Running a business at any point in anyone’s life can prove a challenge. There’s the race to breaking even, not breaking your team, smashing your competition and ensuring throughout the whole process you stay enthusiastic, optimistic and honest!
Personally I’ve had no formal education in running a team (nor running a business) but I sure have observed and seen many great leaders in action, and those not so great!
I’d like to share some of the do’s and don’ts which I try to live and work by.
- Celebrate success whenever it happens in a way people appreciate.
- Don’t do public humiliation when people mess up, it’s the easiest way to piss off your rockstar team and make them feel small and stupid.
- Clear processes and expectations. Make sure everyone buys into the company vision. Remember, a company vision isn’t ‘All the directors on their private islands with a glass of red wine’. A company visision is a shared vision of where the organisation wants to be.
- In the start-up world, make sure your team doesn’t include bullies or ‘bastard bosses’. Whilst TV programs like the apprentice show great bosses who have blunt tactics, the start-up work place is too small for this kind of attitude.
- Always hire your rockstars on the salaries that you can afford and they deserve. Obviously in start-up companies this is much harder to do, but show them you care!
- This final point is one that I have found to do at all times. Recently I’d like to be able to say I’ve really tried to live by this each day: Lead by example!
