4 Lessons Learnt in the Last 3 Years
A chapter in my career will soon be closing, as I finish up in my current company. This got be thinking about what I’ve learnt in just under 3 years whilst at Amicus Digital:
1. Ownership and Accountability
Take responsibility, own mistakes and be generous with giving credit. Cover for your peers, your direct reports and your manager, they’ll appreciate you for it.
Human’s naturally find meaning in affecting change, so it’s important for people to feel empowered with meaningful work and valued as a person and not just a ‘resource’.
Book recommendation: Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink
2. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
A popular quote from management consultant Peter Drucker. The importance of culture can be overlooked in place of strategy. However the efficacy of the strategy is heavily reliant on the people and culture to support it.
Finding the right people who have shared values but provide new perspectives is important, as ensuring an awesome culture is more important than any corporate strategy. Losing an amazing culture is very easy, whilst restoring one takes an enormous amount of time and investment.
Book recommendation: Hit Refresh – Satya Nadella
3. Value Talented Introverts
These are the thinkers. The listeners. The one’s who don’t really enjoy small talk. The one’s that don’t like attention. The one’s that show genuine humility. The independent workers.
In a Western culture, where action is preferred over contemplation, where open plan offices and team based work are the norm. Have we swung too far away from an introvert’s ideal working environment? It is a challenge recognising high performing introverts who naturally don’t like the spotlight, but organisations that overcome this challenge will be rewarded generously.
Book recommendation: Quiet – Susan Cain
4. Read, Listen and Be Curious
Self-education is a must, and the access to knowledge and expertise at people’s disposal now is the greatest during any time, so why not take advantage of this?
Note to self: Read more books. Read less Reddit.
Podcasts have also been great especially those who interview successful people from all walks of life. Many lessons have been learnt by those who have walked before us, so why not understand their failures so you can best avoid them?
Podcast recommendations:
- Art of Manliness
- The GaryVee Audio Experience
- Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher
- The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes
- The Tim Ferriss Show
