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Paul Wolfe, HR Venture Advisor at SemperVirens Venture Capital
For our Scaling Stories podcast, Paul shared his philosophy on what human first leadership really means.
“Let’s say you have 10 people on a team. They’re 10 different human beings – they’re hardwired differently. They have different upbringings, they come from different places, they may be married or not married, straight or gay. It’s like a microcosm of the world, these 10 people that you have. Not everything has to be customised, but you have to get to understand those people a little bit to be able to lead them effectively.”
In a week where we’ve covered artificial intelligence in depth, our chat with Paul was timely. You only have to look at some of the clumsier spambot emails from robo-recruiters to remind yourself that there’s no substitute for human-first hiring.
And who’s to say that candidates won’t become wise to the more implausible emails and ads? According to research by Clarify Capital, we are now in a world where many job listings are fake, as some employers advertise roles they have no intention of filling “to give the impression the company [is] growing”.
Similarly, we covered the topic of transparency in our chat with Paul. On pay transparency, Paul says: “Involve your employees. Explain the process to them so it’s not this secret-something where HR folks go behind a dark curtain in a dark room and make all these arbitrary decisions.”
Meanwhile, Paul offers a brilliant take-down of leaders who think that forcing everyone back to the office is the only game in town.
“If your culture is the four walls of an office, you’ve got bigger problems than running a business. You need to solve the culture. ‘Problem culture’ is not the four walls of an office or the foosball table or the ping pong table or the lunch or the fancy chairs… Your company’s mission and the values and how you treat each other and how you treat your clients and what it means to work at that company [is the culture]. Four walls don’t make culture.”
Finally, in a world of shrinking headcounts, Paul gave us his perceptive and entertaining take on how to navigate a nimble organisation.
“The smaller the company, the easier it is to impact change and influence change. And maybe not even change, but influence, before it needs to be changed. Influence how things happen, how a culture is, how a culture’s established, how values are established and things like that. It’s easier to turn a motorboat than a cruise ship… Clearly, I’m not a sailor, but you get the concept.”
We highly recommend Paul’s aptly-titled book, Human Beings First. And for more insights from hiring and HR leaders, we’ve got an ever-growing library of Scaling Stories podcasts and blogs to chew on, like this piece on how Dashlane took a sledgehammer to traditional HR processes.
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By Nasser OudjidaneFor our Scaling Stories podcast, Paul shared his philosophy on what human first leadership really means.
“Let’s say you have 10 people on a team. They’re 10 different human beings – they’re hardwired differently. They have different upbringings, they come from different places, they may be married or not married, straight or gay. It’s like a microcosm of the world, these 10 people that you have. Not everything has to be customised, but you have to get to understand those people a little bit to be able to lead them effectively.”
In a week where we’ve covered artificial intelligence in depth, our chat with Paul was timely. You only have to look at some of the clumsier spambot emails from robo-recruiters to remind yourself that there’s no substitute for human-first hiring.
And who’s to say that candidates won’t become wise to the more implausible emails and ads? According to research by Clarify Capital, we are now in a world where many job listings are fake, as some employers advertise roles they have no intention of filling “to give the impression the company [is] growing”.
Similarly, we covered the topic of transparency in our chat with Paul. On pay transparency, Paul says: “Involve your employees. Explain the process to them so it’s not this secret-something where HR folks go behind a dark curtain in a dark room and make all these arbitrary decisions.”
Meanwhile, Paul offers a brilliant take-down of leaders who think that forcing everyone back to the office is the only game in town.
“If your culture is the four walls of an office, you’ve got bigger problems than running a business. You need to solve the culture. ‘Problem culture’ is not the four walls of an office or the foosball table or the ping pong table or the lunch or the fancy chairs… Your company’s mission and the values and how you treat each other and how you treat your clients and what it means to work at that company [is the culture]. Four walls don’t make culture.”
Finally, in a world of shrinking headcounts, Paul gave us his perceptive and entertaining take on how to navigate a nimble organisation.
“The smaller the company, the easier it is to impact change and influence change. And maybe not even change, but influence, before it needs to be changed. Influence how things happen, how a culture is, how a culture’s established, how values are established and things like that. It’s easier to turn a motorboat than a cruise ship… Clearly, I’m not a sailor, but you get the concept.”
We highly recommend Paul’s aptly-titled book, Human Beings First. And for more insights from hiring and HR leaders, we’ve got an ever-growing library of Scaling Stories podcasts and blogs to chew on, like this piece on how Dashlane took a sledgehammer to traditional HR processes.