The CEO of YOU, Inc. Protects the Company’s Greatest Asset

What if the most important person in your company had to decide whether she wanted to keep working there?

Imagine for a minute that you’ve hired an extraordinary employee.

She’s smart. Dependable. Creative. Resourceful.

She knows your clients. She understands the business. She notices problems before they become disasters and comes up with ideas you never would have thought to put in her job description.

When something needs to get done, she gets it done.

Frankly, the company would have a serious problem if she left.

She is exactly the kind of employee every CEO wants to retain.

Now let’s talk about her working conditions.

Lunch?

Well, technically she gets one.

Sometimes.

She may eat it standing at the kitchen counter while answering email, but food is involved, so we’re calling that lunch.

Vacation?

Absolutely! This company believes in work-life balance.

She’s completely free to take time off — as long as she keeps an eye on her inbox because something important might come up.

Working hours?

Very flexible.

Which apparently means they can flex right on into dinner.

Professional development?

Definitely encouraged … as soon as she gets everything else done.

Recognition for excellent work?

Of course.

Excellent work is promptly rewarded with more work.

And when she accomplishes six important things in a day?

Her manager likes to remind her about the four things she didn’t finish.

So let me ask you:

Would your best employee want to work for you?

Because if you’re a solo entrepreneur, she already does.

She’s you.

And if you’re the CEO of YOU, Inc., protecting her is part of your job.

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🌿 YOU, Inc. Series: Meet the HR Department

Throughout this quarter, we’ve been expanding the idea of YOU, Inc.

There’s the business you run — the company that serves clients, earns revenue, markets offers, pays expenses, and produces results.

And then there’s YOU, Inc. — the company responsible for your energy, creativity, confidence, health, learning, relationships, boundaries, joy, and future.

July was about stepping into the role of CEO.

Last week, we moved into CEO Stewardship and talked about intentionally tending the resources already in our hands.

This week, we need to talk about one resource in particular.

You.

Because your website isn’t your company’s greatest asset. Neither is your email list. Or your intellectual property. Or your revenue. Or even your client relationships.

Those things absolutely matter.

But every one of them depends on the human being responsible for creating, maintaining, improving, and stewarding them.

And that human being needs an HR department.

Congratulations. Apparently you have another job.

The good news is that the HR Department of YOU, Inc. does not require awkward team-building exercises or an annual seminar reminding you not to microwave fish in the break room.

It does, however, require leadership. Specifically, it requires self-leadership for solo entrepreneurs.

Because if CEO You sets the expectations, somebody needs to pay attention to the working conditions under which Employee You is expected to meet them.

So this week’s CEO question is:

What would the CEO of YOU, Inc. choose if her responsibility were to protect the company’s greatest asset?

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Unfortunately, Your Boss Is Also You

There’s a strange thing that happens when you work for yourself.

You’re the person setting the expectations.

And you’re the person trying to meet them.

That can be wonderfully freeing.

It can also mean Boss You gets away with behavior you’d never tolerate from an actual employer.

Boss You says things like:

“Could you just squeeze this in tonight?”

“You can eat after you finish.”

“I know you’re technically on vacation, but it’ll only take five minutes.”

“You don’t really need the afternoon off. You work from home.”

Or my personal favorite:

“Yes, you accomplished all of that today … but what about everything you didn’t get done?”

Sometimes Boss You is kind of a jerk to Employee You.

And Employee You doesn’t even get a commute home to escape her.

For those of us who came from traditional workplaces, there’s a certain irony here.

Some of us left corporate jobs because we wanted more freedom, flexibility, and control over our time.

Then we started businesses of our own and somehow brought the worst middle manager in the building home with us.

She just looks suspiciously like us now.

Of course, the answer isn’t to swing to the opposite extreme.

Being a responsible employer of yourself does not mean expecting nothing from yourself.

Good employers have expectations.

Good leaders set standards.

There are deadlines. There are responsibilities. And there are seasons when more is genuinely required. Harvest certainly reminds me of that every year.

The goal isn’t to create a workplace where Employee You never has to stretch.

The goal is to create one where she can do good work sustainably.

That distinction matters.

Because self-leadership includes being a responsible employer of yourself.

“Self-leadership includes being a responsible employer of yourself.”

And responsible employers don’t just ask, “How much can I get from this person?”

They also ask, “What does this person need in order to continue doing good work?”

Your Most Valuable Employee Needs Protection

Responsible employers have an HR Department. So what exactly should the HR Department of YOU, Inc. be doing?

I think it has three primary responsibilities …

The first is to protect your best employee.

And no, I’m not about to tell you to book a spa day and call it CEO stewardship.

Protection is much more practical than that. It’s asking questions like:

Does your employee have reasonable boundaries around her working hours?

Does she take breaks before her brain turns to oatmeal?

Does she eat lunch?

Does she get time away from the business when she is actually away from the business?

Does the company make room for the things that support her physical and mental capacity to work well?

Sleep.

Movement.

Medical appointments.

Relationships.

Rest.

Time outside.

A swim.

A walk with the dog.

An hour when nobody — including her own boss — is asking anything from her.

None of those things are rewards for getting enough work done.

They are part of maintaining the asset.

We understand this instinctively with almost everything else our businesses depend upon.

We update software. Back up files. Renew insurance. Maintain equipment. Protect passwords. Pay for tools that help the business function.

Nobody looks at a laptop that hasn’t been shut down in three years and says, Wow. Look at that commitment.

And yet we can be oddly proud of how long we’ve gone without stopping ourselves.

Good stewardship includes maintenance.

Including yours.

Your Most Valuable Employee Needs Development

The HR Department’s second responsibility is to develop your best employee.

This is where I think solo entrepreneurs can unintentionally become shortsighted.

When every hour has a dollar value — or at least a very long to-do list attached to it — it’s easy to prioritize only the activities that produce something obvious.

Client work. Marketing. Sales. Administration. Deliverables.

But what about the things that develop the person doing all of that work? Things like:

• Learning something because it stretches your thinking.
• Reading.
• Taking a class.
• Going to a conference.
• Talking with other smart women who understand this strange entrepreneurial life.
• Trying something creative that has absolutely nothing to do with monetizing it.
• Developing a skill before you urgently need it.
• Having experiences that give you new ideas.
• Building confidence by doing something that scares you a little.

YOU, Inc. isn’t responsible only for today’s output.

It’s responsible for your future, too.

That means professional development — and personal development — aren’t luxuries you earn after every task has been completed.

Which is fortunate, because we both know when that would happen.

Never.

Your business needs the woman you are today. But it will also need the woman you’re becoming.

Good stewardship makes room for her.

Your Most Valuable Employee Needs a Reason to Stay

And then there’s the HR Department’s third responsibility …

This may be the one we talk about least.

Retain your best employee.

Traditional companies spend a lot of time thinking about employee retention.

Are good people engaged?

Do they feel valued?

Is the workload sustainable?

Do they have opportunities to grow?

Do they understand how their work contributes to something meaningful?

Do they actually want to keep working here?

Solo entrepreneurs should probably ask some of those questions, too.

Because you can own the company and still create a workplace you don’t want to work in.

You may not submit a resignation letter to yourself, but you can begin to check out. You can resent Monday morning. Lose your curiosity. Stop having ideas because everything feels like an obligation.

Maybe you find yourself procrastinating on work you used to enjoy. Or wonder why the business you built for freedom doesn’t feel particularly free anymore.

That’s a retention problem.

And the answer isn’t always a vacation.

Sometimes the business itself needs attention.

Maybe you’ve allowed work you don’t enjoy to crowd out the work you do.

Maybe every open space on the calendar has become available for clients.

Maybe you haven’t learned anything new in a long time.

Maybe you’re lonely.

Maybe you’ve removed so much play and experimentation from the business that everything now feels like production.

Maybe you’re still operating under rules that made sense three years ago but don’t fit your life anymore.

Or maybe Boss You simply hasn’t told Employee You lately:

You’re doing good work.

Recognition matters, too.

Especially when nobody else can see how much you’ve carried.

Founder retention means building a business you can sustainably continue to lead — not merely one you can endure.

This Isn’t Self-Care. It’s Stewardship.

There’s a reason I want to frame this conversation around HR rather than simply telling you to “take better care of yourself.”

You already know you’re supposed to take care of yourself.

You do not need another woman on the internet telling you to drink more water. (Although proper hydration IS important … so are you drinking enough water throughout the day?)

The harder question is whether you treat your own capacity as a legitimate business responsibility.

That’s different.

Because when lunch, rest, learning, boundaries, connection, and time away are classified as “self-care,” they can become optional. Things you’ll get around to after the real work is finished.

But what happens when we classify them as stewardship?

Now we’re talking about protecting an essential company asset.

We’re talking about working conditions.

We’re talking about retention.

We’re talking about leadership.

Your business does not need you available every minute. It needs you capable of thinking clearly.

It doesn’t need every ounce of energy you possess. It needs enough of you left to return tomorrow.

It doesn’t need you to prove how much you can tolerate. It needs leadership that understands sustainability is a business strategy.

And because you are both the employer and the employee, nobody else can create those conditions for you.

That’s your job.

Not because you’re fragile.

Because you’re valuable.

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🌱 Action Step This Week: Write One HR Policy for YOU, Inc.

I don’t want you to finish this article with a seventeen-point employee handbook.

We’re going to do just one thing …

Write one new HR policy for YOU, Inc.

Choose something that would improve the working conditions of your company’s most valuable employee.

For example:

YOU, Inc. HR Policy #001: Lunch is eaten away from the desk.

YOU, Inc. HR Policy #002: Vacation days do not include “just checking email.”

YOU, Inc. HR Policy #003: No business email after 6 p.m.

YOU, Inc. HR Policy #004: One walking meeting — or dog-walking break — is encouraged every workday.

YOU, Inc. HR Policy #005: Professional development gets a place on the calendar before the calendar is full.

Or maybe yours involves swimming.

Or Fridays.

Or medical appointments.

Or childcare.

Or a hard stop at the end of your workday.

The specific policy matters less than the leadership decision behind it.

Then ask yourself:

What would change if I treated this as company policy instead of something I’ll do when I have time?

Put it somewhere you’ll see it.

And then honor it the way you would expect a good employer to honor a policy created to protect her employees.

Because here’s the thing about YOU, Inc.:

The CEO and the employee may be the same woman.

But that doesn’t make the CEO’s responsibility to her any less real.

Last week, we talked about noticing what you’ve been tending.

This week, remember the person doing the tending.

She is not an endlessly renewable resource.

She’s the company’s greatest asset.

And she deserves a CEO who knows how to lead her well.

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