We’ve compiled these ten recommendations to be generally useful to business founders but especially to those that need only a bit of knowledge and confidence to turn their idea into something fully-fledged. Equally, to help people weigh up if it’s something they want to do at all. (You can catch up on the whole programme here.)
While there are considerable demands on business founders, the one that makes the biggest impact for meaningful and successful outcomes is leadership.
Being a people manager is demanding at the best of times. When socio-economic, geo-political and climate factors seem to take up more brain real estate, good leadership is mission critical.
Business owner, super-networker and author of The Nowhere Office, Julia Hobsbawm explains how leadership strategy is different nowadays.
‘The big story is that we now understand that a global, standardised, one-size-fits-all model of managing and running organisations doesn’t work post-pandemic. The first lesson for leaders is that they have to listen and iterate workplace by workplace and team by team.
‘It’s quite a shift as a lot of industries have sprung up based on this traditional model of presenteeism, recruitment and prioritising work over personal lives.’
Talk about the great resignation seems to have left the broadsheets, but Julia explains that the movement we were witnessing was, in fact, the great reevaluation and that that’s still very much relevant to global business.
‘The entire workforce isn’t made up of office workers, and there are some roles that will always need to happen in situ.
‘But across cities worldwide, there is a revolution in the sixth of the world’s workforce made up of office or knowledge workers: any worker who can is choosing to work differently.
‘For a manager or a leader, they have to approach things differently now. The best thing they can do is worry that they don’t have the answers and use that worry to lead them to ask and listen, rather than relying on old certainties and believing they already have the answers.’
As a leader, you’ll likely have many of your choices challenged, whether you know it or not. Better to create a culture in which people feel (and, crucially, are) listened to, than to add a mutinous staff to your burdens of responsibility.
Now, along with how we’re leading, it’s important to recognise that the balance of leadership has changed, too. Julia explains:
‘Today’s workforce isn’t negotiating. The pushback from workers has been a huge shock for political bosses and leaders of any enterprise.
‘Needless to say, the future is already here, and that’s created a generational shift between leaders like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Elon Musk (generally speaking men, generally speaking white men) that have not read the room, metaphorically speaking.’
Julia commends the companies that have embraced working from home and hybrid models, saying that they’ve understood a change is needed, though she feels the first attempts to create a shiny new model are ‘clumsy.’
‘For instance, The four-day week and 3-day model are just attempts to signal change rather than reflecting the particular change a workforce needs.
‘Regardless of the final changes the focus must be on getting the work done in a way which suits all concerned: Worker, Manager, and the Consumer of whatever goods and services are produced. The point of this phase of work I call The Nowhere Office is to use the uncertainty to shape and create a better environment for work itself to work.’
As a new leader in a world of not insignificant challenges, do as you do with your customer: speak to your team; uncover their unmet needs; and create a balance that works for you all (what’s smart for the people in your business is smart for business, typically).
Most importantly, though: communicate exquisitely. By now you know the mechanics of setting up a business, but getting people bought into you and your idea is critical, always. If you can win the crowds your job’s going to be much easier in the long run.
You don’t have to double up business acumen with Robin Williams’ charm, but that passion in your product; that dedication to its success; and that interest in what other people really think? A killer trifecta. We’ll be FedExing your yacht to Mars before you know it.
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Ella Bowman has a career spanning PR, public affairs and business consulting. Happiest helping progressive companies deliver the right message to improve audience behaviours, she currently splits her time between freelance copywriting and as a strategist for Safety In Design, Ltd.