From profit oriented to purpose and values oriented. Not fully there yet, but on the right track
Since I’ve started my entrepreneurial journey, many things changed, including my perception on certain values. Now, the gap between my personal and professional values has narrowed, but it hasn’t always been like this.
A former teacher of mine once told us that a business is built for profit. Full stop. He added nothing about mission, values, purpose, being ethical or building trust. This stayed with me and for a while I thought that being profit & power oriented will take me where I wanted.
But now, at almost 35 years, I value kindness, humbleness, clarity and hard work more than anything. These are the values that I aim to pass down to my baby boy, Ian, and that I am using as guidance in my life. There still are some personal behaviours that I find hard to adopt in business, such as minimalism, because the context doesn’t allow it — starting from dress codes to printing tons of paper. This will probably change as well eventually.
Each strong organisation has some deeply rooted beliefs — mostly inspired by the founders, so I made the exercise of thinking about the values I’ve gained over the years and on which I’ve based my work at Bright Spaces on.
We aim for clarity
Every day, at Bright Spaces, we are trying to leave our mark, to bring value, to make a change through our work. And this is something we focus on not only with our product and mission, but also with our day to day tasks. Having a clear sense of meaning while working hard and staying humble is what keeps us going one step further everyday.
Clarity is a holy grail in entrepreneurship and especially for early stage startups who are testing, pivoting and failing and starting all over again. We know we need it, we fight to get it and we know that one can only obtain it through simplifying things. But at the same time, nothing is simple at start (if it were, someone else would have done it already) so until we’ll become a stable international player, we try to clarify any other small process we can, such as onboarding new clients. It is extremely important for me that my colleagues understand they are part of a bigger scheme and that they all have essential roles for the success of our business.
The same is valid for our clients. We are still testing new features, taking feedback and introducing new modules and we always make sure they know about this experimental side of our process. I would also add that regarding the relationship we build with our clients, setting expectations right is at the base of any conversation (although from time to time, I do tend to over promise things and this puts some unnecessary pressure on the rest of the team)
There’s a concept in business called the golden triangle, according to which you can only have two of the following at the same time: cheapest, fastest or best. Once we define our expectations well and combine them with a sense of empathy, negotiations become softer and in the end, more productive.
Collaboration and competition can mix
Taking a step further and talking about our relationship with our competition as well, what I’ve learned from years of being an entrepreneur is that competition is not only vital, but it can also mix with what seems to be a paradoxical component of collaboration. There’s so much we can learn from each other and so many steps we can burn together in order to innovate faster, especially in a fresh, dynamic market such as the PropTech industry.
Building your team on shared values
A great team is made of people who share your vision and your values, although they don’t necessarily agree with you on everything. And that is what you should be looking for.
Actually, when bringing new tech-skilled colleagues on board, I only get involved in the last interview, to make sure they match the organisational culture. We usually talk about expectations and I am looking for authentic discussions, where both sides bring something to the table. In fact, no matter what role we are hiring for, having similar values is vital for us and I generally look for clear communication, kindness and humbleness.
Being humble is the one value I mostly appreciate, maybe also because I haven’t owned it for a long time. I didn’t see the peacefulness and power it can actually bring and I think that it all comes down to one understanding its goals. Being right, burning energy and time in battles for a subjective truth can only drain you and move you away from your path.
Staying on track through open communication
It is very easy, I think, to get lost in day to day tasks and this is why a company needs a dedicated person who takes care of the general feeling of contempt. We are planning to bring in such a person, a HR Manager or, more creatively said, a Happiness Manager who will be a contact point for everyone in our team who wants to solve a problem, overcome a challenge, grow professionally or even leave the team. It is very important to know why a person leaves your company and if there is anything you could have done differently.
Keeping a clear head even through uncertainty
This is an interesting time to think about uncertainty, with the pandemic still going on. But if I were to think about how I personally manage my own uncertainty, I put great value on turning it into a purposeful pressure and not passing it to others around me. Uncertain pressure can break teams.
I try to transform personal and professional crises into action plans and to get things done and I know that at some point, stress levels decrease. It comes with time and experience.
On failure
The last thing I want to tackle is the way I see success and how I define it: the capacity to reach a higher point compared to the last point you fell from. For me, failure can only happen if you stop.
Failures are extremely motivating for me, as when falling, I know exactly where I need to rise, what I need to do and, hopefully, how long will it take to get there. I know I am going to fall (not fail), but for me, this is a condition for success.
I am a strong believer in gratitude and compassion, but not in stagnation. Reaching higher levels, growing, learning, becoming the best version of ourselves — all these involve action, a lot of work, many mistakes and low points. I am truly grateful for everything I have in my life and this is the only way I see myself moving forward.
