💥 Start-up career hacks (special edition 2)

Start-up career hacks featuring:

Sarah Touzani: Your real value lies in fire prevention, not fire-fighting

Sami Maiden: From HR to Chief of Staff: don’t stay in your lane

Nick Walker: Don’t believe everything you read: there’s no perfect solution

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Your real value lies in fire prevention, not fire-fighting

The mistake I made

One big mistake I made when navigating my career in a start-up was making myself too indispensable. Coming from a big bank in Paris to an early-stage start-up in London, I joined a tiny team building everything from scratch. As the first Ops hire, I dived into setting up processes and figuring out how things needed to work.

As we scaled to 80 employees post a successful Series A, with $50 million raised - I found myself at the centre of it all, particularly leading the operations team, which grew to 40-50 people. As the person with all the knowledge, I became the go-to person for answers.

Initially perceived as beneficial, this dynamic created a bottleneck. Whenever my team had questions, I swiftly responded on Slack - not realising I was hindering their learning and autonomy. This not only limited their development but also constrained my ability to focus on broader strategic objectives.

The one thing I wish I knew to avoid that mistake

It's the confidence to let things break occasionally. In hindsight, not every query needed my immediate response on Slack. Stepping back would have empowered others to step in, either to answer those questions or to encourage the person to seek out the answers themselves. This wouldn't resulted in disaster; it would have fostered a more self-sufficient team.

As a COO, it's tempting to slip into a firefighter role, always dousing the flames of the day-to-day issues. The real value lies in fire prevention - creating systems that reduce the likelihood of issues arising in the first place. Shifting from reactive to proactive would have allowed for more strategic planning and prevented the bottleneck caused by my constant availability.

One tip to hack your career in start-ups

My top tip for anyone looking to thrive in a start-up environment is to constantly reassess your role. In a fast-paced start-up, especially one that's scaling quickly, the scope of your job is in perpetual motion. What you were hired to do six months ago likely looks very different from what you're doing today, and it will continue to evolve.

So, every few months, take a step back and redefine your job description. Ask yourself how you can best contribute to the company in its current phase. This might mean letting go of tasks that were once your primary responsibility and embracing new challenges. Essentially, you need to 'fire yourself' from your old job and step into your new role with fresh eyes and renewed energy.

From HR to Chief of Staff: don’t stay in your lane

The mistake I made

When I first started my career, I thought success meant vertical growth on the career ladder (that’s what society drums into us!). So, entering the start-up world, I saw the opportunity to climb the HR career path quickly, my sights set on becoming a Head of People or CPeO. On reflection, this focus meant I’d fallen into the trap of pigeonholing myself in my career before I’d even really started it.

By focusing on climbing the career ladder, I fixated on the skills I thought I needed to get my foot on the next rung, rather than ones I was good at or even enjoyed. HR partnering and employee relations, in particular, drained me and didn’t align with my strengths or passions. But I convinced myself it was necessary to add more ‘HR experience’ for top roles - as if there were no other viable options to explore in start-ups!

The one thing I wish I knew to avoid that mistake

Looking back on my career journey, I wish I had known the value of not limiting myself. Along the way, people suggested various roles where they saw potential for me to thrive - from product management to delivery management to community management, and more. But I was adamant about staying focused (blinkers on people, people, people people!) - I worried that diversifying might muddy my CV or slow down my progress.

But I should've ditched the tunnel vision and embraced the wide development opportunities uniquely available in start-ups. It hit me when I began exploring different roles and found my skills were easily transferable across domains. I realised, in start-ups, driving the business forward matters more than titles. Rather than clinging to a predetermined path, I should have pursued what truly sparked my passion while having a tangible impact.

One tip to hack your career in start-ups

When it comes to navigating a career in start-ups, my number one piece of advice is: don’t stay in a narrow lane! The beauty of a start-up is the opportunity to gather a wide range of skills and experiences that light you up. And because it lights you up, it enables you to have a more significant impact (we’re more likely to deliver great work when we’re passionate about it!) - which in turn will accelerate your growth as you learn different ways or stretch different muscles. 

That's what ultimately landed me in the Chief of Staff role: a varied role by nature where I can be parachuted in to solve any problem on any given day. I don't know what the next step is, and honestly, I find that incredibly liberating. I could explore a thousand different pathways and switch directions as I see fit, all while focusing on what’s going to have the biggest impact on the company, product and people around me. It's truly exciting when you break free from the traditional constraints of the corporate ladder.

Don’t believe everything you read: there’s no perfect solution

My passion is building capability, enabling individuals and companies to reach their goals through tools, frameworks, structure and culture. I thrive when businesses achieve their ambitions through transformation and change.

The mistake I made

When you join a start up for the first time, it’s so exciting. All the things you’ve read, stories you’ve heard, talks you’ve been too or people you know that tell you what it’s going to be like. 

I did all that and thought that because I’d read and heard so much, I knew what to expect and how to handle it from day 1 and started to make assumptions on what to do, when faced with some immediate challenges. I thought I could make change quickly, that’s what start-ups are about after all right? I spoke to many in my team and thought I heard the cry out for change and so I assumed that I could just start. 

I soon realised when I started to gather feedback after some initial changes. People felt that the culture was changing too fast and key team members weren’t happy because of what they thought they were losing. 

What I really needed to do was dig deeper, go slower with change and understand what the team really valued. Thinking everything I read was going to work since they were start-up stories was my big mistake and by taking steps to check my assumptions earlier helped make every change afterwards, much more successful.

The one thing I wish I knew to avoid that mistake

No start-up story is going to be the same. 

There is no pattern or case study that you can follow. Sounds obvious now, but it’s easy to fall into that trap because sometimes in bigger companies, that book you read might have a story that’s exactly what you are experiencing. They are different types of businesses though and start-ups don’t all follow the same pattern, that’s part of the fun! 

In those early days in a start-up, while you can be inspired by things you read or hear about, never assume it’ll be the same for you. Use those learnings as tools and inspiration, not to follow blindly.

One tip to hack your career in start-ups

Don’t believe everything you read. It’s common these days to read blogs or hear stories that are just like ‘playing house’ the perfect scenario, with the perfect solution - but they don’t necessarily help your situation.

Treat every start-up like it’s unique, a great opportunity to explore and try techniques and tactics that are bold, ambitious, but curious and with a quick feedback loop to help guide you on your path. 

There are plenty of your skills and experiences that you can leverage, but the great part about start-ups - no two will ever be the same! Being in that mindset from day 1, will help your career in start-ups immensely. 

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