Qualifier: CEO of 50 person Series B stage startup in B2B SaaS. Focus: - Making as clear as possible as often as possible what the focus areas are - Focusing

Qualifier: CEO of 50 person Series B stage startup in B2B SaaS. Focus: - Making as clear as possible as often as possible what the focus areas are - Focusing people on what we want more of, not what we want less of - Being transparent about progress and focusing on things we control - Providing a source of calm rather than additional angst Discover: - People are quite susceptible to the overall mood of the macro economy - A lot of wartime 'Do more X / do less X' 1. Doesn't work and 2. Isn't necessary to signal - People will get the signal from their friends, family and the market - Therefore, being calm and clear is way more effective than "wartime" leadership Results: - Our culture has arguably performed better and been more stable than peers - I think this is as a result of intentional effort to remain calm and not jitter or panic with our strategy despite difficulty - I saw a lot of companies destroy the trust they had built making knee jerk resourcing decisions Done differently: - Pretending to be 'wartime' anything in knowledge work is an anxiety-driven mistake - Focus people on what you want, not signaling what you don't want (e.g. complacence) - Trust people to rise to the occasion when treated like adults - Don't try to predict external factors, just return the focus to things we control that affect and benefit customers