INDUSTRY TECH OUTLOOK19you need to be on every call with them? With our growth rate at Zilker, this is an ongoing challenge, but as they say, "admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery." If any one of our founders or leaders cannot take a 1-2 week vacation without checking in and being involved, we have failed to properly scale.Be Aggressive, not ConservativeSince this is the first company where I have been a founder, I initially did not have a good grasp on how fast we were capable of growing. We did not take investment capital, so we were living hand to mouth, so to speak, on the business we were selling and delivering. A key early lesson was to not wait for the business to arrive before investing in the talent, but to instead invest in the talent to get the business. In the services world, it is easy to assume that you cannot hire delivery talent until the services are sold. My experience has taught me otherwise. Hire the talent that will help you sell the business. They will not only be ready to deliver the work when it gets sold, but will have helped you seed many other opportunities along the way, allowing you to hire even more people. I have seen many professional services companies take the opposite approach. Some of them started years before we did and are still about the same size as they were a few years ago. Hiring to the demand you know you will create is another example of "betting on yourself".Lead, Don't ManageThere is not a lot to say here that hasn't already been said by a lot of people, but it is worth reinforcing its importance. Command and control management structures in business are just not effective anymore. A common counter to this position is "Without clearly defined management structures, how do people know what to do and how they are measured?" That is simple...a lead first style doesn't mean you do not provide guidance, enablement, direction and feedback. It just means that you do it in a way that encourages people to want to perform with and for you, not because they fear making you unhappy or worse, potential punishment. You should have a management structure, but the managersleaders should focus on pulling the string, not pushing it .A Remote Workforce is both a blessing and a challenge, but mostly a blessingI live in the San Francisco Bay Area and am the CEO of a company that is headquartered in Austin, TX. We have 150 teammates in North America across at least 20 states. We also have offices in Belgrade and Chennai. 20+ years ago, this remote concept would have been considered absurd! Our focus has been on hiring the right people regardless of where they live. When you are growing as quickly as we are, talent, motivation and experience are difficult to find in just one or two markets. Creating and maintaining a connection to each other is obviously difficult. Most people in North America do not go to an office every day, and most don't even have local access to a Zilker office. So, we take full advantage of video conferences, annual company get togethers and gatherings when people are visiting customers or otherwise nearby. We have developed a "sherpa" system where everyone in the company has a person they touch base with regularly to chat and share (this is not their manager). We even have a virtual happy hour once a month on video conference that is organized by one of our team members. We have a lot more evolution and improvement to get and keep our teammates fully engaged, but I firmly believe in remote workforces. Hire motivated and talented people where they live and you can build a stronger team for the long haul.If you made it this far, I hope you found a useful nugget or two. I am very proud of the the Zilker team, our growth and am excited for the next 5 years!
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