Startup Blabber #006: The Importance of Feedback

Hello Steemians,

Wanted to talk today about the importance of feedback.

Before I went into the world of startups, I worked at a consulting company in the states. These two years of my life were very, very valuable to me. I tell a lot of people that before you go into startups, if you are not in a hurry, to spend at least 1 or 2 years in a company that's been in existence for at least 15+ years. While they may have been a startup at some point, they have gone through multiple stages in the life of a company, and hopefully created a strong foundation, as well as put in a lot of processes to further the growth of the team and the company.

What Do You Learn at a Company?
Why do I recommend starting out at a company, you might say. There is a saying that the best way to learn is to learn from your mistakes. Therefore, why not just start a venture, make the mistakes, and learn from them from the get-go? There is a ton of things that you learn from being a part of a larger corporation.

1. You learn to be a part of something larger
   A company will have a fundamental goal to reach on a year-by-year basis, then split it's initiative with a top-down approach, and lay out goals that every team in the company must finish. In order to achieve the company's fundamental goal, every team in the company will have to complete it's smaller objective.

2. You learn about the importance of team
   You realize at some point that you are not the center of the universe. You are part of a cog that makes everything go around. At a larger company, you will probably start off doing the grunt work as part of a team. You may think that the team may have no importance, but in a capitalistic world, there should technically not be a team of no importance. The team that you are a part is doing it's part to make sure that the whole corporation achieve it's goal.

3. You learn about leadership
   As someone who is doing the grunt work, you look up towards your immediate boss, someone who is part of middle management, doing not only some grunt work, but also some management duties that entails leading a small team. You see how that person operates and inadvertantly begin to critique them, seeing what works, and what doesn't work.

4. You learn about processes
   In the beginning of a venture, it's not really about processes, rather than just doing the work, and checking off checkboxes from a list of to-dos that the company must do. As the company progresses, there will be a stage where you will need to implement processes. Starting from scratch will be much harder. Using processes from your experience at a company can provide a template for what you will implement at a company.

Time for the Venture Baby to Grow Up
So you spent a few years at a company. What next? You can stay at a company and climb the corporate ladder. You believe in the company's goals and would love to aid the company achieve those goals. Or you might have a different goal you want to achieve in mind, such as me. It might be time for the venture baby to go out and try it on his/her own.

Since today's topic is about feedback, I will just skip a few chapters of the beginning of the venture and talk about feedback. One aspect that you learn from a company was leadership. One crucial big pro of being in a company is that as you start out, you constantly have someone more experienced than you guiding you to grow as a team member and leader. You start off doing the grunt work with your immediate boss giving you pointers and hints and also lecturing you when you did somthing wrong. You don't get that when you are starting your own company.

As a result, if this is your first startup, I always encourage people to use The Coalition method. Since you don't have leaders to pull you up and help you grow as a leader, you have to rely on constant feedback from your co-founders. At TMON, we would have biweekly chats on just stuff that your cofounders did well and stuff that your cofounders could potentially work on. To be very frank, this was very difficult for me. There are people who take criticism well; there are others (like myself) that don't take it very well. It definitely is something that you have to get used to, and something you have to persistantly piledrive through, but something I think is more of a necessity in order for you to become a great leader.

One piece of advice is that after you have that discussion, you will need to vent a bit. Just take a few moments and go get some fresh air to yourself and just reflect on that discussion. You were probably very defensive at the discussion, but if your cofounders are truly there to support you, a lot of their criticism is probably on founded ground. Go and reflect, get some fresh air, and come back with an open mind.

Have a wonderful rest of the week guys!
Chris

More about myself:
Steemit Introductory Post

Startup Blabber Series:
Startup Blabber #001: Communication Within a Team
Startup Blabber #002: Most Important Aspect of a Startup
Startup Blabber #003: There shall always be conflict!
Startup Blabber #004: The Hamptons Five
Startup Blabber #005: The Cap Table

Althea Talk Series:
Althea Talk #001: Introduction
Althea Talk #002: My Journey Into Skincare