You Are Being Watched. Always.

Second time I'm coming across this "being watched issue" this week.

From Srikrishna's post (emphasis mine):

What most of us don’t realize is that we are actively, even if blindly building culture in our companies every waking moment. The trouble is when we do this without being mindful or engaged, we usually end up building a culture that we are surprised about as it invariably bites us in the rear. Starting from the moment you step into the office, people see if you greet the security guard, whether you get your own cup of tea or put it away when done.

Whether you text in meetings or worse yet when you answer the phone during a 1:1 meeting. Even if you answered yes, yes, yes and no & no, they see what you do or say when a senior team member flames another, or a team member screams at a vendor. When you are quiet about a white lie to a customer or don’t question why a payment is being withheld, you are communicating loudly and shaping culture – though not necessarily the way you want. So culture in a startup is not an option – but what sort of culture you want is a choice you can make.

From the Mixergy podcast with Adam Witty, CEO of Advantage Media Group:

And remember, here’s another thing, as an entrepreneur, if you’re going to grow your, inevitably, you’re going to have to have people. You’re going to have to hire team members. And as soon as you hire your first team member, you’re now not just a boss, but you’re a leader. And everybody is looking at you. Every single person is looking at you. They’re watching you. Every word, every facial expression, every act that you make, they are watching you. And you’ve got to be on your best behavior 24 hours a day, because if they see you in a bad mood, if they see you short and ill-tempered, if they see little things getting you down, then it’s going to throw them off. Their confidence is going to go down, and their productivity is going to go down.

And so, this is just a great example, not only in entrepreneurship, but leadership, because leadership is a big part of growing a business, is that you’ve got have a short memory, you’ve got to be awfully resilient, and you’ve got to have an attitude where you can cruise over speed bumps, and that’s OK. It doesn’t get you down. You just stay focused on moving ahead and you know what? At the same time you’ve got a really positive attitude about all of it too. That is so important.

  
Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analysis on private company transactions, valuations and financials in India. Click Here to learn about Venture Intelligence products that help entrepreneurs Reach Out to Investors, Research Competition, Learn from Experienced Entrepreneurs and Interact with Peers. Includes the Free Deal Digest Weekly Newsletter: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.