Emma Griffiths: Creating clarity through growth
Emma Griffiths is a Principal Consultant at Sprout People. She works alongside founders, senior leaders and leadership teams to bring clarity to the challenges that come with growth.
Emma has spent her career working at the intersection of people and business. Her background spans consulting, employee experience, leadership development and people strategy.
Dave Sweas, CEO, The Dodson GroupWhat Emma did really well was listen to me. You caught me on some bad days where I ranted and raved, and you understood, synthesised it and came up with a solution. You surprised me a few times. I left meetings, going, I don't think they could understand what I wanted - I didn't communicate it well, and you got it right every time.
Why did you become a consultant?
I was finishing university, and a friend suggested I meet with a highly connected leader they knew. Halfway through our coffee, they offered me a consulting role. My first week kicked off a couple of days later and included observing/facilitating two separate workshops, attending a business development meeting and drafting a proposal. The pace, variety and high expectations were intense and fit me perfectly. A decade on and I haven’t looked back since.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I’m always learning. You can’t just arrive with a playbook and assume the same answer will work everywhere. It’s understanding the business, the strategy, the people and then critically determining where to focus first and the best approach to take.
What kind of problems do you love helping leaders solve?
Strategy and focus are big ones for me. In New Zealand we're known for innovative thinking, giving things a go and doing it all. Leaders often try to do everything at once, alone. Scaling takes more than any one person.
For any leaders that find themselves in this position my best advice is to:
Find ways to get an outside perspective - someone that knows your business but isn't in your business. They will see you things you can't.
Get clear about what you're doing and not doing in your role, and cover your blind spots with senior leaders that love to do the things you don't.
Get clear on where your business is now and where you want it to go. With that clarity you can build focus into how decisions are made, the capibility you need, how teams work together, and what gets measured and celebrated.
What's something people often misunderstand about consulting?
That working in the people space means you work in HR.
Business challenges are people challenges.
Strategy, growth, leadership, decision-making, structure, capability and culture are all interconnected. If you’re making decisions about where the business is going, you’re making decisions about people too.
What makes Sprout different from other places you've worked?
The team. I get to work with a bunch of smart, very cool people. All great at their jobs, all very different.
That diversity of thinking is a huge part of what makes the work interesting. There’s rarely only one person’s perspective going into a challenge. We purposely have a team full of different experiences and skills, and we proactively ask for advice and share learnings.
This continual growth and balanced approach pays off again and again for the business we work with.
