CHAPTER 1
The Gen Z Leader
THE FOUNDER CULTURE
The term "startup" is a term used quite loosely in today's society. Individuals ask, "What exactly is a startup?" and "What are specific types of startups?" Over time, I have come up with a simple answer. A startup is a novel business that aims to create a service or product that can be somewhat seamlessly scalable. The goal is to develop larger profit margins.
A startup product or service should aim to fix an issue in the market and fill a critical need. You could even create a new market entirely, which is the beauty of startups. These businesses achieve a lot of growth and can be transformative in five years or less, which is appealing to someone interested in starting a business.
One misconception people seem to have is that startups have to be in the tech industry. This misunderstanding is not valid. However, a large portion of them are, so it's understandable people would think this way. Startups that aren't software-based tend to have physical services or products that require economical solutions for creation.
Creating a company typically involves one individual or a group of people. These people are "founders." In the beginning, they have a vision of what they think that company can be. It is that vision that helps create the organisation's culture. In some instances, the founder, or founders, are highly intentional about developing a particular culture. One example is a business where teamwork or innovation is valued. On the other side, there are situations where the founder, or the most assertive personality in the group, inadvertently develops the culture from that base.
Some founders, or the core group, create buzz around their startup's culture even in the early stages when they have as little as five employees. A natural phenomenon in the startup world is when the founders become incredibly proud of the job they've done and what they were able to establish. But, as the startup grows and expands, they become stuck in a loop where their voice is the only one that makes sense.
When first starting, having a vocal founder can impact the culture positively, but it can soon become a poisoned chalice. At what point does their culture break?
THE GEN Z PARADIGM
Who Are They?
Technically, this is a term used for Generation Y. But I feel we attribute these traits to the wrong generation. The founders I spoke of are more characteristic of Gen Z. The youngest generation expects more innovation because they've grown up in an age of rapid modernization, which means they are hardly realistic and rarely focused on experience.
Some of the fastest-growing startups were born out of these generations. We must note that there are always horror stories lingering under the hood in every good story.
What is the story here?
Diversity means the practice of involving or including different voices and opinions, which is difficult to achieve when one voice stands out over them all. A founder who only hears his voice makes it difficult to build a diverse culture. What we do in the workplace should involve everyone's voice, which would lead to making justifiable decisions that would shape the very culture of a company.
"Oh, David? Do you mean the guy who interviewed you last month? He left the company. He was let go. It just wasn't the right role for him. He lacked courage."
That type of dialogue is a red flag. When Callum said that to me on my first day, the first thing I thought was, "Well, too bad for that guy." I didn't realize that it would be "too bad for me" six months later.
The keyword in his statement was "courage." In most situations, particularly HR, challenging the status quo is something we would never do. Our role in HR is the "guardian" of the company. Yet, with this new opportunity, I needed the courage to be the "betrayer" of all the other employees. I had to create false protection to ensure the business wasn't going to be sued left, right, and center.
Yet, I spent the majority of my next six months working through settlements as a means to justify my existence. This backtracking was my way to add value to this business or at least recognize what the role indeed was.
You see, David was a well-established HR leader in the industry and a person I felt I could learn from while working together. He had interviewed me only a month earlier after being with the startup for only two months. I admit I thought he wasn't successful in this business because he wasn't fast-paced or creative enough to bring HR into a new age.
When Callum "casually" interviewed me to be David's replacement, he made it clear that he wasn't interested in a traditional HR professional. The role he described required the person to make new frameworks like salary transparency and create other new ways to develop his original and fresh employees.
While many other startups fail, I felt I was sitting in front of a visionary CEO who believed I could bring the change he wanted that suited all of his employees. In the eight years I put into my career until that point, this was the first time I had been wrong about my soon-to-be manager. By the time I came on board, they had already gone through four HR directors in three short years. I may not have heard the sirens then, but my ears would perk up soon.
My first week went like this.
"I've heard so much about you, Sophie. I'm excited we'll be working together," was what the Chief of Staff said when meeting me and quickly moving into, "But first things first. I have an update; your manager Stephen (Chief Operating Officer) resigned a few weeks ago, so we're going to need you to be in Los Angeles to spend some handover time with him." She continued without stopping. "You'll be reporting to Callum from now on, and I'm here to support you in any way you need. But don't worry, we've started the process to hire a counterpart for you so that we don't have to bother regions covered. Come, shall we get a coffee and introduce you to the rest of the team?"
From there, she explained all the changes that had taken place over the last three months, which I first met with Callum. I couldn't help but feel a little giddy about this future. Still, something didn't sit right in my gut. But it was a new environment, a new industry, so I thought to myself, "I just need to be patient to see how this pans out." After all, everyone I met seemed "normal."
The next thing you know, I'm in LA, looking outside from a meeting room decked out with cushions, skateboards, and a slushie machine. Stephen, who was supposed to be my manager, walked in and said, "I hope you're enjoying the lovely weather but let's get to it. I should be out by the end of the week, so we only have five days to get through all the materials I have."
Contrary to what they told me on my first day, I didn't have a month's handover; it would last less than seven days. Since I was already used to the scrappy startup environment, I held my chin up and cracked on. This setback was just the beginning of events that would start to unravel as the months moved on because I was not in a real-life "one-man show."
So, let's do a quick recap.
In the three months I had been with the company, they fired David, Stephen resigned, and I was required to take care of a handover that needed a month in less than a week. Did I see the red flags yet? No, but my eyesight grew better in week two.
RED FLAG #1 (WEEK TWO)
"Just to catch you up on a few things," the in-house counsel said as she welcomed me. "We have two open cases that need your attention. I'm so glad you're here. We haven't had any HR counsel for a while, so they are stacking up."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "These cases look like my predecessor filed these more than a year ago. Didn't David look into them and come to a resolution?"
"Well, you see," she started to respond. "David was only here for a few months, and during that time, he didn't have any UK legislation experience or knowledge. So, they got passed on to the CFO, then COO, and then finally the Chief of Staff. Now it sits with you." Her smile was almost gratifying.
My brain immediately went into overdrive. What about the non-existence of management consequences in this company? If it didn't bother them at all, having it passed around to people who have no prior knowledge on how employment legislation worked. It put a dent in my confidence in their ability to delegate work appropriately. However, I was still in my second week. I am called "the fixer" for a reason, and here I was fixing the first problem.
(Week Three)
I stepped into a meeting scheduled to last 90 minutes that would begin upon my arrival. It was a small group consisting of executives and me. Callum gave me a heads up before the call, "If you can join, please, I'd like to observe and push back on unnecessary training needs if it is not at all mandatory by law."
Upon hearing this, I felt a surge of excitement. I was three weeks in, and it usually doesn't take this long after joining a new role but, I finally...
