In Lachy’s last post, he mentioned that we conjured up the idea for Yarno while on a chairlift in Japan. It was this same trip away, that Lachy first introduced me to the philosophy of Stoicism. A key principle of stoicism is the idea of cultivating happiness by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. And so began the start of my journey towards being happier, and ultimately (hopefully!) successful.
Lachy and I spend a huge amount of time on Slack – it’s our main communication tool for all things Yarno. We even have a specific channel for sharing titbits of information that we come across in our daily lives. This week, via Slack, Lachy passed on a great article by Frederique Dame, product leader at Uber that highlights her experiences over her 15 year career. She details the powerful lessons she learnt along the way and how the most significant factor to her success is happiness.
Here are three of Dominique's lessons that resonated with me, and that will form the foundation of our company culture at Yarno:
1. Empathy is critical
10 years ago I wouldn’t have had a clue what this even meant! Having a 6 week-old child has really changed how I see things from day to day. We had an emergency c-section and some complications prior to the birth, so the past few months have been pretty emotional in the Eggers’ household. You never know how much sleep someone has had, whether their child is sick, whether they are going through a tough time at home. People do the best job they can, with the tools they have at hand. I’ll be making more of an effort to put myself in someone else's shoes before passing any judgements.
2. Small words of encouragement go a long way
I still remember my soccer coach’s encouraging words from my time as goalkeeper in the under 16s. It’s surprising how such relatively small things can stick in your brain. It doesn't take much to praise someone and this is a trait I’ll definitely be introducing into Yarno's culture.
3. Find your team’s battle cry
When the going gets tough it's important to have a mantra for the team to get behind and get them through. We want to create a simple set of values, backed by a strong belief of why we exist for our Yarno team to base everything they do on, to set us up for success. I’m currently listening to a great audiobook called ‘Made to Stick’ by Chip and Dan Heath. They call this idea your ‘commanders intent (CI)’. Whilst I don’t like CI so much because it has strong military roots, I think the idea of a ‘battle cry’ is a tangible idea that makes it easy for employees to get behind your cause.
I admire companies like Southwest airlines that have a strong idea of why they exist, and a simple set of values that they hold higher than anything else. In 2013 the company told their employees - " Our vision is to become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline". This simple, yet powerful "vision statement" is something that I'd like to underpin Yarno's culture upon.
I look forward to sharing more of these bits of information over the coming months on my journey of personal and professional growth.
