Leadership Lessons
The companies in the Growth Index do some quite different things, often at quite different scales. You may wonder what business lessons might possibly be applicable to between veterinary hospitals, cybersecurity specialists, brewers, builders and companies that design next generation bio-analysis technology.
Yet on one fundamental level all businesses are the same: they are groups of people, working together towards a common aim.
The ones that do it really well – like those that made it onto the Growth Index – combine several essential factors: clarity of purpose, mission and vision; a winning proposition; boldness; a vibrant, committed culture; laser-sharp strategic focus; an authentic brand; a growth mindset that encourages intelligent risk-taking and learns from mistakes; and strong financial discipline.
We call the alchemist blending all these ingredients together the company’s leader. They are not wholly responsible for their success, which remains a team effort. But without great leadership, you cannot have a great company. So we asked some of the Growth Index leaders for their top leadership lessons.
01 | TRUST PEOPLE
“Give your team autonomy. Try not to manage people but just lead them. One of the favourite sentences I share with my team is, ‘I completely trust you. I’ll leave it to you.’ That’s good leadership in my eyes.”
– Susie Ma, CEO Tropic Skincare
“I’ve learned how to step back. I spent my career leading teams and building my own through Ripjar. When you start a company you have to ear 500 different hats, but at some point you need to start giving them to other people. My biggest leadership advice is to understand that there are other people who can do things better than you.”
– Jeremy Annis, CEO Ripjar
02 | WATCH OUT FOR BLOAT
“Bloat is when increasing the number of people by X% results in increased output that is less than X%. The challenge of organisational bloat is not cost – though of course it increases cost. It’s about
losing agility.
“Agility comes from relentlessly not staffing up functions to keep signing off the work of other functions, but creating a culture of delivering results
and allowing each function to progress as fast as it can.
“For example, in a typical organisation, you might need 12 signatures to get something off the ground, and then for each of those you need to get 12 people to check that it won’t affect their area. We flip that around: it’s your job as a manager to find out who you need a signature from, and we’ll trust you to get that right.”
– Greg Jackson, CEO Octopus Energy
03 | DON'T GET COMPLACENT
“Marcia, our founder, questions everything constantly, which keeps us all
on our toes. And being able to question everything we do, and not rest on our laurels, is a key part of our growth.”
– Panni Morshedi, COO Beauty Pie
When you start a
company you have to
wear 500 different hats,
but at some point you
need to start giving
them to other people
04 | WORK ON THE CULTURE
“I spend time on people and culture everyday. In every moment of interaction with your team, you are creating a certain type of culture, whether that’s a smile or taking a genuine interest in their life. Make
sure that you speak to every person in the business, including the cleaner – that is building a better culture.”
– Susie Ma, CEO Tropic Skincare
“The starting point for me as a leader is having the right culture in place. If you start with an appropriate set of cultural principles, then it makes your job in leadership incredibly simple.”
– Ronnie Millar, CEO Paysend
05 | KEEP LEARNING
“I’m always making mistakes. But it’s about what you learn from those mistakes and how you take a business forward that matters.”
– Ronnie Millar, CEO Paysend
06 | COLLABORATE
“Two heads are better than one in a lot of ways. [Sosandar’s other co-CEO] Julie and I will discuss issues together and come up with a solution. Founding the company from scratch, we’ve done every job in the business. We very much believe in running a democratic business where together we work out what we need to do based on employee feedback.”
– Ali Hall, co-CEO Sosandar
07 | TRUST YOURSELF
“There’s a huge lesson about authenticity. I often hear people wanting mentors and advisors, which is fine. But the reality is, you have got to build the business. Trust yourself. It’s better to make your own mistakes and learn from them than it is to build someone else’s business.”
– Greg Jackson, CEO Octopus Energy
