We’re all emotional creatures, and even though business is business, it’s impossible not to bring emotions into the work we do. The key is to recognize when emotions are overriding your rational thinking about a business issue.
If you (or your boss, peer, investor, co-founder, or negotiating counter-part) is “hung up” on something, that’s a big clue that there’s probably some emotions at play.
Some examples of emotional issues I’ve seen in startups:
- New employee B shouldn’t have more stock than employee A, who started much earlier (or more stock than a co-founder)
- The first venture investor doesn’t want to pay more per share than the initial angel investors.
- An entrepreneur doesn’t want to give up “control”, even when involving new investors and managers will greatly increase the chances of success.
- An investor doesn’t want founders or managers to cash out (even partially) before they do.
Identifying an issue as an “emotional issue” can go a long way to resolving it.
Some emotional issues are easy to spot; others not so much. Sometimes it is hard to know if someone is emotionally (or for some other reason) irrationally attached to some course or if it is a sensible stick with it strategy. I usually look for some relatively easily identifiable personal motive (other than the success of the business). If you find one (like my ego requires control or I need to be the center of everything or I can’t stand that someone got a better deal than I did), then the strategy is suspect. Sometimes an identifiable personal motive can be OK, as in I am the head of sales and I want more money in the advertising budget. But the best is when someone without a brief is pushing an idea, as in I am the head of sales and I think the ad budget is too high and the R&D budget is too low. The best entrepreneurs (and CEOs) are really good at navigating in the spaces between the clear cases.