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Five Habits of a Highly Successful Start-up

Employee
I started my career at a large steel company where at one point I worked as an EA
to one of the VPs. The Executive Team met every fortnight to discuss important
issues. For one of the meetings, the EA of the CEO wasnt present and I was asked
to substitute. The meetings were held in the board room where the CEO would be
seated at the head of the table and the VPs (six of them) were seated on both
sides. The senior most of the two VPs, like always, were seated to the left and the
right of the CEO. There was never any confusion on who sat where! I had to sit in
the second row behind the main row of chairs and take notes. At one point when
the discussion was about the sale of a division, one of the VPs differed with the
CEO and there was some argument (but arguments with the CEO never ever got
heated). It was very evident to me that what he (the VP) was saying made a lot of
sense, but there was no support forthcoming from anyone else. During the
bio-break, I overheard one of the other VPs telling this VP, What you were
saying made eminent sense. I wish the boss had understood. My thought was,
"if this was so obvious to you (as it was to me), why didnt you speak up in the

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the decision taken that day was wrong.

From this large company, that moved with the speed of an oil tanker (where I was
accustomed to listening to a boss rather than speaking my mind), I moved to a
start-up with the agility of a fighter jet. In my first one-on-one with the CEO, I
was in the old mode - a note pad and pen in hand listening - and in less than two
minutes, the CEO asked me curtly, will this monologue continue or will we have
a dialogue?

The first habit for being successful in a start up is Assertiveness.

Without Assertiveness, you cant create a great product, or provide a great service.
You cant build consensus on a difficult issue, or take tough decisions. You cant
meet deadlines or fight in a tough market place. You cant have crucial
conversations either.

And you need to do all of these in a high growth start-up every day! Assertiveness
is the foundational habit for being effective in a start-up. It is not impossible to
cultivate it even if it does not come to you naturally.

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Persons with an uncluttered mind are always asking questions like:

They cut through the smoke and jargon in meetings. They ask insightful questions
that help get to the root of an issue. They cut to the chase and get to the point.
They have the uncanny ability to translate the intangibles into dollars and cents.
They tend to make the right approximations and ignore the unimportant
variables. In the next Habit, we will talk of how great field commanders always
prioritize well and work hard on the important things. The outcome is about
being able to prioritize but the capability to do so stems from uncluttered
thinking.

There are 3 components to managing time

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Envisioning is not about Strategizing or dreaming of the Big Picture in a

Vacuum. It is about being Strategic in the Context of Execution. And, that is a
BIG Difference.

In a goal sheet, one of the goals of a training head stated: Audit and Adherence.
This was a goal set without envisioning. After envisioning, the goal was modified
to, Strengthen the quality and consistency of training implementation through
appropriate reporting and audit. With this change in goal definition, the
training head would be able to make mid course corrections in activities that are
needed to reach that goal. Too narrow a definition ignores the primary purpose of
a goal, or a role for that matter.

One of the goals that the warehousing management was aiming for was having

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freedom to play around with multiple levers and OT would just be one of them
instead of blindly trying to eliminate OT (to the detriment, sometimes, of the
bigger objective of salary cost).

Envisioning is not about the big thing. It is about doing it every day, every
moment. It is about asking questions from time to time like: What problem are
we trying to solve, Why are we meeting today, I know we need to strengthen
discipline, but do we need to use this platform for doing it, Arent we mixing up
two different issues here, How will we meet our goal by doing this?

Being proactive is about taking initiative to prepare for, participate in and/or

control the events rather than reacting to the events.

An example: An important stake holder has sent an identical request (on a

problem) to two different individuals. This problem would take 4-5 days to fix.
A responds by email within 60 minutes I have received your request. We will
begin working on it ASAP. Our initial estimate is that it would take 5 days to
complete. We will keep you updated on the progress on a daily basis and,
finishes the task in 5 days.

B does not send any response but finishes the task in 4 days.

It is obvious who the stakeholder is mad at!

Those that are proactive are not bystanders they jump in the pond and
participate. They engage and contribute. Those that are proactive are not victims
they take things in their stride when they do not receive support. Those that are
proactive do not procrastinate they take timely action.

In Conclusion

One typical question or comment I hear often is, Are these habits not helpful in a
mature company? Of course good habits are helpful everywhere, but like the
smart and lazy general, we need to discriminate. If these habits are not

5/10/2016 11:58 AM