We need better leadership: A personal story from our Founder

People deserve better leadership, it's that simple. Here is a personal story and some learnings to help you become a better leader.

I once joined a leadership meeting, and in this meeting I was asked a question to which I did not know the answer. I was honest and explained that I didn’t know the answer, but that I could find it from one of my team members once the meeting was over. I was met with the response "if you don't know this, then what is the point in you being here at all?”.

This was not a one-off, similar things had happened to many of my peers, and this incident helped me to learn a few things, here’s what I learned from this:

💔 When a culture is telling you what it is, then listen...

The real culture stems from the leadership team, and if that is unhealthy then you are only covering up the cracks in the rest of the organisation. Since then I started being way more honest with what I see as the true issues of a company, and work on solving the root cause.

🦸‍♂️ The real leader shows themselves in the tough times...

It's easy to lead when everything is going well, when things are not, it's much harder. I’ve seen some leaders with very short memories, they are frankly quite horrible in stressful times and then as soon as the business is doing well, they are all sweetness and light. The team members don’t forget though and over time respect dwindles away. Since then I've repeated this to my teams regularly and I've tried to stay consistent and caring through tough times.

🤗 I cared way too much about trying to please others…

The comment in that meeting hurt way too much, I had let myself “buy into the bullshit” and I craved validation. We know that companies fire people whenever it’s convenient for them and I (had once again) let myself believe that this one was different, it was not. My boss only really showed any interest in me when they wanted something. Since then I've worked hard to get a healthier balance and other people’s comments hurt way less.

🚀 All feedback, can be useful feedback, even if it is badly delivered...

Even if it hurts at the time and is delivered in a terrible way, it's always important to reflect on it, and see if there's a grain of truth in there somewhere. I try to view everything, even the bad things, as an opportunity to improve. However I would never recommend giving feedback in this way! 😂...

🫶 My tip: As a leader regularly ask for feedback in a HEALTHY way and actually acknowledge it, then use it to improve. Use Feebee to get feedback and start improving as a leader, you owe it to yourself and to your team.