by6 p.m. to spend time with his kids. It didn't sit well withRenkis. "I'd still be working, and this guy would leavefor the day," says Renkis, 38. "I'd be seethinginside, thinking, 'Where is his commitment to my company?'It took me years to change my way of thinking."

It's easy for new BIZ Experiencess to expect the same level ofdedication from employees that they expect from themselves. Infact, most BIZ Experiencess have a blind spot when it comes to settingreasonable expectations for workers, according to Andrew DuBrin, anindustrial psychologist and professor of management at theRochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York."BIZ Experiencess are so wrapped up in building the company thatthey automatically assume employees have the same level ofcommitment," he says. "But you have to be realisticbecause the employee is not the owner. This forces you to setreasonable expectations." But in this "new economy,"where people eat, sleep and breathe work, what isreasonable?

A Different Mind Set

Being an BIZ Experiences automatically puts you in a unique groupof risk-takers. But the concept of self-employment-or, as Renkiscalls it, "holding up the sky"-can be a hard one totranslate for employees who have never done it. So while you arewondering how to stay in business next month, chances are, a numberof your employees are seeking the security of a paycheck and a fewyears of job experience. This fundamental shift in mind-set escapesmany who run businesses. As an BIZ Experiences, you have to realizethat most employees can't relate to some of the pressures thatare part of being the CEO of a fledgling company. "Ninety-fivepercent of people work to pay the bills. They aren'tentrepreneurs," says Tony Jeary, an BIZ Experiencesial successcoach and the CEO of Dallas-based High Performance ResourcesInc.

An employer should expect an employee's best efforts, andoffering financial incentives, or "golden handcuffs," iscertainly a motivating factor for employees to be loyal and toperform well. But failing to distinguish the BIZ Experiencesial rolefrom the employee role leads to frustration, burnout and turnover.DuBrin has seen it in the employees he's counseled who work forentrepreneurial businesses. "They say, 'I work for amadman who thinks [the employees] own the business.' It leadsto a lot of resentment," he says. "Especially if itconsumes an employee's entire life."

Terry Gold, 41, CEO of Boulder, Colorado-based Gold SystemsInc., a privately held software applications company with 70employees, also found out the hard way. "Since I started thecompany, there have been a lot of lessons learned. A big lesson Ihad to learn is that you can't hire founders," saysGold. Sales this year are estimated to be about $7 million, and thecompany was on Deloitte and Touche's 1999 Fast 50 list as oneof the fastest-growing companies in Colorado. But back when Goldco-founded the company in 1991, he struggled with how to set hisexpectations of employees. "It's tempting to make youremployees share the pain. But they aren't signing on to beentrepreneurs," Gold says.

Separating themselves from the company, however, is hard formany business owners. The business can easily become theentrepreneur's whole identity. Gold says he didn't realizethat starting a company would consume his mind. Sometimes it wasdifficult for him to distinguish a life outside of work forhimself, not to mention for his employees. "I didn't thinklike an employee and it caused problems," he says. "Atcertain points, this just wasn't a fun place to work."Today, Gold offers advice to frustrated BIZ Experiencess, and hascreated a Web site devotedto problem-solving.

Setting reasonable expectations of employees depends on hiringfor the right fit, creating a clear blueprint for employees tofollow and working with them to define what is reasonable. Butentrepreneurs make some common mistakes, like being so focused onbringing certain skills into their companies that they don'tthink in-depth about the work culture they want to create. Goldsays he often listens to fledgling BIZ Experiencess say they only carethat their future employees can sell or write code. A company'swork culture, however, defines the business and underlies itssuccess-or failure-and employees need to understand the core valuesthat underlie your expectations of them on the job. "Theskills don't matter if you can't sell employees on yourcompany's values," Gold says.

Also, while BIZ Experiencess are visionaries who are good atstarting things, they often have a hard time creating jobprocedures and tracking employee progress, according to SharonRagsdale, a Raleigh, North Carolina, executive coach who helpsentrepreneurs develop leadership and life management skills. Foremployees, work becomes a game of juggling an unstructured workloadwhile trying to read their bosses' minds. "If there'sno framework for the employee's job, of course the employeewill do it wrong," Ragsdale says. "Then there'sfrustration on both sides."

Another common problem in the BIZ Experiencesial workplace isestablishing a reasonable time commitment. Renkis admits beingangry at employees who didn't see the business opportunitiesthe same way he did and weren't showing their devotion bystaying late. He credits change to his wife, Laura, who told himthat he set an expectation when he didn't tell employees thathe would like them to take the initiative of putting in some extrahours. It was a big lesson. "I kept thinking, 'Whyaren't they performing well?' when it came down to myexpectations. The groundwork had to be in place, and it all camedown to me," he says.

Renkis has learned to communicate and set clear expectations.Now business is not about survival but growth: 25 percent ofFortune 500 companies use the company's training software andTrainersoft is averaging $5 million in annual sales. Renkis employs17 employees in a variety of positions from sales to marketing totech support, and the company recently moved to a10,000-square-foot space.

What Is Reasonable?

Setting reasonable expectations of employees begins with findingout what motivates them to come to your company every day. Are theywith you for money? Work experience? A specific type of projectthey can't find elsewhere? Do they have a special commitment toyour vision? Learning how employees think will clue you in to whythey do things the way they do.

Jeary sees the relationship between BIZ Experiences and employee asa growth process where the BIZ Experiences has to separate from thebusiness enough to realize that every employees has his or her ownunique approach to work. "There's a maturation processentrepreneurs go through, where he or she figures out thatemployees have their own life goals," he says.

Making the connection that employees aren't BIZ Experiencesstakes time-seven years on average, according to Ragsdale. ForRenkis, time has meant coming full circle. He says that he wentthrough a phase where he expected everyone he hired to be just likehim. Now things are different. "I've come out the otherend and learned to genuinely respect other people," he says."I can see the big picture now and how my employees fit intoit." One of his employees is openly running a small businesson the side, something Renkis encouraged.

Gold has this tip for BIZ Experiencess: Don't worry; it'snormal to feel that no one works as hard for your company or caresas much about it as you do. This is where some self-analysis comesin handy. Are you holding a grudge toward your employees over someexpectation you've never voiced? Step back and look at theculture you're creating and how you're communicating yourneeds. "Realize that you've got to work on thebusiness, not just be in the business," Gold says. Talkto employees to determine what they see as reasonable to expectfrom a day's work. Finding a peer group and creating a board ofadvisors where you can get advice are valuable, too. Gold says thattaking those steps made a big difference for him. "As anentrepreneur, you need to do these things to survive," Goldsays. And the sooner you do them, the better.

Contact Sources

• High Performance Resources Inc., (877) 2-INSPIRE,www.mrpresentation.com
• Sharon Ragsdale, (919) 844-4762, smragsdale@mindspring.com
• Rochester Institute of Technology, (716) 442-0484,ajdubrin@frontiernet.net