I need to become an effective manager, and this is the best advice I’ve found.
Four months ago, I co-founded a company for the first time. My partner, John David, and I had to figure out a lot of things we had never done before.
We had to figure out how to create a legal entity, handle accounting, open a business bank account, manage finances, get people’s attention (ahem, marketing), find clients, create a curriculum for our in-house technology school, and a million (or so it seems!) other things. It was fun, exciting, and incredibly intense.
The second month we made our first hire, Marcela Recinos, who’s an amazing creative storyteller that would help us communicate our services and values to the world. She’s been running our social media and marketing campaigns, and doing an amazing job so far.
Earlier this month we made our second hire, bringing in Omar Rodriguez, who’s going to help us with programming and logistics. He’s only been with our team for two weeks, but he’s already adding tons of value and positive energy to the team.
Earlier this week, we hired 3 more people (part-time), to help us with programming, teaching, and operations. They’re all super talented, and I feel incredibly lucky to have them join our team, helping us build the future of education in Guatemala.
But with 7 people involved in our company, I need to quickly learn how to be an effective manager. I’ve been part of large teams before, but never as CEO of a company. It’s my job to make sure everyone is clear on what to do, is motivated by our vision, is able to collaborate with others, and is given the necessary space and tools to flourish and do work we’re all proud of.
I’ve been reading and Googling everything I can to become good at this, and this 2 minute clip gave me the clarity and direction I needed. I know Apple and Steve Jobs are everyone’s example of success, so please skip over the skepticism there and focus on the message:
Lessons I take away:
- Each department needs ONE person in charge. He/she should have autonomy to make decisions, and will be accountable for the successes and failures of that department.
- Make sure there’s constant communication between the leaders of every department.
- Teamwork in the top of the company translates to teamwork in every part of the company.
- And perhaps the most important thing: Trust.
“Teamwork means trusting that the other folks will come through with their part, without watching them all the time.” — Steve Jobs
So my main role from now on will be to become effective at dividing all the million things we have to do as a company into different teams, assigning ONE person to be responsible for every department, make sure we communicate regularly, and trust that everyone will come through with their part. With 7 people involved in the company now, it’s *imperative* that we do that well.
I’ll probably make mistakes along the way, but doing this effectively will be my main focus going forward. It’s what will take us from a small service-based startup, to the company that we all want to see built. A company that provides opportunity to thousands of future creators in Latin America.
