As is the case for many founders, my journey started as a single show. I started Digital Voices, a marketing agency for influencer that helps brands grow by combining them with makers in YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. With only a small budget of $ 300 and a background in digital strategy, I launched the company with more ambition than security. After-long hours in combination with crowds and self-doubt it now evolved into a million-in-80-person surgery around the world.
Here are five lessons about leadership that I learned along the way.
1. Become comfortable with constant change
Leadership is determined today by constant fluctuation. On a Monday you make strategic decisions in the long term aimed at the future -proof the company. The next day you brainstorm to creative ideas for a customer campaign. All this comes if you try to balance the progress of the company against your own personal journey. And that is before you even get the impact that your actions or a disposable commentary have on your wider team.
To grow, your company must constantly change. For example, we have built new technology that has completely changed people’s daily work, opened the role, titles, teams, opened from offices in the United States and a team in Costa Rica. One of my favorite business sages is: “If your company does not feel like a completely new company every 18 months, you will not scale. You stagnate.”
This exerts enormous pressure on every leader. That ruthless tension means that for real progress you always have to feel out of your comfort zone.
You have to run multiple plates – check that the aspects of the company that you used to run runs smoothly, while you feel a beginner in the obstacle that you throw yourself afterwards.
2. Vulnerability is the key
I have never met a leader who has disappeared their entire career without making mistakes. Nor do you have. The perfect leader does not exist.
It doesn’t matter how many books you have read, coaches you have had, how much time or money you have invested in self -development, making mistakes is part of this game. The proximity of failure keeps most entrepreneurs motivated.
The polished, superhero, everything about the rut, idealized image of entrepreneurship is dead. People want to see the honest version of your struggles and humanity. Sharing your mistakes publicly is not a sign of weakness; It is a way to building trust with your customers and employees.
Try to resist the urge to receive every piece of negative feedback on your back foot. Very rarely it is a personal attack or a character murder. Think about this way: it is difficult to give negative feedback and to offer solutions. It means that your employees are sufficiently worried about how your company can be better. Also, nobody likes conflicts or enjoy hard conversations. They risk discomfort – and sometimes even their work – to give you insights.
3. Rent for fit
The debate of culture versus references: we have heard it all, some of us have lived it.
The truth is that the candidate “Perfect on paper” will always run your head. According to their resume, they have all the relevant experience, the certifications and qualifications, the recommendations … for all purposes they are a Shoo-in.
And yet we all have to acknowledge that references are only part of the puzzle – a vital ingredient for sure, but not the entire cake. You need people who thrive in the uncertainty of a scale environment and who believe in what you strive for and really want to help help to help your company move forward. Not everyone will be able to go to that level of involvement, or even want. So don’t let a CV with large brand names mask that someone is not the right fit from a cultural perspective. Spend the time and hire slowly. And then keep your team’s confidence by shooting quickly if they are not suitable.
4. Stay true to your values
Be clear about what your cultural non-negotiators are in the industry. Write down yours. Inform your team because they need to know which lens they should view.
There will be times when protecting your bottom line clashes with the purpose of your company. Principles cost you money. I have offered several seven -digit amounts to market gambling or brands for weight loss. And although the company could have used that money, we rejected it.
Why? Because we are responsible for the company – and not only commercial, but also culturally. Which means that you have to be sure that the experience, grit, skills and team that you have received so far, will continue to prop.
I am not saying that you are not editing your approach. I say, be careful with the tweaks that cost you your principles and culture. Those decisions are almost impossible to roll back.
5. Mighty your employees
Too many founders tend towards leadership “helicopter”. Just like the business version of Helicopter Parenting, it is a term used to describe the kind of parents constantly floating around their children, every experience micromanaging. Although the company may have ever been your baby, you cannot turn all the signs over all teams. First, it is not sustainable. For two your employees will despise you.
You have to create an environment where people are not afraid to put their hands up when something goes wrong. They must trust that you will jump in and help them solve the problem instead of playing the debt game. Hard for the problem, easy for the person.
This is not about maintaining total control, it is about achieving clarity and trust. The most impactful founders go beyond the performance as a ‘boss’, and start to act as conductors – to bring the best in their team for the collective benefit of everyone.
#learned #leadership #grew #business #millions #dollars