Developing employees is key to the success of startups: 4 keys from human development expert Bob Aubrey

Developing employees is key to the success of startups: 4 keys from human development expert Bob Aubrey

Startups are famously risky pursuits. One of the key success factors of startups is the management of employees as your company grows. When you are a startup, the work requirements are different when compared to those in mature organizations. Job roles are fixed in a mature organization, but a startup will typically demand employees to be flexible and ready to face all the challenges that come their way. What is less obvious is that startups also require employees at all levels to develop as quickly as the company. People who opt to work for startup need to know that they are on a steep learning curve, and many of their assumptions about their strengths and capabilities will be questioned.

Bob Aubrey has worked with startup companies in Europe and Asia and has built up his own company as a startup. Here he shares the lessons he has learned for managers of startups. They are useful for managers in a fast-changing situation even if they are in mature organizations.

While working in a startup is generally thrilling for all employees, the demand for fast learning and personal flexibility in changing roles might not fit well with some people. They might join out of enthusiasm to explore, but their enthusiasm might die if they get too far out of their comfort zone. Management of fast employee growth, and the ability to recognize when that growth is not working, is a key leadership skill in any startup. Here are a few tips that might help you lead people in a startup situation.

1. Know your employees: understanding your team members on a personal level builds a connection of trust. This allows you to maintain communication with your employees when the going gets rough. Nobody likes to feel that they are failing. Struggling to keep up creates a lot of stress, and it is hard to accept negative feedback, learn why it’s not working and focus on moving forward. But that’s what fast-growth employees have to do. Employees need to trust that their manager is doing all that is possible to make them successful. Also, a sense of belonging keeps the employee engaged with the team and willing to ask for support.
2. Spend time on positive motivation: Little rituals like celebrating an employee’s birthday, acknowledging a successful milestone in a project or celebrating the signing of a new customer gives people recognition and creates a positive environment. Bob Aubrey recommends spending to publically recognizing achievement. He points out that recognition also gives people a sense of friendly competition for future achievements.
3. Focus on career development: In a startup, people tend to focus on the job, on getting things done and dealing with the next crisis. They forget that they are also changing. Bob Aubrey recommends that managers give feedback to employees on how their actions build their future careers. This is a good way of pointing out where the employee needs to improve and how their career can match with the future organizational needs of the company as it grows.
4. Invest in training: One of the many reasons why people fail in startup situations is that they only learn on the job. They don’t take time to formalize concepts and tools that they will need to manage in a bigger organization. The mistake is to believe that training takes too much time, costs too much and isn’t really needed. Bob Aubrey created corporate universities for several startup and fast-growth companies starting in 1985 when he was a chief consultant for creating Apple’s first corporate university outside the USA. Bob recommends short training that is designed in house, with exposure to thought leaders to help people think strategically. Startups eventually need to make their organizations incrementally more efficient at a very fast pace, and training helps to do that.

Technology, investment, and customers are key to the success of a company, but developing employees is just as important. There will always be the need in a successful startup to bring in talent with experience, but the ability to develop people over time and build the company’s culture with employees who stay with the company as it grows is a strength that makes everyone successful.