Are You a Flatliner?

I was recently invited to speak at a course on innovation and creativity offered to MBA students. I was introduced to the class as “the typical flatliner.”  What is a flatliner? It’s a condition common among entrepreneurs – it’s where the entrepreneur wears every hat in the company – admin, sales, marketing, and operations. Because, nothing gets done unless you do it yourself, right?

If this describes you, you are flatlining and you don’t even know it. Flatlining can keep you from growing professionally; when you insist on being in charge of everything, tactical tasks get done, but important things like revenue growth ends up taking a hit.

Early in the start of my business, I was most definitely a flatliner. I did everything. Fortunately, as my business grew, I was forced out of that role. As I brought in talented professionals to work with me, I became accustomed to having smart people take the lead and work with me to accomplish my goals.

This is the path I chose to promote my new book, “What’s the Worst that Could Happen? How women entrepreneurs succeed: they ask, risk, and put it all on the line.” Rather than getting caught in the flatliner trap, I got a team of marketing savvy women together to help me develop a promotion roadmap for the book.

There are five of us: specialists in brand, search (SEO), social/digital and public relations. My job was to provide the team with my goals, details about the competition, and relevant activities that have been accomplished to date. We met one evening and it was inspiring, collaborative and challenging. Everyone took on an assignment as an outcome of the meeting – from setting up a specific event, to developing a book landing page for my web site, to exploring media relations options for my brand.

Here are some ways you can overcome your “do it myself” mentality:

Gather the right people with different skill sets from yours. Those who can look at the big picture; those who enjoy putting together workable solutions; and those who like to bring ideas to fruition.

Take on the role as the general contractor. It is your job to make sure everyone stays on task – this is an opportunity to avoid flatlining.

Have specific deliverables from your team; now that you are not the one doing everything, you at least should know where tasks are in the schedule, when you should expect deliverables, and when you are gathering again to review everyone’s progress. This includes your own tasks as well.

Be the appreciator; communicate regularly with this group and good work will be done by all.

By Rena Kilgannon

Rena Kilgannon runs Kilgannon Group, LLC, a small business and marketing consulting firm. She ran an advertising agency in Atlanta, Georgia for 25 years before selling her firm in 2012. Her book, “What’s the Worst that Could Happen,”  is available on Amazon and at RenaKilgannon.com.