Notes from Work: Hiring Pangs
“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was — and still is — the most important thing we do.”
— Marc Benioff
In my experience, taking over the reins and repurposing the team to ongoing goals has been never an issue. I have been there, and done that in running operations. But it also blocked my time to focus on my strategic and forward operations role.
When I sit with youngsters, I see their eyes sparkle with energy, innocence, and anticipation. I am sucked into their world of looking at things as tasks and learning. I have a son their age, and I look at them as they laugh, giggle, mock, and bubble with laughter. In my team, we have the broody ones and bubbly ones. They talk only a little in front of me, but I am sure that they connect well. It is like a college computer lab in the bullpen. My head is jumping to an important investor call when one of them walks in to ask a basic question. I have to keep my head in two places and handle them with calm. The chasm is visible — if I have to get back to what I have to do, I have to get younger who can connect to them and me. The chasm is too wide, and the position, let us say, called Program Manager, obviates itself.
The role of a Program Manager is to hire, train, and run the operations with the set of analysts — the young people I just talked about. She is the bridge between the executive management — the managing partner and other partners, who have specific functional roles like investor relations, partnerships, and operations. To understand this role, imagine the letter ‘X’. The junction of the two crossarms of the letter is the role of the Program Manager. Organizations designed like this have the inherent challenge of hiring the right person who can bring agility with maturity and experience.
My previous experience in hiring the right person turned out to be a highly challenging affair and after almost 15 months of trying out, it ended up as a sordid affair. This role evolves into a Program director and eventually a chief operating executive role, and the person needs to have the aspiration to build the organization below her so that she can climb one step above. It means that the person also has to build her second line who can take over the program leadership roles. This calls for grooming and mentoring skills.
Another aspect of this role is the ability to right size and optimize human and other resources based on the growing opportunities across the organization. This calls for planning, budgeting, hiring and training, retraining, and redeploying resources based on the projects that appear on her horizon.
If one had to consider the plans that we have in India and overseas, the person should also be willing to travel and take over the execution from the partners at the right stage, enabling ground-level action on new projects like cohorts.
My wish list is of course longer. I may not find the perfect person, but I would like a person who can start in one area first, be willing to learn the others, collaborate with both her team and the partners, and finally, aspire to grow. It is the growth and collaborative mindset that is needed.
For a young organization, such leaders must come with an understanding of the fast dynamics of the environment and focus on contributing to the growth of the company.
Now, what is in it for her?
~A top-level view of the progress of the company
~learning by contributing to an open culture
~Career path to a CXO role
~Global engagements and travel opportunities
~Potential to unlock equity value through ESOPs
~Competitive salary configurations based on retainer, incentives, and bonuses
~Representing the organization in multiple forums being the brand ambassador
~Being part of the high table of Venture Capital across the globe
The world of venture capital needs women in more leadership positions. Diversity is not a luxury, but a necessity to bring a hybrid worldview to our organization and the ecosystem. Further, the team needs a leader who can enable growth not by using scales and rulers but by letting them share, speak and seize the opportunities that present themselves as we grow.
~Ashok Subramanian
