---
title: How to Build a Team That Does Things Your Way | EMyth
description: In this article, EMyth Co-Owner and CEO Ilene Frahm explains how you can build a team that does things your way.
image: https://www.emyth.com/hubfs/Blog%20and%20Social%20Images/2022%20Stock/Emyth_2022_09.jpg
---

If there’s one experience, more than any other, that small business owners across every industry share, it’s how hard it is to get your people to do what you want them to do, *the way* you want it done. Every owner has a picture of the best way to produce results in their business. Every employee comes to your company with their own experiences, beliefs and judgments—their own sense of how things should be done *that may be very different from yours*. Getting everyone on the same page—your page—isn’t easy.

[![Download the EMyth Position Agreement Template](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/411995/8f0a4d32-d182-4e0c-b868-c5978e832101.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/411995/8f0a4d32-d182-4e0c-b868-c5978e832101)

Given the unique lens each of us brings, it always strikes me as a wonder when *any* relationship works, personal or professional. The relationship between an owner and the members of their team is particularly fraught with what psychology calls “authority projections”: the mental process by which someone attributes something that’s living in them internally onto an authority figure. 

I’m not a therapist, but I am a passionate observer of the human condition and, over the years, I’ve seen enough instances where employees who admittedly had unhealthy relationships with parents, teachers, coaches or even older siblings as a child unconsciously projected their unmet needs from childhood onto me or other authority figures in our company.

For example, if someone was frequently criticized by a parent when they were young, they might experience any constructive feedback from someone in charge as an attack. Or, if someone was neglected as a child, they might be needy for attention and act like the recognition they receive is never enough. 

[![six steps to transforming frustrations](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/411995/13a5d0ac-ce44-4e0e-8f07-c71f3c15e301.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/411995/13a5d0ac-ce44-4e0e-8f07-c71f3c15e301)

The owner of a business sometimes becomes a stand-in for the mom or dad that employees wished for but never had. If an employee has had painful experiences as a child with authority figures, they sometimes put the owner of the company they work for on a pedestal, anxiously determined to please them. But, for an employee whose childhood experiences have resulted in unrealistically high expectations of leaders, their default position can become: “Don’t tell me what to do.”

Of course, business owners can also project their unmet needs onto their team members. If, for example, your parents consistently prioritized their needs over yours, leaving you with no healthy sense of your right to your *own* needs, you may not be sharing your pictures of how you want things done in a way that works. If you notice that you often feel victimized by how little your people get what you’re asking of them or do what you’re asking them to do, you may have never learned how to effectively express what you need.

When I produce an outcome in my company that’s different from what I intended, I will eventually find in myself how I held back from wholeheartedly expressing what I wanted. Right underneath it is always a *fear* that I discover in retrospect. I don’t know many leaders who are truly skilled at issuing instructions with the right balance of clarity, firmness and empathy. Owning my needs is a challenge for me on occasion, and I’m grateful for the chance leading EMyth has given me to lean into my right to have them.

The dynamics between owners and employees are complex but far from hopeless. Owning a business is a precious opportunity to create a world of your own: a world that reflects your picture of who you’re going to serve, how you’re going to serve them, who’s going to be on your team and how the members of your team are going to treat each other and your customers. The issue of projections is important because it can give you a deeper understanding of what you’re up against—what you can control and what’s out of your control.

You can’t control how any specific employee’s authority projections cause them to regularly tune out or misinterpret what you ask of them, but:

- ***You can*** put a stake in the ground about the qualities of employees who have a place on your team and qualities that don’t.
- ***You can*** explore the reasons why you *keep* employees who continuously show you that they can’t do things *Your Way.*
- ***You can*** learn how to work *on *your business, not just *in *it, so you can turn your business into a world of your own with:

- ***You can*** find a good balance between being receptive to your team’s feedback and trusting your instincts about the best way to get things done.
- ***You can*** build a hiring system that identifies applicants who resist being told what to do as well as those who see *Your Way* as their dream come true.
- ***You can*** examine whether you’re as effective as you *could* be at eliciting the attitudes and behavior you want from your employees, and then learn how to express your needs in a way that really lands.
- ***You can*** build a company that gives you the daily experience that your team is operating *Your Way.*

Will you?

If something you’ve read here has struck a chord, tell me about your experience. You can reach out to me at [ifrahm@emyth.com](mailto:ifrahm@emyth.com)

[![e-myth-emyth-free-coaching-session-curt-richardson-otterbox](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/411995/63393cb2-f69c-436c-a4b3-bf5a7a428ae7.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/411995/63393cb2-f69c-436c-a4b3-bf5a7a428ae7)

![Ilene Frahm](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/bccfbf08d81171b066439619e9e012a6)

### Written by [Ilene Frahm](https://www.emyth.com/inside/author/ilene-frahm)

Ilene joined EMyth in 1982 and partnered with Michael Gerber in building the company during their 17-year marriage. Over that time, she collaborated with Michael on *The E-Myth Revisited* as his editor and publishing agent, as well as on a number of his other books. Ilene worked ON EMyth not just IN it, making it possible for her to retire as EMyth’s President in 1999 while continuing to serve as the company’s board chair, a position she still holds. In 2020, Ilene returned to company operations as its CEO to support a new executive team, and everyone in the company at every level, in their leadership. Since her return, Ilene has created an original, customer-centered approach to sales and coaching, Uncommonly Genuine™ Engagement, which is designed to help small business owners open to their blindspots so they can grow in their leadership. She lives in Gig Harbor, Washington with her husband, Gerrit.

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