A root of many frustrations in building a business lies in understanding people. It is common to fail to see people for who they truly are and, instead, see them for who you hope them to be. This misunderstanding of people results in poor hiring choices, confusing expectations with expectancy, and muddling morale with company culture. Startups and entrepreneurs often are unaware of their tendency to make assumptions about people but are left with the ongoing trouble this causes.
The good news is that the skill to understand people can be learned. In this episode, I discuss all this with John McDonald, a managing entrepreneur at Next Studios. We talk about properly assessing people, your true only job as a founder, the difference between morale and culture, and much more.
“People are who they are going to be. And you can’t see people for what you wish they were… the job of a leader is to try and get underneath the covers and understand where people are coming from so that you can be able to anticipate how they might behave in a given situation.” -- John McDonald
What You’ll Learn
- Expectations and calculated risk
- Properly assessing who people are
- Expectations vs expectancy
- Your true job as a startup founder
- What company culture truly is
- A sustainable definition of success
Connect with John McDonald
John is a managing entrepreneur at Next Studios. Next is a partnership of experienced entrepreneurs who help visionaries shape their ideas, craft them through a repeatable process, and move them forward with capital and talent. As the first Benefits (B) Corporation venture studio in Indiana, we provide an alternative to the traditional system. As such, we hold ourselves accountable to both financial success as a business, while supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem of our community.
About John, in his own words:
I have over twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur, most recently as the founder and CEO of ClearObject, a leading Internet of Things company which successfully exited to private equity in 2019, and at IBM, where I led technical sales for their software development tools brand in New York.
I am a founder and board member of the Indiana Technology & Innovation Association, chairman of the Technology & Innovation Committee of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, a board member of TechPoint, of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and of the Indiana India Business Council. I am also a member of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the advisory council for Hamilton Southeastern Schools, the Workforce Alignment council of Ivy Tech Community College, and the Dean’s Council for the Purdue Polytechnic and President’s Club at Purdue University.
I graduated from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, and studied business management, computer science, and meteorology before receiving degrees in Software Development and Computer Information Technology from Purdue University at West Lafayette, where I was also the Student Body Vice President and Treasurer. I was named Purdue’s Distinguished Technology Alumnus in 2007 and Lawrence North’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2017.
I also serve as a lay minister and Director of Worship Arts at Holy Cross Lutheran in Indianapolis and I authored two history books about Indiana, “Flameout” and “Lost Indianapolis”.
Connect with Daniel Fuller
Daniel is a co-founder and the VP of Business Development for FullStack PEO and host of the podcast Savage to Sage. He is passionate about seeing people, leaders, cultures, and organizations develop. He says, “When I have the honor of being a part of that maturation process, it's even more satisfying. My life and work are given to empowering teachable, humble, and hungry leaders and teams to create and sustain joyful, strategic, and productive environments.”
Linkedin
daniel.fuller@fullstackpeo.com
savagetosage.com
Connect with FullStack PEO
FullStack PEO is turnkey HR for emerging companies. They provide a wide ranging, comprehensive, scalable solution that removes the human resource, compliance, and payroll headaches from a company’s to-do list. Their motto and driving value is “You take care of your company, we’ll take care of your people.”
Fullstackpeo.com
