Greg Getting His Coffee On.

There are many misconceptions about entrepreneurs, and one of them is that they desire the power of making decisions, and this idea could not be further from the truth.  Most entrepreneurs want decisions to be made by their team because practically any other scenario leads to bottle necks, indecision, and lack of progress for ALL company stakeholders.  Make no mistake, an entrepreneur needs to make the tough, hard-to-call and extremely important decisions.  However, this leaves more than 95% of decision-making to others.  So what does that mean to you? . . . Opportunity!
Entrepreneurs and managers CRAVE people who say, “I’ll take care of it.”  There is nothing sweeter to my ear than to hear an employee/stakeholder take control of an issue and see it to a conclusion.  Do you really want to become a valuable contributor and a trusted team member?  If so, here are three simple ways to become an “I’ll take care of it” person” and increase your value:

1. Say, “Yes, I’ll take care of it!” It takes a lot of guts to stand-up and say, “I’ll take care of it.”  Why?  Because opportunities involve challenges in which one may not know ‘the answer’.  Guess what?   Most of the time nobody in the company knows ‘the answer’ either.  The difference, a person of true value figures-out the answer.
2. Present Solutions – not problems or ideas. Ideas are a “dime a dozen”.  Presenting more ideas for someone else to implement DOES NOT help.   Moreover, it shows that little thought went into the idea.  Guess what?  Owners and managers LOVE to be presented with a well-thought idea and more specifically, how the idea helps achieve the company goals.  If ideas are a dime a dozen, then problems are its ugly cousin.  Stay focused on solutions and present challenges only if they are accompanied by possible solutions to overcome challenges.
3. Be Accountable. Once a verbal or written commitment is given, do it.  Often times, other team-mates can assist in the task so that the total “burden” does not fall on the ‘I’ll take care of it’ person.

Entrepreneurs tell me all the time that they are looking for team members who can “get the job done” and “solve problems” without “tons of hand holding”.  The demand is there for you to fulfill and for you to be well rewarded for your efforts.