Tag: empathy

Supporting

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you are going to interview for a startup, between 30 and 100 employees, spend your focus probing one thing: what is the role of the founders?

That’s a critical phase for a founder to change their role: from guiding force to supporting resource. All the energy, the motivation, the knowledge, the urge that has led the founders to start the company needs to be passed over for it to scale, and the only way to do that is if the founders are capable to take a supporting role and let go of things, responsibilities, decisions.

It’s not really a matter of roles or of titles, but a matter of attitude. Look at three things.

  1. The tenure of the people who have joined the startup in the second phase, from 15 to 40 employees. If they leave soon, particularly if they have previous experience and success, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.
  2. The way the company spends money to train and promote (promising) employees. If there’s little to no money invested in personal development, salary adjustments, perks and benefits, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.
  3. The dynamic of the leadership team, the people who manage people. If there’s separation, factions, silos instead of unity, togetherness, mutual projects, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.

It’s important, because when founders act as a support to a growing company, it can be a beautiful opportunity. When they aim at retaining control, instead, well that’s not for everybody.

New and old

FabrizioLeave a comment

What will the new year bring?

The end of the year is not an eraser. Just like you do not become immediately wise and adult the day you turn 18 (or 21), the new year will not give you a new you, free of old fears, uncertainties, pains, and problems.

So, the question really is: are you ready to handle all of that in 2023, and perhaps make something out of it?

If the answer is no, there is your new year resolution.

Contagious

FabrizioLeave a comment

The surest way to get ahead is to be kind.

Not because it is easy, it is incredibly difficult most of the time. Not because it is immediate, in fact it is mainly long term. Not because it is tangible, it’s mostly about practice and belief. Not because it is popular, there are not many business books who praise kindness over hustle. Not because it is visible, mostly it is about standing in the back of the stage.

But because it is contagious.

Kindness spreads, and if you start pouring some around, everyone will be better off.

Starting with you.

Cascade

FabrizioLeave a comment

What you do at the top will cascade to the rest of your organisation.

It’s not what you say. Not what you think. It’s not your ideas or your intentions. It’s not your principles or your mission statement.

It’s what you do in the LT meeting and in the board room.

Because you are in control.

P.S.: this is valid even for very small organisations. A family, for example.

All year round

FabrizioLeave a comment

Perhaps it’s because it’s Christmas. Perhaps somebody has done something nice for you. Perhaps you have just gotten an unexpected praise, or a long-waited message. Perhaps it’s the energy you are getting from having finally started that project you have been wondering about for so long. Perhaps it’s your family, your friends, your loved one. Or perhaps it’s just because that’s who you are, and you have always known it.

But if you got in the mindset of giving these days, if you are being kind and helpful, if you are saying “I see your point” and “That is interesting” more often than “You are wrong” and “That is stupid”, then just remember that there is no reason why you should not practice that all year round. Even when things are tough. Particularly when things are tough.

Merry Christmas.