With Zippia reporting that happy workers are 13% more productive than unhappy workers, clearly it’s crucial to maintain a supportive and welcoming company culture as you grow your business. Not only will this keep your employees motivated, but you’ll also reap the benefits of higher productivity.

So, I wanted to find out how to grow a productive and happy team. That’s why I spoke with Katharine Pooley, Founder & Executive President of her eponymous luxury interior design studio. As one of the UK’s foremost interior designers, Katharine has grown her team to fifty people and adeptly balanced maintaining a creative environment with ensuring her team gets stuff done.

Keep listening to hear Katharine’s advice on how to keep your team happy as well as productive as you scale and why thinking about the octopus effect can really help imbue each and every employee on a daily basis.

Katherine's advice:
Know your limit in terms of number of employees
The happiness of your team is critical and will spring from:

• Enjoyment of the work
• Good collaboration
• Bonuses, salary raises and perks
• Knowing each other well
• Being allowed autonomy and being trusted
• Having a safe work environment
• A pleasant office with a reasonable commute
• Being trained and having the opportunity for meetings and discussions
• Examining a project after it has been delivered and discussing its good and bad points
• If a team is a happy one, productivity will be the result
• A happy team will be a loyal one and the longstanding employees will be so valuable
• Longstanding members can perhaps each manage their own team
• It’s a symbiotic relationship between employer and employed
• You need each other and ideally will stimulate each other

From the employer’s point of view, when interviewing:

• Try to assess the candidate quickly
• Trust the ones who speak with genuine warmth rather than the well-rehearsed speeches
• It’s important to like your employees
• Avoid ones who chatter rather than answering the question
• Those who can communicate and engage with you face to face will be strongest
• As the boss make sure you tackle your emails every single night
• If you have children be up front with them about what you need to do (and then make the most of your time with them)
• Give yourself goals at the start of the year and check up on them in August
• Remember, your enthusiasm will be infectious to your employees
• Be consistent
• Always be approachable; make yourself available at all times and respond to requests
• Try to deal with problems yourself rather than handing them down
• Be prepared to forgive mistakes

FF&M enables you to own your own PR. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason. Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link & Licence

Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail

Support the show

The Department for Education found in 2022 that 63% of UK adults hold multiple roles, demonstrating the extensiveness of the portfolio career. However, how do you create multiple roles for yourself and, importantly, ensure you deliver across them all?

To answer this, I wanted to hear from an experienced portfolio career holder who manages several roles at once - as an M&A growth expert, angel investor and advocate for inclusive leaders Nnenna Onuba founded her first business, LBB Skin, in 2018, & has since built a mergers & acquisitions consultancy and the leadership & inclusion advocacy organisation 100 Allies. Nnenna also holds directorships with organisations including the British Beauty Council and the Royal Veterinary College.

Keep listening to hear Nnenna’s advice on separating your different roles and effectively balancing competing demands on your time.

Nnenna’s advice:

• You need plenty of life experience first
• You must know yourself and what you’re good at, so you can hone in on your strengths
• You need to be the sort of person who enjoys continual learning
• Tackle the tough creative tasks at the beginning of the day when your energy is highest
• When you are relaxed you will be more creative
• Accept that as you age your energy levels may alter, and different times of day will suit you better
• Stay innovative
• If you mentor others you will learn from this
• Attract people with different skills to your own
• Don’t be afraid to delegate important things and trust others
• Additionally, surround yourself with people who inspire you
• If you tackle uncomfortable jobs you will get better at them
• If you are properly self-aware you will be more observant of others
• Try to do even one small thing that makes a difference

FF&M recommends:

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

FF&M enables you to own your own PR. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason. Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.

Let us know how your start up journey is going or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss in future episodes.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link & Licence

Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail

Support the show

UK productivity was ‘24% lower in 2023 than it would have been had it continued climbing at the rates seen before the global financial crisis’ according to the Economics Observatory. Given time is the most limited factor for any founder, for our eleventh season I’ve set out to find answers on how we can all improve our productivity in business.

First up, I wanted to find out how to scale a business efficiently. So I spoke with Nina Briance, Founder & CEO of CULT MIA, the online fashion marketplace for the world’s leading sustainable designers. Since founding CULT MIA in 2019, Nina has grown her business to become one of fashion’s leading online retailers.

Keep listening to hear Nina’s advice on implementing the right systems for efficient growth and how to avoid duplicating work.

FF&M enables you to own your own PR. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason. Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason.

Let us know how your start up journey is going or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss in future episodes.

Nina’s advice:

• Always aim to achieve more with less
• When you start you need a solid foundation of 1) clear processes 2) strong leadership 3) a business model which is scalable - that way you will be able to grow comfortably
• Time block your calendar well in advance
• Always ask yourself WHY you are doing something
• Keep focussed on your long-term goals
• Learn when to step back and let others make decisions (trust people and let them feel empowered)
• Save time by automating processes where this is possible
• All team members need to have a clearly defined role; a growing business does not necessarily need a growing workforce
• Keep auditing your thinking and structures

FF&M recommends:

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod. Link & Licence

Text us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan Mail

Support the show