Trust: The most valuable team asset

Building something new is always an iterative process - there will be moments in which you as a team realise that the market requirements of yesterday might not match the requirements of tomorrow or you simply have been wrong about some core assumptions.

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A startup is a company "in search of a repeatable business model". Therefore, changing direction or "pivoting" is very common when building and growing a startup. But changing direction requires lots of difficult decisions and conversations within the leadership team. And having such open conversations with each other requires honesty and trust:

• Trust that the other parties will not misunderstand the concerns.
• Trust that there is a common mindset that change always holds opportunity.
• Trust that the other parties understand that it's okay to change their mind sometimes.
  

Without such trust, these critical conversations can't take place and it will be difficult to make adjustments. The last thing you want is to make decisions based on political motives.

How to create the a culture of trust

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Steve Jobs

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I know, I know - how cliché to quote Steve Jobs. But the man was a quote machine, what can I say? And he was right. It takes a lot of expertise, insights and skills to build something that is truly new. And it requires a certain type of people with a special mindset: It requires people who see opportunity before obstacles. It requires people who are motivated by challenges and people who do not take the status quo as a given, rather than the baseline for change. That's what a startup needs to hire for.

So, I believe building a culture of trust comes down to hiring the right people. Not only hiring for skill, but also for mindset. I am a firm believer in hire slow and fire fast. It’s a founder’s number one priority to find and hire the right people and then give them all the conditions for success: Give them the freedom to bring their A-game, give them the trust to make the right decisions and give them the environment to flourish.

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