# Alex Dunsdon's Manager Readme

**Chief Of Staff  at Redbrain**

# Motivation for this document

I'd love for to help people get the most from working with me and for everyone to understand:

- where my motivation comes from deep down 
- the bits I find the hardest at work
- what fills me full of energy and joy!

# What Motivates Me 

This is my picture 

![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/managerreadme/images/The goal on how i live life.jpg)

It basically means...

"If i can help make everyone around me better i get to love, safety and belonging"

If i have a metric it would be "ripples in the world" - how many lives can i affect in a positive way.

# Why I'm Here Now

1/ I'm attracted to people that feel they somehow don’t fit. That the ‘system’ hasn’t worked for them and Instead dulled their talent. [I felt that for a long time myself](https://medium.com/@alexdunsdon/my-linky-brain-why-did-nobody-tell-me-b085527887bf) and I see a lots of them at Redbrain. 

2/ I honestly think we can make this a hugeass monopoly business and if we do that we will:

 - Positively affect lives of Redbrainers  
-  Spit out resources (cash + learning)  to scale the number of ripples I / we can make in the world

There are 7 billion people on the planet - talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t.

# My Role as "Chief of Staff"

I hope to deliver a happy, high performing organisation whilst we transition to a 'scale up'   
I have done all sorts of things in my life to get me to here ..           
- I led M&C Saatchi's strategy unit  
- Did M&A of some companies  
- Ran SAATCHiNVEST venture fund  
- Invested in 30+ startups, like Ometria, Farewill and Citymapper   
 - Grew a big network (+50K social following)  
- Started and exited the Bakery - a corporate innovation company  
- Done brand, strategy,  marketing, innovation, investing, writing, coaching and growth hacking (not as well as Jared, Jack, Paul & Doug!! )

BUT

I have never scaled a company from £25m to £100m revenue. 

So this is new to me. And it excites me. 

I am comforted by the quality of people here - nice, share similar values, really really seem to care, and are tolerant of unique and different skillsets.  
  
If there's one way above all where i hope i can make a difference it would be to help align everyone.  Magic happens when you get a group of people all looking up to the same moon and building the rockets to get there. 

# What Do I Value the Most 

 - I love learning things  
 - I love being around people with ideas and energy to make a difference.  
 - I am pretty likely to say yes to anyone who has ideas, communicates them with passion and takes responsibility  for making them happen.  
 - I really value it when people: 

- Work hard - not necessarily in terms of hours - but in terms of focus, intention, and enthusiasm 
- Come to me with ideas for making things better

- Think laterally about how we could solve a problem - e.g. can we reframe it / quick-fix it / give it to someone else / ignore it all together / bring in extra help
- Prove me wrong

- Invite me to collaborate on something particularly tough
- Love what they do and are infectious with their enthusiasm (which doesn't have to be in an extroverted way!)

One of the most helpful things for me is to get loads of feedback. I'm super open and, if you can be open and direct with me, you'll get the best out of me. 

I like to get to the heart of things and not dance round what's really going on. 

I generally think people know more than me / the answers themselves and my instinct is to empower them. 

Having said that...

 - I'm human and can still be sensitive to criticism. 

 - I'm not great at lots of things....I have ADD and sometimes find it hard to focus. I'm not great at detail and sometimes am not patient if i don't feel like things are moving forward slowly.  

 - I don't always deal well with closed mindedness...I want to play and explore. 

# My Expectations

I tend to communicate through debate...asking questions and coming up with better solutions together 

I am happy to hear ideas but I do like it when people have thought through why its a good idea and - most importantly - what they will do to make it happen. 

I like it if people feel like they can admit vulnerability, or mistakes, or want advice. Its a real sign of strength. 

I like moving fast in small teams where we can get things done quickly. 

I also like the feeling when we've achieved something hard together 

I am always contactable. I like the phone. I don't mind random phone calls (i know, weird right). 

# Personality quirks

I like to really understand things. When working with me I'm likely to ask lots of questions, or try to build something even better with you. Debate and questions invariably make things better. 

I believe in strong views lightly held. Argue a position, make a point but both do it with respect for the other.

Im not so great at dealing with people who don't bring a point of view, who tend to destroy vs create, or block things without an attempt to build something more constructive. 

I love passion. If you want to do something. or something done, I'm way more likely to find a way to make it happen 

If someone has a problem i listen loads and try to hear 'the space in between' - to intuit the stuff thats whats not being said.  
BUT   
Im less good if people close down, have a negative attitude and generally don't want to. be helped.  

Sorry about that ;)))) 

This is exciting times, i hope we can be super successful together. 

xxxx

#