Do You Have A Compass? + I'm building a course on Maven!
Do You Have A Compass? + I'm building a course on Maven!
More sporadic thoughts on when company values matter // a fun announcement!
As company-builders, we hear often that values matter.
But often, they feel like words on a page — established with great care, however easily forgotten.
At Garden Labs, we work with companies (some startups, some publicly traded cos) who are at inflection points.
They are scaling after a major funding round, pivoting strategically, restructuring for more efficient growth, turning over leadership, transforming culturally. These all have the potential to be company and org-defining moments, where teams emerge with renewed energy to continue the ever-winding journey that is ahead.
Or, they have the potential to bring on immense churn, burnout and loss of momentum.
One observation that’s jumped out at me over the last year is this:
Companies with a clear set of values navigate inflections with more clarity and conviction than those without.
Here’s what I’m seeing…
Funding, labor and technical paradigm shifts have been the incredibly disruptive concoction of the last 18 months. Most agree that the next 24 months will be even more chaotic.
In many cases, companies are turning to advisors (👋) and investors to seek counsel.
While founder / CEO instincts define the map for how to navigate, I’m finding those with clear values also have a handy compass for navigating around the noise (bad advice), and grounding themselves in moments when the sky is raining down around them.
In these tricky moments:
Are they being brave and principled? or fearful and reckless?
Are they executing with care and foresight, or are they creating more problems than opportunities?
Are they taking input to guide them on their path, or allowing recency bias to determine their fate?
In all cases, these are risky turning points. But those leaders with strong compasses (i.e. values) seem to navigate these big decisions (and all of the small decisions that follow) in a manner that is more decisive. Less twitchy. They also achieve real alignment across their teams, even on intensely controversial topics — and they proceed with caution.
So while you may not need a compass everyday – when you’re lost in the woods, I can bet you’re thrilled that you have one.
Generated with Llama 3
Announcement: I’m building a course on Maven!
Months ago, Gagan Biyani reached out to see if I’d be interested in becoming a featured instructor on Maven.
It was an immediate “hell yes” as it was a clear way to scale the COO advisory practice that I’d built over the last two years. It also centered on something that gives me energy — teaching — and felt like an opportunity to get smarter on the black magic that is “ops”.
So I jumped in and started developing the course that I wish I had earlier in my career.
And then something interesting happened:
I looked back on my calendar for the last many weeks and noticed a new theme: execs who were interested in transitioning into full-time advisory or consulting mode — and weren’t sure where or how to start.
These were all incredibly talented folks, with specialized skills and years of experience. All with loads of value to add to startups and large cos — at a fraction of the time, cost and risk of a full-time exec hire.
So I picked up the pen and started designing an offering that included: tactical resources, a private community of support, and access to coaching along the way — effectively, an on-ramp into the solopreneur world for the busiest people.
Today, I’m excited to share that both courses are coming along well, and I’m opening up the “transition to advisory” course for pre-enrollment.
To make sure this course is 10/10 valuable, I’d love your help in doing some customer discovery.
How you can help:
If you’re an exec interested in transitioning into full-time consulting / advisory — please take 2 minutes to fill out this brief survey and help me get to the heart of what you need the most.
Please share this course opportunity with anyone you believe may be interested. That would mean the world to me.
If you’re like me, and loving the flexibility, variety and impact of full-time advisory / consulting — I’d love to chat. I’ll be locking in great guest speakers for a session or two.
Excited to keep building with your support!… 🙏🏼
XO,
Amanda
PS: another course for emerging Ops leaders is also in development! Please stay tuned for more info on that front ❤️