Welcome back to our interview series, “Grown, not Born”, where we speak to remarkable leaders, gaining insight into their journeys and personal experiences with management. Huw Bevan is an experienced strategy and operations leader, working in scale-ups and start-ups. He is passionate about building high-performance teams and scaling fast-growing companies. Currently, Huw is working as a fractional COO and advisor.

Sarah: Hello Huw, thank you for taking the time to meet with me. Do you want to start with some background on your career, what led you to where you are?

Huw: I’ve had quite a varied career. I started as a stockbroker and quickly realized I didn’t want to be on that side of the industry. I’ve always enjoyed talking to leaders, understanding their strategy, how their businesses function, and how that affects performance. I decided I wanted to transition my career into strategy. I started in corporate strategy and M&A, before switching to tech and doing operations. I joined Uber in 2015, I worked on scaling and growing the business through to the IPO. From there I joined Gyre, which is focused on people analytics and guiding leaders toward building high-performance teams. The platform uses AI to help leaders understand the strengths and capabilities of their organization.

Gyre is focused on people analytics and guiding leaders toward building high-performance teams.

Sarah: Can you tell me a bit more about your first few months as a manager, and any associated challenges?

Huw: In my first managerial role, I had two teams to look after, one was performing well, and the other was struggling. While I was told to keep them separate, my solution was to have them work together and learn from each other- it had a great impact on the performance of the whole group, and both teams benefited. We also changed some things to create a better working environment. Fortunately, both teams were highly motivated with great people so it was a case of pausing and asking “How can we approach things differently?”.

Sarah: What have you found effective in managing others?

Huw: Firstly, retrospectives - every two weeks we do a retrospective to ensure that everybody is learning, reflecting and thinking. The commitment to learning improves the culture of the team, creates ownership, and a growth mindset. Then co-creating and establishing clear goals for the team. The key is that it’s not just coming down from the top. My role is checking in and making sure there is coaching and guidance to keep people on track. Ensuring things are in place to make sure that people can deliver. As well as asking how can this team get the best out of each other.

The commitment to learning improves the culture of the team, creates ownership, and a growth mindset.

Sarah: What is your approach to making sure the vision or goal is big enough while trying not to micromanage?

Huw: Everyone is involved in setting our big, ambitious goals for the future. Then we ask “What is required to get me from where I am today, to where I want to be in the future?”. A step down from that we agree on the milestones we want to hit and any potential roadblocks that might get in the way. We regularly check in on that. I find working in two-week sprints effective. We can all come back as a group and say okay, how do we do in the last few weeks? What came up? What did you solve?

“What is required to get me from where I am today, to where I want to be in the future?”

Sarah:  What has your experience been managing an in-person session versus a hybrid/remote team?

Huw: We were mainly in-person in the early part of my career, post-COVID has been entirely remote. Remote can be as effective as in-person, but you have to work to build the culture. Research shows that water cooler conversations do very little for team effectiveness, they’re not necessary when there are structures in place to improve team performance. In terms of becoming a high-performance team, they’ve got to practise, just like a sports team. It’s not as simple as remote or in-person. For me, it’s all about how the team functions. What are the practices and steps you're putting in place regularly to talk about and improve the functioning of your team?

In terms of becoming a high-performance team, they’ve got to practise, just like a sports team.

Sarah: How do you think your time at Gyre has changed your relationship with leadership and team culture?

Huw: It gave me the framework I now use to build a team which includes asking nine questions, the “foundational four” of those would be”

• Do we have a commitment to growth?
• Do we know what our goals are?
• Do we know how to get there?
• Are we getting the best from each other?

So I tend to run through the framework we used at Gyre and ask: "are these all in place?" I believe that leaders and managers need a framework that they can use to think about their team and help diagnose issues. They need to track its performance, understand it's deficiencies, and learn what needs to be addressed. That has been my biggest game-changer in terms of leadership and learning.

Sarah: Finally, what would it be if you had to compare your management style to an animal?

Huw: Oh, god, that's hard. I am quite a calm person, I am going to say Elephant. They think about things, and they are calm animals.

Sarah: Yes, and they have a great memory! Thank you so much for your time.