【Lesson #6 - Focus on leveraging strengths, not improving weaknesses】
In the never-ending argument between focusing on maximizing strengths vs improving weaknesses, Chelsea Sim, the former founder and CEO of Botbot.ai, which provides chatbot-based productivity solutions for enterprise, has learned to over index on leveraging strengths, instead of correcting weaknesses. Why? Simply put, the world rewards greatness, and the amount of time it takes you to get a skill from bad to good is likely the same amount of time it takes to get a skill from good to great, except the latter scenario yields 10x dividends.
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At some point during the early days of Botbot, instead of business development, I somehow found myself spending almost half of my weeks on HR related matters, such as payroll, performance reviews, or 1:1 my employees. So I went out to hire an HR, seeking specifically for someone that could handle both talent development and administration.
After several months of prolonged searching, I ended up settling on a girl that was fantastic at finding candidates and communicating with current and future employees, but often dropped the ball when it came to paperwork and admin functions. Contracts were lost, salaries came out with extra zeros, and paid leave was not accurately calculated. It was a nightmare. While backend, these functions are mission critical, and no founder wants to be brought down by shotty operations. Your team also has a lot less tolerance when it comes to administrative mistakes, especially when they're performing at the speed in which a scaling startup needs to function.
Several performance reviews passed by, and it was clear that she had not demonstrated any notable improvements on the administration front. But this person had also become a critical part of our talent and culture management, extending a bit into marketing based solely on her effective communications alone. So, instead of forcing this person into this arbitrary mold that I created for her, I decided to find someone else to complement her skill sets. Our HR has been split into talent operations and admin and functioning seamlessly ever since.
In an ideal world, we can all focus on improving our weaknesses to make us all more well-rounded individuals. But in startups, it’s a race against time, and as a founder, your sole job is to determine the most optimal allocation of resources to deliver maximum output—but the key is also recognizing that the allocation can and should always change based on new inputs.
Applications for AW#22 are now open to founders targeting SEA, AI/IoT, or Blockchain/Defi -> https://bit.ly/2KShdfV
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