Top 10 Lessons Learned at giffgaff

This is the final post of my top10 series. It’s been an amazing journey and I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to lead this incredible business over the past 10 years. I hope you have enjoyed my previous 9 Top 10 posts. I'll be off to new adventures from 2020. this one is a summary of what I am taking with me:

1. Energy is Everything. When I feel happier and fulfilled at work and life is when I am able to sustain High levels of Energy over prolonged periods of time. Energy brings positivity, passion, creativity, enthusiasm, fun, resilience. All qualities I admire in great leaders. My objective over the past 5 years has been the relentless pursuit of Energy. Having Kids was the trigger as sleep depravation depleted me but once I discovered Energy coping mechanisms, I never looked back. Yes, Kids make you better people, in many ways. It’s not always an easy process though! I don’t believe happiness can be pursued, sustained or measured but the next best thing to happiness is Energy so until I change my mind, Energy is Everything.
2. “Run, my beautiful intellectuals, run” said Tim Minchin in his famous speach to Art Graduates. I’ll take it further. Eat well and Sleep. Exercise even if only 7 minutes a day, Eat a diet rich in veg, Sleep 8h. That’s the basic cure for most physical and mental diseases. Want to take it further? Quit Alcohol. Game changer. Further? Quit Caffeine. Further? Hear Matt Barriman and Quit meat. Further? Quit Sugar. Further? Meditate. Further? How much do you value being at the top of your game? “Take care of your Body. Most of you mob are going to live to nearly a hundred, and even the poorest of you will achieve a level of wealth that most humans throughout history could not have dreamed of. And this long, luxurious life ahead of you is going to make you depressed. But don’t despair! There is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise. Do it. Run, my beautiful intellectuals, run.” Tim Minchin
3. Just Do It. Thanks for making it to point 3. You are probably thinking you knew all that. “Knowledge is Not Power, it’s potential power. Execution beats knowledge every day of the week” Tony Robbins. Maybe some of you are thinking about brining elements of point 2 as part of your new year resolution, new decade and all that but why wait? Do it today. Why postpone what is going to bring you more energy, make you a better leader, better parent, better person? Creating new habits is hard but stop postponing it. I can guarantee you don’t need those new shoes, a gym subscription or that Garmin watch. Go run with those old shoes, there is no excuse for not taking 7 minutes to do exercise. Do it today. Just Do it.
4. “Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job” Jim Rohn. If 1,2 & 3 were too intense don’t read further. It’s not going to get easier and the following 7 are a lot less important. Leadership has a lot in common with Parenthood. It’s hard, emotional, energy draining. When we are kids we always think if one day we become parents we’ll do things so much better, same when we start our first jobs and are exposed to our first bosses. Then one day we become parents, managers, leaders and we realise how hard it is, so hard we end up thinking our parents and bosses were geniuses! As Herminia Ibarra said “ By far the biggest mistake people make when trying to change careers is to delay taking the first step until they have settled into a destination” This applies to everything, which is why point 3 is so important. Let’s go back to Jim Rohn’s quote. Too many of us spend 100% or even more of our time doing our day job when we should be investing a significant proportion of our time building knowledge and skills for our future selves and experimenting with different behaviours. “Your current way of thinking about your job and yourself is exactly what is keeping you from stepping up. You’ll need to change your mindset and there’s only one way to do that: by acting differently” Herminia Ibarra. Leadership is a set of behaviours and actions we are constantly practicing, displaying and optimising. You can practice them everyday, everywhere. You just need to be mindful, experiment, practice and seek for feedback.
5. Watch out with your authenticity traps. Have you ever had that feeling of being embarrassed by the way you thought or acted as a kid, teenager, young adult or even a year ago? That’s because we are always learning, evolving, progressing. Don’t anchor your personality in a set of strengths or talents. Step away from your Comfort zone and find formulas to be in the Stretch zone all the time. Not the Panic zone, the Stretch zone. That’s where the magic happens. Nothing wrong with Panic. Best to hit Panic from time to time than to stay in Comfort most of the time. Don’t be defined by limiting beliefs. “Fake it until you Become it” Amy Cuddy.
6. Love what you do. Many of us spend too much time searching what we truly love dismissing what we have in front of us. 2019 might have been the best year of your life or maybe it was the worse year you can remember. In either case, you are right. It’s not our environment that defines how we feel and think, it’s us. Constraints are real and we all have them but “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. There isn’t a perfect job or that job that has a perfect fit to those natural and unique talents that someone told you can not change. Don’t be defined by others, your limits are based on your believes. It’s less about Doing what you love, it’s about Loving what you do.
7. Set Goals. Goals have powers. They inspire us, they propel us forward, they bring clarity and purpose, they define who we are. The best way to change ourselves and our businesses is to set goals. I love ambitious goals because they make you think differently, they cannot be resolved through marginal gains and optimisation. They force us to think out of the box and bring creativity into the workplace. In 1979 Harvard asked their MBA graduating class if they had clear written goals. 3% said yes, 13% said yes but not written down, 84% said no. Ten years later the 13% were earning x2 as much as the 84%. The 3% were earning x10 than the combined 97%. Goals have powers. Set SMART goals and share them. Set Goals.
8. Be a Chief Storyteller. The most impactful messages in the history of mankind have been delivered through stories. It’s like if we were hardwired to connect with messages and people when comms are delivered through storytelling principles. We are more likely to remember a story involving an egg falling from a wall and being mended by horses than the 4 pillars of a strategy communicated at a company meeting. Great leaders are great public speakers and so, great storytellers. They are teachers, actors, politicians, comedians, magicians. Great leaders will think about How they communicate a message as much or more than What they communicate.
9. Be a Servant Leader. Be a Chief Cheerleader. Recognise and celebrate success at every opportunity and take responsibility for all your teams failures. Keep the door open, know everyone’s name, say Good Morning in their native language, be kind, arrive first, leave last, eat last, have weekly 1 to 1s, lead by example. Be the most caring leader your team has ever had but also the most challenging one. It may sound counterintuitive but it is possible to be simultaneously caring and challenging and that is the art of leadership so well defined in Kim Scott and Simon Sinek’s books. Leadership is not about hiring talented people and stepping out of the way. Challenge and Support are the key ingredients to building strong relationships, team engagement, collaboration and business performance.
10. Enjoy the ride. Being a Dad, Manager or Leader is very rewarding but it’s also hard and you need to find ways to bring joy into your life at work and home. Bring your guitar to work, form a band, invite a Yoga teacher to your office on Mondays, Play Golf on weekends, invite your friends along, Play Tennis with the kids or take them to London for the premier of Shaun the Sheep, make mistakes, many mistakes, dress up as Gandalf for a team meeting, Binge on Stand up Comedy shows, Eat that chocolate. You’ve earned it.

Thanks for these Wonder 10 years giffgaff. Keep Shining.