The human skills founders need to scale.

Are you a founder with ambitions to transition your scrappy startup into a thriving scaleup? Your human skills will require as much attention and tenacity as what you are putting into creating a product or service that will delight your customers.  Your technical prowess might have got you this far, but I guarantee it won’t be enough to create a business that attracts and retains the best talent and to build a business that thrives. You’ll need to go on your own personal transformation journey,  growing from a technical expert to become an adaptive leader.

Let me start by clearing up a few misconceptions:

Human skills are not “soft” which implies they are easy.   Developing human skills requires founders to have a good hard look at themselves and truly understand how they are showing up.  This is easier said than done and often requires the help of an external coach who has some distance and outsider perspective.   Once the founder is conscious of their current state, they must decide who they want to become.  That brings the real work of shifting behaviour to bring about self-improvement. 

The second myth that I want to clear up is that human skills are not fixed.  We can all improve what we give attention to and focus on.  It’s all about having a growth mindset. 

Now for my three essential human skills - trust, empathy and humility. 

1.       Trust is the lubricant of any high performing business and is what will motivate people to get behind you and your vision.  One of my go-to experts on trust Charles Feltman describes four distinctions of trust including care, sincerity, reliability and competence.  Pause and think for a moment about how your team would rate you on these distinctions?  Trust is two-way street.  It is not enough to focus on how trustworthy you are, but it is important how much you trust others.  A belief that human beings are innately trustworthy positively shifts everything in a business for the better.   Enabling freedom and autonomy taps into the psychological needs that motivate humans and unleashes their genius. This quote from Harold McMillan nails it “a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man no one trusts.”

2.       Empathy is an emotional skill that allows us to understand how someone else is feeling. Increased empathy can help founders understand their people’s needs and craft a work experience that drive human flourishing.  Furthermore, empathy can give founders a competitive advantage as they navigate current macro workplace issues like finding solutions to hybrid working and attracting and retaining talent in a market with chronic skills shortages.  Having the empathy to get what turns your people on inside and outside of work can be a game changer.

3.       Finally, and a little from left field is humility which is not often associated with charismatic entrepreneurs or innovative geniuses.  I believe the tide is shifting and that great leaders of the future will be those who can tame their ego without losing the drive to succeed.   Stephen M. R. Covey’s description of the humility shift is perfect “A humble person is more concerned with what is right rather than being right, about acting on good ideas rather than having good ideas, about embracing new truth than defending outdated position, about build the team rather than exulting self and recognising contribution rather than being recognised for making it.”  

There you have it: my three human skills for founders of fast-growing business, and here’s three recommendations to help you start your human development journey.

1.       Reflect on how you are showing up currently when it comes to trust, empathy and humility.   Try journalling, it’s useful to get your thoughts out of your head.

2.       Review the structures, processes and metrics in your business and ask yourself do they engender trust?

3.       Invest in a coach to observe you in action with your team and to give you honest feedback about how you are showing up.

Good luck on your human development journey.  If decide to engage a coach I’m your person.   Contact me via the link here on my website or send an email to alexbakowski@possibilityarena.com