This week our guest is Danny Matthews, the Founder & Creative Director of Danny&co. Danny has had significant experience in two different industries, the financial sector and creative graphic design and shares insights on leadership and entrepreneurship.
Danny kicks things off by sharing a leadership analogy he remembers from a picture he once saw, a pack of wolves climbing a mountain, but being led from the back by the lead wolf, not the front. For Danny this summarises his perspective on leadership - it's all about empowering and motivating your team from the back, encouraging them to be their best selves so they want to get better, rather than being the leader at the front who is 'pulling' their team forwards.
Danny's take on effective leadership is centred around the beliefs that a leader has, not necessarily the traits they exhibit. For example, Danny is currently growing his team from 3 outsourced members of staff to 8 fully-fledged employees, which in itself is a great achievement, but his focus is on a results only work environment (ROWE) style of working, which is about results output rather than hours worked. This gives employees a sense of freedom and builds trust in the team, going back to a core belief of how leadership should be, rather than a specific trait.
Danny goes on to share his views on the challenges he has faced in growing an SME business. This is about the trade-off he experienced between focusing on creativity and focusing on lead generation and growing the business. Coming to the realisation he had to step away from the creative side of things for a period of time in order to focus on growing his business for it to have the impact that he desires.
Lastly, Danny shares his advice for aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs about purpose. Understanding what is your purpose for creating a business and having a clear answer to this will enable you to put in the long hours and go above and beyond to deliver your goals of setting up and growing your business.
You can follow Danny on LinkedIn.
A big thank you to Danny for being on our podcast with us!
The Lead to Succeed podcast is presented by Callum and Rebecca Jenkins. It is sponsored by RJEN a business that unlocks the growth potential in companies by finding, gaining and growing the best fit clients.
#124 The Secrets of Workplace Happiness: How a Tech Founder Achieves It.
#123 CEO Mastery Unveiled: Scale Your Business With Impactful Leadership and Rockefeller Habits.
#122 How to Develop Your EQ Advantage for Leadership Success: With Joshua Freedman
#121 How To Communicate and Inspire Through Effective Presenting
#120 Elevate Your Sales Team to New Heights | Marcus A. Chan
#119 Would You Turn Down Apple As A client? With guest Jacqueline Samira
#118 Innovation and Execution are the Keys to Business Growth: Dominic Monkhouse
#117 The Human Face of Leadership and Why Its Critical to Embrace it
#116 Enabling Your Genius with Myles Downey
#115 Crack The Sales Leadership Code With Kevin Thiele
#114 The Difference Heart-Centred Leadership Makes To Business Outcomes | Deb Crowe
#113 Be The Resilient And Joyful Leader Who Achieves More In Less Time
#112 How To Increase Your Opportunities For Success | Chuck Knabusch
#111 The Essential Ingredient To Sustainable Growth | Drew Neal
#110 How To Create A High Performing Team | Andrew Jenkins
#109 Why Leadership Excellence Starts From Within | Vijay Mistri
#108 How To Captivate Your Virtual Audience | Jack Milner
#107 | Lead With Questions And Become A Better Listener In 8 Seconds | Bob Tiede
#106 | If You Don’t Let Go You Don’t Grow | With Johnny Pearce
#105 Leadership Insights From The Worlds Most Admired Companies
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
HCI Leadership Revolution
Human Capital Leadership
The Power of Music Thinking
BusinessWISE
Business Wars