HOW AM I MANAGING MYSELF AND

OTHERS

INTRODUCTION

As we progress into running the start-up on a more intense and full time basis, I would need to better
manage myself and others in order for us to be able to stay in the marathon. This essay covers the range
of topics that I think are critical to maintain in the early stages of the start-up, which includes building
resilience, managing ways to make good decisions and managing my team.

BUILD RESILENCE

Entrepreneurship is a high risk environment for mental health, therefore building resilience is critical.
Entrepreneurship as a career is demanding that required high sacrifices, often poorly resourced and the
identity of the entrepreneur is often tied to the projects. Moreover, the demanding nature of this
profession leaves the entrepreneur susceptible to burnouts. The combination of those factors makes the
entrepreneur susceptible to depression if the project falls through or is struggling to grow. It is important
to build resilience so that the entrepreneur has the mental fortitude to persevere in the long marathon of
start up, and to be in a strong mental state to problem solve or make decisions, in order for the start up to
survive. Therefore, it is important to continuously monitor my mental health and proactively maintain it
as an entrepreneur.

In the past, I had no skills or attempts to maintain my mental health because I was not aware that I had to
actively monitor or maintain it. Knowing now that I have chosen an even more high-risk career than as a
researcher in science, I want to prevent mental health issues from emerging by monitoring and building a
resilience plan.

The way I would start to build resilience is through frequent monitoring. To monitor my mental health, I
would do fortnightly check-ups on my mental by going through mental health check lists. On a daily basis,
I am self-aware that if my patience with people is running thin, it is usually an early sign of my reserve
bank running low and a signal to rest. To build my resilience on a weekly basis, I would reflect on the
week and think of what are the 3 things that went well. Knowing that we are competent and progressive
is a good way to build confidence and mental health.

To maintain my resilience, I would formulate a plan to build and maintain it. I have realised this year that
I had previously focussed too much on work at the expense of my relationships with friends and family.
Therefore, there was hardly any one where I can to talk through emotional issues with. I have since
started to rebuild my emotional networks with friends, first by reaching out to old friends and making
more effort to connect with them. A lot of non-entrepreneurs struggle to understand the stresses we
undergo as they cannot relate to it or do not have the industry expertise to help us. At the end of this
course, I have picked out 5 people whom I will actively maintain a relationship with so we can support
each other. I would seek to arrange a social meeting at least once a week. To recharge, I will schedule
weekly gym sessions and meditate for 30mins every night. To nurture my source of hope and optimism, I
would read stories about how entrepreneurs thrived even after going through a difficult time. I would
also reserve time for self-reflection by setting aside time to write in my journal. Sticking with this plan
would help me go mentally further on the path of entrepreneurship.
 MANAGING DECISIONS MAKING

It is important to properly manage my thought process so that I can make good decisions that are critical
for the start-up’s survival. To make good decisions for the start-up, slow-thinking processes should be
used to decide from ethical, logical and financial stand point to ensure that the triple bottom line is not
adversely affected. To make ethical principles, I can fall back on analysing each situation using Utilitarian,
Kantian, Aristotelian or natural law principles that we have been taught. To decide on a logical standpoint,
I would slow slow-thinking processes to eliminate/reduce logical fallacies that might affect my cognitive
biases. I would also use accounting practices to inform decision making to gauge which options are more
financially viable. However, if I can to make a big change within the company, I would make sure that I
gather feedback from the front line staff, management team to involve them in the decision making
process to not only further iron our my blind spots, but also to help implement change by bringing them
on board.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

Managing my team is also very important to help us achieve goals and execute. I’ll start off by getting
everyone in alignment with the grand vision of what the company is trying to achieve and the relevant
missions that would help us get there. Subsequently, I would break it down as a strategy MAP to
document the strategic goals that we need to achieve. The progress would be measured by suitable KPIs
or metrics. I would also involve people from various levels of the organisation to help design the strategy
MAP as well. To manage the tasks the team has to do, we would use the Kanban board system. To
manage the accountability of the tasks, we would use the SMART goals and RACI model. As the teams are
delegated targets and goals, I would first gap whether there will be a performance gap. That is, do they
have the skills to perform the tasks? Therefore, I would need actively learn their strength, weaknesses,
communication styles, values and understand what motivates them. I anticipate some level of training,
coaching and guidance would also be needed for them to perform well. If feedbacks were to be given, the
SBI model would be used to give feedback in a constructive manner at a well selected time. Lastly, I
would also monitor the energy level of my team. If I pick up that they are over-stretched, I would
encourage them to take a break to recharge in order to come back afresh with higher productivity and to
prevent burn outs or mental health issues.

CONCLUSION

Properly managing myself and others is critical for the success of a start-up. Human resources is one of
the strongest growth accelerators or inhibitors for a company and would be well managed. As
entrepreneurship is a high risk environment for mental health and burn outs, we need to actively
monitor, build and maintain the resilience of the team member. Properly managing decision making from
an ethical, financial and logical standpoint is also important for the survival of the start-up. Lastly, to
manage the team, a range of team management skills would used, which includes aligning everyone to the
strategy map, SMART goals, RACI model, Kanban boards and, to understand the members’ strengths and
weakness.