10 Years, 10 Lessons

What I have learned in the last 10 years of business

This year Streamline HR turned 10. When I started the business in mid-2014 all I wanted was more flexibility, less pressure and the opportunity to do really great work. I got a fair bit more than that! It never occurred to me that I’d still be at it 10 years later! Over that time, I have learnt a few lessons from some very smart people, and I thought it would be timely to share their wisdom.

1. There is more value in asking questions than making statements – Sue-Ellen Watts

I started my HR journey in Australia at Watts Next and learnt an enormous amount about consulting from Ben and Sue-Ellen Watts. They nurtured my entrepreneurial spirit and love of helping small businesses create great places to work. Of course, the danger of being confident in your late 20’s is thinking you know everything. After advising highly intelligent and experienced Partners of a Law Firm in Adelaide about how to run their bonus structure, (having never considered that they may have a little more experience in it than I did), I had my performance review with Sue-Ellen. She reminded me the value of knowing when to ‘consult’ and when to ‘coach’ i.e. - when to share your opinion and when to help the other person find their own. I still feel a little nauseous when I think about the arrogance of my advice and failure to ask the questions rather than make statements.

2. Ethics and Values matter far more than skills or capabilities – John Tocker

I’ve had the amazing benefit of a group of advisors who I trust implicitly, one of whom is my Dad. When faced with a difficult decision of having someone buy in to the business, he said in all his years as a Director of a successful Architectural firm, the foundation of partnership in business was ethics and values. He said you can disagree on so many things in business but fundamentally if your ethics and values align, you’ll always get through. I have amazing partners in the Streamline HR team and am deeply grateful for the journey they are on with me and the ethics and values they bring.

3. This Too Shall Pass – Penny Cooper

I was asked by my coach 6 months after we started working together what advice I would give myself now having done the work on a major challenge. My response was, “this too shall pass”. It was a reflection that the tough times won’t last but the good ones won’t either, so stop saying “when I just get x, y and z everything will be fixed” because (I finally learnt with Penny’s help) that’s not how business works. It’s highs and lows and everything in between, and what makes the difference in your levels of joy, is not profit or a new client, or a challenging team member but your perspective on it all.

4. I’m The Problem It’s Me – Taylor Swift

So, I’m not a massive Swiftie but these words really resonated with me a few years ago when I was ready to walk away from the whole thing. Moving to New Zealand and running a business remotely was no easy task and when considering selling or shutting up shop to escape the challenges I was facing I realised those challenges were of my own doing. I couldn’t escape me. So, I did some really uncomfortable soul searching about what I was valuing and where my energy was going, and I stuck it out and spent the time on fixing me not the business. Unsurprisingly the rest then fell into place.

5. If there is no obvious decision, you usually don’t have enough information – Randal and Justin Huntington

Early on in my journey with Streamline HR I was working with two brothers Justin and Randal Huntington who ran Design Design & Project Duo. One of them (sorry I can’t remember who) made an off the cuff comment that if you can’t see a clear decision ahead of you, you probably don’t have all the information. I have repeated that to myself and others countless times over the years and it has never put me wrong.

6. Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cashflow is king – Allan Miltz

In the beginning, my PA and I managed the finances. Bills would come in from the ATO, and we would have no idea what they were for, or when the next one was due. We couldn’t forecast anything and never had any real clarity on whether the business was performing or not. Enter Robyn Carter from Carter Group and everything changed. Robyn promised me that I would never have to worry about cashflow or the numbers unless she told me to. And she has always kept that promise. I’ve learnt that size doesn’t matter, but cash in the bank really does thanks to a session with Allan Miltz last year that reinforced this thinking once again.

7. The world has a better plan than your own, so stop messing with it – Michael A Singer

Both of my coaches told me that perhaps not trying so hard might be helpful. What advice! I was given a book called The Surrender Experiment, by Michael A. Singer and it was a game changer. If you have a chance and you’re someone who has a natural tendency to try and control how things play out, then this is a great read for you to just let life unfold.

8. You can’t want it more than the client – Darren Clark

I repeat this to my team A LOT. Often in consulting we come in with a view tempered by our own field of expertise and motivators. When working with business owners I’ve found it so important to meet them where they are at (another Darren term). This means letting them work through what’s important to them rather than enforcing your own mandate on how things should go. They may well need the ‘thing’, but it doesn’t mean the time is right, it’s at the top of their priorities or they even care.

9. Don’t delay a decision you can make today until tomorrow – Ali and Sarah Tocker

As I sat in a restaurant in Townsville a few years back with my mother and sister (both executive coaches and leadership consultants, and formidable and fun dinner dates), I complained about a work situation for what felt to them like the 100th time. They said to me “When is a good time to take action on this?” and “What commitment are you making today around it?”. They saw my face fall into that of the spoilt baby of the family who’d just been called out, but to their credit they were just gently saying, “get on with it”. It’s hard to make the tough calls sometimes, but they don’t get any easier when you delay them - they just take up more headspace!

10. Measure your success in what matters to you not what matters to others – Me 

I used to measure my success in business based off the number of people on my team in comparison to my competitors, and how much money was in the bank. Now I measure it based on whether I can work and still be the kind of wife, mother and friend I want to be. Whether I can relax after work without a racing mind, and whether I’ve done my best work today. I definitely don’t always nail this one, but it’s a great touch stone for when things feel out of kilter and something I am immensely proud of when I get it right.

So from Fabritecture and Goldsworthy who have been with us from the beginning to Westbuilt Homes and Haven Ultrasound who have just joined us this year, to each team member who has come and gone and left their personal contribution in some way on the journey, and to every friend, confidant, challenger, and family member who has reassured and guided me, and of course my long suffering wing man and husband… Thank you! The journey would have been boring and far less successful alone. Let’s see what the next 10 years has in store!

Anne Herbert,

Founder and Director of Streamline HR