4 Things about Working at a Startup
People often ask me “what’s a start up like? “
Firstly , it’s hard ! You have to be ready for a different way of working, thinking ,learning and partnering. Now answering from my position as Head of HR:
1)Not enough time in the day= have to know how to prioritize against the absolute most business critical items. You really need to believe in “you can’t do it all” and that 60/40 is the new 80/20.
2) Very limited resources at my disposal and a small team = hire well, make strong talent decisions, invest in key HR partners who bring built in core content as well as compliance , outsource as much operational crap as possible. ( Check out my recent expert panel in Forbes about managing compliance )
3) Challenging to be strategic and manage the day to day block and tackle= find a balance and don’t define your success as you would at a large established company, startups are nothing like these companies and require a different mindset and lens on what’s most important. Building IS operational , and it’s also the business strategy at a startup , it’s what you are mostly hired to do.
4) Scaling things is scary because it feels like becoming a big company , and scaling may make you unpopular = while you become process oriented remind them they we are always people focused and that each scale up milestone is why we are here . Onwards is our destination.
Just a short post today. :)
B