As I’ve mentioned a few times, there are number of ways that we could take Glimt.it in this year and I wanted to get the teams unbiased view when we came back from the Christmas break, so one of the things I did was send them the link to the Seedcamp platform page and asked them to read it.
Once they read it I asked them how reading it made them feel and I looked at them to gauge their non-verbal response. Their immediate response was a loud sounding “We’d love to do it” and it’s also what their body language and eyes were saying. I asked them what about it that appealed to them and then about any hesitations that they may have. As always, I was impressed by how nuanced they looked at it. Not only being excited about the obvious fun things like a US trip, but also immediately acknowledging that it would be a lot of hard work and would it potentially impact our day to day business negatively. More than anything though, the amount of people we’d meet and learn from is what appealed to them the most.
For me as the founder and the CEO, understanding what my team wants and how they feel is incredibly important. All decision do at the end lie with me, but taking the temperature on our team’s appetite for this year and initiatives like Seedcamp tells me a lot. I tells me what it is that appeals to them and where they want to go. The aspects that make their eyes lit up are the ones I particularly look for. There are so much we don’t put words on, or even do express but it’s in passing. I like non-censored truths and honesty. I like to get under the hood of things. To peak beyond “That sounds great” and understand why.
I could have started the Seedcamp conversation with “Seedcamp applications close at the end of the month. I think we should apply. What do you think?”. Had I done that, I would have lost out on getting that immediate reaction and that’s an important one to help gage what drives and motivates them. As much as I know that already, I try to find a good balance where I lead but also am led. It’s important to not always put words in people’s mouth or sub-contiously creat bias by always expressing your own view first, but instead let others express theirs and that’s where approaches like getting that first reaction can be very valuable.
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