015: David Hassell - The Special Dynamics of a Great Team
David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur and founder of 15Five, a SaaS company focused on helping managers and CEOs get effective insights from their people. Having managers and high-level executives become more aware of certain aspects of their company, allows them to proactively address issues before they become problems, acknowledge successes, discover great ideas, and support their team's growth and development.
When David was a young entrepreneur, he raised some capital to build his business, but shortly after, the dotcom crash happened and his capital quickly dried up. This forced him to reinvent his company during a market crisis. He could no longer offer competitive salary to his talent, so he got creative with the hiring process.
Instead of finding emerging talent from amazing universities, he looked for the diamonds in the rough that perhaps had gaps in their resume or were only high-school graduates. As his company grew, his talent was given much more responsibility and autonomy than they ever had before. This allowed them to excel and grow, exponentially, within the company.
Resumes don't always reflect how your talent will react in a real work scenario. What might look like a B or C team on paper, would actually become an A team in reality, just by the way the team engaged and communicated with one another. Fantastic A teams on paper don't always work well, or become difficult, when engaging with other talent, as they're used to being the lone wolf that hogs all the attention.
What did companies do differently where they were able to accomplish their goals and objectives years down the line vs. the ones that couldn't? The thing David kept coming back to was that it all boiled down to the team.
You obviously need clarity and clear objectives, but does the team have a good culture? Is there high engagement? What are the dynamics that create these things? These questions are how David got to where he is today, and it is what led him to create his company, 15Five.
Interview Links:
More Resources: ScalingUpBusiness.com: Learn about how growth coaching can help you and and your business see big results. Scaling Up Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Bill on YouTube: Short videos to keep you Scaling Up.
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Scaling Up is the best-selling book, by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher and I'm a certified Gazelles business coach.
We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).
