Today marks my second day back from 3 weeks of paternity leave.
For the first time in over 10 years, I made a conscious effort to switch off completely from work. I love being busy, but it was imperative to me that I was fully present with my first child.
Here are some key takeaways from the experience:
- Trust your team. If you have built a culture around the values you believe in, you should trust your team to perform (maybe even better than you can- April was our best month to date as a business). Shouts to the team Dean Bonning Josh Barker Matt Pryor Mark Afedzie-Hayford
- Stop trying to control everything. Delegate, provide freedom and trust the team to deliver.
- Build cross-functional teams that understand each other markets and job roles. Any slack lost from an individuals absence can then easily be picked up.
- When starting a company with someone; pick integrity and work ethic over any other values
- Leave it to the experts and focus on what you are good at. We decided to bring our accounts internal last month. Initial reaction was to be involved, but quickly realized I was out of my depth.
- Nothing changes within 3 weeks and no one misses you that much. Feel confident to switch off.
And finally… Be kind. Operating on zero sleep as a parent has taught me to empathize always. You never truly know if someone is going through a difficult time!
