Becoming a Better Leader @ Glovo
By Rodrigo Adanya, VP of People at Glovo
Hello!
As I reflect on all the challenges and learning I took from completing one year at Glovo this week, I wanted to talk about the feedback I received from my team members on my leadership style (as I promised in my previous article, in which I outline My Vision as a People(HR) Leader that I published last November).
The first personal development tool I had contact with was MBTI in the early 2000s. I got my profile and a couple more times after that and I could see that my main change came from trying to be more open to the unknown, to trust my instincts and to be data-informed rather than data-driven. I have since then moved to use Insights Discovery, which I find easy to understand and communicate, and that blends well with the culture I like to foster (slightly playful, not over-complicated).
I’ve also received a lot of feedback at work, networking events, groups, and in more informal settings from friends and family, besides what I got from assessment tools and performance review. Self-reflection and self-discovery are very important to me, but so is the ability to make oneself vulnerable and talk about these things. With all this information available, I decided to focus and act on the three aspects of my leadership:
1 — Discipline on spending time with purpose to align expectations
One of the main challenges I had earlier in 2019 was to join Glovo and start building the People team (see my first 180 days review). I have now grown a team comprised of exceptional talent delivering value day-to-day. But this new team came with a challenge: how can I dedicate quality time to my 13 direct reports, while enabling and empowering them?
I have since changed our standard work: we meet every other week and keep a shared document logging progress, barriers, difficult cases and aligning work. We also use these meetings to exchange feedback and I rate with a score the results delivered (what) as well as the behaviors and alignment with Glovo’s values (how) every other week so they know how they are doing. We still keep ad-hoc meetings when needed, but predictability has been key for planning and efficiency — besides helping me stay organized albeit my terrible memory.
2 — Recognizing the team
To build a high performing culture, I believe in raising the bar high and that people should be incentivized to go further and faster. Also, one of my personality traits is being optimistic about my speech, but skeptical about other people’s until I see them walk the talk.
That has proven to be a problematic combination for my leadership style. My direct reports were quick to flag it: I do not recognize people enough for a work well done, and even when I do it, I do not do so well enough. After reflecting on this, I realized the subconscious reason was that I was afraid people would relax and lower their bar for performance. Also, in the past, my teams over-celebrated (too much, too soon, and for results not yet proven). This backfired, impacting performance and morale.
I’m getting better at it (frequency, picking who’s deserving, occasions, mixing different kinds of recognition), but it has been quite a challenge. I have been more conscious of appreciating people every day, with mental notes and help from others. Some of the leaders in the People team are great at recognizing their teams, so I try to learn from them and replicate the behavior.
3 — Focus and Prioritization
At Glovo, every team works with an ambitious business plan every quarter, and delivering 100% of it is very challenging. A consequence of building a plan with that concept in mind is that it has a lot of targets and activities. All of them are important — so it can be hard to focus on what matters the most and by when.
To bring more clarity, I have started building our strategy against our 2020 Business Priorities and my vision. In the 2020 Business Priorities, from a People perspective, Glovo is focusing on two main pillars: organizational performance and team engagement. We allocate time and resources on boosting performance (hiring for open positions, transitioning underperformers, rewarding & accelerating high performers) and on increasing engagement (sense of belonging, career development, recognition).
From the People Vision I add a Tech-enabled People experience for managers and employees and a focus on leadership (through training, coaching, and tools for people managers). Hopefully, this will help prioritize, but I mainly want leaders to be independent in making those choices by having these north stars well defined.
We recently solidified our plan for the first half of 2020 and I hope these changes in how I operate will bring clarity, more engagement, and confidence to the team. I just recently got the results of the GloVoice survey, which measures the engagement of people with their jobs, manager, team, and company, and the evolution since last September is beautiful to see — super proud of what the team has accomplished.
As for myself, I have a long journey on becoming the leader and person I want to be, so I will keep it honest and in check and welcome any feedback with open arms. Celebrating this first year anniversary and a good 2019 for Glovo is for sure an amazing moment in my life. Thank you Glovo (and especially the People team) for nurturing this amazing growth culture!
Adanya
