Tan Kabra Shares Leadership Strategies To Improve Your Company’s Culture
Many companies are scared to invest too heavily in their teams because they fear the employees will leave and the investment will be wasted. But what if you don’t invest in your staff, and they stay?
If you want a better corporate culture it isn’t enough to solicit feedback from your team, you also must accept it. This can be difficult, especially for founders and executives with large egos. Many founders believe they have a strong culture but don’t seek validation from their team. Don’t be afraid to lean on and learn from your employees who are older than you or who have more management experience than you. It’s okay to admit that you don’t have all the answers, because your employees don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to lead them, and effective leadership requires honesty, expectation setting, and decision-making at difficult intersections.
Recently I had the opportunity to interview Tan Kabra from LaunchByte for the ongoing series: CEOs Share Leadership Strategies To Improve Your Company’s Culture.
Tan Kabra is the founder and CEO of LaunchByte and the General Partner of the early-stage venture capital fund at LaunchByte. His company has had an exciting year of growth, accomplishing lot. In the first quarter of 2018, they added 15 new employees to their team, and are also exiting 5 companies from their first portfolio, which is less than 18 months old.
Krish Chopra: What are the 3 most important values that your company’s culture is based on?
Tan Kabra: The team at LaunchByte instills and exemplifies our company’s culture through three important values:
- First and foremost, we value our team. We reward employees and empower them to make decisions and take creative risks. This helps us uphold LaunchByte’s unique-factor.
- We’re passionate and determined. We’re motivated by the work that we do and we maintain a humble — yet progressive — attitude.
- We exhibit a strong will to win. Whether it’s for our portfolio or ourselves in the marketplace, in every aspect of this business we maintain a “work hard, play hard” mentality.
Krish: Managing millennials can often be a polarizing topic. Can you elaborate on your advice for managing the “millennial mindset?”
Tan: Millennials want to work in a fun and young environment. They’re looking for perks and an enjoyable culture. Millennials want to “experience life to the fullest” during their early career year but also have a job that pays them enough to do so. This mindset can create an environment where the norm is to do as little as possible, just working hard enough to get by.
I manage my millennial workforce by motivating them with the things that matter to them: growth, success, and recognition.
I create opportunities for career advancement, reward outstanding and proactive work with the things that matter to them (usually cash!), and highlight their accomplishments. Celebrating their successes, whether in front of clients or our internal team, brings out a euphoric feeling and motivates my millennial team to continue performing at the highest level.
Krish: Strong company culture is something that everyone likes to think they have but very few have it. Why do so many organizations struggle with creating strong, healthy work environments?
Tan: I believe a lot of companies have a faux sense of strong culture or they fall behind in the area because they don’t ask what employees actually want. Wrongly assuming you know what your employees want leads to weaker cultures and unhealthy work environments. My advice? Ask employees what they want before investing in what you think they want.
Culture is more than a few bean bags and a ping pong table. While they can appear cool and young, those types of “perks” are rarely used and don’t actually offer much in the culture department.
Many companies are scared to invest too heavily in their teams because they fear the employees will leave and the investment will be wasted. But what if you don’t invest in your staff, and they stay? Building a strong, healthy environment takes hard work and authenticity.
Krish: What is one mistake you see a young start-up founders make in their culture or leadership practices?
Tan:Not being able to take feedback or criticism and a lack of communication with their team are the biggest mistakes young founders can make. The two go hand-in-hand, but if you don’t have an open-door policy, then you will never have the culture that is desired by top talent. Founders should never create an unspoken sense of fear about speaking up.
Krish: To add to the previous question, young CEOs often have a lot of pressure to perform and often wear many hats. What’s a simple time efficient strategy they can start doing today to improve their company’s culture?
Tan: Be approachable and around. An all-hands meeting with the entire company, even if it’s once a month, can go very far. Take 30 minutes or one hour to show the company that you care, as a leader, about what they have to say.
Krish: Success leaves clues. What has been your biggest influence in your leadership strategy and company culture?
Tan: Being able to say “Hey, even as the CEO, I don’t know everything and that’s okay,” is huge. As a young CEO, you will have some employees that are older than you. That’s okay. It’s great, actually. Being receptive and learning from others’ management experience will enable you to become a stronger leader.
Krish: What advice do you have for employees that have bad bosses? How can they take control and improve a bad situation?
Tan: Don’t be afraid to give feedback. If you are scared or intimidated about doing it face-to-face, you can write a note. You can leave it anonymously. There are so many ways to get your frustrations and feedback out in the open.
If you share the same concerns as other coworkers, set up a meeting and invite your boss. Nine out of 10 times, bad bosses don’t realize that they are being a “bad boss.” Many will take the feedback and implement it (especially if it comes from multiple individuals).
Don’t simply throw in the towel and quit. Beyond losing your job, you lose your voice. You also perpetuates a bad cycle — your successor will likely face the same struggles because the problem wasn’t addressed and feedback was not implemented.
Being receptive and learning from others’ management experience will enable you to become a stronger leader.
Krish: Okay, we made it! Last question — what’s one unique hack you or your company does that has enhanced your work culture?
Tan: We make it a point to have fun together often. We do a team outing, drinks, dinner or something different at least every other week. After a stressful sprint at work, the team can let loose and talk about things other than work.
We will also put a meeting on the calendar, but instead send people to the spa for a one- or two-hour breather, unexpectedly. We also make it a point to get everyone out of the office by 5:30 or 6 … you know employees love the company and feel motivated by what they do when you see them back on Slack after dinner!
A note to the readers: Improving company culture happens at any level in an organization. If you learned one thing in this interview, please share this with someone close to you.
A special thanks to Tan again!
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