Episode 43 | Empowering your team with a results only work environment (ROWE) and leading from behind with Danny Matthews - Creative Director at Danny&co.

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.