Tom Hunt’s Post

Leadership is a choice. - Can you grow into the leader your business needs? - Will you scale your leadership skills from 1x to 2x to 5x to 10x? - Will you settle for being just a good leader? - Or will you never stop growing into a great leader? Leadership is a responsibility Not an entitlement Leadership is a matter of action Not genetics Leadership is a decision Not an accident Whether you learn to lead your team greatly… is a choice. Make the right one.

Stop sending Slack messages after hours. It’s hurting: - You - Your culture - Your team members Instead, schedule them. Not for 9 am. But for 9:15 or 9:30. Give your team members time to log in, get started… then receive. It’s a win:win: - You get to brain dump there and then - Their evening remains theirs Just because you’re working at 11 pm, doesn’t mean your team should.

Team members don’t just want remote work. They want flexible work. They don’t want: - Daily updates - Passive aggressive Slack messages - To have to hang around the office until 6 pm This week I had my whole family visit us in Rome. And thanks to Fame’s flexible culture, I was able to: - Sleep in after a late dinner - Show them around in the afternoons I took a call during "aperitivo" and responded to Slack messages on the go. Flexible work isn’t only about being able to work from anywhere (though this is awesome). It’s about being able to: - Do the important things in life - Whilst still delivering value to the business On your terms. This isn’t for everyone. Some people love commuting to the office. But we embrace flexible work. And you should too. Who's with me?

“I can’t find any qualified candidates” A founder was complaining to me last week… I'm concerned. There could be an issue with: - Culture - Job description - Sourcing strategy Then I learn he's demanding 4 years of experience for an “entry-level” position 🤣 Companies used to train entry-level employees. Now? They tack add “entry-level” to the job description to save cash. But here’s the challenge: experience isn’t free. If you’re after experience, you need to pay. So if you’re not ready to invest… How about we make your entry-level role... entry-level? Agree?

A new team member asked me to approve their holiday. I was a little confused… I replied: “Of course, it’s approved. I don’t think it’s my place to tell you when you can or can’t take time off I don’t care when you go on holiday. We have an agreement, you deliver a result… and we pay you for it” We trust our team to get their work done. Finish early on Friday’s? OK. Work from your parent's house? OK. Work from your phone in the gym? OK. Work from Wetherspoons after dropping the kids off at school? OK. We are all adults. Keeping clients happy? We're happy. Flexible work is the future. Agree?

In the past 18 months, we: - Added $2m in ARR - Have doubled the team How? We focused on building an awesome culture. Here are 3 simple things we do: 1️⃣ Only promote from within We are yet to hire someone in a senior role. People come in: - Master their roles - Adapt to our culture And then progress. This is the #1 thing a business can do to preserve culture. 2️⃣ Hire/fire/reward based on values We have four: - Client Client Client - Operational Excellence - Growth Obsessed - Action Bias And we use them to: - Hire people - Fire people (in a nice way) - Give bonuses This keeps the values in mind. And ensures we live by them. 3️⃣ Have Monthly Chats Every manager has a Monthly Chat with the team members they manage: - What’s going well? - What’s going not so well? - What do you want to do/learn more of? - How can I be a better manager for you? This way, every team member knows: - That we care - What to work on - Where they stand TLDR Your job as a CEO is to make the “deal” as good as possible for your team members. If you do that… They will reward you with a great culture. And great cultures, build great businesses.

An open letter to all managers. Making your team feel valued is the best thing you can do each day. It’s easy to forget this. Even the slowest employees will work faster if appreciated. Don't just tell them how much you appreciate them. Show them by: - Sending a virtual coffee - Giving on-the-spot bonuses - Advocating for them at their next performance review A team member who feels appreciated will always do more than expected. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. Remember: Management is the art of catching someone doing something right. Agree?

Many businesses are demanding that employees return to the office. You might want to rethink that…. Here’s why: Remote work retains employees. If your team can work from anywhere: - Loyalty skyrockets - Productivity increases - Motivation goes through the roof And you have the +$10k per month you were spending on an office, to invest back into them: - Training - Bonuses - Quarterly offsites Because it's not just about convenience. It's about respecting their: - Autonomy - Responsibility - Life outside of work If you're considering this… Stop. Going remote isn’t a fad. It’s an employee retention strategy. And retained employees = retained customers = growth. Retention is the foundation of growth. And remote work strengthens the most important part of that foundation... Your people. Agree?

We’re adding 3 new team members this month. We found them all on LinkedIn. They are: - Working remotely - Managing their workloads - Already making clients happy LinkedIn has talent. If you need people: 1. Create a LinkedIn job description 2. Share it from your personal profile 3. Start having person-to-person conversations Our interview process: - Has 2-3 interviews - Takes 2-3 weeks to complete This isn’t rocket science. Hire fast. Give people a chance.

I interviewed a candidate. The team were very excited about her: - Aligned values - Relevant experience - A passion for podcasting But the interview was really bad. She was: - Very nervous - Could barely answer - Didn’t ask any questions Yet, I had a feeling there was potential.   We trusted our intuition and decided to give her the job… Now, she's one of our top performers. Sometimes interviews don’t do people justice. They can be scary. Don’t blankly reject candidates who don’t interview well.    Agree?