When Are Business People Entitled To Be Entitled?

Martin Zwilling , Founder and CEO , Startup Professionals

13 Jul 2014

Where did this sense of entitlement in our business culture come from? I’ve written about this before, but I was reminded again a while back at a conference for startups when an entrepreneur started berating investors for not funding early-stage startups. It sounded to investors like me that they felt a funding entitlement for their startup idea. Of course, I’m sure entrepreneurs sense that many investors feel entitled to deals with no risk. It’s bad news either way.

As a society, we seem to think we’ve evolved to the point where we can fashion a large portion of existence according to how we wish it to be. We notice what we like and what we dislike, so we work to make society match our dreams. Somehow, these dreams and wishes have morphed in many people’s mind to an entitlement.

In later-stage businesses, entitlement is evident when employees treat customers with indifference, or feel they are entitled to their job by merely “showing up for work.” Here are some examples of people rationalizing their entitlements, especially when the fantasy serves to owe them money or power:

• “I put in more hours than most of the people here, so I expect a bonus.” A bonus should be all about results, not time worked. We all know people who seem to be always present and always working, but don’t produce results. People with entitlement expect bonuses because it is bonus time, not because recipients earned them.

• “We deserve our high pay since it was the other division that failed.” We heard this from many of the Wall Street groups that survived a few years ago only with government bail-outs. A company succeeds only if all the teams succeed. That’s the way capitalism works. Being really good at what you do doesn’t matter if your firm is broke.

• “The pay seems to be the same whether I work hard, or hardly work.” No business can afford to reward mediocrity or less. Watch for the signs of entitlement and let it be known that the behaviors associated with entitlement will not be tolerated. Executives need to show up be the model, communicate the model, and enforce the model.

• “I did my job, so don’t expect me to jump when customers complain.” Employees don’t see a connection between how the experience a customer receives today influences their feelings about buying from the company in the future. Make sure they understand the sense of urgency to address customer satisfaction and market needs.

• “I give my all to this company, so I deserve healthcare coverage.” Health care is a need, like water or food, and not a right. And like water or food, it isn’t free. Every company needs to promote equity among all employee levels, and relate benefit levels to profit levels. But demanding benefits that sink the company is not the answer.

• “Someday this business will be mine anyway.” How many family businesses have met their demise because of this entitlement view? When heirs grow up believing that no matter how they act, the business will be theirs to run, they often end up with no business to run. Furthermore, once that seed is planted, it’s very difficult to stop it.

Entitlement beliefs that are left unchecked lead to selfish, even more entitled expectations. Most psychologists believe that entitlement comes from a deep inner belief that the world is not fair. In some age group, this feeling can be rationalized as perhaps derived from an early life where parents gave them everything, and they now expect the world of business to do the same.

We’ve got to remind everyone, employees, entrepreneurs, and investors, that true success and leadership is built on a foundation of personal responsibility and self-discipline. Companies that feel entitled about their position in the marketplace will lose, and entitled employees will kill a company.

Few things frustrate me more than dealing with people who feel they are entitled. Everyone shares the challenge of changing our business culture of entitlement into a culture of merit. I do believe everyone is entitled to pursue success. No one is entitled to be entitled.

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