Being a colour-blind CEO
I have known since I was a child that I was colour blind, after I was told I was colouring the sky purple. When people hear I am color-blind I get the same openers, what color is this, what colour is the wall/table/shirt etc & how do you drive.
Well, to put it into perspective, i can basically see the main colors, however shades are a problem. As for driving i needed to adapt and depend on position of the light, top, mid and bottom.
When it comes to work, it presents a whole set of challenges, but it also really helps team work from the perspective of the CEO. Often, it is easy to slip into micro managing tasks in start up stage, especially if you have lots of fresh graduates in your company. But this isn’t a good long term strategy specially when it comes to scaling your business. I constantly think about how to grow from 15 people to 50 in a few months.
Everyone handles this in their own way, fortunately for me I get a daily reminder not to micro manage and to trust my team. I cannot make decisions about color alone, I need to take advice from the people I see everyday and who are building my company with me. These little moments act as a beautiful reminders that not everything is in my hands and I have a team for a reason.
I cannot overstate the importance of team work enough. I have a close relationship with each of my team; I share their hopes and aspirations, I want to see them all become the best versions of themselves. I believe to my core that people should do what they love and being surrounded by a team of people who are doing what they love, leads to the best chance of success.
So ultimately, being colour blind is a nice daily reminder not to micro manage & to support, develop and trust in them.
Team work makes the Elephant Social work.
