It’s lonely at the top. Reflections on a year of challenges and progress in my business.

Its Lonely At the Top. Reflections on A Year of Challenges and Progress inBusiness

I was prompted by my team to write some reflections on the year, and I hope that sharing them creates value for others. Particularly those who are also leading businesses. Its lonely at the top, and a quick scroll through social media sometimes builds an impression that its full of good times when the reality is often different.

My business, ISL Recruitment, partners with startups and scaleups to help them find great people and build something special.

I know theres plenty of businesses that have had it worse than us in the last 18 months, but for a while, the world of hiring wasnt a pleasantone.

Back in January, I was spending time with my leadership team working on revenue forecasts for 2021. We all knew the numbers we needed to make the business secure. But the numbers I felt personally confident committing to were a lotlower.

My business partner and I still had to make our group feel that we could achieve what was needed. I dont feel fraudulent about pushing us in this session, but Im glad that weve since moved well past my pessimistic number, as well as what was needed to put the business in a goodplace.

This means Im writing this from a much better perspective, and one that makes me excited about whats in store for our business in2022.

Its difficult to find a startup thats not hiring at the moment, and that makes it a lot easier to be confident about generating value from my recruitment business. But even though weve had a solid run of success, its still been a year with difficulties.

My own recruitment challenges

Weve lost a few good people from the team, who have decided that their future lies elsewhere. Thats inevitable when running a business. But when you help advise founders on retaining their staff, its never easy to realise that you missed a trick yourself.

My head is firmly in the thrive rather than survive mode, but I know that being a bit braver earlier this year about planning for the future could have helped us retain at least one of theteam.

Another challenge relates to changes weve made to the roles we have to maximise the value we can create. We now have some who focus on client relationships and others who spend their time engaging with candidates.

Praise and recognition is always key in our business and looking back, the incentives and rewards were still focused on the old setup. People in the newer roles didnt feel their good work was valued. Weve made changes and since got some positive feedback on being more inclusive in this area, but should have adjustedsooner.

But despite much of the last 18 months being horrific for so many and something that none of us would have wished for, Im determined that it can be a positive thing forISL.

Revisiting thevision

Like many people, my business partner and I reflected on whats important and thats changed much of our vision forISL.

Wed ended up running a business that wasnt creating the right value for us or living the right values. Not that we had an awful business, but wed focused on things that seemed important but reallywerent.

Every time I caught up with a peer and they asked how things were going, Id use headcount as a measure ofsuccess.

Id say Its good, were up to 30 people or Not so good, weve dropped back to28.

But often more people mean more headaches, particularly if you compromise your values to get that headcount growth.

Now we have a team that is smaller than before, but the warmth and trust within the business is greater than its everbeen.

Weve always talked about working with the right clients rather than just any clients, and no doubt the insanely strong hiring demand in the market has made that easier. But now weve got the confidence to say no to people simply looking for a transactional service provider, rather than a true talentpartner.

Im determined that we stick to our principles even when this tailwind disappears.

And thats definitely one of the things Im taking into next year. A determination to do what feels right even when its easy to slip back to whatseasy.

Getting to grips with hybridworking

The forced move away from being in the office full-time is now clearly something that is here to stay, and I think thats a great thing. We now work in the office 2/3 days a week, are much more flexible on when someone works, plus have officially adopted a 4.5 day week. I love being able to do the school drop-off or get my head down away from conversations in theoffice.

Zoom chats werent something I instantly liked, but now I love the convenience. One morning recently I presented on growing teams to founders based in London, Singapore and Pakistan on the latest FemTechLab cohort. Then later that day, I mentored some student entrepreneurs on the Future Worlds programme in Southampton, before picking my kids up from childcare. Getting that done in a day when the norm was in person would have been a little challenging!

But despite many of our startup clients being remote-first, I dont see our business being able to operate this way all the time. Maybe Im guilty of a mindset that will date quickly, but I dont feel confident building the connections and collaborations we need to succeed unless were together eachweek.

The hybrid model weve adopted is challenging, and a lot of leaders I talk to worry that its the worst of worlds rather than optimising the best of how and where work can be done. This is an area I think well learn a lot more about in the next year, and on that note please do share with me whats working for you along theway!

But one thing that thankfully Ive been reminded of this year is the love I have for seeing people inperson.

Bristol Technology Festival was a vivid reminder that, for me, a community is strongest when people can be together. I joined a panel at an Amdaris event on the challenge of hiring and retaining talent, co-hosted an invite-only CEO social, and joined the celebrations of the best in tech at the SPARKies.

For me, nothing beats the impact of talking, supporting, listening and laughing with people in person. I saw collisions and connections between people that I know will create huge value, and its been great to see that support within the community onceagain.

That elusive work/life balance

Some of us have felt no balance between running a business and living our lives. Maybe last year that was because we were fighting to survive, and this year its more because Im excited about the opportunity wehave.

But either way, Im so much clearer now on the benefit in taking time off rather than running at 100 miles an hour. After a successful trial, weve permanently adopted a 4.5 day week at ISL. The team have used it for everything from a countryside stroll to an afternoon in the pub to getting the chores out of the way to enjoy theweekend.

Ive covered more miles on my bike than ever before, including a cycle from Bristol to Worcester on a Friday. Im far from cycling at 100 miles an hour, but at least it stops me from trying to keep running a business at thatpace!

The power of relationships

This year has been great for proving to me the power of relationships and paying it forward as the best way to build a successful business.

Our best client came from a referral to my business partner. I spend a lot of time with early-stage founders, acting as a sounding board on their people plans, and have seen some of them come back to me later down the line when they receive investment and need a trusted partner to help them hire the key people they need to build great businesses.

After a year where both my business partner and I were sometimes struggling to know how we could add value to the business, its been nice to show the team that our years of experience count for something!

Our emphasis on relationships with ambitious startups and scaleups has produced some great feedback this year. Were using this to help shape some significant positioning work that were undertaking as part of a rebrand. Im excited about seeing this all come to life in the first few weeks of the newyear.

Looking forward to2022

This piece is more about reflections than looking forward, but no doubt Im enthusiastic about the year to come. Safe to say a lot more so than this time lastyear!

Im looking forward to looking at cash flow each month, rather than every day. And being able to add great people to the team, rather than worry about being able to keepthem.

Im confident well see even more brilliant founders come to us because they know someone weve helped. Ive got high hopes for my marketing team, but also love it when others do our marketing forus!

Personally, I want to maintain a healthy balance between the key parts of my life, keeping true to what Ive realised is important in challenging times.

I dont know of anyone who is grateful for a global pandemic, but Im grateful for the chance its given me to understand whats important and whatsnot.

I feel more ambitious and determined than ever before in leading a business, even though the last couple of years has taught me that things can change quickly. Growing a business of quality first and scale second might cause some to label us a lifestyle business??and its one that Id happily livewith.

This article was originally published on Business Leader in December2021

Im Alan Furley, a director and owner at ISL Recruitment, a business that helps tech startups and scaleups grow through talent planning and finding greatpeople.

I provide expertise, particularly around people and teams, to companies looking to raise investment and grow. I work with founders to help them attract, assess and retain the besttalent.

In the last 18 months, Ive supported organisations including Digital Catapult, Accelerator Network, and Capital Enterprise on their accelerator and growth programmes.

Feel free to follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanfurley/

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Its lonely at the top. Reflections on a year of challenges and progress in my business. was originally published in Startup Stash on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.