What's your secret sauce for building a great team?
Serves two: 10ml trust, 5ml respect, 20ml clear communication & 20ml SMART goals.
All of that combined with a clear vision and fair bit of gut feeling. Add constructive feedback if it doesn’t work the first time.
What's a skill that we should pay more attention to in the workplace?
Emotional Intelligence is one of the most crucial skills that deserves more attention in the workplace. It encompasses the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as the emotions of others.
What do you wish you had known 10 years ago?
I totally enjoyed the first time on vacation without getting called all the time, because I handed over responsibilities to my team. Also, my son taught me a lot in terms of seeing things more easy and handling work-life balance.
What shift in mindset has allowed you to see things differently?
To clearly see that I can’t do everything on my own and have to empower others to achieve more.
What book do you recommend the most?
"Rules For a Knight" by Ethan Hawke. I guess because it's so short and yet full of powerful quotes packed into a lovely, short family story.
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Here’s More, From Other Founders Around the World
What’s an important guiding principle that informs the way you build and run your business?
One of our core values is experimentation. Rather than get stuck in arguing about what solution may best solve a problem or play to our ego, we focus on the smallest step we could possibly take to learn whether that’s true. It moves our minds away from thinking too big without sweating the small stuff and from getting stuck in discussions rather than actually doing something to understand the possible solutions better.
What should leaders understand about their own role and responsibility?
Your own time and energy is the most precious resource you have. Use it wisely, and learn what gives you energy, and what saps you. In the early years of building something, you need to throw a huge amount of time at it - and do many things you perhaps don’t like doing. But as you scale, it’s vital to take a step back and build a business that can grow rapidly beyond the time you put into it.
What shift in perspective has allowed you to see things differently?
It may sound simple, but realizing and truly understanding that we are all different and driven by different things has made a significant impact on me. This insight has changed the way I approach relationships and leadership.
What’s a guiding principle that informs the way you build and run your business?
One of our core values at Cozero is radical candor. It is the idea that the willingness to repeatedly enter uncomfortable situations to speak the truth benefits everyone in the long run. We believe that in order to grow and improve as an organization, we need to create an environment where our team is not afraid to challenge processes and decisions. Making this a core value guides us in difficult situations when it’s not clear which road to take.