Cronies, How They Can Hurt Your Business.

Cronies Become Part Of Your Inner Circle Of Trust

Every business has a network.  Every business develops a small set of people that 'hang-out' with what that business model tends to represent.  Take a short walk through the halls of every business model and you will find a small group of people who are there to support what that business model represents.  Each model has its own group of frequent supporters.  Small sets of supporters come packaged with every business model.

Good or bad, these strong supporters come to our side.  They can be found standing next to the ugly stuff we do in our business models.  Trust me, every business model practices doing some ugly stuff, somewhere, somehow.  No exception.  There is no perfect model.  Perfect business models just simply do not exist.  They all have faults somewhere.  Mine do.

Even the business models that are suffering and failing in business, the ones who are spinning out of control, have developed a small network of supporters.  That group of supporters can often be found dressed with armour that builds up their support and protects how they feel about that failing business model.  They will step out and protect its leader from criticism and ridicule.  These supporters are the cronies that come packaged with the things each business model ultimately does.  They become the cronies that stick by the side of every failing business model.  I have mine, you have yours.

Even the worst of business designs will have a small group of supporters who will come to its aid when the chips are down.  We all develop small circles of these supportive cronies.  They become our friends.  They become our confidants.  They become our protection.  They support what we are doing wrong.  They cover our bad trails with creative deflections that whisk away the ugly stuff we all do once in awhile in our business models.  Every business model has this small segment of crony support when the chips are down.  We lean on them when the weather gets ugly.  We appreciate their protectionism.  We feed what keeps their support alive, even if it hurts the future of our winning potential...even if it supports what will not correct our ruined ways.  We circle around the cronies we find.  They become our special friends.  

This is often where a few business leaders host some of the most trouble in their leadership ways.  They pick out their supporters in counter-productive ways.  They are not as careful with whom they bring close to the inside halls of what they do.  They struggle with the development of their inner circle lines of support.  They allow the selection of their group of cronies to build at a random pace with mistaken interpretations and ill-fated energies of effort.  Crony support can hurt how the leader attempts to correct what is truly going wrong with the activities performed by the business model they guide.  Cronies can become the hidden distraction that interferes with good design.  I have seen it occur hundreds of times.  I have seen it infect some of the greatest business minds.

Every business model occasionally develops some form of incorrect practices.  We all get caught up in doing wrong things.  We decide to do what will not work.  We decide to make what will not sell.  We decide to practice what kills our growth.  We decide to ignore some changes that must be made.  We decide to avoid what cannot be avoided.  We decide to deceive what is not deception-able.  Every business model steps in the poop once in awhile.  We all are guilty from time to time.

During those wrong times of practice we find out who our best cronies are.  They are the ones who stand by our side.  Come heck or high water, there they are. standing right next to the ugly stuff we are finding to do.  They are supporting our ways with that supportive thing that comes with how a crony behaves.  They seem not to mind how deep the mud becomes just as long as they are allowed to offer what they show support to do.  They come to our side when the hurricane is at its worst.  They are our cronies.

Page two.

Be Careful How You Select Your Inner Circle.

Let's examine some of the worst possibilities this kind of development can project.

First of all, we might find some comfort in the support our cronies often deliver.  They tend to deliver support when we deserve it the least.  Their support usually comes when it is needed the most.  It helps us to do what we ought not be doing.  It gives our wrong ways some protective life.  It works like glue that is dabbed on two things we prefer not to stick together.  Unfortunately, we gravitate to this kind of wrong support.  We glue the stuff that should not be glued.  Unfortunately, it kind of feels good.

Cronies are also on target with what they know.  They recognize what is going wrong.  They speak it, share it and at the same time...in some weird way, they support what is being done wrong.  It is dangerous stuff.  We seem to enjoy fighting against these right answers with wrong ways to cover what we choose to do wrong.  We also enjoy finding those who will support how we feel about doing wrong things.  It is simply amazing how we will develop wrong things to become viewed as right things.  They become more right to us as leaders when our cronies show increasing support for how wrong they truly are.  It is amazing stuff.  It is very strange how many business leaders get caught up in this nebulous, non-productive pattern of leadership ways.  They encourage crony support for the wrong things they continue to do.  The true cronies comply.  This effect runs deeper than most leaders would ever admit.

Keep in mind most business leaders are motivated by fear long before they are moved by the expectation of gain.  The fear of loss runs higher than the expectation of gain.  Commonly.  It would be best to work on the avoidance of failure than spending time building a dynasty for greatness.  Most business leaders get caught in this simple trap.  They can be found teasing their mind away from accepting this truth.  Our fears for failure run deeper than our expectations for gain.  It is simply the way our human minds are wired.  This is one of the reasons why we are attracted to cronies.  They help us support this kind of thought.  It becomes a satisfying process.

Therefore, if business leaders suffer from some kind of wrongful business patterns the idea of fear governing those errors is highly probable.  Some kind of fear gets in the way of their methods for winning more often.  They will circle the wrong set of necessary decisions and their support network of cronies will encourage wrong stuff, practiced at wrong times with wrong repairs.  The business will suffer.

We are only willing to make unwanted yet necessary changes where those changes will not effect our normal support for the supporters we attract.  We in turn, protect our cronies while they protect us.  The vicious cycle continues to feed on itself.  These friendly patterns of wear become the growing groove for the ruts we eventually learn to live.  Our business models live on with limited success in a world that has already grown too complicated to navigate well.  We will only right a wrong if it does not interfere with our personal security.  The personal security we support the most becomes the one we have developed inside the personal relationships we built strong with the cronies we allow and support.  When we are faced with rubbing against the will of our crony support, we feel threatened by righting a wrong, and as a result, we opt out.  We do not believe our rights go beyond this personal sphere of interference.  Our business suffers.  It becomes one of our most challenging crossroads in our business life.

This truth is a very hard pill to swallow.  We will do everything in our personal power to avoid admitting we have these tendencies.  Even the best business leaders struggle with this area of leadership.  We are willing only to make the changes where those changes will not effect our normal patterns of life wear.  We will only right a wrong if it does not interfere with our personal security.  The moment we feel threatened by righting a wrong, we opt out.  We do not believe our rights go beyond our personal sphere of interference.

Pick your cronies well.  They will in the end quietly govern how your most difficult decisions will be managed.  They become more powerful than you could ever imagine.  This will be best discovered when your business model is facing its deepest concerns and challenges.  Until then, your cronies will only be the best friends you know.  However, when the going gets tough, they will silently become your worst enemies for making some of the most difficult changes you will ever face in your business life.  Your cronies will silently govern how you should take the course you ought not be taking.

Pay close attention to who you let it.  Always exercise caution in your business affairs.  Always.  Your crony selection process is of no exception.

Until next time...