In the 21 years since I founded Flow Communications in a spare bedroom, I’ve learnt loads about business and people.
Here are some of them:
1. Your people are your greatest asset
Yes, it’s a cliché, but it’s true. People, not resources, build a company. So take time to choose the right people; hire slowly, fire fast.
A company’s numbers – its fundamentals – are always important, of course. But its people are always more so.
2. You become the company you keep
See point 1, but this also extends to the people you partner with, the clients you engage, the people you impact and influence and the work you do.
Surround yourself with the right people, who share your values, and you will do great things and help make the world a better place for us all. Choose the wrong people, and …
3. Anyone can be a leader
The best leaders build other leaders, or multiply others, rather than diminish them, as Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown wrote in their classic 2010 book on leadership, Multipliers. And as Nelson Mandela taught us, it doesn’t matter who you are in an organisation or in life, you can lead through your actions, attitude, commitment and innovation.
4. Relationships are everything
Look at long-term client partnership and potential, rather than trying to make a buck on every small project.
Sometimes loss leaders can turn into wonderful, sustainable relationships. Clients who keep coming back are the best ones to have, and they often lead you to new relationships, too.
5. Attitude trumps skills
You can teach skills, but attitude is far more innate. How many times have you been so impressed by someone’s attitude that you want to work with them – or conversely, so turned off that you don’t.
Having a great attitude counts for a lot, especially when times are tough. It inspires confidence and it deepens trust.
6. Down to the nitty gritty
There’s no success without grit. It’s a truism that most ventures don’t last more than a year or two. There will be setbacks and lean times.
In the face of hardship, you have to be resilient. Over and over. Without grit, you won’t survive.
7. There is always a market for quality
Quality entails doing the very best work possible for every client, big or small, every time. That’s why they’ll keep coming back, and also say good things about you.
Quality means not only top-notch creative output but stringent quality assurance, too. Nothing destroys a great plan – and client happiness – like lack of attention to detail.
8. ‘Fake it until you become it’
Social psychologist and former Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk on body language is one of the most viewed ever. In it, she argues that our body language not only influences how others perceive us, but how we see ourselves.
Read this TED blog about how you can fake it until you become it – how you can inspire confidence in yourself, and then in others. (It contains a link to her talk, too.)
9. Laugh and have fun
Having fun is a serious matter, and you have to plan for it. A healthy dose of whackiness can do wonders for culture.
Take joy in your work, and each other – get to know your colleagues, don’t take yourself too seriously (though do take your work seriously), and make opportunities for fun for the sake of it.
10. What you focus on, you achieve
If you need sales, focus on sales. If quality or customer service needs a boost, focus on achieving that. If you need to upgrade systems, get it done. Focus on what needs your attention.
11. Teamwork does make the dream work
Another cliché, yes, but synergies within and between your teams create magic. Foster creativity, teach skills across functions and encourage learning.
Let’s put it another way: when we support and inspire each other – because none of us can do it all – the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.
12. Embrace innovation and change
Never, ever stop learning, and be a leader when it comes to new technologies and systems – be prepared to dive into the unknown.
AI is a contemporary case in point. It’s a technology that is radically changing almost every aspect of what we do. If you don’t learn how to make the most of it, quickly and creatively, you’ll soon be left behind.
13. Hope is not a strategy (but it sort of is)
Let’s be clear: hope is a good thing. We all hope for things – for a brighter future, for our children to be happy and successful, for our work to make a difference. And being optimistic and hopeful is a useful base on which to face the future.
But businesses do not run on hope alone. For them to be successful, they need to be grown based on a clear-eyed, focused and bold strategy.
14. ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’
It’s not definitive which captain of industry coined this term, but the meaning is clear: a good workplace culture dictates how work gets done.
No matter how brilliant your business strategy might be, it will fail if your company’s people, values and daily behaviours do not support it.
15. Know your purpose
A business’s purpose is not about making money, about the what. Rather, it’s about the why: what is the point of the business? (Simon Sinek has a great TED Talk on this topic, or read his book, Start with Why?)
If you don’t know why you’re doing what you do, why you’ve chosen this particular industry, then you’re lost. At Flow, our purpose is about doing work we love, with people we like, on work that will make a positive difference in the world.
Tara Turkington is the CEO of Flow Communications (www.flowsa.com), one of South Africa’s leading marketing and communications agencies.
