Leadership Insights and Hagberg Research

Why Smart Leaders Struggle with People

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:37:00 GMT

Some of the smartest leaders you will ever meet are also some of the hardest people to work with.

They are fast, perceptive, and unusually strong at solving hard problems. They see patterns others miss. They cut through ambiguity. They grasp systems, strategy, and complexity at a very high level. In many cases, those gifts are exactly why they became founders, technical leaders, or senior executives.

And yet many of these same people leave a trail of strained relationships behind them. Their direct reports feel unseen or intimidated. Peers experience them as dismissive, impatient, or controlling. Their bosses admire their intellect but hesitate to trust them with broader leadership responsibility. At home, partners often feel emotionally alone. Over time, the leader becomes puzzled. They know they are smart, committed, and often right. So why do people keep pulling away, withholding the truth, or failing to fully follow them?

The answer is that many high IQ leaders are working from an incomplete model of effectiveness. They assume that if they think clearly, argue logically, work hard, and produce results, the rest should take care of itself. That model can work for a long time in school, in technical roles, and in the early stages of a company. But eventually leadership becomes less about the quality of your own mind and more about your ability to work through the minds, emotions, motivations, and limitations of other people.

That is where many smart leaders start to fail.

The Core Problem

Intelligence is not the problem. It is an asset. The problem is that intelligence often creates distortions. It can make a leader overestimate the power of logic, underestimate the importance of emotion, and develop habits that quietly damage trust. It can also create a subtle arrogance. Not always the loud kind, but the quieter assumption that if other people are slower, less rigorous, or more emotional, they must be the problem.

Once a leader starts living inside that assumption, interpersonal trouble becomes almost inevitable.

Five Common Patterns

1. Overreliance on reason

Many bright leaders treat relationships as if they are mainly cognitive systems. If there is disagreement, they explain more. If someone is upset, they analyze the issue. If morale is low, they offer strategy. If a direct report feels discouraged, they give solutions.

In their minds they are being helpful and efficient. But the other person often feels bypassed. Their emotional reality is treated as noise rather than information. Their need to be heard is mistaken for a need to be corrected.

This is a major blind spot in analytical leaders. They often do not realize that understanding is not the same as persuasion, and problem solving is not the same as relationship building. A person can agree with your logic and still not trust you. They can accept your decision and still lose commitment because the relational cost was too high.

2. Impatience

High horsepower people often process faster than the people around them. They see the answer early. They get bored by slower thinking, frustrated by repetition, and irritated when others need more context than they do. This can make them decisive and productive. It can also make them hard to work with.

They interrupt. They jump ahead. They finish other people’s sentences. They push past concerns before others feel understood. They make those around them feel slow, clumsy, or not worth listening to.

This teaches the organization something dangerous. It teaches people that the leader’s mind is the only one that really counts. The safest strategy becomes speaking briefly, deferring quickly, or waiting until the leader has already decided. Then the leader complains that the team is passive or not taking ownership. What they often do not see is that the culture has adapted to them.

3. Emotional underdevelopment hidden by cognitive strength

Very bright people can use intellect as a defense against emotional discomfort. They can analyze instead of feel. They can explain instead of reflect. They can argue instead of absorb. They can move to abstraction when the deeper issue is shame, fear, insecurity, hurt, or loneliness.

They are often unaware this is happening. They do not experience themselves as defended. They experience themselves as rational.

But leadership requires emotional range. Not sentimentality. Not therapeutic language. Real range. The ability to notice your own reactions before they control your behavior. The ability to tolerate feeling wrong, uncertain, criticized, or less competent than you want to appear. The ability to stay present when another person is disappointed, anxious, or angry without immediately shutting it down, fixing it, or counterattacking.

Leaders who cannot do this often become brittle. They look composed until challenged in just the wrong way. Then out comes defensiveness, coldness, contempt, withdrawal, or overcontrol.

4. Low interpersonal curiosity

Smart leaders are often highly curious about ideas, products, markets, and strategy, but not necessarily about people. They know how to interrogate problems, but not always how to explore another person’s inner world. They ask what happened, but not what it felt like. They want the conclusion, not the hesitation. They want the output, not the psychology.

People do not trust leaders simply because they are competent. They trust leaders who show that they are trying to understand them. Interpersonal curiosity communicates respect. A leader does not have to agree with someone to make that person feel seen. But when the leader skips that step, people feel reduced to functions rather than treated as human beings.

5. Weak awareness of impact

Many smart leaders are genuinely surprised by how strongly people react to them. They tell themselves, “I was just being direct,” or “I was only asking a question.” In their own minds, intent carries most of the moral weight. If they did not mean harm, then the reaction seems excessive.

But leadership does not work that way. Impact matters because power magnifies everything. A passing comment from a founder can ruin a weekend. A skeptical look from a senior executive can silence a room. A blunt critique can stick in someone’s head for months.

High IQ leaders often underestimate this because they evaluate themselves from the inside while everyone else experiences them from the outside. That gap sits at the center of many 360 feedback problems.

The Identity Trap

There is another layer here. Some smart leaders have been rewarded for being exceptional for so long that they quietly build their identity around being the smartest person in the room. They may not say it out loud. They may even dislike arrogance in others. But inside, being quick, insightful, and right has become central to their sense of worth.

Once that happens, other people’s competence can feel threatening. Feedback becomes harder to absorb. Collaboration becomes more performative than real. The leader listens selectively, especially when they believe the other person is less capable. They become invested in remaining the mental center of gravity.

That is a dangerous place to lead from. It turns intelligence into status defense. It makes humility feel like loss. It makes genuine curiosity harder. And it makes the leader lonelier than they realize, because very few people feel close to someone who always has to occupy the top intellectual position.

The Shift That Matters

The good news is that these problems are workable. In fact, smart leaders often improve quickly once they see the pattern clearly. Their intelligence then becomes an ally rather than a shield.

But improvement requires a shift in model.

Leadership is not just about being right. It is about creating enough trust, clarity, and psychological safety that the best thinking of the group can emerge. Your job is not merely to contribute your intelligence. It is to increase the total intelligence of the system.

That means treating emotions as information rather than interference. It means becoming curious about your own interpersonal signature. What happens to people in your presence when you are under pressure. Do they get more open or more cautious. More honest or more political. More energized or more tense. Those are not soft questions. They are the real scorecard of leadership impact.

It also means slowing down your certainty just enough to make room for other minds. Ask one more question before concluding. Stay with the other person’s frame a little longer. Notice when you are moving to solution because you are uncomfortable with uncertainty or emotion. Let people finish. Reflect before rebutting.

And it means understanding that warmth and strength are not opposites. Many analytical leaders fear that becoming more emotionally intelligent will make them softer or less respected. The opposite is usually true. Leaders become more effective when people experience them as both rigorous and fair, both clear and human, both demanding and safe enough to tell the truth to.

Practical Experiments

A few simple practices can help.

In your next one on one, spend more time understanding than advising.

In your next disagreement, summarize the other person’s view in a way they agree is accurate before stating your own.

In your next leadership meeting, track how often you interrupt, redirect, or signal impatience.

After a difficult conversation, ask yourself not only whether your point was valid, but what emotional residue you likely left behind.

Ask two trusted people what it feels like to disagree with you, and listen without defending.

Final Thought

Human beings are not engineering problems. They are not solved by superior reasoning alone. They need respect, steadiness, dignity, trust, and emotional attunement.

That is why so many smart leaders struggle.

Not because they are too intelligent, but because they have leaned on the wrong part of themselves for too long.

At a certain point in leadership, your mind stops being the main differentiator. Plenty of people are smart. What becomes rarer is the ability to combine intelligence with self awareness, candor with sensitivity, high standards with trust, and authority with emotional maturity.

That is when a smart leader becomes someone people actually want to follow.

The Courage to Confront: How Real Leaders Balance Candor and Care

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:09:03 GMT

(Part 2 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Building Trust Systems Series)

The Meeting Everyone Survived, but No One Spoke In

You’ve been in that room.

A big issue is sitting there like an elephant in the middle of the table. Everyone knows it’s a problem. Everyone avoids eye contact. The meeting ends with polite agreement and zero progress.

Later, people talk about it privately — in twos and threes, over coffee or Slack.

That’s how cultures slowly rot. Not from shouting matches or scandals, but from quiet avoidance.

The opposite of courage isn’t fear. It’s silence.

Why Leaders Avoid Hard Conversations

Most leaders aren’t cowards; they’re just emotionally self-aware enough to know that confrontation hurts.

You worry about making someone defensive. You worry about being the “bad guy.” You tell yourself you’re protecting morale.

But avoidance doesn’t spare people pain; it just postpones it — and makes it worse.

Every unspoken truth becomes a resentment. Every avoided conversation becomes a rumor.

And one day, you realize you’ve built a culture of nice people who don’t trust each other.

The Trap of False Kindness

I once asked a CEO why he hadn’t talked to his head of sales about underperformance. He said, “She’s been here since the beginning. I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

I said, “You already have — she just doesn’t know why you’ve stopped looking her in the eye.”

That’s the trap. We confuse kindness with protection.

Real kindness isn’t keeping someone comfortable. It’s helping them grow.

Candor Without Care Is Cruel. Care Without Candor Is Cowardice.

We all know the blunt leader who “tells it like it is.” They deliver feedback like a slap and call it honesty.

Then there’s the opposite — the leader who sugarcoats so much that no one ever knows where they stand.

Both damage trust. One through fear, the other through confusion.

The best leaders learn to hold the tension — to be honest and kind in the same breath.

That’s what courage really looks like.

A Story of Tough Empathy

One VP I coached had an engineer who was brilliant but unreliable. Missed deadlines, constant excuses, but impossible to replace mid-project.

Everyone grumbled behind his back. The VP kept avoiding the talk.

Finally, I asked, “What are you afraid of?” He said, “If I push him too hard, he’ll quit.” I said, “And if you don’t, your team will.”

He had the conversation. It went like this:

“You’re one of the most talented people here. And that’s why this conversation matters. The team can’t depend on you right now, and I know you’re capable of more. What needs to change?”

The engineer didn’t quit. He improved. Because the truth was delivered with respect, not resentment.

Why Honesty Feels Risky (and Isn’t)

We fear that being direct will break relationships. But the opposite is true.

When you tell someone the truth and stay with them through the discomfort, the relationship deepens.

What breaks trust isn’t confrontation — it’s pretense. People can handle hard truth. What they can’t handle is hidden truth.

The Anatomy of a Courageous Conversation

Lead with belief. “I know you care about this work, and that’s why I want to be honest.”
Describe the behavior, not the person. “The last two deadlines slipped” beats “You’re unreliable.”
Name the impact. “It’s putting pressure on the rest of the team.”
Invite ownership. “What do you think’s getting in the way?”
End with partnership. “I’m in this with you. Let’s figure it out together.”

That’s candor with care — truth with dignity.

Funny but True

I once asked a CEO when he last gave real feedback. He said, “Does Slack count?”

No. Feedback by emoji doesn’t build trust.

If something matters enough to avoid, it matters enough to say in person.

Why Leaders Don’t Practice Candor

Because it’s emotionally expensive.

It requires you to stay steady while someone else gets uncomfortable. It means tolerating silence, defensiveness, maybe even tears.

That’s why I tell leaders: confrontation is an act of service, not aggression. You’re helping someone face what they need to see.

But to do it well, you have to regulate yourself first. If you can’t manage your own discomfort, you’ll default to avoidance or attack.

The Cultural Ripple Effect

When leaders model honest, caring candor, it spreads. Teams start talking to each other directly instead of triangulating through you. Meetings get shorter. Politics shrink. Accountability grows.

Truth-telling stops being heroic. It becomes normal.

That’s when you know you’ve built real trust.

Your Challenge This Week

Think of one conversation you’ve been avoiding. You already know what it is.

Write down what you’d say if you could say it with equal parts truth and care. Then have that conversation this week.

It won’t be perfect. It will be better than silence.

Final Word

Leadership isn’t about being liked. It’s about being trusted.

And trust is built one hard conversation at a time.

So speak the truth. Kindly, clearly, courageously.

Because when leaders make honesty safe, they don’t just fix problems — they build cultures that don’t need heroes to tell the truth anymore.

Integrity as an Innovation Strategy: Why Moral Clarity Drives Creativity, Not Just Compliance

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 23:13:11 GMT

(Part 1 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Building Trust Systems Series)

The Word Everyone Nods At (and Then Ignores)

Integrity. It’s one of those words that sounds good in a mission statement and dies in the hallways.

Ask any executive team what their core values are, and you’ll hear it listed right after “excellence” and “teamwork.” Then watch how quickly it disappears when money, speed, or politics enter the room.

We treat integrity like a moral ornament — nice to have, but optional when things get complicated.

But here’s the truth: integrity isn’t just ethical. It’s efficient.

It’s not a virtue. It’s a system.

The Hidden Link Between Integrity and Innovation

Most companies think integrity is about compliance — following rules, avoiding lawsuits.

But at its core, integrity is about safety. Not physical safety — psychological safety.

And that’s what innovation feeds on.

When people trust that honesty won’t get them punished, they start sharing real ideas. They tell the truth about what’s broken. They experiment without fear of being labeled “the problem.”

That’s when creativity starts compounding.

Integrity isn’t just “doing the right thing.” It’s creating conditions where truth can breathe.

A Story from a Hospital, Not a Startup

Years ago, I visited a hospital that had drastically reduced medical errors. Not through technology — through culture.

They introduced something called “Learning Rounds.” Whenever a mistake happened, the rule was: no blame, no cover-up, full transparency. They asked one question — “What did we learn?”

Reporting errors skyrocketed. Within a year, preventable harm dropped by almost half.

They didn’t become less human. They became more honest.

That’s integrity operationalized.

And it worked because people finally trusted that truth was an asset, not a liability.

Why We Avoid It

Integrity sounds easy until it costs something. That’s when you learn what you actually believe.

It’s easy to be transparent when results are great. It’s harder when you miss numbers and the board’s breathing down your neck.

But that’s the moment that defines culture. Because your people are watching.

And they don’t listen to what you say. They watch what you tolerate.

The Real Test of Integrity

It’s not the big scandals that erode trust. It’s the small, quiet compromises that everyone sees but no one names.

When leaders say, “We value people,” and then cut the travel budget for front-line staff while approving their own offsite. When they say, “We’re transparent,” but make decisions in a closed room and announce them like royal decrees.

Culture doesn’t break all at once. It erodes drip by drip.

And once people stop believing leadership’s words, they stop giving leadership their truth.

That’s how innovation dies — not from lack of ideas, but from lack of honesty.

A CEO’s Wake-Up Call

A CEO I worked with once asked his team, “Why don’t we see more creativity around here?”

Someone finally said, “Because we don’t know which version of the truth you want.”

That was the turning point.

He realized that his team wasn’t scared of failure — they were scared of him.

So he started modeling what he wanted. He admitted mistakes publicly. He gave credit generously. He rewarded dissent.

Within six months, the company’s product pipeline exploded with new ideas.

Integrity didn’t slow innovation down. It unlocked it.

Why Integrity Makes Companies Faster

When people trust leadership, decision-making accelerates. You stop burning time managing optics and start managing reality.

You don’t need six layers of approval or fifteen PowerPoints to make a call because people know the intent is honest.

Integrity removes bureaucracy because it removes suspicion.

That’s what most companies miss: trust is the ultimate efficiency play.

Funny but True

I once asked an executive, “Would you say integrity is one of your company’s top values?”

He said, “Absolutely — as long as it doesn’t slow down the deal.”

We both laughed, but he wasn’t joking.

That’s how integrity quietly dies — not from corruption, but from convenience.

How to Operationalize Integrity

Reward truth over polish. Praise the person who surfaces the hard issue, not just the one who packages it nicely.
Separate mistakes from misconduct. Punish deception, not failure. Honest errors are how organizations learn.
Make values the operating system, not wallpaper. Link performance reviews and promotions to how results are achieved, not just what’s achieved.
Own your missteps publicly. Every time a leader says, “I got that wrong,” trust spikes across the company.
Codify transparency. Make open communication a process, not a personality trait.

The Emotional ROI of Integrity

Integrity doesn’t just make people behave better. It makes them feel safer.

And when people feel safe, they think bigger. They collaborate faster. They tell the truth sooner.

Innovation isn’t born from pressure. It’s born from permission — permission to be real.

Your Challenge This Week

Ask your team one question:

“What truth are we avoiding right now?”

Then do the hardest part — listen without reacting.

You’ll probably hear something uncomfortable. Good. That’s where the next wave of innovation is hiding.

Final Word

Integrity isn’t moral theater. It’s the architecture of trust.

It’s what lets people experiment without fear and tell you the truth before the market does.

And the beautiful paradox is this: When you stop performing integrity and start practicing it, creativity stops needing permission.

Because honesty — quiet, consistent honesty — is the most radical form of innovation there is.

Greatness Lies in the Contradictions: How the Best Leaders Integrate Opposites Instead of Choosing Sides

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 22:59:29 GMT

The Leadership Tightrope

If you lead long enough, you start to realize something uncomfortable: everything that makes you effective also threatens to undo you.

Your drive becomes impatience. Your confidence becomes stubbornness. Your empathy turns into guilt.

The longer you lead, the more you realize that the job isn’t about choosing one trait over another — it’s about learning to carry both.

That’s what maturity looks like in leadership. It’s not balance. It’s tension well managed.

The False Comfort of Either/Or

Most leaders crave clarity. We want rules. Playbooks. Certainty.

Should I be tough or kind? Decisive or collaborative? Visionary or practical?

The insecure part of the brain hates contradiction. It wants the “right answer.” But leadership lives in the messy middle — the place where both truths exist, and neither feels comfortable.

The best leaders aren’t either/or thinkers. They’re both/and navigators.

A Story from the Field

I once coached a CEO who told me, “I’m torn between holding people accountable and being empathetic.”

I said, “Why do you think those are opposites?”

He paused, then laughed. “Because it’s easier that way.”

Exactly. It’s easier to pick a lane than to learn how to drive in two at once.

He eventually realized the real question wasn’t which side to choose, but when and how to lean into each. He became known as “the fairest tough boss in the building.”

That’s the magic of integration — toughness with tenderness, vision with realism, clarity with compassion.

Why Paradox Feels So Hard

Contradictions feel like hypocrisy when you haven’t made peace with your own complexity.

If you believe you have to be one consistent version of yourself — confident, decisive, inspiring — then every moment of doubt feels like fraud.

But the truth is, great leaders are contradictory because humans are contradictory. You can be grounded and ambitious, humble and proud, certain and still learning.

The work is not to eliminate the tension — it’s to get comfortable feeling it.

The Psychology Behind It

Our brains love binaries because they make the world simple. But complexity — holding opposites — is the mark of advanced thinking.

Psychologists call this integrative complexity — the ability to see multiple perspectives and blend them into a coherent approach.

It’s not compromise; it’s synthesis. It’s saying, “Both are true, and I can move between them without losing my integrity.”

That’s where wisdom lives — in the movement, not the answer.

Funny But True

A client once told me, “I feel like half monk, half gladiator.”

I said, “Congratulations. That means you’re leading.”

Because that’s what the job demands: peace and fight, compassion and steel. If you can’t hold both, you end up overusing one until it breaks you.

The Cost of One-Dimensional Leadership

We’ve all worked for the “results-only” leader — brilliant, efficient, and emotionally tone-deaf. And the “people-first” leader — kind, loyal, and allergic to accountability.

Both are exhausting. Both create lopsided cultures.

When leaders pick a single identity — visionary, disciplinarian, nurturer, driver — they lose range. They become caricatures of their strengths.

True greatness comes from emotional range, not purity.

The Paradox Mindset

Here’s how integrative leaders think differently:

They value principles over preferences.
They can be decisive without being defensive.
They know empathy isn’t weakness and toughness isn’t cruelty.
They trade perfection for adaptability.

They’re the ones who can zoom in and out — from the numbers to the people, from the details to the meaning — without losing coherence.

They’re not consistent in behavior. They’re consistent in values.

That’s the difference.

How to Practice Both/And Thinking

Spot your overused strength. The strength that’s hurting you most is the one you lean on too much. If you’re decisive, try listening longer. If you’re compassionate, try being direct faster.
Ask, “What’s the opposite quality trying to teach me?” Impatience teaches urgency; patience teaches perspective. You need both.
Invite your opposite. Bring someone onto your team who balances your extremes — not a mirror, a counterweight.
Hold paradox out loud. Tell your team, “This decision has tension in it — and that’s okay.” Modeling that normalizes complexity for everyone else.

A Moment of Self-Honesty

I’ve spent decades watching leaders chase “clarity” like it’s peace. But peace doesn’t come from eliminating tension. It comes from trusting yourself inside it.

Once you accept that leadership will always feel contradictory, you stop fighting it — and start flowing with it.

You don’t need to be the calmest, toughest, or most visionary person in the room. You just need to be the one who can stay whole while the world pulls you in opposite directions.

Your Challenge This Week

When you catch yourself thinking, “Should I be X or Y?” — stop. Ask instead, “How can I be both?”

Then practice it in one small moment. Be kind and firm. Bold and humble. Fast and thoughtful.

That’s where growth hides — in the discomfort between two truths.

Final Word

The best leaders aren’t balanced. They’re integrated.

They’ve stopped trying to erase their contradictions and started using them as fuel. They’ve learned that leadership isn’t about certainty. It’s about capacity — the capacity to hold complexity without losing your center.

That’s not chaos. That’s mastery.

From Perfection to Progress: Escaping the Obsessive-Compulsive Trap of Leadership (Part 3 of The Best Leaders Playbook — The Paradox of Power Series)

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 17:35:23 GMT

The Curse of “High Standards”

Let’s start with a truth that makes a lot of smart leaders squirm: perfectionism isn’t about excellence — it’s about fear.

It starts innocently enough. You want things done right. You have taste. You notice what other people miss. People even praise you for it.

But slowly, “high standards” turn into a straitjacket. You can’t hit send until the slide looks perfect. You can’t let someone else finish because “they won’t do it the right way.” You stay up tweaking a comma that doesn’t need tweaking.

You call it quality. Everyone else calls it exhausting.

Why Perfection Feels Safe

Perfectionism isn’t driven by pride. It’s driven by anxiety.

It’s the voice that says, “If I can control every detail, nothing bad can happen.”

It’s fear of judgment dressed up as professional excellence. The irony is that perfectionists are often the most self-critical people in the room — constantly measuring themselves against an invisible, impossible ruler.

They don’t chase perfection because they love quality. They chase it because they hate shame.

The Productivity Mirage

Perfectionism pretends to be productivity, but it’s actually procrastination with better branding.

You tell yourself you’re “improving” the work when you’re really just postponing the moment you might get judged.

Every hour you spend obsessing over polish is an hour you could’ve spent creating, delegating, or resting — three things perfectionists are famously terrible at.

A Founder’s Wake-Up Call

A founder I coached — let’s call him Ryan — was a world-class tinkerer. Every deck, every marketing campaign, every internal email went through him.

He’d send back feedback like, “Good, but let’s tighten the phrasing on slide 12.” When his team started missing deadlines, he blamed their “lack of attention to detail.” In truth, they were stuck waiting for his endless revisions.

When he finally took a week off, something shocking happened: everything got done. On time.

He told me later, “Apparently, I was the bottleneck disguised as quality control.”

Exactly.

The Neuroscience of “Just One More Edit”

Perfectionism lights up the same reward circuits in the brain as addiction. Every time you fix something, you get a tiny hit of relief — like a smoker taking a drag.

That’s why you can’t stop.

But the more you chase that relief, the narrower your focus becomes. You stop seeing the system. You start obsessing over the pixel.

Leadership requires altitude. Perfectionism keeps you at ground level, rearranging the furniture while the building burns.

The Lie of the Last 5%

You know that feeling when something’s 95% done and you tell yourself, “Just one more pass.”

That’s the lie.

That final 5% rarely changes the outcome — it just delays it. You’re trading momentum for a false sense of control.

I tell my clients, “Your 80% is probably everyone else’s 120%.” Ship it. Learn. Iterate. That’s how progress actually happens.

How to Break the Cycle

Redefine success. Replace “perfect” with “useful.” Ask, “Will this version move the needle?” If yes, it’s done.
Set a timer. Give yourself a fixed window to refine something, then stop — no matter how it feels.
Delegate imperfection on purpose. Hand off something messy and resist the urge to “fix” it afterward. That’s your real growth work.
Publish before you’re ready. Whether it’s a proposal or a strategy draft, send it early. Feedback beats polish every time.
Celebrate iteration. Reward teams for improving quickly, not for getting it “perfect” the first time.

Funny but True

I once worked with a VP who spent six hours choosing fonts for a quarterly report.

When I asked him why, he said, “Details matter.”

I said, “To who?”

He blinked. Then laughed. “Probably just me.”

That’s the moment perfectionism usually breaks — when you realize no one else cares about the thing stealing your sanity.

What’s Really at Stake

Perfectionism doesn’t just waste time. It kills creativity, trust, and joy.

Your team stops taking initiative because they know you’ll re-do their work anyway. You become the bottleneck everyone avoids.

And you start confusing fatigue with dedication.

Excellence inspires. Perfectionism suffocates.

The Emotional Shift: From Control to Curiosity

Progress requires permission to experiment — to be wrong.

When you trade “perfect” for “better,” you re-open the door to learning. And that’s where real innovation lives.

Great leaders don’t aim for flawless execution. They build systems that learn faster than their competitors.

That’s progress.

Your Challenge This Week

Take something you’ve been over-polishing — a presentation, a product feature, an email draft.

Send it at 80%. Breathe through the discomfort.

When your team improves it, resist saying, “See? I would’ve done that.”

Instead, say, “That’s better than I imagined.” Because it is.

Final Word

Perfection feels like power. But real power is progress — messy, iterative, unfinished progress.

Leadership isn’t about getting everything right. It’s about getting the right things moving.

So send the draft. Launch the feature. Let good enough be great — and watch your world expand.

The Courage to Let Go: Delegation as the Ultimate Act of Trust (Part 2 of The Best Leaders Playbook — The Paradox of Power Series)

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:42:09 GMT

The Overworked Hero Syndrome

You can spot this one a mile away. They’re running at 120%, inbox exploding, calendar packed like a game of Tetris.

They tell themselves it’s noble — “The team’s counting on me.” But deep down, it’s addiction.

I know this pattern because I’ve lived it. That little rush you get when someone says, “We couldn’t do this without you”? That’s the dopamine hit of leadership ego.

Feels good. Until it doesn’t.

Because being indispensable isn’t a compliment. It’s a warning.

Why Smart People Struggle to Let Go

Most leaders don’t hoard work because they’re bad at delegation. They hoard because delegation threatens their identity.

If your sense of worth comes from being the fixer, the doer, the one who “always delivers,” letting go feels like erasure.

Who are you if you’re not in every meeting? Who are you if things go fine without you?

That’s the emotional root of overwork — not competence, but fear of irrelevance.

Control in Disguise

Delegation looks like an operational skill, but it’s really emotional work.

Leaders tell me all the time:

“I can’t delegate — my team’s not ready.”

What they mean is:

“I can’t delegate — I’m not ready.”

The truth is, your people won’t become ready until you give them the chance.

That’s the brutal math of leadership: you can have control, or you can have scale. You don’t get both.

A Founder’s Story

A founder I coached — let’s call her Sara — ran her company like a benevolent tornado. She did everything: strategy, hiring, investor calls, even reviewing design files “just to make sure the tone was right.”

When she came to me, she was working 80-hour weeks and quietly resenting everyone she was “helping.”

I asked, “What would happen if you stopped fixing things for people?” She said, “They’d drop the ball.”

Six months later, she tested it. She handed off a project completely — no shadow-managing, no emergency check-ins.

Her team nailed it. She said, “I didn’t realize they were this capable.” I said, “They didn’t realize you were this controlling.”

We both laughed — but she got the point.

The Real Meaning of Delegation

Delegation isn’t a time-management trick. It’s a transfer of trust.

It says, “I believe you can handle this — even if you don’t do it exactly my way.”

It’s also a developmental gift. When you delegate fully, you don’t just lighten your load — you level someone up.

Delegation is how leaders stop being the engine and start being the architect.

The Fear Behind “It’s Easier If I Just Do It”

That sentence might as well be carved on the tombstone of burned-out executives everywhere.

Sure, doing it yourself feels faster. But every time you do, you quietly train the organization to need you.

You build a culture of dependence — and then complain that people don’t take initiative.

Delegation feels risky because it is. You will lose control of how something gets done. But you gain something far more valuable: time to lead, not just manage.

Funny but True

I once told a CEO, “If you died tomorrow, who could run your company?” He said, “That’s morbid.” I said, “No — that’s planning.”

He got the message.

A few months later, he’d built a real leadership team for the first time. He told me, “It’s weird — I’m working less, and everything’s better.”

That’s not weird. That’s delegation done right.

How to Build the Trust Muscle

Start small, but mean it. Hand off one real decision — not a token task. Resist the urge to check back in “just to see how it’s going.”
Define success, not the path. Set the destination clearly, then step back. They’ll probably surprise you with how differently — and often better — they get there.
Coach after, not during. Let people own outcomes before you give feedback. Growth requires a little space to fail safely.
Reward initiative, not imitation. If you only praise people for doing things your way, you’ll never build leaders — only clones.
Say thank you — and mean it. Appreciation is the emotional contract that makes delegation sustainable.

The Emotional Reframe

Delegation isn’t about trust in others. It’s about trust in yourself — in the system you’ve built, in your ability to recover from other people’s mistakes, and in your willingness to be unnecessary.

That last one’s the hardest.

But when you finally stop trying to be irreplaceable, your company starts becoming unstoppable.

Your Challenge This Week

Write down everything on your plate. Circle three things that drain you but could teach someone else something valuable.

Pick one and delegate it — completely.

Then, when the urge to “check in” hits, take a walk instead. Let them own it.

When it works — and it will — tell them. Celebrate it. Because that’s how trust compounds.

Final Word

Letting go doesn’t make you weaker. It proves you’re strong enough to lead without needing to control.

Every founder eventually faces the same test: can you stop being the engine and start being the ecosystem?

The day you say yes, you stop leading through force and start leading through faith.

That’s not surrender. That’s courage.

The Judgment Trap: Why Smart Leaders Keep Making Dumb Decisions

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 22:55:32 GMT

You’ve probably sat in that meeting—the one where everyone nods, the plan sounds brilliant, and something inside you whispers, “This feels off.”

Then six months later, the numbers tank, the team fractures, and nobody remembers who actually decided.

In my long coaching career, I’ve seen it too many times. Great ideas and inspiring vision coming down to smoke and ash. Smart, driven executives—people who built companies, raised rounds, changed industries—still fall into predictable judgment traps.

Not because they’re careless. Because they’re human.

The Hidden Architecture of Bad Decisions

Every bad decision has two layers. On the surface: logic, data, and justification. Underneath: emotion, fear, and ego.

Most leaders debate facts and models, but what really drives the call is the invisible need to feel safe, competent, or in control.

When you miss that layer, you mistake momentum for clarity and conviction for truth. That’s how companies derail while leaders are still congratulating themselves for being decisive.

1️⃣ The Speed Illusion

Speed feels powerful. It gives relief from ambiguity. But urgency isn’t strategy—it’s self-medication for anxiety.

Founders equate slowing down with weakness. They move fast because stillness feels unbearable. Yet every “fast” decision eventually slows the company—rework, reversals, lost trust.

Real speed comes from reflection. Pausing to ask, “What problem am I actually solving?” is the fastest move you’ll ever make.

2️⃣ The Confidence Mirage

After enough wins, confidence starts masquerading as accuracy. The brain confuses familiarity with truth.

It’s seductive. You’ve seen this pattern before; you know how it plays out. Except this market is different. This team is different. You are different.

Overconfidence blinds leaders to nuance and punishes curiosity. The antidote is humility baked into process: someone on your team must be paid to prove you wrong. If no one can, your culture’s too polite—or too scared.

3️⃣ The Echo Chamber

Nothing kills judgment faster than agreement. When everyone smiles and nods, it feels like alignment. It’s actually avoidance.

Teams stop challenging you not because you’re right, but because it’s unsafe to be honest. That’s sunflower bias: people orienting to the boss’s preference like plants to the sun.

If you want better decisions, be the last to speak. Reward the person who changes your mind.

4️⃣ The Emotional Hijack

Anger, pride, and fear are terrible decision tools—but exquisite disguises. They look like conviction. They sound like leadership.

When emotion drives the bus, judgment rides in the trunk. I’ve seen executives make firing decisions in rage and acquisitions in euphoria. Both felt certain. Both collapsed later.

Emotional regulation isn’t soft skill—it’s cognitive hygiene. If you can’t calm your nervous system, you can’t access your wisdom.

5️⃣ The Binary Trap

Under pressure, complexity collapses into yes/no. Hire or fire. Launch or kill. Acquire or walk away.

It feels efficient—but amputates imagination. The danger isn’t choosing wrong; it’s never seeing what else was possible.

My rule: three options minimum. If you can’t name three, you’re not deciding—you’re reacting.

6️⃣ The Hero Complex

Many founders believe leadership means having the answer. It doesn’t. It means designing the system that gets to the answer.

Heroic decision-making doesn’t scale. It breeds dependency and fear. When every big call runs through you, the company stops learning.

Leadership maturity is letting go of being right so the organization can be smart.

7️⃣ The Reversal Loop

Some leaders can’t stop re-deciding. They add “one more thing,” change direction midstream, or quietly undo yesterday’s call.

It feels adaptable. It’s actually destabilizing.

People stop believing you because they’re waiting for the next reversal. Write down the decision, the rationale, and the success indicator. Revisit it only if assumptions change—not if your anxiety does.

8️⃣ The Overload Fallacy

The modern executive disease is information addiction. We convince ourselves that more data equals better judgment. It doesn’t. It equals paralysis.

“Let’s gather more data” is often code for “I’m afraid to decide.” Define the minimum information needed for a quality call. Then decide. You’ll make faster mistakes—and faster progress.

9️⃣ The Politics of Preference

Many bad decisions aren’t analytical—they’re social. Leaders favor the messenger over the message. Bias hides in plain sight—in who gets airtime, forgiveness, and credit.

If your decisions correlate with who you like most, judgment has already left the room.

�� The Culture of Silence

The most dangerous phrase in business isn’t “We failed.” It’s “No one told me.”

When truth becomes expensive, companies go bankrupt buying harmony. People stop telling the truth long before the numbers reveal it.

Psychological safety isn’t comfort—it’s accuracy. The day your team stops disagreeing with you is the day your decline begins.

The Fear Beneath It All

Beneath every bad decision is fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of losing control. Fear of being seen as weak.

And fear always demands speed, certainty, and dominance—the three enemies of judgment.

The Discipline That Saves You

Better judgment isn’t a personality trait; it’s a design choice. Build systems that slow thinking without killing action.

�� A pre-mortem before launch.

�� Three options before closure.

�� One dissenting voice before consensus.

�� A decision journal reviewed quarterly.

These small rituals do what ego can’t—they make you wiser before experience humbles you.

The Mirror Moment

Every leader eventually faces it—the moment you realize the enemy isn’t chaos. It’s your own certainty.

Maturity is learning to pause in that quiet space between knowing and not knowing. That’s where judgment lives.

Before your next big call, ask yourself: What if the part of me that’s most confident is also the part most afraid?

Because in my experience, that’s where the truth usually hides.

The Hidden Cost of Care: When Empathy Becomes a Leadership Liability (Part 5 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Inner Mastery Series)

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:54:59 GMT

The Nicest Boss in the World

He was adored. He remembered birthdays, checked in on people’s families, and stayed late helping fix slides no one asked him to touch. His team called him “the best boss we’ve ever had.”

He was also running on fumes.

Behind the warm smile was a leader quietly burning out — drowning in everyone else’s problems, too empathetic for his own good.

If you’re a leader who prides yourself on caring deeply, this might sting a little: empathy, taken too far, becomes control in disguise.

Empathy’s Secret Shadow

Empathy is essential for leadership. It builds loyalty, safety, and trust. But the same trait that makes people feel seen can also make them dependent.

When you can’t tolerate someone else’s discomfort, you start protecting them from it. You step in to fix, to soothe, to rescue.

It looks noble. It feels generous. But it quietly steals agency — theirs and yours.

Your team stops growing because you’re doing their emotional labor. You stop leading because you’re managing feelings instead of outcomes.

That’s the hidden cost of care.

The Emotional Guilt Loop

Over-empathetic leaders live in a constant tug-of-war between compassion and guilt.

They think:

“They’re already stretched — I can’t pile more on.” “If I push harder, I’ll seem uncaring.” “I’ll just do it myself; it’s easier.”

Sound familiar?

That’s not empathy anymore. That’s guilt masquerading as kindness. And guilt makes terrible business decisions.

Because guilt doesn’t guide you toward what’s right. It just steers you away from what feels uncomfortable.

A Founder’s Story

One founder I coached, let’s call her Lina, led with heart. She built her company around “people first.” And she meant it.

But somewhere along the way, “people first” turned into “me last.” She couldn’t say no. She kept saving underperformers, approving vacations during crunch time, rewriting others’ work to spare them stress.

Her team adored her — until they didn’t.

Because beneath her helpfulness was quiet resentment. And resentment always leaks.

The breakthrough came when she realized something simple but hard:

“I was protecting people from learning the hard parts of growth.”

That’s when she started leading again instead of parenting.

When Caring Becomes Control

Here’s the paradox: the more you care, the more you risk over-controlling.

You jump in to fix not because you don’t trust them, but because you feel for them. It’s empathy turned inward — I can’t stand watching them struggle.

But leadership isn’t about eliminating discomfort. It’s about using it wisely.

People grow by stretching, not by being spared.

When you save someone from every failure, you’re also saving them from competence.

The Biology of Burnout

Chronic empathy triggers chronic stress. When you absorb other people’s emotions all day, your nervous system never gets a break.

You start mirroring everyone’s anxiety like an emotional amplifier. Your brain thinks you’re in crisis — even when you’re not.

That’s why over-caring leaders are often the first to burn out. Their compassion becomes constant cortisol.

The irony? The leaders who want to create safety for others end up unsafe themselves.

How to Care Without Carrying

Feel, then filter. It’s okay to feel someone’s frustration. Just don’t keep it. Ask: “Is this mine to hold?”
Help through accountability. Say, “I know this is tough, and I also need you to take ownership.” The and matters.
Let discomfort be developmental. When a team member struggles, resist rescuing. Stay present, not protective.
Coach before you comfort. Instead of “Don’t worry,” try, “What do you think your next move is?”
Reframe empathy as empowerment. Caring isn’t about absorbing pain; it’s about believing people can handle it.

Funny but True

One exec I worked with told me, “Every time I stop helping, I feel like a jerk.”

I said, “No — you feel like a leader. It just takes a while to tell the difference.”

He laughed and said, “So… you’re telling me leadership feels bad at first?” I said, “Exactly. Growth always does.”

The Cultural Ripple Effect

When leaders overfunction, teams underfunction. When leaders hold space instead of taking space, teams rise.

Empathy should expand others, not consume you.

The healthiest cultures balance care and candor — support and stretch. They normalize struggle as part of the process instead of something to be hidden or rescued.

That’s what real compassion looks like in motion.

The Maturity of Tough Empathy

Empathy without boundaries is exhaustion. Empathy with boundaries is wisdom.

The mature version of empathy doesn’t say, “I’ll protect you.” It says, “I believe you can handle this — and I’ll walk beside you while you do.”

That’s not cold. That’s developmental.

Your Challenge This Week

Notice where you’re rescuing someone instead of coaching them. Pause before you step in. Ask yourself, Am I helping because they need it — or because I need to feel helpful?

Then take one small risk: let them handle it.

They’ll probably surprise you. And you’ll feel lighter than you have in months.

Final Word

Caring is beautiful. It’s what makes you human.

But unchecked empathy turns leaders into emotional pack mules — carrying what was never theirs to bear.

Real leadership is still full of heart. It just remembers that compassion without accountability isn’t love. It’s fear.

And the moment you stop rescuing everyone, you finally start freeing them — and yourself.

Leading Without Fear: The Psychological Maturity Behind Sound Judgment (Part 4 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Inner Mastery Series)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 17:54:49 GMT

The Smart Leader’s Blind Spot

It’s strange how often the smartest people make the worst decisions under pressure. They don’t lose IQ. They lose perspective.

I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count. A sharp, decisive executive starts second-guessing every move. They overanalyze, overwork, and overcontrol — all in the name of being “thorough.”

They think they’re being rational. But underneath the spreadsheets and meetings is something far less logical.

It’s fear.

The Fear That Doesn’t Look Like Fear

We think of fear as panic — sweating, shaking, obvious. But most leadership fear hides behind competence.

It shows up as perfectionism, busyness, overcommitment, indecision. It sounds like,

“Let’s get more data.” “Let’s not rush this.” “Let’s keep this one close.”

That’s not analysis. That’s avoidance with a better vocabulary.

When fear runs the show, the goal subtly shifts from making the right decision to avoiding the wrong one. And those two things are worlds apart.

The Cost of Fear-Based Leadership

When leaders operate from fear, everything tightens.

They stop listening. They rush to defend. They play small when the company needs boldness. They keep people who are loyal over people who are competent — because loyalty feels safer.

And here’s the real tragedy: the team starts copying the fear. They become cautious, compliant, quiet.

Pretty soon, no one’s leading anymore. They’re all managing risk — mostly emotional risk.

A CEO’s Moment of Truth

One CEO I coached — brilliant, confident, deeply human — was terrified of being wrong in front of his board. He masked it well. On the outside: decisive. Inside: a constant hum of anxiety.

After a tough quarter, he admitted, “I realized half my decisions weren’t based on strategy — they were based on protecting my image.”

That moment of honesty was the start of his maturity curve. Once he could name the fear, it stopped running his show. He didn’t become fearless. He became aware.

And awareness is what turns reaction into wisdom.

Why Fear Feels Safer Than Clarity

Fear has a strange way of convincing us it’s caution.

Caution whispers, “Slow down and look.” Fear screams, “Don’t move.”

The first sharpens judgment. The second paralyzes it. And the more we listen to fear, the more it disguises itself as prudence.

That’s why emotional maturity isn’t about suppressing fear. It’s about being able to say, “Ah, that’s fear talking — not fact.”

How Fear Distorts the Mind

Here’s what happens when fear hijacks leadership:

Tunnel vision: You fixate on the immediate threat and forget the big picture.
Confirmation bias: You start looking for data that validates your anxiety.
Short-termism: You make safe decisions that feel good now and cause pain later.
Blame shifting: You protect your ego by pushing ownership outward.

The mind gets smaller. The leader gets reactive. The company gets stuck.

The Maturity Shift

Emotional maturity isn’t about being unshakable. It’s about staying curious in the presence of fear.

Mature leaders don’t pretend they’re fearless. They just don’t let fear make the decisions. They pause, breathe, and ask, “What part of this is data, and what part is my insecurity talking?”

That single question can change everything.

A Founder’s Story

A founder I worked with once said, “I’m not afraid — I just have high standards.”

But as we unpacked it, he realized those “high standards” were actually a way to control outcomes. He feared disappointment — his own and others’.

When he finally stopped trying to protect his reputation and started protecting his clarity, his decisions got faster and cleaner. The business didn’t just grow — it started breathing again.

Because when you stop trying to look right, you finally have room to be right.

Funny, But True

I once asked a CEO what he’d do differently if he weren’t afraid of failing. He said, “Probably the same things I’m doing now — just with less Advil.”

That’s the thing: most leaders already know what to do. Fear just makes it hurt more.

How to Lead Without Fear (Even When It’s There)

Name it early. The sooner you recognize fear, the less power it has. Ask yourself, “What’s the story fear’s telling me right now?”
Reframe mistakes as tuition. You’ll still pay for errors — might as well learn something from them.
Separate identity from outcome. A bad decision doesn’t mean a bad leader. It means a leader who’s still learning — like everyone else.
Keep one truth-teller nearby. Someone who loves you enough to tell you when you’re acting from ego.
Practice micro-bravery. Tell one hard truth a day. Say “I don’t know” once a week. Let discomfort become strength training.

The Paradox of Fear

Fear doesn’t make you weak. It means you care. But if you never face it, it becomes your compass — and it always points backward.

Courage, maturity, clarity — they’re not opposites of fear. They’re what happen when you stop running from it.

Your Challenge This Week

Next time you feel that knot in your stomach — before a board meeting, a tough conversation, a high-stakes call — pause.

Ask yourself: What am I afraid might happen? Then ask: What might happen if I act from clarity instead of fear?

That’s not therapy. That’s leadership hygiene.

Final Word

The mark of maturity isn’t fearlessness. It’s self-awareness.

You can’t control your fear. But you can choose whether it sits in the driver’s seat or the passenger’s.

Great leaders don’t wait for fear to disappear. They lead with it beside them — quietly, respectfully — but never in charge.

The Emotional Geometry of Influence: Why Composure Beats Charisma (Part 3 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Inner Mastery Series)

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:19:07 GMT

The Charisma Illusion

Charisma gets all the press.

It fills conference rooms, wins funding rounds, and dominates the LinkedIn highlight reel. We treat it like the gold standard of leadership — as if volume equals vision.

But charisma is a sugar high. It spikes energy, then crashes trust.

Composure, on the other hand — quiet, grounded, centered composure — is the kind of influence that lasts. It doesn’t light up a room; it settles one.

When things go sideways, it’s not the charismatic leader people look for. It’s the calm one.

The Crisis Test

Picture this. The product just failed. The client’s furious. Your team’s pacing like trapped cats.

Two leaders walk in. One storms into action — loud, fast, “What the hell happened here?” The other walks in slowly, looks around, and says, “Okay, let’s breathe. What do we know so far?”

The first one gets attention. The second one gets results.

That’s emotional geometry — the calmest person in the room reshapes everyone else’s state.

Why Calm Is the Real Power

When you stay composed, you’re not just managing your emotions — you’re regulating the entire system.

Here’s the neuroscience behind it: people mirror the nervous system of whoever has the most authority. If you’re grounded, they sync to your rhythm. If you’re frantic, they sync to that instead.

You don’t need to lecture anyone on resilience. You just have to model it.

It’s not charisma that makes people trust you; it’s the quiet sense that you’re not going to lose your mind when things get hard.

Charisma’s Half-Life

Charisma is a spark. It can ignite a team — but if there’s no composure beneath it, the whole thing burns out.

You’ve seen this movie before: the leader who rallies everyone with a passionate all-hands speech, then disappears into reaction mode when things get messy.

Charisma without composure is like caffeine without sleep. You’re awake, but you’re not steady.

Composure doesn’t get the applause. It gets the loyalty.

A Founder’s Story

One founder I worked with — I’ll call him David — was known for being a “high-voltage” guy. He could pitch an investor, fire up a crowd, or talk anyone into anything.

But his team? They were walking on eggshells. His energy filled every room, but it left no oxygen for anyone else.

During one session, I asked, “When you raise your voice, what happens to theirs?”

He went quiet.

That was the moment he understood that his passion — the thing he was most proud of — had become the team’s anxiety.

A year later, his team described him differently: “He’s still intense, but steady. We trust him more now.”

He didn’t lose charisma; he layered it with composure.

The Calm Before the Influence

Here’s what composure actually looks like:

You listen longer. Because real influence starts with attention, not argument.
You breathe before reacting. That pause isn’t weakness; it’s power management.
You let silence do the work. Charisma fills every space; composure creates space for others to step in.
You own your tone. You realize your sighs, your speed, your face — they’re all communication tools whether you intend them or not.
You choose steadiness over certainty. People don’t need you to know everything. They just need to know you’re okay not knowing.

Funny But True

A client once told me, “When I’m calm in a meeting, people assume I’m hiding something.”

I said, “Good. Let them wonder.”

That’s how unfamiliar calm has become. In some cultures, composure looks radical — even suspicious. But it’s exactly what people crave in a world that never shuts up.

Why Charisma Is Easier (and More Addictive)

Charisma gets feedback. You see the energy rise, you feel the applause. It’s visible.

Composure feels invisible — until you lose it.

No one thanks you for staying calm during a crisis. But they remember it when deciding whether to follow you into the next one.

That’s why maturity in leadership means getting comfortable with the quiet wins — the meeting that didn’t spiral, the argument that didn’t happen, the team that stayed focused because you did.

The Emotional Geometry in Practice

Think of composure as geometry because emotions move through space.

When you enter a room, you alter its emotional shape.

If you radiate calm, people’s shoulders drop. Their thinking widens. They start contributing. If you radiate stress, the room contracts. People shrink. Ideas vanish.

Influence isn’t what you say. It’s the energy field you create.

Your Challenge This Week

Before your next high-stakes meeting, pause outside the door. Take one deep breath and ask yourself: What energy does this room need from me right now?

Then bring only that. Nothing more.

You’ll be amazed how fast everything slows down when you do.

Final Word

Charisma captures attention. Composure builds trust.

One is about how loudly you shine; the other is about how steadily you glow.

The leader who can stay centered when everyone else is spinning doesn’t just have influence — they are the influence.

And that’s the kind of power that never burns out.

The Narcissism Paradox: Why Some Founders’ Egos Build Empires—and Others Burn Them Down

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 20:08:37 GMT

It usually starts with a familiar scene.

A founder at a whiteboard, marker in hand, speaking with the conviction of someone who can see the future before anyone else does. The team leans in. The idea feels inevitable. Confidence fills the room.

That’s the moment when narcissism looks like leadership.

For a while, it is. Until it isn’t.

The Hidden Engine Behind Ambition

Every founder carries a trace of narcissism. You need it to survive the impossible odds of building something from nothing. It’s the oxygen of early-stage ambition — the irrational belief that you can win when every signal says you can’t.

But narcissism isn’t a single trait. It’s a spectrum — and the version that fuels creativity early on often morphs into the one that burns teams, investors, and reputations later.

The Six Faces of Narcissism

Psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula , whose research has shaped much of the modern understanding of narcissism, describes six primary subtypes. Each of them can be adaptive when balanced, or toxic when unregulated:

Grandiose: The charismatic visionary. Inspires others when confident; crushes dissent when insecure.
Vulnerable: The emotionally fragile version. Craves validation but fears rejection.
Communal: The “good person” narcissist. Needs to be admired for being generous or kind.
Malignant: Controlling, paranoid, and willing to harm others to protect ego.
Neglectful: Detached, disengaged, treats people as instruments.
Self-Righteous: Morally superior, rigid, convinced they are the only adult in the room.

Most founders show traces of at least two of these.

And in moderation, these traits help. They create drive, resilience, and belief — qualities that investors often mistake for charisma.

The problem isn’t narcissism itself. It’s when ego outpaces emotional regulation .

The Data Behind the Mirror

Across our database of 122 startup founders , each assessed on 46 Personality & Leadership Profile (PLP) scales and 46 360-degree leadership competencies , narcissism emerges as both a predictor of greatness and a predictor of collapse .

The 10× founders — those whose companies returned exponential value — were not humble saints. They were what I call disciplined narcissists: confident, ambitious, assertive, and driven by achievement — but tempered by empathy, patience, and ethical grounding .

They scored high on Achievement, Autonomy, and Risk-Taking , but also maintained elevated scores on Patience, Optimism, and Model of Values .

They didn’t fight their ego. They harnessed it.

By contrast, founders whose companies failed — the unsuccessful group — were equally brilliant but emotionally unregulated. They scored significantly higher on Aggression, Defensiveness, and Impulsivity , and significantly lower on Trust, Empathy, and Consideration — roughly one standard deviation lower (10 T-score points) than their successful peers.

Their leadership wasn’t powered by vision anymore — it was powered by reactivity. And that’s the moment when the very engine that got them to the starting line begins to tear the vehicle apart.

When Narcissism Works

Healthy narcissism gives founders gravity. It creates the magnetic field that pulls investors, employees, and customers into orbit.

These founders are confident but not careless; assertive but not controlling. They operate from belief, not from fear.

They’re the ones who use narcissism to build something enduring — not to prove something fleeting. In our data, they excelled in 360 ratings on Creating Buy-In, Delegation & Empowerment, and Adaptability — all behaviors that require trust and composure. They convert ego into execution.

Their signature behaviors:

Grandiose energy channeled into purpose.
Malignant competitiveness transmuted into persistence.
Vulnerability transformed into openness and reflection.
Self-Righteous conviction turned into moral consistency.

They’re still narcissists — but their narcissism serves the mission, not their self-image.

When Narcissism Fails

Then there are the others — the unregulated narcissists. At first, they look similar: bold, persuasive, unstoppable. But over time, their self-belief becomes brittle.

Their aggression rises as trust falls. Their perfectionism becomes paranoia. Their autonomy becomes isolation.

These founders scored roughly a full standard deviation lower (10 T-score points) than successful ones on 360 measures like Openness to Input, Relationship Building, Coaching, and Emotional Control .

They don’t fail because they’re arrogant. They fail because they can’t tolerate limitation.

Feedback feels like rejection. Delegation feels like loss of control. And the more power they get, the less self-awareness they have.

They move fast, but the faster they go, the lonelier it gets — until the organization collapses under the weight of their unmet emotional needs.

The Two Versions of the Same Founder

Ego Regulation

• Successful Founders: Confidence moderated by reflection and humility

• Unsuccessful Founders: Volatility disguised as confidence

Control vs. Trust

• Successful Founders: Delegates, empowers, shares power

• Unsuccessful Founders: Micromanages, distrusts, isolates

Aggression Pattern

• Successful Founders: Channeled into performance

• Unsuccessful Founders: Expressed as conflict and coercion

Recognition Need

• Successful Founders: Purpose-driven validation

• Unsuccessful Founders: Insecure approval-seeking

Ethical Compass

• Successful Founders: Consistent moral modeling

• Unsuccessful Founders: Expedience and rationalization

So the dividing line isn’t how much narcissism a founder has — it’s whether it’s anchored by self-awareness .

The successful ones use ego as a tool. The unsuccessful ones use it as armor.

The Spectrum of Founder Narcissism

Grandiose

• Healthy Expression: Charisma, conviction, inspiration

• Unhealthy Expression: Arrogance, dominance, fragility

Vulnerable

• Healthy Expression: Self-reflective, emotionally transparent

• Unhealthy Expression: Defensive, insecure, blaming

Communal

• Healthy Expression: Empathy without ego

• Unhealthy Expression: Performative caring

Malignant

• Healthy Expression: Fierce but principled

• Unhealthy Expression: Punitive, controlling, distrustful

Neglectful

• Healthy Expression: Independent but connected

• Unhealthy Expression: Detached, emotionally absent

Self-Righteous

• Healthy Expression: Grounded in values

• Unhealthy Expression: Rigid, moralizing, unyielding

Every founder oscillates along this continuum. The goal isn’t to eliminate ego but to integrate it — to move from self-importance to self-awareness.

The Psychological Root

The most successful founders in our research share a quiet humility beneath their confidence. They’ve learned to hold two truths simultaneously:

“I am extraordinary.”
“I am not the whole story.”

That paradox — ego with empathy, conviction with curiosity — is the hallmark of psychological maturity. It’s what allows a founder to hold power without being consumed by it.

Their unsuccessful counterparts can’t hold that tension. They oscillate between superiority and shame — between “I’m brilliant” and “No one appreciates me.” That oscillation is the engine of the vulnerable-malignant loop , the psychological pattern that wrecks both cultures and companies.

Coaching the Narcissist

You can’t coach ego out of a founder. But you can coach ego regulation .

The process usually unfolds in five stages:

Recognition: Data first, not judgment. Use 360 feedback as an emotional mirror. Narcissists can argue with people; they can’t argue with their own data.
Differentiation: Separate ambition from insecurity. Help them see what’s driving their overcontrol.
Containment: Teach behavioral discipline — pausing before reacting, curiosity before correction.
Connection: Reinforce trust-based leadership behaviors — active listening, recognition, and collaborative decision-making.
Integration: Replace ego-defense with ego-service — using their confidence to develop others rather than dominate them.

The shift doesn’t happen overnight. But when it does, the founder becomes more than a leader — they become a force multiplier.

The Paradox in Plain Language

Our forty years of data say something simple but profound:

Every founder who builds something meaningful begins with narcissism. But only those who grow beyond it sustain success.

Ego, when integrated, becomes conviction. Ego, when unintegrated, becomes compulsion.

One builds. The other burns.

Or, as I often tell founders:

Narcissism builds the rocket. Empathy keeps it from burning up on re-entry.

That isn’t metaphor. That’s psychology — and physics.

Because unchecked ego obeys the same law as gravity: It always pulls you back down.

The Reflection Deficit: Why Thinking Time Is the Most Undervalued Executive Skill (Part 2 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Inner Mastery Series)

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:14:46 GMT

The Badge of Busyness

If there were an Olympic event for back-to-back meetings, most executives I know would medal. They wear it proudly — the calendar that looks like a Tetris board, the 11:30 p.m. emails, the constant refrain of “crazy week.”

Busyness has become our favorite drug. It keeps us numb, important, and conveniently distracted from the one question we don’t want to face: What am I actually doing that matters?

I’m not judging; I’ve lived this. Years ago, I was “that guy” — sprinting through 14-hour days while telling myself reflection was for monks or consultants between clients.

Then one day, after a particularly pointless meeting, I realized something embarrassing: I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a single original thought.

Why Thinking Feels Unproductive

Here’s the irony: most leaders know they need to think more. They just can’t stand how useless it feels.

Sitting in silence doesn’t produce slides or metrics. There’s no dopamine hit, no “good meeting” to log.

But thinking time is like compound interest. It looks small in the moment and enormous over time.

When you actually stop, patterns appear. You notice which fires you keep putting out, which meetings could’ve been emails, and which goals you’re chasing that don’t even belong to you anymore.

A Simple Truth

Busyness is a form of self-defense. If you never stop moving, you never have to confront the uncomfortable truths that surface when you do.

That’s why reflection feels awkward at first — it threatens your illusion of momentum.

But momentum without direction is just noise.

A Founder’s Story

One founder I coached had the classic startup badge of honor: chaos. His day started at 5:30 a.m., ended around midnight, and he bragged about being “in the weeds” with every decision.

I asked, “When do you think?” He said, “All the time.” I said, “No — I mean deliberately.”

He stared at me like I’d asked if he did yoga with dolphins.

We scheduled two hours of thinking time a week. The first few sessions drove him nuts. He kept checking email, pacing, making lists.

Then, around week four, he sent a note:

“I finally realized half my problems were the result of not thinking before saying yes.”

That’s the power of reflection — it turns self-inflicted chaos into clarity.

The Science Behind Stillness

Here’s the biology of it: when you’re rushing, your brain lives in survival mode — flooded with cortisol, locked on what’s urgent.

When you slow down, another network kicks in — the one responsible for creativity, empathy, and pattern recognition.

That’s why your best ideas show up in the shower or on long drives. The brain finally has enough quiet to connect dots.

You don’t need more input. You need more oxygen.

Why Leaders Avoid It

Two reasons.

It’s vulnerable. Reflection forces you to notice things you’ve been ignoring — the conversation you keep postponing, the hire you know isn’t working, the ambition that’s turned into exhaustion.
It’s inefficient… at first. There’s no immediate ROI. But over time, reflection prevents the expensive rework that comes from impulsive decisions.

As one client told me, “I used to say I didn’t have time to think. Turns out, not thinking was costing me time.”

How to Reclaim Thinking Time (Without Quitting Your Job)

Schedule “white space” like a meeting. Literally block it on the calendar. Call it “Strategy,” “Clarity,” or even “Meeting with Myself” if you’re worried someone will book over it.
Change environments. Go walk, drive, sit somewhere with natural light. Different settings unlock different neural pathways.
Ask bigger questions. Instead of “What needs to get done?” ask “What actually matters now?” or “What am I pretending not to know?”
Capture patterns, not notes. Don’t transcribe thoughts — notice themes. What keeps repeating? That’s your mind begging for attention.
End reflection with one action. Otherwise, it turns into rumination. Decide one thing to start, stop, or say no to.

The Humor in It

I once told an overworked exec, “Block 90 minutes a week just to think.” He said, “What should I do during that time?”

That’s the problem in one sentence.

Thinking is doing — it’s just quieter.

What Happens When You Build the Habit

At first, reflection feels indulgent. Then it feels useful. Then it becomes addictive — in a good way.

Your decisions get cleaner. Your conversations sharper. Your stress lower.

You stop reacting and start designing.

Because clarity saves more time than hustle ever will.

Your Challenge This Week

Find one 60-minute window. No phone, no laptop, no music, no distractions. Just a notebook and a question:

“What’s one thing I keep doing that no longer deserves my energy?”

Don’t overthink it — just listen for what surfaces.

That hour will tell you more about your leadership than a dozen status meetings ever could.

Final Word

In a world obsessed with movement, stillness is rebellion.

But it’s also intelligence.

The best leaders aren’t the busiest. They’re the ones who’ve learned that reflection isn’t retreat — it’s refinement.

The next breakthrough won’t come from another meeting. It’ll come from the silence you’ve been avoiding.

The Fear Beneath Control: How Insecurity Masquerades as Strength (Part 1 of The Best Leaders Playbook — Inner Mastery Series)

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:09:56 GMT

You’ve Met This Leader — Maybe You’ve Been This Leader

They’re in every company. The one who rewrites your email “just to tighten it up,” sits in on meetings they don’t need to, and then complains that no one takes ownership.

If you’re smiling, you probably recognize them. If you’re wincing, you probably are them.

I’ve been that person. Control looks like competence until you realize it’s just fear in a tailored suit.

Control Feels Smart — It’s Actually Emotional Self-Defense

On the surface, micromanagement looks like high standards. Underneath, it’s self-protection.

When things feel uncertain — a shaky market, an unpredictable teammate, a decision you’re not sure about — your brain hits the panic button: Grab the wheel. Fix it yourself.

And for about five minutes, it works. You feel calm again. Order restored. Then the cycle restarts: relief, exhaustion, resentment.

The pattern isn’t strategic; it’s chemical.

The Biology of “Let Me Handle It”

Neuroscientists could tell you it’s your amygdala firing, but you don’t need a lab to recognize it. It’s that pulse in your neck when someone questions you. The twitch in your fingers when you see an email thread veering off course.

Your body thinks it’s protecting you from danger. It’s really protecting you from discomfort.

The Fallout Nobody Talks About

When leaders grip too tightly, a few predictable things happen:

Initiative dies. People stop taking risks because they know you’ll redo their work.
Speed tanks. Every decision bottlenecks at the top.
Your best people leave quietly for air.
You end up tired, irritable, and muttering that “no one has good judgment anymore.”

That’s not leadership. That’s adult babysitting.

Why We Keep Doing It

Because control gives a quick hit of safety. For a brief moment, you feel indispensable again.

But dependency feels like loyalty until it’s not. You train your team to need you, then resent them for it.

That’s the hidden cost: you create the very helplessness you complain about.

A Founder’s Wake-Up Call

One founder I coached — let’s call him Mark — was in every meeting, approving every pixel, every sentence.

He told me, “I can’t delegate; they’re not ready.”

I said, “Are they not ready — or untrained because you won’t let them try?”

He laughed, then sighed. Six months later he’d handed off half his decisions. The company was running smoother.

He said, “Turns out they didn’t need me in every room. I just needed to feel needed.”

Exactly.

The Opposite of Control Isn’t Chaos

It’s clarity.

When expectations, priorities, and values are clear, you don’t need to hover. People move with confidence because the direction is obvious.

Control fills the gap where clarity is missing. Get clearer, and the need to control starts dissolving on its own.

Five Ways to Loosen the Grip

Name the fear. Is it fear of failure, of being judged, of becoming irrelevant? Labeling shrinks it.
Define “good enough.” Perfectionism keeps you chained. “Done” is usually 80 percent.
Delegate one layer deeper than feels safe. You’ll twitch. Let it happen. That’s growth, not danger.
Ask for alignment, not detail. “Are we still headed in the same direction?” beats “Show me the draft.”
Celebrate the decisions you didn’t make. Each one is proof the system’s working.

Your Team Feels What You Feel

Teams mirror their leader’s nervous system. If yours hums with anxiety, theirs buzzes with it. If yours is steady, they breathe again.

One exec told me, “I realized my panic was contagious. So I started practicing calm.” Within weeks, meetings got shorter, people more decisive.

Emotions scale faster than strategy.

Funny But True

I once asked a CEO why he personally approved every expense report. He said, “To stay close to the details.”

I said, “No — to stay close to control.”

He laughed, deleted himself from the workflow, and called it his “first act of liberation.”

The Inner Work Beneath Letting Go

Control isn’t a systems problem. It’s a self-trust problem.

When you trust that your worth isn’t tied to omnipresence, delegation stops feeling like loss. You stop needing to prove usefulness and start multiplying it through others.

That’s the real transition from doer to leader.

Your Challenge This Week

Pick one thing you’ve been white-knuckling — a project, a client, a decision. Hand it off completely. Tell the person, “I trust you.”

Then walk away.

You’ll feel the urge to peek. Don’t. Let them carry it. Let yourself breathe.

You’ll both grow faster than you think.

Final Word

Control looks like strength. But real strength is staying steady when you’re not in control.

Because leadership isn’t about gripping tighter; it’s about building clarity, trust, and calm so others can steer too.

Let go. The road’s wider than you think.

When Should a Founder Bring in a COO? And why choosing the right type of COO could save or sink your company

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 15:18:13 GMT

One of the biggest dilemmas that founders face knowing when and why to bring in a Chief Operating Officer (COO) . Too early, and you risk creating bureaucracy before the business finds its footing. Too late, and the founder becomes a bottleneck, throttling growth and burning out teams. Get the wrong type of COO, and you’ll spark culture clashes or stifle innovation. I have had 4 COOs over my career. Their styles and capabilities were very different and the role I needed them to play differed dramatically based on the stage of the company. Some of them worked out beautifully and were the perfect complement to my founder tendencies and limitations. Some were a disaster. Here is what I learned.

The COO is the most variable role in the C-suite. Some founders never hire one. Others go through three or four before finding the right fit. In many cases, the question isn’t if you need a COO—it’s what type of COO your company and your leadership style demand at this stage of growth.

Let’s break this down.

Why COOs Matter

Founders are visionaries. They are idea machines, market spotters, and force-of-nature storytellers who rally talent and investors around a dream. But those same strengths often come paired with weaknesses: disorganization, impatience, lack of systems, and difficulty letting go of control.

A strong COO is the counterweight. They turn vision into execution. They stabilize culture. They keep promises made to customers and investors. And, at the right time, they free the founder to do what only the founder can do—set direction, evangelize the mission, and keep the spark alive.

But “COO” isn’t one job. It’s a category. And picking the wrong type is like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

The Seven Archetypes of COOs

1. The Executor

The backbone of day-to-day operations. They build systems, enforce discipline, and make the trains run on time.

Best fit: Visionary founders who thrive on ideas but leave chaos in their wake.
Stage: Early scaling, when the business needs process without killing momentum.
Examples: Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook (balancing Zuckerberg’s vision), Gwynne Shotwell at SpaceX (stabilizing Musk’s whirlwind).

2. The Change Agent

The fixer. Brought in when transformation is urgent—scaling fast, restructuring, or pulling out of crisis.

Best fit: Founders who know the business has outgrown their own operational grip.
Stage: Scaling into hypergrowth, or turnaround scenarios.
Examples: Daniel Alegre at Activision Blizzard, leading cultural and operational overhaul.

3. The Mentor/Partner

The grown-up in the room. A seasoned leader who steadies a first-time or young founder, often more coach than operator.

Best fit: Visionary but inexperienced founders, often in the earliest stages of institutional growth.
Stage: Transition from startup scrappiness to formal organization.
Examples: Eric Schmidt at Google—while not COO by title, he played this role for Page and Brin.

4. The Heir Apparent

The COO as CEO-in-waiting. They take on broad P&L responsibility, often shadowing the founder before succession.

Best fit: Companies preparing for leadership transition.
Stage: Later scaling into maturit
Examples: Tim Cook at Apple before succeeding Steve Jobs.

5. The MVP Functionalist

The specialist. A COO with deep expertise in one critical area—finance, product, supply chain, or sales.

Best fit: Founders strong in vision but weak in a single domain essential to scaling.
Stage: Startup to early scale.
Examples: Prabir Adarkar at DoorDash, covering finance and operations.

6. The Complement to the CEO’s Gaps

A tailor-made role. If the founder is a disorganized visionary, the COO is structured and disciplined. If the founder is technical but introverted, the COO is outward-facing and people-savvy.

Best fit: Any founder aware enough to know their own blind spots.
Stage: Anywhere, but especially scaling.
Examples: Sandberg balancing Zuckerberg’s lack of operational rigor; Shotwell countering Musk’s volatility.

7. The Integrator/Hybrid

The most complex type. They unify strategy, execution, culture, and talent at once—bridging across multiple functions.

Best fit: Complex, multi-line businesses with global teams.
Stage: Scaling into maturity.
Examples: Angela Ahrendts at Burberry, integrating brand, culture, and operations before moving to Apple.

Why Founder–COO Relationships Fail So Often

If the COO role is so valuable, why do so many founder–COO relationships crash and burn? Boards are often gun-shy about hiring COOs because they’ve seen these partnerships implode. The reasons fall into several predictable buckets.

1. Lack of Role Clarity

The fastest way to sabotage the relationship is leaving the COO’s job undefined. Who owns what decisions? Where does accountability lie? If the COO’s role overlaps with the founder’s, or isn’t communicated to the rest of the team, the COO quickly becomes either a glorified project manager or a powerless deputy. Both end badly.

2. Founder’s Inability to Let Go

Many founders simply can’t let go. They want to approve every detail, revisit every decision, and undermine the very autonomy they hired the COO to exercise. A COO who feels second-guessed or constantly overruled either disengages or quits.

3. Misaligned Vision and Values

Operational excellence isn’t enough if the COO doesn’t fully buy into the founder’s vision and cultural values. When the COO wants to optimize for stability while the founder is pushing disruption—or vice versa—the two end up pulling the company in opposite directions.

4. Trust and Emotional Reactivity

Trust is fragile. If the founder is volatile under stress, or the COO isn’t skilled at navigating the founder’s personality, the relationship becomes brittle. Outbursts, defensiveness, or miscommunications erode psychological safety between them and ripple across the organization.

5. Succession Ambiguity and Power Tensions

Is the COO being groomed as the future CEO—or not? Few questions create more tension. If expectations aren’t clarified up front, the COO may feel misled and the founder may feel threatened. Meanwhile, employees begin to compare the two and pick sides. Boards have seen this movie before, and it rarely ends well.

6. Unrealistic Expectations

Founders and boards often expect the COO to “fix everything yesterday.” In reality, operational improvements take time—learning systems, culture, and people. When results don’t appear overnight, frustration builds. On the flip side, some COOs expect to make sweeping changes immediately, without respecting the founder’s legacy or the team’s tolerance for disruption.

7. Culture and Communication Breakdowns

The founder and COO need structured ways to align—weekly check-ins, clear communication norms, and mechanisms to resolve disagreements. Without them, minor irritations accumulate into major grievances. Worse, the team sees open conflict at the top and begins to question who’s really in charge.

8. Identity and Ego Issues

Let’s name the elephant in the room: many founders see hiring a COO as an admission of weakness. They sabotage the hire by bypassing the COO or contradicting them in front of the team. On the other side, ambitious COOs often chafe at being “Number Two.” If the relationship isn’t anchored in humility and respect, egos will clash.

How Founders Can Prevent the Breakdown

Knowing the pitfalls is only half the battle. Preventing them takes deliberate work:

Define the COO’s mandate explicitly —what they own, what’s shared, and what stays with the CEO.
Set up trust rituals early —regular one-on-one check-ins to surface tension before it festers.
Align on vision and values —not just what you’re building, but how you’ll build it and why it matters.
Clarify succession expectations —is this person a partner, a long-term No. 2, or a potential future CEO? Say it.
Set realistic timelines —agree on milestones, but don’t expect magic overnight.
Communicate clearly to the org —so employees understand who does what and aren’t caught in the crossfire.
Hire for complementarity —choose a COO who fills your blind spots, not one who duplicates your strengths.

The founder–COO relationship is like a marriage with the pressure of Wall Street, venture capital, and 200 employees watching. When it works, it’s transformative. When it doesn’t, it’s messy, public, and expensive.

The Founder × Stage × COO Fit

So how do you know when and which type of COO to bring in? Here’s the decision logic:

Startup + Visionary Founder Needs an Executor or Mentor/Partner. Someone to turn chaos into motion without killing energy.
Startup + Operator Founder May not need a COO yet. If they do, it’s usually a domain specialist (MVP Functionalist) to cover blind spots.
Scaling + Visionary Founder Needs an Integrator or a Complement to gaps. Execution and people issues become bottlenecks.
Scaling + Operator Founder May need a Change Agent or Heir Apparent. The role becomes about transformation or succession.
Mature Company + Visionary CEO The COO role is succession-oriented (Heir Apparent) or complex integration (Hybrid).
Mature Company + Operator CEO Sometimes no COO is needed; the CEO already runs operations. In other cases, the COO is simply the next CEO waiting in line.

Takeaway

Hiring a COO isn’t about “offloading work.” It’s about admitting what kind of company you’re really building, and what kind of leader you are.

If you’re the spark but not the engine, you need an Executor.
If you’re a force of change but leave wreckage behind, you need a Relationship-Builder complement.
If you’re building for the long haul, sooner or later you need an Heir Apparent.

The best founders aren’t the ones who try to do it all. They’re the ones who know when to step aside—just enough—to let someone else make the company stronger.

Closing Thought

In Founders Keepers, I often say: what got you here won’t get you there. The founder’s job is to create possibility. The COO’s job is to turn possibility into performance.

The only real mistake is waiting until your company is already fraying before you decide which kind of COO you need. By then, the cost of waiting may be higher than you can afford.

From Vision to Reality: How Founders Can Ensure Their Ideas Get Implemented

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 15:14:02 GMT

The Founder’s Dilemma

Founders are fountains of ideas. You see possibilities everywhere, you connect dots others can’t, and you can sell a vision with enough energy to light up a room. But there’s a problem: ideas don’t implement themselves. They need systems, people, and execution discipline.

In my coaching of more than a hundred startup founders—and backed by data from 122 founder assessments—the same challenge comes up again and again: founders are world-class at generating ideas, but their companies stumble when those ideas aren’t translated into action. I have struggled with this tendency for my entire career. My creative ideas just keep bubbling up and my execution discipline and focus can’t keep up. I have the classic “shiny object” distraction problem shared by many founders. The irony? The very traits that made me a classic visionary evangelist—creativity, independence, impatience, and risk tolerance—are the same traits that made execution difficult.

If you want your ideas to live beyond a brainstorming session, you must learn to do what feels unnatural: offload execution, delegate real authority, and empower others to carry your vision forward.

Why Great Ideas Die Without Execution

Most failed ideas don’t die because they weren’t brilliant. They die because:

1. The founder keeps ownership too long, trying to do everything personally instead of empowering others.

2. Delegation is fake, with tasks assigned but no real authority granted, leaving the founder still in control.

3. Priorities aren’t clear, so teams are overwhelmed by too many initiatives and unsure of what matters most.

4. Accountability is weak, with no consistent follow-up or consequences when commitments slip.

5. Founders love possibilities but resist discipline, avoiding the planning, sequencing, and focus execution requires.

6. Ideas are left open-ended, because founders generate endlessly but fail to converge on closure and completion.

7. Optimism turns unrealistic, as founders overestimate what’s possible and ignore what could go wrong.

8. Expectations aren’t communicated, leaving teams uncertain about roles, outcomes, and next steps.

9. They rush ahead without buy-in, moving too fast to bring others along and win their commitment.

10. They undervalue operators, failing to leverage managers of execution who can turn vision into systems.

This is what I call the founder time bomb. Early success convinces you that your personal hustle is the engine of growth. But as the company scales, hustle becomes a bottleneck. Unless you shift, your best ideas will choke on lack of oxygen.

Step 1: Translate Vision Into Tangible Priorities

Your job as a founder isn’t to hand down a 37-slide vision deck and hope for the best. Your team needs clarity. That means breaking down your big idea into concrete, winnable battles.

Set the “critical few” : Define 3–5 top priorities for the quarter.
Outcome > activity : Don’t assign tasks, define the result (e.g., “Increase retention by 5%”).
Overcommunicate : If you feel like you’re repeating yourself, you’re doing it right.

One founder I coached changed his company trajectory by beginning every weekly meeting with just three priorities. The noise vanished. His team finally knew what mattered.

Step 2: Practice Real Delegation, Not Fake Delegation

Too many founders think delegation means assigning a task and then hovering over the person doing it. That’s not delegation—that’s micromanagement with extra steps.

Real delegation means:

Handing over ownership, not just chores.
Giving the decision rights along with the responsibility.
Accepting that “80% their way” may be better than “100% your way.”

Here’s a phrase worth practicing: “You own this. You don’t need my approval.” Few sentences are harder for founders to say. Few sentences build more trust.

Step 3: Build a Culture of Accountability Without Becoming a Tyrant

Accountability is where many founders stumble. They either avoid conflict (hoping problems fix themselves) or they overreact when deadlines slip. Both extremes poison execution.

Healthy accountability requires:

Clear expectations : No hidden rules or shifting targets.
Visible commitments : Public goals build peer pressure to deliver.
Rhythms of review : Regular check-ins that aren’t nagging but structured.
Consequences : Underperformance addressed quickly, not ignored.

Accountability isn’t punishment—it’s support. It says, “I expect the best from you because I believe in you.”

Step 4: Share Information Like Oxygen

Execution thrives on information. Yet many founders hoard knowledge—sometimes out of habit, sometimes out of insecurity. Teams can’t execute if they don’t understand the why behind the what.

Empowered teams need:

Transparent dashboards : Everyone sees progress metrics.
Context, not just orders : Explain reasoning, not just results.
Accessible strategy docs : Kill the “founder black box.”

When people understand the big picture, they stop running back to you for every decision. They start acting like owners.

Step 5: Invest in Second-Line Leaders

Scaling execution isn’t about having 50 great individual contributors—it’s about having 5 managers who can each lead 10 people effectively. Yet many founders neglect their managers, focusing instead on product or fundraising.

Strong second-line leaders can:

Translate your vision into plans.
Coach their teams instead of doing the work themselves.
Spot and develop talent below them.

Your leverage point is not how many people you personally manage, but how many leaders you multiply.

Step 6: Watch Out for Founder Autopilot

Your instincts—boldness, independence, impatience—got you this far. But they can sabotage you at scale. I call this founder autopilot. It looks like:

Jumping back into execution “just to speed things up.”
Overloading the team with new initiatives before finishing the old ones.
Cutting around your managers and making unilateral calls.

The cure is self-awareness. Tools like 360 feedback and coaching help you notice when you’ve slipped back into heroic founder mode instead of scalable leader mode.

Step 7: Celebrate Execution, Not Just Ideas

Most founders glorify the spark of ideation but forget to recognize the grind of implementation. If you only celebrate creativity, you’ll get lots of brainstorming but little delivery.

Shift the culture:

Spotlight the team that launched, shipped, or solved—not just the one that dreamed.
Tell stories of execution at all-hands meetings.
Publicly recognize “builders,” not just “visionaries.”

What you celebrate becomes what your team repeats.

The Founder’s Evolution: From Genius to Builder of Builders

The founder who can’t offload execution ends up as the bottleneck, exhausted and surrounded by frustrated employees. The founder who masters delegation and empowerment evolves into something much more powerful: a builder of builders.

In my research, the difference between founders who scaled 10x and those who flatlined wasn’t idea quality. It was execution quality. The 10x founders learned to empower others, create accountability systems, and step back from doing everything themselves.

The founder who shifts from “I’ll do it” to “I’ll ensure it gets done” makes the leap from fragile startup to durable company.

Closing Thoughts

Ideas ignite companies, but execution sustains them. If you want your vision to shape reality, you must resist the temptation to hold the reins too tightly. Translate vision into priorities. Delegate real authority. Build accountability and transparency. Develop leaders beneath you. And above all, celebrate execution as much as you celebrate ideation.

That’s how founders ensure their ideas don’t die in the brainstorm stage but live on as products, services, and companies that change the world.

When Loyalty Becomes a Liability: Why Founders Must Confront Team Obsolescence

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 15:10:15 GMT

Every founder eventually faces a moment of reckoning. It doesn’t arrive with a clear announcement. It creeps in gradually, often disguised as small frustrations: projects slipping, team members complaining, or investors quietly losing confidence. And at the center of it all is a painful truth:

The people who carried you through the chaos of the early days, the ones who slept on office couches, pulled all-nighters, and took pay cuts to bet on your dream—can no longer keep up.

The company has grown. The stakes are higher. And the job has outgrown them.

This is one of the hardest truths in entrepreneurship, and one most founders struggle to face. Instead of acting, they convince themselves:

“She’ll grow into the role.”
“He’s been with me since day one—I can’t let him go.”
“Loyalty matters more than resumes.”

But here’s the hard truth that separates founders who scale from those who stall: loyalty doesn’t scale. Competence does.

The Startup Version of the Peter Principle

The Peter Principle tells us that in large corporations, people rise to their level of incompetence. In startups, this principle plays out in hyper-speed.

What made someone a hero in a five-person company, improvisation, raw hustle, and the willingness to do anything becomes a liability in a 50- or 500-person company.

Think about the hacker who was indispensable in the garage. Brilliant at rapid problem-solving, he could patch servers at 3am and crank out features in a weekend. But leading a team of 50 engineers requires a totally different skill set: planning, delegation, recruiting, building processes. His improvisation becomes chaos. His genius turns into bottlenecks.

Or the co-founder who thrived on energy and vision. In the early days, charisma and instinct were enough. But scaling requires a discipline around metrics, process, and accountability. What once looked like bold leadership now looks like reckless improvisation.

Even the beloved “culture carrier”—the person who organized team offsites, boosted morale, and made the company feel like family—can become a roadblock. When decisions stack up and complexity explodes, loyalty and good vibes aren’t enough. What the company needs is a strategic operator, not just a glue person.

This is what I call team obsolescence : the brutal, recurring reality that many early employees get outgrown by the job.

The Head vs. Heart Conflict

Why do founders struggle so much with this? It’s not because they’re blind. It’s because they’re human.

The tension isn’t just intellectual—it’s emotional.

Guilt and Indebtedness : Early employees bet on you before anyone else did. They turned down safer jobs, endured lower salaries, and staked their careers on your vision. Cutting them loose feels like betrayal. Psychologists call this the principle of reciprocity: the human drive to repay sacrifices. Founders feel they owe these people more than just a paycheck.
Fear of Losing the Magic : Founders often worry that bringing in “outsiders” will ruin the scrappy, intimate culture that made the company special. This is a classic case of in-group bias. We trust the familiar, even when it’s no longer fit for purpose. Many founders cling to the idea that culture is fragile and must be protected from “corporate types.”
Conflict Avoidance : Few people relish difficult conversations. Founders, especially those wired to inspire rather than confront, often procrastinate on hard personnel decisions. This is loss aversion at work: the immediate pain of conflict feels worse than the long-term risk of stagnation.
Blind Loyalty Bias : Founders frequently overestimate an early employee’s ability to “grow into” a scaled role. This is the halo effect: past loyalty and past performance cast a glow that blinds you to current shortcomings.

This is the founder’s head-versus-heart struggle. Rationally, you know the company has outgrown someone. Emotionally, you can’t let go.

A Founder’s Story: When Friendship Meets Reality

One founder I coached built his company with a close college friend. This friend was the first engineer, working nights and weekends to bring the product alive. He coded nonstop, patched outages at all hours, and was the reason the company survived its early chaos.

By Series B, the company had 80 employees. Suddenly the role wasn’t about heroic coding; it was about systems, processes, and leading dozens of engineers.

The founder knew his friend was drowning. Deadlines slipped. Senior engineers were frustrated. Investors raised eyebrows. But he kept saying, “He’s been with me since the beginning. I owe him.”

Eventually, he faced reality. With coaching, he had the hard conversation: “You’re invaluable to this company, but the role has outgrown your strengths. Let’s find a place where you can thrive without being set up to fail.”

The friend transitioned into a specialist role where his brilliance could shine without the weight of leadership. The company brought in a seasoned VP of Engineering. Painful as it was, the decision saved both the company and the friendship.

This is the essence of true leadership: honoring loyalty without letting it sink the ship.

The High Price of Avoidance

The costs of avoidance aren’t abstract—they’re devastating.

Execution Bottlenecks : An underqualified leader slows everything down. Projects drag, opportunities slip, and customers churn. It’s like trying to scale a skyscraper on a foundation built for a cottage.
A-Players Walk : The best people won’t stay if forced to work under weak leaders. They leave, taking ambition and excellence with them. The company becomes a place where mediocrity thrives.
Culture Corrodes : Protecting underperformers sends a loud signal: politics matter more than performance. Over time, resentment builds. High performers check out. Trust erodes.
Investor Mistrust : Boards and investors notice quickly when execution falters. They start asking tough questions—not just about your team, but about your judgment as a founder.
Founder Burnout : Perhaps the greatest cost: you, the founder, pick up the slack. Instead of scaling your vision, you spend nights fixing problems others should solve. Exhaustion sets in. Your energy, the one resource no one else can replace, gets depleted.

What feels like an act of loyalty today can quietly strangle the company’s future.

Another Case: The Culture Carrier

I once worked with a founder whose operations manager was beloved by the team. She organized payroll, ordered office supplies, and planned offsites. She was the glue.

But when the company hit 150 employees, the demands shifted. The job required scalable systems, compliance expertise, and strategic HR planning. She was still running things on spreadsheets and memory. People loved her, but they were increasingly frustrated with the chaos.

The founder feared that replacing her would “destroy the culture.” Eventually, he hired a Head of People. But instead of cutting her out, he redeployed her into an employee experience role. She continued to be the cultural heartbeat of the company while freeing leadership to professionalize operations.

The lesson: redeployment, when done thoughtfully, preserves loyalty without sacrificing competence.

What Great Founders Do Differently

The best founders I’ve studied don’t avoid this problem. They approach it with discipline and compassion.

1. They Diagnose Early They don’t wait until the crisis is obvious. They ask themselves, “If I were hiring for this role today, at this stage, would I choose this person?” If the answer is no, they don’t kick the can—they act.

2. They Separate Potential from Plateau Some people can grow. With coaching, training, and mentorship, they can rise to the next level. Others plateau quickly. Great founders don’t confuse the two. They invest in growth where it’s possible and cut losses where it’s not.

3. They Redeploy with Respect This isn’t about discarding people. The best founders move loyal employees into roles where their strengths shine—special projects, advisory positions, cultural leadership. Redeployment preserves respect and institutional knowledge while freeing the company to grow.

4. They Upgrade Before Crisis They don’t wait until the engine fails. They hire seasoned executives early, before execution falters. And they communicate clearly: every stage requires different skills. Honoring the past doesn’t mean guaranteeing the future.

Leadership with Compassion

The real test of a founder isn’t whether you can attract capital or inspire a team. It’s whether you can make the painful calls that protect the company’s future while respecting the people who got you started.

True leadership is not about cold detachment. It’s about balancing head and heart:

Gratitude means honoring contributions, celebrating sacrifices, and rewarding loyalty.
Governance means making clear-eyed decisions about whether someone can perform at the next level.

When founders confuse the two, they put sentiment ahead of survival. But when they balance both, they create companies that endure.

One founder I know addresses this directly with his team: “Every stage requires new skills. Some of us will grow into them.

Others will contribute in different ways. What matters is building a company that lasts.”

That’s leadership with compassion—telling the truth while honoring the past.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

The startup environment today is more unforgiving than ever. Capital is tighter. Investors are quicker to act. The margin for error is smaller.

In this climate, founders who delay tough calls are at greater risk than ever. Execution failures and cultural corrosion are spotted instantly by boards and competitors.

The founders who scale are those who balance loyalty with realism—who act before the cracks widen into chasms.

The Founder’s Real Test

It’s easy to celebrate early wins and bask in loyalty.

The real test is whether you can honor that loyalty without being trapped by it.

Because here’s the paradox: The only way to truly honor early sacrifices is to build a company that endures.

And that means making the call when loyalty becomes liability.

Call to Action

If you’re a founder facing this dilemma, don’t wait for the board to force your hand. Don’t wait for top talent to walk or investors to lose confidence.

Confront it now. Diagnose honestly. Redeploy with respect. Upgrade before crisis.

Be compassionate. Be decisive. Be clear-eyed.

Your team—and your company—will thank you later.

Your Co-Founder is Your Biggest Risk: A Proactive Guide to Building an Unbreakable Partnership

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:06:07 GMT

Let's be brutally honest. You're building something incredible, something that could change the world, or at least your bank account. And right there with you, in the trenches, is your co-founder. Your partner in crime. Your business spouse.

Except, here’s the cold, hard truth: that co-founder is also statistically one of the most likely reasons your dream dies a slow, agonizing death.

Forget market fit. Forget funding. The number one killer of startups isn't external forces; it's the implosion of the founding team. And yet, we treat co-founder selection like a casual coffee chat, not the strategic, life-altering decision it truly is.

We gloss over the red flags, rationalize away the "quirks," and tell ourselves, "We'll figure it out." Newsflash: you probably won't. Not when the pressure cooker of startup life turns those quirks into gaping, company-killing chasms.

In my four decades of coaching I have been called in to mediate co-founder conflicts on numerous occasions. Often, there is so much history and damage that what is needed is a miracle, not a mediator. I’ve seen unresolved founder conflicts destroy friendships and kill the potential of company after company. It’s not the exception. So, this isn't a fluffy motivational post. This is a wake-up call. Because if you don't confront the uncomfortable truths about co-founder conflict now, your startup will pay the ultimate price.

The Silent Assassins: Why Your Co-Founder Relationship is a Ticking Time Bomb

You didn't start a company to fight. You started it to build. But beneath the surface of shared ambition, a silent war is brewing. It’s not about who gets the last slice of pizza; it’s about deep-seated psychological patterns, unspoken resentments, and the insidious erosion of trust.

These are the silent assassins lurking in every co-founder relationship:

1. The Stress-Management Minefield

Startup life is a constant fire drill. Missed targets, investor rejections, product bugs, payroll looming, it's a relentless assault on your nervous system. How do you and your co-founder handle this pressure?

Does one of you lash out? Withdraw? Become passive-aggressive?
Do you both have healthy coping mechanisms, or do you bring the stress home (and into the office)?

The problem: If one founder's stress response is to micromanage and the other's is to procrastinate, you've got a recipe for constant friction. Your ability to navigate pressure together is more important than your individual brilliance.

2. Imposter Syndrome's Nasty Backhand

Even the most confident founders battle imposter syndrome. That nagging feeling that you're not good enough, that you'll be found out. When you're constantly fighting this internal battle, a co-founder's constructive feedback can feel like a personal attack. Their success can feel like your failure.

The problem: Unacknowledged insecurity leads to defensiveness, overcompensation, and a refusal to delegate. You start seeing your co-founder as a threat, not a partner, because deep down, you're afraid you can't keep up.

3. The Perfectionism Paralysis

"Done is better than perfect." Every founder mantra. But what if your co-founder is a hardcore perfectionist? What if they can't ship a feature until it's absolutely pristine, while you're racing to hit a deadline?

The problem: While attention to detail is good, paralyzing perfectionism in a startup environment is a death wish. It creates resentment, slows down execution, and leads to one founder constantly pulling the other forward, often with explosive results.

4. The "Failure to Scale" Trap

You've heard of companies failing to scale. What about founders? The skills that make you a brilliant "0 to 1" founder the scrappiness, the willingness to wear all hats, the raw hustle, might be a liability at the "1 to 100" stage.

The problem: If one founder embraces hiring, delegation, and building processes, while the other clings to the early-stage chaos, seeing every new hire as a threat to their control, you'll hit a wall. Resentment brews when one person feels they're growing while the other is holding the company back.

5. Personality Clashes (Beyond "Complementary")

"We're perfectly complementary! I'm the visionary, they're the operator." We tell ourselves this constantly. And it can be true. But under immense pressure, those "complementary" differences can become maddening.

The visionary's big ideas might seem impractical to the operator.
The operator's focus on execution might feel stifling to the visionary.

The problem: What seems like a balanced partnership on paper can become a source of mutual frustration when deadlines loom and money runs out. Your working styles might be different, but are they truly compatible when the stakes are highest?

6. The Personal-Professional Blender

"Never mix business with pleasure," they say. And yet, many co-founders are friends, spouses, or family. The lines are already blurred.

The problem: When business strains hit, they don't just affect the company; they infect your personal life. A disagreement in the boardroom bleeds into your dinner conversation. And when the personal relationship unravels, the business is usually the first casualty.

The Battlegrounds: Where Co-Founder Wars Are Fought

These psychological undercurrents don't just float in the ether; they manifest in very real, very damaging disagreements over tangible business issues. These are the common battlegrounds where co-founder relationships go to die:

1. The Equity Minefield

Ah, equity. The ultimate measure of perceived value. This isn't just about the initial split; it's about what happens after.

Unequal Contributions: One founder feels they're working harder, taking more risks, or bringing in more value.
Vesting Cliffs: What happens if someone leaves after 1 year but before 4?
Future Dilution: Who takes the hit when new investors come in?

The problem: Equity arguments are rarely about the numbers. They're proxies for deeper issues of fairness, recognition, and power . If one founder feels consistently undervalued, that resentment will fester and explode.

2. Roles & Responsibilities — The "Who Does What?" Disaster

In the early days, everyone wears all the hats. It's glorious chaos. But as you grow, clarity is paramount.

Undefined Lines: Who makes the final call on product? On hiring? On strategy?
Micromanagement: One founder can't let go, constantly stepping into the other's domain.
"My Job vs. Your Job": When things get tough, founders start pointing fingers and defining their roles rigidly to avoid difficult tasks.

The problem: Lack of clear roles leads to duplication of effort, missed opportunities, and a constant tug-of-war for control. It's exhausting and inefficient.

3. Vision & Strategy Drift

You started with a shared vision, right? But what happens when one founder becomes enamored with a new market, a different product feature, or a radical pivot, while the other is still committed to the original path?

The problem: Without regular, high-level strategic alignment check-ins, you can drift so far apart that you're essentially building two different companies under one roof. And when you finally realize it, the cost of realignment (or separation) is immense.

Proactive CPR: How to Dodge the Co-Founder Bullet

This isn't about avoiding conflict entirely, that's impossible and unhealthy. It's about building a robust foundation so that when conflict inevitably arises, you can navigate it constructively, rather than destructively.

1. The Unsexy But Essential Founder's Agreement

Everyone rushes to incorporate, but far too few spend serious time on the Founder's Agreement . This isn't just a legal document; it's a forced conversation about all the uncomfortable things.

Don't Use a Template! Get a lawyer specializing in startups. A cheap or AI created template will leave gaping holes.
Go Beyond Equity: Yes, define equity splits, vesting, and what happens if someone leaves (the "shotgun clause" is brutal but necessary).
Map Out Decision-Making: Who has final say on what? What's the process for breaking a deadlock? (Hint: it can't always be "majority rules" in a 2-person team).

The Takeaway: The process of creating this document is more valuable than the document itself. It forces you to confront the "what ifs" before they become "oh shits."

2. The "Relationship Retro" — Your Weekly Therapy Session

You have product retros, sales retros, sprint retros. But do you have a relationship retro ? Probably not. And that's your biggest mistake.

Schedule It Religiously: A 30-minute, weekly, non-negotiable meeting about your partnership , not about the business.
Ask the Hard Questions: "What's woring really well in our dynamic?""What's a source of friction for you right now?""What do you need more/less of from me?"
Active Listening is Mandatory: This isn't a place to defend yourself. It's a place to listen, understand, and empathize.

The Takeaway: This structured check-in creates a safe space to address micro-aggressions and small misalignments before they metastasize into full-blown crises.

The Firefighter's Guide: Resolving Conflict When It Explodes

Despite your best efforts, conflict will arise. It's not a sign of failure; it's a sign that something needs attention. The key is how you respond.

1. Lean Into the Discomfort

Your first instinct will be to avoid it. Don't. Unaddressed conflict is like a festering wound—it only gets worse.

Address It Directly (and Early): "Hey, I noticed X. Can we talk about it?"
Don't Let It Fester: Nip small issues in the bud before they become entrenched resentments.
Separate the Person from the Problem: "This isn't about you; it's about this issue and how it impacts the company."

The Takeaway: Courageous conversations are the price of admission to a successful co-founder relationship.

2. The "Facts vs. Interpretations" Framework

Conflicts often escalate because we confuse objective facts with our subjective interpretations and emotions.

Draw a Line Down a Paper:Left Side: FACTS. What objectively happened? Right Side: INTERPRETATIONS/FEELINGS. How did you interpret that? How did it make you feel?
Share Your Sides: Each founder presents their "facts" and "interpretations" without interruption.

The Takeaway: This simple exercise helps de-escalate emotional responses and focuses on the objective reality, allowing for a more rational discussion.

3. Call in the Cavalry: The Third-Party Mediator

Sometimes, you're too close to the forest to see the trees. When you're stuck in a stalemate, a neutral third party can be a lifesaver.

Mentor/Advisor: Someone you both respect and trust.
Professional Coach: An expert in communication and team dynamics.
Don't Wait Until It's Too Late: Bring them in when the conflict is brewing, not when you're already shouting.

The Takeaway: A good mediator doesn't take sides; they facilitate communication, translate emotional language, and help you find common ground.

The Ultimate Playbook: How to Pick Your Startup Soulmate

Choosing a co-founder is not just about finding someone smart. It's about finding someone you can go to war with, build an empire with, and still respect at the end of a brutal day.

1. Obsession Over Problem, Not Just Solution

Everyone loves a cool idea. But true founders are obsessed with the problem they're solving.

Seek Deep Curiosity: Does your potential co-founder spend nights thinking about the customer's pain?
Passion for the "Why": Their motivation should stem from a genuine desire to fix something, not just to get rich.
The "Why" Test: Ask them why they want to solve this problem, why this market, why now. Listen for genuine passion, not just market opportunity.

The Takeaway: Shared obsession with the problem will keep you aligned when the initial excitement fades.

2. Complementary Skills, YES. Complementary Soft Skills, HELL YES!

Everyone talks about technical vs. business skills. That's table stakes. The real magic (and disaster) lies in complementary soft skills.

Communication Styles: Is one a direct communicator and the other prefers nuance? Can you bridge that gap?
Emotional Intelligence: How do they handle their own emotions? How do they react to yours?
Humility: Are they willing to admit when they're wrong? To learn? To take feedback?

The Takeaway: A founder who's brilliant but terrible at conflict resolution is a liability. Prioritize emotional maturity and communication skills as much as technical prowess.

Your Startup's Future is in Your Hands

Choosing a co-founder is not just about finding someone smart; it's about forging a bond that can withstand the entrepreneurial equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. It's about proactive communication, uncomfortable conversations, and a relentless commitment to nurturing the most critical relationship in your business.

Don't let your co-founder break your heart. And more importantly, don't let them kill your startup. Be intentional. Be honest. Be brave. Your dream depends on it.

Leading Through the Storm: The New Playbook for Mastering Resistance to Change

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 02:06:10 GMT

Introduction: The Brutal Truth About Change

If you’re leading a company, here’s one brutal truth you can’t dodge: resistance to change isn’t just inevitable—it’s a gift. Most leaders don’t see it that way. They treat it like an obstacle to bulldoze, something to out-argue, out-maneuver, or silence. But resistance, if you know how to read it, is a living, breathing diagnostic tool.

Every objection, every sideways comment in a hallway, every moment of awkward silence in a meeting—it’s all data. It tells you where the trust gaps are, where the communication breakdowns have happened, and where your people’s unspoken fears live. If you ignore that data, you’re flying blind.

The hard numbers back this up: more than 70% of organizational change initiatives fail, not because the strategy was flawed, but because leaders underestimated what it would take to guide people through the emotional turbulence of transformation.

If you want your next big initiative to succeed, the shift starts here: stop seeing resistance as the enemy, and start listening to what it’s telling you. When you do, you’ll discover that resistance isn’t a wall to break down—it’s a map showing you exactly where to go next.

1. Rethink Resistance: It’s Data, Not Defiance

Let’s flip the lens. When people resist, they’re rarely doing it for sport. They’re sending up flares. They’re telling you something’s unclear, untested, or untrusted.

For example, I worked with a CEO rolling out a sweeping technology overhaul. His first instinct when his managers hesitated was frustration—until we sat down and dissected the resistance. It turned out the managers weren’t doubting the technology; they were worried about the gap between the training timeline and the rollout date. They didn’t fear change—they feared being set up to fail.

When you stop labeling resistance as “non-compliance” and start treating it like intelligence gathering, you find it points to the very levers you can pull to move the change forward.

The Resistance-to-Culture Connection

Here’s the thing: resistance isn’t random—it’s patterned. The form it takes can tell you a lot about your culture.

· When people go silent in meetings, it’s not neutrality—it’s often low trust or fear of retribution.

· Passive-aggressive compliance —nodding in agreement but quietly slow-walking the work—signals a lack of psychological safety.

· Public, heated pushback usually means you have a culture that tolerates candor but lacks alignment on purpose.

· Complaints about overload may point to a history of change fatigue from too many initiatives piled on at once.

· Cynical humor —the eye rolls, the sarcastic asides—often mask scars from past failures.

If you can read these signals, you’re no longer in the dark. You’re diagnosing in real time.

2. Get to the Root: Why People Really Resist

Surface objections are almost never the real story. Leaders who stop at “they’re afraid of change” miss the complexity. Resistance has layers—both emotional and systemic—and those layers interact.

Fear of the unknown is the big one. The human brain reacts to uncertainty like it reacts to physical danger. The amygdala, the brain’s threat detection system, lights up, flooding the body with stress chemicals that narrow focus and heighten defensiveness. You’re not just dealing with logic—you’re dealing with biology.

Loss of control is another potent trigger. When people feel changes are imposed without their input, it’s not just an operational issue—it’s a psychological one. That loss can feel like a stripping away of agency and status, especially in high performers.

Then there’s overload. Imagine already working at 110% and being told, “Oh, and here’s an entirely new system to learn—by Monday.” The mind doesn’t just resist; it shuts down.

Other drivers are more personal. Fear of failure makes people cling to the familiar because they don’t want to look incompetent. Self-interest comes into play when people sense a hit to their pay, position, or influence. And the ghosts of past change failures can haunt even the most promising new initiatives, breeding cynicism that says, “We’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end well.”

Finally, there’s trust—or the lack of it. Sometimes the issue isn’t the change itself—it’s the leader pushing it.

3. The Anatomy of a Change Agent

Over decades of working with founders and executives, conducting thousands of 360 reviews and personality assessments, I’ve seen the same patterns emerge in leaders who make change real. They don’t just manage the process—they transform it.

They hold a vision with teeth—something concrete enough for people to imagine themselves in. They solve problems creatively, not just by tweaking the old ways but by challenging the underlying assumptions. They inspire authentically, showing up with visible commitment rather than relying on positional power.

They act decisively even when the data’s incomplete, and they follow through relentlessly. They know their strengths and weaknesses and stay open to feedback, which keeps their confidence grounded rather than inflated. And they build coalitions—not just at the top table, but across the informal networks where influence really lives.

The Two-Edged Sword of Strengths

Here’s the nuance: every one of these traits has a dark side. Independence of mind is invaluable—until it becomes stubborn isolation. Comfort with discomfort is a superpower—until it tips into recklessness. Bias for action moves things forward—until it causes leaders to leap before they’ve thought through the consequences. Even emotional steadiness can backfire if it becomes detachment.

The best change leaders aren’t just self-aware of their strengths—they’re alert to the moment those strengths start working against them.

4. Why Even Good Leaders Get Stuck

I’ve watched highly capable leaders stall out in change efforts because they hit invisible tripwires. Sometimes it’s fear—fear of being wrong, fear of losing allies, fear of stepping into the unknown.

Others get caught in the trap of popularity, avoiding necessary but unpopular decisions. Conflict aversion is another killer—dodging hard conversations allows tension to fester underground until it blows up.

Status quo bias is subtler but just as deadly, especially for leaders whose past successes were built on the very systems they now need to dismantle. Add impostor fears and burnout to the mix, and even the most visionary leader can retreat into caution.

And when the ghosts of past failures start whispering, cynicism takes over—not just in teams, but in leaders themselves.

5. The Leadership Edge: Transformational Over Transactional

Managers maintain. Leaders transform. The difference isn’t about being inspiring in an abstract way—it’s about doing the work to engage people fully in the journey.

That starts with building and broadcasting a vision people can feel in their bones. Not a polished slide deck, but a story that connects the change to something urgent, personal, and worth caring about.

It means making communication a living, two-way conversation, not a one-time announcement. It’s about engaging people early, letting them shape the how, so the plan becomes theirs. It’s about resourcing them so thoroughly they can’t say they were set up to fail.

And it’s about showing up yourself—visibly, consistently, in the hard moments—because if you’re not walking the talk, no one else will either.

Adaptive Storytelling

Your story about the change isn’t static—it has chapters. In the early stage, it’s about vision and urgency: “Here’s why we must act now.” In the middle, it’s about momentum: “Here’s what we’ve achieved together.” And in the later stage, it’s about identity: “This is who we are now.” Leaders who master these narrative shifts keep their teams connected from start to finish.

6. Avoiding the Sabotage Traps

I’ve seen too many change efforts die for predictable reasons: ignoring the human element, letting communication gaps breed rumors, staying rigid when feedback screams for adjustment, or failing to acknowledge the scars of the past.

Victor—a division head I coached—learned this the hard way. His unwillingness to adapt, to listen to younger and more diverse perspectives, turned his once-valuable experience into a liability. The result? A demoralized team and a failed initiative.

7. From Compliance to Commitment

Real change can’t be forced into existence through memos or mandates. The leaders who pull their teams through the storm don’t just run projects—they build movements. They create clarity when the air is thick with uncertainty. They anchor their people in trust when fear is the easy default. They make empathy as important as execution.

When you do that, resistance stops being a wall—and starts becoming the scaffolding you build the future on.

How Founder Traits Sabotage Collaboration (and What to Do About It)

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 02:12:23 GMT

Most startup founders are brilliant at innovation, disruption, and blazing new trails. They're visionaries, incredibly driven, and fiercely independent. Unfortunately, those same powerful traits often sabotage their ability to foster genuine collaboration—a critical ingredient in startup success.

I've spent decades coaching founders, and one of the biggest blind spots I've observed is the gap between what founders naturally do well and what's required to create truly collaborative cultures. Understanding these tendencies—and knowing how to counter them—can mean the difference between startup stagnation and breakout growth.

High Independence, Low Collaboration

Founders thrive on independence. They love breaking rules, ignoring boundaries, and pushing limits. But independence can quickly morph into isolation. The very idea of slowing down to seek consensus or accommodate team input feels restrictive, even suffocating.

Implications: This independent streak inadvertently sidelines team members, suppresses input, and reduces engagement. Talented people quickly learn their ideas don't matter, and teams become passive or defensive.

Actions to Counter:

Practice deliberately inclusive decision-making.
Clearly define which decisions you'll make alone and where you'll solicit team input.
Regularly check in to see if team members feel heard and involved.

Dominance Isn’t Always Dominant

Many founders naturally take a commanding stance. Their assertiveness, directness, and forcefulness can spark initial progress but, over time, it creates resistance. When team members feel steamrolled or fearful of speaking up, creativity vanishes.

Implications: A dominant style shuts down communication, makes feedback difficult, and kills the very collaboration needed for sustained innovation.

Actions to Counter:

Make intentional space for quieter team members to speak.
Foster psychological safety by modeling vulnerability and humility
Balance assertiveness with curiosity—actively seek feedback rather than waiting for it.

The Curse of Poor Delegation

Delegation isn't just handing off tasks—it's handing off trust. But founders notoriously struggle with this, often believing only they can execute properly. Every task not delegated reinforces the message that the team isn’t capable.

Implications: Poor delegation creates bottlenecks, slows execution, and demoralizes talented employees who feel undervalued and micromanaged.

Actions to Counter:

Start small by delegating lower-risk tasks clearly and thoroughly.
Regularly check your impulses to micromanage; remind yourself why you hired capable people.
Invest in mentoring and coaching rather than controlling.

Communication Breakdown

Founders are famously impatient. They think fast, act fast, and often communicate quickly or incompletely. What seems obvious to them might be totally unclear to their team.

Implications: Poor communication creates ambiguity, confusion, and frustration, grinding collaboration to a halt. Teams waste energy guessing expectations rather than innovating.

Actions to Counter:

Slow down to clearly articulate the "why" behind your decisions.
Confirm understanding by asking team members to reflect back their interpretations.
Regularly solicit feedback on your communication style and clarity.

Arrogance: The Silent Collaboration Killer

Confidence is crucial. But confidence unchecked can veer into arrogance, leading founders to dismiss feedback, overlook critical insights, and alienate key contributors.

Implications: Arrogance destroys trust, stifles dialogue, and creates a toxic environment where collaboration is impossible.

Actions to Counter:

Intentionally invite critique and respond openly and constructively.
Regularly acknowledge your mistakes publicly to model humility.
Actively seek alternative viewpoints before finalizing decisions.

Conflict Avoidance (or Aggression)

Many founders fall into two extreme camps: conflict avoiders or conflict initiators. Both extremes are deadly to collaboration. Avoiding conflict leaves critical issues unresolved. Aggressive conflict handling creates resentment and fear.

Implications: Poorly managed conflict erodes team cohesion, undermines trust, and can spiral into prolonged dysfunction.

Actions to Counter:

Establish clear, structured conflict resolution processes.
Practice direct yet respectful conflict conversations.
Use neutral facilitation for emotionally charged discussions.

Systems Thinking vs. Reactive Planning

Startups prize agility and adaptability. But too much short-term thinking neglects the processes and structures that sustain collaboration. Without clear systems, teams fall into chaos.

Implications: Reactive planning leads to burnout, inefficiency, and frustration as team members constantly fight fires rather than building strategically.

Actions to Counter:

Balance short-term agility with consistent investment in systems and clear processes.
Regularly revisit and improve structures as your company scales.
Empower process-oriented thinkers in your organization to build effective systems.

Workaholism and Burnout Culture

Founders set the pace. But when founders turn workaholic, they unknowingly create an environment of exhaustion, anxiety, and diminished psychological safety. Exhausted teams are seldom collaborative.

Implications: Productivity drops, innovation dries up, and talented employees start to leave.

Actions to Counter:

Actively model sustainable work-life balance.
Publicly recognize and reward collaborative, balanced behaviors.
Regularly monitor signs of burnout and intervene early.

Ambiguity Isn’t Always Your Friend

Founders typically tolerate ambiguity better than most. But your team needs clarity and direction. Too much ambiguity creates stress and undermines collaborative execution.

Implications: Team paralysis, lack of initiative, and increased frustration.

Actions to Counter:

Clearly define roles, responsibilities, and expectations.
Regularly ask your team what clarity they need to be effective.
Balance your tolerance for ambiguity with your team’s genuine need for guidance.

The Collaboration Paradox

Founders face a paradox. The same traits that fuel their success—independence, assertiveness, rapid execution—also sabotage the collaborative environments crucial for scaling.

Acknowledging this paradox is the first step. The second is intentionally adopting behaviors that might feel unnatural at first: fostering inclusive communication, delegating with trust, managing conflict constructively, investing in systems thinking, and balancing your independent streak with genuine empathy.

The good news? These skills are learnable. Great founders don’t have to become entirely different people; they simply need to expand their toolkit. Start today by picking just one area and committing to small, consistent improvements. Your team and your startup—will thank you.

The Recognition Paradox: Why Truly Outstanding Leaders Thrive by Indifference to Personal Glory

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Ever notice how some leaders seem to soak up all the applause, while others quietly get things done without needing a pat on the back? It turns out, that second type of leader – the one who's genuinely indifferent to personal glory – is often the one who achieves truly exceptional and lasting success. That's the core of what I call "The Recognition Paradox."

My extensive research, which involved analyzing data from nearly 2000 executives, consistently shows that leaders who aren't constantly chasing social recognition actually earn deeper respect, achieve greater success, and build healthier, more resilient teams. This might go against what we usually think about leadership, where public accolades often seem to be the goal.

The Spotlight Trap: The Hidden Vulnerabilities of Leaders Who Crave Recognition

Leaders who have a strong need for external validation often present an impressive façade. They're frequently assertive, charismatic, confident, highly visible, inspiring speakers, and their ambition is often rewarded in corporate environments. Feedback from supporters highlights their "presence and amiable personality" and points to their "natural air of authority." They also excel at networking and cultivating personal alliances. Their ambition and desire for personal power can fuel impressive short-term results, earning praise such as “he is a very motivational leader with an obvious desire to succeed.”

Hidden Insecurities

Beneath this compelling exterior lies a shadow side that traditional leadership paradigms often overlook. My research indicates that leaders obsessed with recognition harbor significant vulnerabilities rooted in insecurity and a fragile sense of self-worth. This insecurity can lead to fear of making unpopular decisions, a relentless pursuit of external approval, and second-guessing themselves to the point of paralysis. Conflict is avoided, tough feedback is softened or withheld, and the desire to be liked outweighs the need to lead. Ironically, the more they try to please others, the less respect they command.

Fear and Managing Stress

Leaders with an excessive need for external validation frequently grapple with deep-seated insecurity, anxiety, and difficulty managing stress. At its core, this relentless pursuit of approval often stems from a profound lack of faith in one's own abilities, compelling them to constantly prove that they are worthy. This internal fragility fuels a pervasive anxiety, as they become consumed by the fear of rejection and the worry of making unpopular decisions, often prioritizing harmony over necessary truth. Consequently, the mental and emotional exhaustion of constantly chasing opinions leaves them ill-equipped to handle the inherent stresses of leadership, making them prone to self-doubt and less resilient when faced with criticism or challenges. This creates a precarious foundation, where their self-worth is tethered to external applause rather than rooted in internal conviction.

Poor Judgment

These leaders frequently exhibit poor judgment. Their intense desire for external validation can lead to a diluted vision and inconsistent decision-making, as they prioritize pleasing everyone over strategic clarity. A deep-seated fear of rejection and a strong desire for harmony can cause them to avoid necessary conflicts, hindering effective problem-solving and innovation. Furthermore, this reliance on external approval often stems from a lack of self-trust, consuming valuable mental energy and undermining their internal confidence. In more severe cases, narcissistic tendencies can drive self-serving decisions, an overestimation of their own abilities, and a resistance to constructive feedback, leading to unwarranted risks and a disregard for collective interests.

Manipulation

Even more concerning is their inclination toward manipulation. Leaders driven by the need for recognition often cloak their true intentions, projecting mistrust onto others to obscure their own hidden self-interest. Relationships become transactional, leveraged primarily for personal gain rather than collective benefit. Transparency declines as authenticity gives way to calculated image management, fostering environments rife with insecurity and resentment. For these leaders, the organization is merely a tool for their self-promotion.

Poor Delegation

Poor delegation is another hallmark of recognition-driven leaders. Because their self-worth hinges on being viewed as indispensable and admired, they resist delegating tasks or authority, fearful that shared success might diminish their personal acclaim. This reluctance stifles team growth, creating bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and frustration. Ultimately, their unwillingness to delegate reveals a leadership style rooted deeply in self-interest rather than collective success.

The Narcissism Factor

One of the deeper psychological drivers behind a leader's hunger for recognition is narcissism—a trait that turns the pursuit of admiration into a personal mission. Narcissistic leaders often view leadership as a stage, not a responsibility, where applause validates their inflated self-image. Their craving for the spotlight isn't just about ego—it’s rooted in a fragile sense of self-worth that requires constant external reinforcement. Public accolades become their oxygen, and criticism feels like suffocation. This drive can be channeled into bold vision and charisma, but when left unchecked, it devolves into vainglory: a desperate need to be seen as exceptional at all costs. Ironically, their need to be admired often alienates the very teams they lead—undermining trust, damaging credibility, and ultimately eroding their effectiveness. Recognition, for the narcissistic leader, is not a reward—it’s a dependency.

The Quiet Power: Why Indifference to Recognition Amplifies LeadershipIntrinsic Motivation and Genuine Purpose

Outstanding leaders possess a profound internal drive rooted in intrinsic motivation. Their ambition and satisfaction come from personal fulfillment, passion for meaningful work, and genuine personal growth, making external validation unnecessary. Unlike leaders who chase recognition, these individuals are guided by a deeper sense of purpose and a commitment to values greater than personal acclaim. They draw on internal sources of confidence, consistently remaining focused and driven regardless of external praise or criticism.

Authenticity and Trustworthiness

Leaders who are indifferent to recognition are characterized by genuine authenticity and unwavering integrity. They lead transparently, openly aligning their behaviors with their core values, creating trust effortlessly. Colleagues and subordinates naturally gravitate toward leaders who demonstrate honesty, vulnerability, and consistency. These leaders recognize the power of authenticity in fostering trust and loyalty, building relationships that endure through both successes and setbacks.

Empowering Leadership and Psychological Safety

Leaders without the need for recognition readily empower others, delegating authority without hesitation and trusting their teams deeply. They are unthreatened by the success of others, celebrating and recognizing team members generously rather than seeking accolades themselves. By fostering a psychologically safe environment, these leaders encourage open communication, creativity, and innovation, empowering teams to take risks without fear of criticism or backlash.

Composure Under Pressure

Indifference to personal accolades equips leaders with extraordinary emotional resilience. They exhibit calm composure during crises, providing steady guidance rather than emotionally reactive leadership. Their ability to remain balanced and decisive under pressure not only stabilizes their teams but also positions their organizations to navigate challenges with agility and effectiveness. This quiet confidence creates an environment where teams feel secure and supported, even in turbulent times.

Clear Strategic Vision and Decisiveness

Free from the distraction of chasing external validation, these leaders maintain a clear strategic vision and unwavering decisiveness. They are systematic planners, carefully aligning organizational goals with well-defined strategic objectives. Their decision-making is consistent and deliberate, fostering clarity and direction throughout their organizations. Their strategic focus ensures sustained success by emphasizing long-term outcomes over short-term personal victories.

Genuine Team and Organizational Development

Leaders indifferent to praise channel their energies into meaningful team development, prioritizing collective achievements over individual acclaim. They derive genuine satisfaction from the growth and success of their teams, actively developing talent and fostering environments conducive to professional advancement. This genuine commitment to others' success enhances workforce engagement, builds strong organizational cultures, and nurtures lasting loyalty and respect.

A Paradox Resolved: The Power of Selflessness

The true paradox of recognition is resolved when leaders shift their attention from seeking to giving recognition, from external approval to internal validation. These leaders inherently understand that the greatest leadership legacy is built not on personal accolades, but on empowering others, fostering genuine relationships, and driving collective success. By quietly rejecting the spotlight, they earn a deeper, more authentic form of recognition—lasting respect, trust, and loyalty.

Cultivating Lasting Impact

Leaders who thrive without personal glory create cultures characterized by genuine collaboration, innovation, and high performance. Their profound impact transcends mere organizational success, influencing the lives of individuals and the wider communities they serve. They leave enduring legacies, defined not by their personal visibility, but by the robust, resilient organizations and empowered teams they build. Ultimately, the quiet power of indifference to recognition defines truly outstanding leadership, making these leaders remarkably effective and deeply respected.

The Founder's Trust Trap: Why Your Startup's Future Depends On It

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:34:40 GMT

Let's talk about the elephant in every startup room: trust.

As a founder, you're a visionary, a risk-taker, a relentless force of nature. You've battled against impossible odds, fueled by ambition and a singular vision. These very traits, which propelled you from an idea to a burgeoning business, are often celebrated as the hallmarks of entrepreneurial genius.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: those same strengths, left unchecked, can become the insidious forces that destroy the very trust your startup desperately needs to survive and thrive.

Research reveals a stark reality: trust isn't a "nice-to-have" soft skill; it's the indispensable capital that underpins every successful venture. It's the bedrock of high-performing teams, the fuel for innovation, and the hidden engine of organizational resilience. Ignore it at your peril, because the cost of low trust isn't just a dip in morale—it's a direct hit to your bottom line, your talent pipeline, and your legacy as a leader.

Trust: The Unseen Currency of the Startup World

In the chaotic, high-stakes environment of a startup, trust is amplified. It’s the "first step of genuine and effective leadership” , and without it, people simply won't follow you. This isn't just about warm feelings; it's about hard business metrics.

Companies with high trust factors report a staggering 74% less stress, 13% fewer sick days, and 40% less burnout among employees. Employees in high-trust organizations are also 50% more likely to stay long-term , drastically cutting turnover costs and retaining invaluable institutional knowledge. When trust flourishes, collaboration ignites, leading to more innovative solutions and superior problem-solving. Google's own Project Aristotle, a deep dive into team effectiveness, concluded that high-performing teams are simply impossible without trust.

This is the "Founder Effect" in action. Your behavior, whether positive or negative, is magnified due to your central, often singular, role in shaping early-stage culture and strategy. Unlike larger, established corporations, your startup's very DNA is a direct reflection of you.

The Three Pillars: Your Trustworthiness Litmus Test

Research consistently points to three fundamental pillars of trustworthiness: Ability, Integrity, and Benevolence . Here’s the critical, often misunderstood, part: trustworthiness is a product of these three, not a sum. A zero score in any one pillar results in zero trustworthiness overall .

Let that sink in. You can be a brilliant strategist (high Ability), but if your team perceives you as dishonest (zero Integrity), your trust account is empty. You can be the most ethical person in the room (high Integrity), but if you consistently fail to deliver on promises (zero Ability), trust evaporates. And perhaps the most insidious blind spot for many founders: you can be competent and honest, but if you lack genuine care and kindness for your team (zero Benevolence), you will not be trusted.

Authenticity is the bedrock upon which these pillars stand. It's about transparency regarding intentions, a willingness to admit mistakes, and an unwavering adherence to your core values. Without genuine authenticity, any attempt at building trust will be perceived as manipulative, leading to skepticism rather than genuine trust.

The Startup Crucible: Why Founders Fall Into Traps

The startup environment is a unique pressure cooker. High uncertainty, relentless pressure to scale, and limited resources create a volatile landscape. This constant flux demands rapid iteration and quick decision-making. But this urgency can lead to "hasty decisions" and "sub-optimal risk-taking behaviors".

This is where "Founder's Syndrome" (or "founderitis") often takes root. It's a pathological pattern where your initial strengths, vital for launching, transform into weaknesses that hinder growth. It's an "autoimmune disease" that ultimately undermines the very organization you worked so hard to build.

The journey is often lonely, exacerbating stress and leading to mental health struggles that are 50% more common for founders than the general population. This pervasive stress "clouds judgment" and "hampers long-term planning," directly eroding trust. When you neglect your own mental health, you inadvertently "undermine the importance of the mental health of the people you are leading".

The Trust Builders: Founders Who Get It Right

Despite the inherent challenges, many founders successfully cultivate deep trust. They understand that it's a deliberate, multi-faceted process rooted in specific leadership qualities and behaviors.

1. Demonstrating Ability and Adaptability: Founders build trust by consistently delivering on promises and demonstrating competence. This means being agile and willing to pivot when necessary, learning from mistakes, and adapting to market shifts.

Positive Example: Daniel Dines of UiPath. UiPath, now a $10 billion company, wasn't an overnight success. Founder Daniel Dines navigated multiple major pivots, from an outsourcing company to a consumer products foray that "didn't work," before finally productizing their services into what became UiPath. His willingness to learn from "early missteps and failed attempts" and adapt the business model demonstrated his ability and built trust through resilience and consistent effort. This adaptability reinforces the "Ability" pillar, showing stakeholders that the founder can steer the ship through turbulent waters.

2. Upholding Unwavering Integrity: Integrity is non-negotiable. Founders who "walk the talk"—consistently upholding values, maintaining honesty, and ensuring fairness—build profound trust.

Positive Example: A Transparent Tech Startup. One tech startup embraced transparency from day one, openly sharing both successes and challenges with all team members. This commitment fostered a culture of trust, attracting and retaining top talent who valued an environment where their voices were heard and contributions recognized. This transparency, rooted in integrity, empowered employees to propose bold solutions and challenge the status quo, driving sustainable growth. Investors also explicitly expect founders to adhere to both the "letter and the spirit of the law" and to behave ethically.

3. Cultivating Benevolence and Psychological Safety: Trust is deeply relational. Founders who show genuine concern for their team's well-being, demonstrating empathy, respect, and kindness, foster psychological safety.

Positive Example: Airbnb's Foundational Trust. When Airbnb launched, convincing strangers to rent out their homes was a massive trust hurdle. Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia tackled this head-on by prioritizing trust and safety. They implemented rigorous verification processes, secure payment systems, and user reviews. These measures, born from a deep understanding of user concerns and a commitment to their well-being, were crucial in building a safe and reliable platform, fostering a vibrant community, and ultimately disrupting the hospitality industry. This commitment to user and host well-being exemplifies benevolence.

The Trust Destroyers: Traps Even the Best Fall Into

Even with good intentions, founders can inadvertently erode trust. These behaviors, often amplified by startup pressures, can be catastrophic.

1. Lack of Transparency and Inconsistent Communication: When your actions don't align with your words, credibility fades. Information silos and inconsistent messaging breed distrust.

Negative Example: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's Data Scandals. Mark Zuckerberg, despite his vision, faced significant trust erosion at Facebook due to a perceived lack of transparency and inconsistent communication regarding user data. Revelations about Cambridge Analytica exposing personal data of 87 million users, followed by admissions of hackers accessing 50 million users' information, and investigations revealing data sharing with major companies like Netflix and Amazon, shattered public and investor trust. This "say-do gap" between stated privacy commitments and actual practices profoundly undermined integrity and transparency.

2. Compromised Integrity and Unethical Conduct: This is the most catastrophic trust destroyer. Unchecked ambition and intense pressure can lead founders to believe "the rules don't apply to them".

Negative Example: Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) and Trevor Milton (Nikola). Elizabeth Holmes's ambition to revolutionize healthcare at Theranos morphed into manipulation and deceit, fabricating capabilities her technology couldn't deliver. This led to investors, employees, and patients suffering the consequences. Similarly, Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, succumbed to pressure to deliver on promises, leading him to "embellish—no, outright fabricate—the capabilities of Nikola's technology." When the truth emerged, his reputation crumbled, and investors lost millions. These cases vividly illustrate how a fundamental compromise of integrity, driven by ambition and pressure, leads to "shattered credibility" and "burnt bridges". Misleading investors about revenue isn't just unethical; it can be criminal securities fraud with severe legal implications.

3. Absence of Benevolence and Empathy: Neglecting the human element—empathy, respect, and genuine care—is profoundly destructive.

Negative Example: Travis Kalanick at Uber. Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder, was ultimately forced to resign by an investor revolt due to his "brash and at times inappropriate behavior" that "repeatedly raised eyebrows" and was blamed for creating a "toxic culture". This lack of benevolence, characterized by disrespect and a disregard for employee well-being, directly eroded trust and led to significant talent drain. Publicly humiliating team members, disengaging emotionally, or adopting a "one-size-fits-all" leadership approach with diverse teams all signal a profound lack of care.

4. Micromanagement and Control-Freak Tendencies: This signals a fundamental lack of trust in employees and creates a vicious cycle of distrust.

Negative Example: The Bottleneck Founder. Founders who feel the need to oversee every decision create significant bottlenecks, disempowering employees and stifling creativity. Talented team members often leave because they don't feel trusted or valued. Micromanagement explicitly communicates, "I no longer think you are the right person to do this job". This toxic behavior destroys morale, causes employees to delay decisions, and withholds valuable insights. It's a direct attack on the "Ability" pillar of trust, implying incompetence and leading to lower performance, decreased morale, and higher turnover.

5. Impulsivity and Resistance to Adaptation: Constantly shifting priorities or clinging rigidly to outdated methods undermines trust in your ability to lead effectively.

Negative Example: The "Analysis Paralysis" Founder. Some founders, despite the need for agility, are "incredibly rigid," preferring "familiar methods" and struggling to let go of past successes. They may suffer from "analysis paralysis" when faced with incomplete information, a common occurrence in startups. This rigidity can manifest as dictatorial behavior and a struggle to accept alternative viewpoints. This stifles innovation, as employees hesitate to propose new ideas if they believe the founder won't be receptive.

The Path Forward: Rebuilding and Sustaining Your Trust Capital

The good news is that trust, even when broken, can be rebuilt. It requires deliberate, sustained effort and a profound commitment to self-awareness.

Lead by Exemplification: Your actions must consistently align with your words. Admit missteps openly and share the steps you're taking to rectify them. This consistent "say-do" message builds profound credibility.
Prioritize Open and Consistent Communication: Establish platforms for transparent dialogue, like town hall meetings and regular updates. Actively seek input, schedule regular check-ins, and create safe spaces for genuine dialogue.
Cultivate Self-Awareness and Mental Well-being: Address your own fears and psychological traps. Prioritize your mental health, as it directly impacts your judgment, empathy, and ability to lead effectively.
Foster Psychological Safety: Normalize failure as part of growth, encourage open dialogue, and reward calculated risks . This creates an environment where employees feel secure enough to challenge the status quo, admit mistakes, and contribute new ideas.
Empower and Delegate: Move beyond micromanagement. Clearly define ownership, empower teams to make decisions, and model trust by delegating effectively .
Embrace Adaptability and Humility: Be willing to pivot and learn from mistakes. When you demonstrate the humility to adjust strategy, it reinforces trust in your leadership and judgment.

The Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Trust is not merely a desirable attribute; it is the fundamental bedrock of high-performing, resilient organizations. Unequivocally demonstrates that founders who prioritize and actively cultivate trust unlock unparalleled levels of employee engagement, productivity, innovation, and overall organizational success.

Your journey as a founder is fraught with challenges, but the most formidable ones often come from within. By consistently embodying competence, upholding ethics, and demonstrating genuine care, while actively mitigating the psychological traps and pressures inherent in the entrepreneurial journey, you can build and sustain the high-trust environments essential for navigating today's complex business landscape and achieving long-term, sustainable growth.

Trust, in essence, is your ultimate competitive advantage. Are you ready to wield it?

The Trust Advantage: Build It or Break It

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 21:13:54 GMT

Let's be brutally honest. In the cutthroat world of modern business, we obsess over metrics, strategies, and market share. We chase innovation, efficiency, and the next big disruption. But what if I told you that the single most powerful, yet often overlooked, asset in your leadership arsenal isn't a new technology or a groundbreaking business model, but something far more fundamental?

It's trust .

Research reveals that trust isn't just a "nice-to-have" soft skill; it's the bedrock of every high-performing team, the fuel for innovation, and the hidden engine of organizational success. Ignore it at your peril, because the cost of low trust isn't just a dip in morale—it's a direct hit to your bottom line, your talent pipeline, and your legacy as a leader.

The Uncomfortable Truth: Trust is Your Most Valuable Capital

Think of trust not as an abstract concept, but as tangible capital for your organization. It’s the "first step of genuine and effective leadership". Without it, people simply won't follow you. This isn't hyperbole; it's a stark reality backed by compelling data.

Companies with high trust factors report staggering benefits: 74% less stress, 13% fewer sick days, and a remarkable 40% less burnout among employees compared to their low-trust counterparts. This translates directly into reduced operational costs and a healthier, more engaged workforce. Employees in high-trust organizations are also 50% more likely to stay with their employer long-term, drastically cutting turnover costs and retaining invaluable talent.

Beyond retention, trust ignites collaboration. When your team trusts each other and you, they share ideas freely, seek help without hesitation, and work cohesively towards shared goals. This isn't just about being "nice"; it leads to more innovative solutions, superior problem-solving, and a cohesive, high-performing workforce. Google's own Project Aristotle, a deep dive into team effectiveness, concluded that high-performing teams are simply impossible without trust. It is the very bedrock for open communication and innovation.

A high-trust environment also minimizes micromanagement, granting employees the autonomy and confidence to make decisions and focus on meaningful work, boosting productivity and efficiency. And the ripple effect extends outward: employees who feel trusted and respected internally are far more likely to deliver exceptional customer service, enhancing brand loyalty and driving business growth.

So, if trust is so powerful, why do so many leaders struggle with it?

The Three Non-Negotiable Pillars: Where Leaders Often Stumble

Research has identified three fundamental pillars of trustworthiness: Ability, Integrity, and Benevolence . Here's the critical, often misunderstood, part: trustworthiness is a product of these three, not a sum. This means if you score a zero in any one of these areas, your overall trustworthiness plummets to zero, regardless of how stellar you are in the others.

Let that sink in. You can be a brilliant strategist (high Ability), but if your team perceives you as dishonest (zero Integrity), your trust account is empty. You can be the most ethical person in the room (high Integrity), but if you consistently fail to deliver on promises (zero Ability), trust evaporates. And perhaps the most insidious blind spot for many leaders: you can be competent and honest, but if you lack genuine care and kindness for your team (zero Benevolence), you will not be trusted.

Let's break them down:

Ability: This is your professional competence – your skills, knowledge, and, most importantly, your consistent delivery on promises. As one CEO put it, "Trustworthiness is about doing what it says on the tin". If you say you'll do something, do it. Period.
Integrity: This is "walking the talk." It's about being reliable in your behaviors, consistently upholding your values, and demonstrating honesty, openness, and fairness. Even a minor ethical slip from years ago can permanently damage a leader's perceived integrity.
Benevolence: This is the genuine concern for the well-being of others – care, generosity, and kindness. The most potent destroyer of trust is the perception that you're acting solely in your own self-interest. Leaders who publicly humiliate or criticize team members, even if they are otherwise capable, will struggle to build trust due to a glaring lack of benevolence. It’s time to "re-humanize the workplace".

The Blueprint for Building Unshakeable Trust

Building trust is a deliberate, ongoing process. It requires conscious effort and consistent action. Here's how leaders who truly get it cultivate high-trust environments:

Be Authentically Transparent and Accountable: Authenticity is the very foundation of trust. Be open about your intentions, share insights into decision-making, and, crucially, admit your mistakes. When you own your fallibilities, you create a psychologically safe environment where others feel safe to do the same. This vulnerability, counter-intuitively, builds immense trust.
Practice Radical Empathy and Active Listening: Empathetic leaders genuinely value their employees' needs and desires. Respect is the "cornerstone of trust". This means not just hearing, but actively listening – giving full attention, asking clarifying questions, paraphrasing to confirm understanding, and empathizing with their feelings. It signals genuine value for their input and builds a deeper connection.
Be a Beacon of Consistency and Reliability: Consistency is paramount, especially when paired with empathy. Your actions must consistently match your words. Reliability is, in fact, the top trust-building factor identified by business leaders, with 90% considering it important. When your team knows what to expect from you, uncertainty diminishes, and trust flourishes.
Cultivate Mindfulness and Self-Awareness: This isn't just a wellness trend; it's a leadership imperative. Mindfulness enhances your cognitive capacity, flexibility, and ability to "re-perceive" situations objectively. It improves self-awareness and self-regulation, ensuring your actions align with your values, not just automatic reactions. A mindful leader is better equipped to exhibit all the behaviors necessary for building trust.
Champion Fairness and Resolve Conflict: Leaders who fairly distribute rewards, maintain transparency, and enforce unbiased policies build trust. Addressing fears and resolving conflicts quickly and fairly strengthens team trust, enhancing collaboration and engagement.

The Silent Sabotage: How Leaders Accidentally Destroy Trust

Now for the uncomfortable part. Many leaders, often with good intentions, inadvertently erode trust through subtle behaviors that chip away at the foundation. These aren't always malicious acts, but rather blind spots that have devastating consequences:

Inconsistent Actions and Unkept Commitments: You say one thing but do another. You make promises, even small ones, and fail to follow through. This gap between words and deeds is a trust killer, making teams feel unheard and disengaged.
Lack of Transparency and Disengagement: You sideline key stakeholders in decisions, offer inconsistent messaging, or simply become physically or emotionally unavailable. This signals a profound lack of investment and erodes confidence, often without you even realizing the impact.
Micromanagement and Disrespect for Time: You constantly hover, dictate every detail, or retract delegated tasks. This screams, "I don't trust you to do your job," leading to a reciprocal loss of trust. Similarly, frequent reschedules, unreturned messages, or unnecessary meetings signal that your team's time isn't valued, breeding resentment.
Unethical Behavior and Compromising Values: Even a seemingly minor ethical lapse can permanently damage your integrity. When you compromise the organization's core values, your team notices, and their trust in your leadership crumbles.
Ignoring Performance Issues: When a team member isn't pulling their weight or is negatively impacting the team, and you "look the other way," it demoralizes everyone else. It signals a lack of fairness and accountability, eroding trust in your leadership.
Displaying Superiority or Losing Composure: Acting superior, undervaluing team perspectives, or losing your temper in communications makes employees feel disrespected and unheard.
The "One-Size-Fits-All" Fallacy: Applying a uniform leadership style to diverse, multicultural teams can be perceived as autocratic and lead to a significant loss of trust, as it ignores crucial cultural nuances.
Expecting Others to Earn Your Trust Without Reciprocating: You demand trust from your team, but you don't extend it first. Healthy relationships, including professional ones, are never one-sided.
The Passive "My Door Is Always Open": Simply saying "my door is always open" is not enough. If you don't actively seek input, schedule check-ins, and create safe spaces for dialogue, many voices will remain unheard, and trust will not grow.

The Devastating Fallout: What Happens When Trust Dies

The consequences of low trust are not theoretical; they are devastatingly real:

Disengagement and High Turnover: Energy and enthusiasm drain away. Individuals feel undervalued, leading to high turnover rates, decreased productivity, and widespread dissatisfaction.
Friction and Unresolved Conflict: Without trust, conflicts escalate. Teams avoid addressing issues, engage in "polite nodding" without genuine agreement, or resort to passive-aggressive behaviors and gossip, creating a toxic atmosphere.
Stifled Innovation: The fear of rejection or ridicule suppresses creativity. Teams hesitate to propose new ideas or challenge the status quo, leaving the organization stagnant and vulnerable to competitors.
Lack of Feedback and Misunderstandings: Team members are reluctant to give or seek feedback, fearing judgment or repercussions. This means valuable insights go unshared, and opportunities for growth are missed. Negative assumptions about intentions lead to strained relationships and a focus on self-protection over collaboration.
Low Confidence and Indecision: Individuals second-guess their abilities, doubt decisions, and hesitate to take risks, further stifling creativity and progress.

Your Call to Action: Reclaim Your Superpower

Trust is not built overnight, nor is it maintained passively. It requires consistent, deliberate effort. If trust has been eroded, it can be rebuilt, but it demands honesty, humility, and sustained action. Acknowledge your missteps, own them, and commit to consistent behaviors that prove your reliability over time. Re-engage with your team, prioritize benevolence, and shift from demanding trust to actively earning it.

In today's complex and rapidly changing world, trust is not just a competitive advantage; it's a prerequisite for survival. Leaders who master the art and science of building and sustaining trust will not only foster more engaged, innovative, and productive teams but will also forge a legacy of true, impactful leadership.

Are you ready to unlock your ultimate leadership superpower? The choice, and the action, is yours.

The Invisible Enemy: Why So Many Founders Are Burning Out (And How to Fight Back)

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 21:26:39 GMT

Hey fellow founders,

You started your venture with fire in your belly, a vision in your mind, and a relentless drive. But that same ambition can be your undoing. Burnout isn't a badge of honor; it's a silent enemy impacting countless founders. It creeps up, leaving you dreading the work you once loved, feeling numb, and wondering where the passion went. Research confirms: founder burnout isn't just personal; it's a systemic risk that can derail your business, impair judgment, and lead to failure. Let's explore why this happens and, more importantly, what you can actually do about it.

The Crucible: Why Founders Are So Prone to Burnout

You’re not imagining it – the entrepreneurial journey is a unique pressure cooker.

1. The "Always-On" Culture is a Trap: The "Always-On" culture glorifies constant hustle, leading to prolonged hours and an inability to disconnect. This self-perpetuating cycle discourages self-care; many founders operate beyond healthy limits. Karan Raghani, a Bengaluru founder, captured this, posting "Bengaluru is burnt out," citing endless traffic, "nap blocks," and the daily struggle of hailing autos. This global symptom pushes founders past their limits. Matt Vitale, co-founder of Australia's Birchal, stepped down as CEO, admitting he was "a bit broken" after eight years, realizing he'd "pushed past [his] limit" and needed to prioritize health.

2. Financial Pressure is Relentless: The constant worry about securing funding, making payroll, and simply keeping the lights on is a massive emotional drain. A significant percentage of founders report high stress about their startup's future, with fear of failure and access to funding as top stressors. This isn't just business; it's deeply personal, amplifying anxiety and impacting decision-making.

3. Decision Fatigue is Real: As a founder, you're making critical, high-stakes decisions all day, every day, often with limited resources and in ambiguous environments. This constant barrage leads to "decision fatigue," a physical, mental, and emotional depletion that directly impacts your productivity, revenue, and profit. It can even manifest as "decision paralysis."

4. The Isolation Factor: Entrepreneurship is incredibly lonely. Many founders hide their stress, even from co-founders, exacerbating mental health issues and leading to isolation. This cycle impairs judgment and strains relationships. Hind Hobeika, Instabeat founder, felt profound isolation as a sole founder, working incessantly, neglecting self-care, and gaining weight. Andrew Dubowec, founder of "openmind," battled major clinical depression due to social isolation and remote work pressure. Matt Vitale warned mental health is an "invisible fight." Matt Munson, a CEO who faced immense personal tragedies while running his startup, described waking at 3 AM with dread, feeling "disconnected from purpose, work, play, and other people. I felt alone and like it was all on my shoulders."

5. Hypergrowth's Hidden Cost: While rapid expansion (40%+ annual revenue growth) sounds amazing, it can paradoxically lead to operational strain, decision fatigue, and widespread team exhaustion if your systems and structure don't keep pace. What works for 100 customers will break down at 10,000.

The Silent Toll: What Burnout Does to You (and Your Business)

The impact of burnout isn't just "feeling tired." It's a full-body, full-mind assault with serious consequences:

Mental & Emotional: Persistent fatigue, impaired decision-making, loss of motivation, emotional detachment, increased irritability, and a spiraling sense of self-doubt. Chronic stress can show up as waking at 3 AM for nights on end, constant headaches, or becoming an exaggerated version of yourself – "too much" of your own personality. A shocking 72% of founders report mental health problems, with many struggling with anxiety, burnout, and panic attacks. Seven out of ten entrepreneurs battle depression weekly.
Physical: Constant headaches, disrupted sleep, stomach issues, and changes in appetite. Chronic sleep deprivation, a common founder affliction, directly impairs brain function, leading to costly errors and diminished mental sharpness. Hind Hobeika's experience of gaining weight and barely sleeping due to hyper-focus illustrates this physical toll.
Personal Life: Burnout seeps into your personal life, straining relationships. Founders spend significantly less time with spouses, children, and friends/family, often reporting high levels of loneliness. Matt Munson's feeling of being disconnected from loved ones highlights this profound impact.
Business Impact: Delayed product launches, missed market opportunities, and a significant decline in team morale. Fatigued leadership is linked to a measurable drop in productivity, revenue, and profit. During hypergrowth, burnout contributes to increased employee attrition and poor decision-making, ultimately elevating the risk of startup failure.

Fighting Back: Your Action Plan for Sustainable Leadership

So, how do you break free from this cycle? It's not about working less, but working smarter and healthier.

1. Master the Art of Strategic Delegation: Your Ultimate Multiplier

This is where most founders stumble. We know we should delegate, but we struggle. Why?

Perfectionism & Control: You believe no one can do it as well as you can.
Lack of Trust: You don't fully trust your team's performance.
Fear of Mistakes: The thought of someone else making a mistake feels like a direct threat to your "baby."
Identity Tied to Execution: Your self-worth is wrapped up in doing everything yourself.

The Fix:

Shift Your Mindset: From Doer to Leader. Your primary role isn't to execute every task, but to grow people and the business. Define what only you can do (your unique vision and energy) and strategically delegate everything else.
Implement an Accountability Chart. This isn't just an org chart. It defines functions and clear ownership – "one seat, one name" for each critical area. This clarity makes delegation easier, growth manageable, and frees up your time.
Use the "3-Part Delegation Brief." For every delegated task, provide: The Outcome (what success looks like, why it matters, metrics); The Context (who it's for, its place in the bigger picture, common pitfalls); and The Resources (examples, templates, access, point of contact).
Pro Tip: The "3 Times" Rule. If you've done a task three times, systematize or delegate it. Document procedures, use video tutorials (Loom!), and build an internal knowledge base.
Build Trust Incrementally. Start with simple tasks. Foster a culture where mistakes are learning opportunities, not reasons for blame. Implement structured check-ins, focusing on removing roadblocks, not micromanaging.

2. Cultivate Personal Resilience: Your Non-Negotiables

Your well-being isn't a luxury; it's a strategic imperative for long-term success.

Prioritize Sleep. Aim for 7-8 hours a night. Chronic sleep deprivation impairs judgment, decision-making, focus, and emotional regulation, leading to costly errors. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson emphasize prioritizing self-care and taking breaks.
Move Your Body & Fuel It Well. Regular physical activity manages stress hormones and enhances mental clarity. Healthy nutrition provides sustained energy. Even short breaks and yoga help. Mark Cuban manages anxiety through exercise.
Set and Enforce Boundaries. Define specific work hours and stick to them. Communicate these boundaries to your team and family. Use "Do Not Disturb" modes and automated responses. Create a dedicated workspace and a routine to signal the end of your workday. Bill Gates has spoken about work-life balance.
Embrace "Work-Life Integration." For founders, strict "balance" is often unrealistic. Instead, aim for integration, blending responsibilities flexibly while maintaining clear boundaries and disciplined digital habits.
Cultivate Mental Fortitude.Mindfulness: Daily meditation or short mindfulness breaks re-center your mind and reduce reactivity to stress. Oprah Winfrey credits daily meditation and gratitude journaling for managing depression and anxiety. Apps like Calm and Headspace can guide you. Know Your Triggers: Recognize your individual stress signals early – whether it's 3 AM wake-ups, irritability, or stomach issues. Proactive intervention is key. Reconnect with Purpose: Remind yourself of the core purpose and values that initially drove your venture. This can reignite energy during tough times. Practice Gratitude: Regularly listing things you're thankful for fosters optimism and provides perspective. Sara Blakely used positive self-talk and gratitude; Sophia Amoruso also credits self-care and gratitude.

3. Build a Robust Support Ecosystem: No Founder is an Island

The isolation of entrepreneurship is a major burnout driver. You need a "board of directors" for your well-being.

Peer Networks & Accountability Groups: These are invaluable. Sharing goals with peers significantly increases achievement. You gain unique knowledge, inspiration, healthy competition, and vital emotional support from others who truly understand your journey. Entrepreneurs with strong support systems are twice as likely to see steady business growth. Where to find them: CoFoundersLab, Y Combinator Co-Founder Matching, FoundersList, ODF, local meetups, industry-specific communities.
Strategic Mentorship & Advisory Boards: Mentors provide personalized guidance on strategy, product, market fit, and fundraising. They offer objective perspectives, accelerate your development, and enhance leadership skills. For founders transitioning to a CEO role, leadership-focused mentorship is crucial. Where to find them: MentorCruise, GrowthMentor, industry associations, your personal network.
Professional Support (Therapy & Coaching): Despite many founders reporting mental health issues, only a small fraction seek professional help. This is a critical gap. Therapy or coaching provides a confidential space to address anxiety, depression, decision paralysis, and foster leadership development. Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Cuban, and Sophia Amoruso have openly discussed seeking support. Leaders discussing their own mental health journeys can help break the stigma. Where to find them: BetterHelp, CWC Coaching and Therapy, specialized entrepreneur therapists/coaches, executive coaching.
Co-Founders: If you have one, lean on them! Shared burdens, complementary skills, mutual emotional support, and accountability can significantly reduce isolation.

4. Operationalize for Longevity: Systems, Automation & Financial Clarity

Sustainable growth isn't just about hustle; it's about smart systems.

Streamline with Automation & Tools: Leverage software to automate repetitive tasks like email campaigns, social media, and data entry. AI-powered tools can cut production times dramatically. Investing early in scalable systems and infrastructure prevents operational strain and decision fatigue during hypergrowth. Tools to explore: Zapier, Make (for no-code workflow automation), HubSpot, Mailchimp, Hootsuite.
Master Financial Acumen: Financial concerns are a top stressor. Make financial planning a consistent habit. Work with CPAs or CFOs for detailed forecasts. "Know your numbers" with daily/weekly check-ins and "good, better, and best" financial markers. Implement a "Profit First" model and build financial buffers for peace of mind. Communicate openly and transparently with investors.
Foster a Resilient Company Culture: Your team is your backbone. Psychological Safety: Create an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities, and people feel safe to speak up, take calculated risks, and collaborate openly. This boosts innovation, engagement, and mental health. Open Communication: Encourage feedback; ensure team members feel heard and valued. Invest in Development: Provide opportunities for continuous learning and growth. Celebrate Wins: Acknowledge both big and small successes to boost morale. Lead by Example: Embody desired values and behaviors. Arianna Huffington famously collapsed from exhaustion, advocating for prioritizing health as a path to success.

The Ultimate Strategic Advantage: Your Well-being

Burnout is a critical warning, not a badge of honor. Entrepreneurship demands cultivating personal well-being as much as innovation. Prioritizing your health and resilience is the ultimate strategic advantage, directly influencing your venture's success. A well-equipped founder maintains vision, leads effectively, and navigates challenges. The most successful founders don't do it all; they master strategic delegation, cultivate resilient teams, and sustain their own energy. Your startup's future depends on avoiding burnout. Delegate effectively, prioritize strategically, and lead sustainably.

What's one step you're going to take this week to prioritize your well-being? Share in the comments!

A Conversation with Dr. Richard Hagberg, the Silicon Valley "CEO Whisperer"

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 18:30:00 GMT

Reprint from Thought Economics, A Journey of Intellectual Capital

In this interview I speak to Rich Hagberg, Ph.D ., often referred to as “Silicon Valley’s CEO Whisperer.” Richard is a trained psychologist who has spent the last 40 years of his career as an executive management coach for over 6,000 executives. Since 2009 he has worked with companies like Tinder, Twitter, Dropbox, MixPanel, Zendesk, Quora, Asana, Pinterest, Salesforce, Munchery, Reddit, Gusto, Cruise, Tinder, Optimizely, Instacart, Patreon, Nerdwallet, and Super Evil Megacorp (it’s a gaming company). He is the co-author of Founders Keepers, Why Founders are Built to Fail & What it Takes to Succeed .

Q: What do you mean, when you say all founders are built to fail?

[Richard Hagberg]: I think that by saying founders are built to get the rocket off the ground, what we’re really acknowledging is that many of them never get it into orbit. Fewer still get it to the moon, and almost none make it to Mars. The problem is execution. Founders are idea people — driven, persistent, individualistic loners and contrarians. It’s hard for them to adapt because they have strong views. It’s hard for them to work through others because they’re independent and used to getting their way. So they don’t delegate and they over-control. They see structure and systems as bureaucracy. They often lack self-awareness — of how they impact others, what they’re good at, and what they’re not. And a lot of them just can’t handle the stress. I mean, people ask me, “Should I do a startup?” And I say, “Well, how important is work-life balance to you?” And if they say anything other than “It’s not important,” I say, “You shouldn’t do it.” Because it’s a killing field. So basically, let me summarise that by saying: the skills that get them to one point won’t carry them the rest of the way. We talk about the ticking time bomb. The ticking time bomb is these very characteristics — when you’re trying to scale, and things are getting more complex, and you have to work through other people — they blow up.

Q: Why do we still believe in the genius jerk archetype?

[Richard Hagberg]: I was just writing something on this earlier in the week. I was looking at examples like Steve Jobs — before he got fired, he was a genius jerk. He got fired, started NeXT Computer, and it didn’t take off. Then he got involved with Pixar, and apparently one of the Pixar co-founders helped him understand the importance of empathy. So when he came back to Apple, he was more willing to adapt, to work through others — with people like Jony Ive, Tim Cook, and others. He was never a choir boy or a saint. The same thing applied to Gates. In the early days of Microsoft, Gates was a terror. But after around 2000, he mellowed a lot. Even Bezos — I mean, around the time that book came out trashing Amazon’s culture, Covid was hitting, his people were under incredible stress, and he was getting all kinds of feedback. So there are these transformational moments that often change people. But look, there are a variety of reasons why founders get misled. Successful, abusive, aggressive people are highly visible — we think of Elon Musk as a good example — and we dramatize these figures. We looked at 122 founders and compared them from the perspective of multiple invested capital, and the most successful ones didn’t fall into that category. They weren’t choirboys, but they didn’t fall into the same patterns either.

Q: How can we encourage founders to be more self aware?

[Richard Hagberg]: … you’ve got to create a psychologically safe environment where people on your team feel able to give you feedback. If they feel intimidated, they’re not going to tell the emperor — or empress — that they have no clothes. So that’s the first thing. The second is, it’s helpful to get objective heat back. These people listen to data. When I came to Silicon Valley, 360s had just started, and I used to give talks about how important a tool it was — because the engineers I was coaching listened to data. Whether it’s 360 feedback, an objective engagement survey, or an employee survey, it helps them understand their impact and what’s really going on in the organisation. Having good coaches and mentors who will tell truth to power — that’s the business I’m in. I’m in the business of telling truth to power. And there are two things. One is that unless you learn and grow continuously, you’re probably going to end up as one of the 90% who don’t make it. The second is — and I mean, I’m a serial entrepreneur as well as a psychologist — thank God I learned to meditate when I was 19. That gives me a bit of distance from my behaviour. It lets me observe things with more clarity. And because startups are so stressful — such a killing field — it undermines decision quality and brings out bad behaviour. My Master’s thesis back in the ’70s was on meditation; my doctoral thesis was on stress and its impact on people. There’s been plenty of research since then that’s validated it, and I see it all the time. When these people are under stress, they make bad decisions. They get reactive. One of the key findings in our conclusions is that the unsuccessful founders were more reactive. They weren’t measured. They weren’t deliberate. They didn’t make decisions based on facts — their emotions carried them away.

I ’ve got to tell you a story. When I went back to graduate school, one of my mentors called me into his office and said, “Rich, there’s one little piece of advice I’d like to give you.” And I thought, oh boy, here it comes. Then he said, “Rich, sometimes you treat a wisp of intuition as though it were a four-lane highway.” It’s not that you shouldn’t trust intuition — it’s that you need to validate it. And to validate it, you have to run a decision-making process that’s grounded in facts, built around having multiple alternatives, and involves actively seeking those alternatives from other people. And then — because everyone is biased, and the research on cognitive bias is very compelling — you have to run a disciplined process to ensure the facts and alternatives actually surface.

Q: What about the effectiveness of the boards around these founders?

[Richard Hagberg]: I’ve talked to board members at companies where the leader was pushed out for unethical behaviour or ended up indicted. It often comes down to the fact that they waited too long — guided by greed — to address dysfunctional behaviour that could sink the company later. That’s the first thing. The second is that many boards today, especially startup boards, are dominated by investors who don’t have operating experience. So they try to hold people accountable, but only for the numbers — not for their behaviour, and not for their actions as leaders. Another thing I see is that because the board is more challenging than supportive, it ends up encouraging founders to exaggerate, to bend the truth, and to feel unsafe being honest about the problems — which means the board can’t actually help. And a lot of investors aren’t able to help anyway — they can’t give the kind of strategic support that’s really needed. Founders want help with strategy, but they want that help from people who’ve been there and done it — people with real operating experience.

Q: What is the role of the coach, or mentor, in the founders’ journey?

[Richard Hagberg]: In my mind, there’s a difference between being a coach and being a mentor. I’m a psychologist, but I’ve also been a founder, and I’ve been studying leadership since 1986. So at times, I’m using the psychologist’s lens to peel the onion — to understand what’s going on inside and where they’re blocked. At other times, it’s clear that a lot of them lack best-practice experience. They’ve never had a boss, they’ve never been a boss, and they don’t know how accountability works. They have no models, no frameworks. That’s where mentors can help — with frameworks. But if the mentor is only drawing on their own experience scaling their company, it might not translate. It could be a totally different kind of company with a completely different business model. Those mentors are great at offering advice on what worked for them — but they’re not always as helpful in answering questions like: what do we know about how to make good decisions, or how to build effective teams?

Q: How do founders avoid burnout?

[Richard Hagberg]: I think you have to make your own physical and mental health a real priority if you’re going to make it through. When you take a step back and look at what we learned in the book, it’s essentially survival of the fittest. And fitness means not resorting to things like alcohol and drugs to cope with stress — which so many people do — and making sure you get enough exercise and enough sleep. People are proud of how many hours they work — it’s almost like a badge. And it’s crazy, because I can see how it undermines both their judgement and their health. I’ve probably been burnt out three times over the years and had to do a reset. And each time, I’ve had to ask: what am I doing that’s pushing me over the edge here? Where can I set boundaries? And if you’re too demanding — if you only focus on results, put constant pressure on people, and make it unsafe for them to push back — you’ll burn out your team. I have a client right now who’s been pushing hard to hit financial goals, and multiple members of the senior management team have thrown in the towel. They’ve said, “That’s it, I can’t deal with this, it’s destroying me.” What’s interesting — and this is something we haven’t talked about — is that the successful founders don’t necessarily have high emotional intelligence, but they have better emotional intelligence than the unsuccessful ones. And that allows them to read people, to check in on their wellbeing, to ask what’s getting in the way of performance. The unsuccessful ones have no empathy — they just drive people. They treat relationships as transactions. For them, it’s all about tasks, not about people. But it’s not a machine.

Q: Do you see a relationship between neurodiversity and the most successful founders you have worked with?

[Richard Hagberg]: I’m not an expert on the spectrum — but I suspect that people who get caught up in their internal world of ideas, and aren’t aware of people, emotion, team dynamics, and all that, who are just purely idea people — it really gets in the way. That said, I know one very successful founder who’s clearly Asperger’s, and he’s made a real effort to learn how to be a leader. It doesn’t come naturally to him — it’s not instinctive — but he works at it. People often ask, in a whisper, “Do people really change?” And I say, look, people may not change their fundamental personality, but they can change their behaviour. That said, how much they can change is limited. And when people ask how much, I say, well, on a 10-point scale, if you really work at it, you can probably move about 3 points. So if a job requires you to be at an 8, and you’re a 4, it’s going to be tough. And that’s where execution becomes a problem for many founders. Because founders are creative, idea-driven people. The insights they get, their willingness to challenge tradition, and their awareness of the market — that’s what fuels them early on. They’re divergent thinkers. They generate possibilities. But at a certain stage — when the company enters the traction or fast-growth phase — you need to bring focus to the organisation. And they get distracted by shiny objects. Any new idea just sweeps them away.

Q: What is the relationship of wealth to the journey of your founders?

[Richard Hagberg]: it’s something I tell my clients — especially when I’m assessing whether I’ll work with someone. I ask, “What’s your goal? What’s your vision?” And if they say, “I want to grow a million-dollar company,” or, “I want to do an IPO,” I say, “No, but what’s your vision?” I know a venture capitalist who says when someone gives that kind of answer, it’s an immediate knockout. My belief isn’t that greed doesn’t exist — it does — but when it’s the primary driver, and there’s no passion for doing something meaningful or making an impact, they’re much less likely to make it through the tough times. You need to be willing to hit the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall — again and again.

If you’re curing cancer, you’ll be willing to hang in there. Or if you believe you’re building a technology that could change the world — like AI — then you’re less likely to give up, and more likely to understand that people aren’t just cogs in the machine.

Q: What does legacy mean to you?

[Richard Hagberg]: I’ll answer that by telling you a story. One of my clients worked for a big international pharmaceutical company. He wasn’t a founder. He wanted me to attend a meeting he was facilitating so I could observe him. I got to the meeting, and a guy sat next to me. The tables were arranged in a U, and he was sitting right beside me. I noticed he was staring at me. I turned and said hello, and he said, “You don’t remember me.” I said, “Help me out — remind me.”

He said, “Well, 10 years ago we worked together.” And all of a sudden, I realised who he was. He had grey hair now — I remembered him when he didn’t — and I said, “Oh yeah!” Then he said, “You changed my life.” I said, “I did?” And he said, “Yeah.” I asked, “What did I do? What did I say?”

He said it was just one thing. He wasn’t an assertive guy. He told me, “You said I didn’t have the right to always get what I want, but I did have the right to be heard.” And I was like, “Okay.”

I’ve heard stories like that a lot. Sometimes they don’t remember it the same way I do, but you never know what you might say or do that changes a single individual — and that person may go on to do something really significant. When I was in college, I was an idealist. I was a protestor and all that. And now, my goal is to help people make change. I help my clients unpack the problems and challenges they’re facing — and hopefully, that makes a difference.

About the Author

Vikas Shah MBE DL is an entrepreneur, investor & philanthropist. He is CEO of Swiscot Group alongside being a venture-investor in a number of businesses internationally. He is a Non-Executive Board Member of the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and a Non-Executive Director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Vikas was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List and in 2021 became a Deputy Lieutenant of the Greater Manchester Lieutenancy. He is an Honorary Professor of Business at The Alliance Business School, University of Manchester and Visiting Professors at the MIT Sloan Lisbon MBA.

The Board Trap: What Founders Want vs. What They Need

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 21:21:05 GMT

It’s late on a Thursday evening. A startup founder, let’s call him Alex, sits alone in his dimly lit office, staring at the screen filled with investor emails, recent board meeting notes, and a looming sense of anxiety. Despite a growing market presence, promising early metrics, and investor enthusiasm, Alex feels increasingly isolated. His board meetings are cordial, even friendly, yet he leaves each one with a nagging sense that something critical is missing. Alex is facing what countless startup founders encounter: the gap between what he wants to hear from his board and what he actually needs. More troubling, he’s realizing the uncomfortable truth that what he often gets from his board might be the very opposite of helpful.

The Comforting Echo Chamber

Like most founders, Alex needs a bit of encouragement. He appreciates when board members praise his vision, validate his strategy, and highlight early successes. Founders crave affirmation because it fuels their drive through the rollercoaster of startup life. Hearing “You're on the right track,” or “Keep doing what you're doing,” feels good and seems helpful—at least at first. But when such praise becomes generic cheerleading, it ceases to help. Boards that offer vague encouragement without specific, candid insights inadvertently trap founders like Alex in an echo chamber. Without real feedback, he can’t discern his blind spots—areas where critical weaknesses could quietly undermine his growth trajectory. This often manifests as a reluctance to deliver tough messages, leaving founders unaware of crucial issues that could impact their success.

Micromanagement Disguised as Support

Equally problematic are board members who swing too far in the opposite direction, moving beyond strategic oversight into operational micromanagement. Every founder knows the frustration of having board members who, despite good intentions, involve themselves too deeply in day-to-day decisions, weakening the founder’s authority and autonomy. Alex’s board sometimes means well, but when a key investor repeatedly intervenes to question his decisions on product features, marketing strategies, or even team hires, he begins to doubt himself. Micromanagement erodes confidence, disrupts clear accountability, and ultimately hampers execution, which is ironic because execution is precisely where many founders already struggle. This constant questioning of operational decisions can stifle a founder's ability to lead and innovate.

The Danger of Ambiguous Expectations

Another persistent issue Alex faces is the ambiguity around what his board truly expects. Clear, objective expectations from the board are crucial for founder success. However, many investors unintentionally avoid specificity, setting vague or shifting goalposts that confuse rather than clarify. Without clear performance criteria, founders are left guessing, constantly uncertain about whether their strategies align with investor expectations. Ambiguity creates chronic anxiety and undermines founders' confidence. Worse yet, ambiguous expectations can lead to misalignment on strategic goals, causing founders to chase short-term validation rather than sustainable, long-term growth. This lack of clarity can lead to wasted effort and misdirected priorities.

The Need for Tough Love

Your board shouldn’t just be your fan club—it needs to be your coach. Effective boards must deliver constructive, direct, and sometimes uncomfortable truths. Alex, despite his discomfort, desperately needs his board to candidly highlight his developmental gaps—areas like delegation, short-term planning, accountability, or conflict management. Yet, in practice, board members frequently avoid these tough conversations, sidestepping critical feedback to maintain harmony or to avoid confrontation. Founders are left unaware or in denial about key weaknesses that urgently need attention. A board’s hesitance to challenge its founder creates blind spots that can jeopardize the startup’s viability at critical inflection points. The willingness to deliver "tough love" is essential for a founder's personal and professional growth.

Why Systematic Evaluations Are Non-Negotiable

Alex’s board rarely provides structured evaluations. This isn't uncommon. Surprisingly few startup boards implement regular, formal performance assessments of their CEOs. Without this structure, Alex receives sporadic, anecdotal feedback that's often subjective and unhelpful. Your board should commit to regular, structured evaluations that provide clear benchmarks and developmental insights. Such evaluations aren't just formalities—they're vital tools for leadership growth. Alex, like most founders, needs a transparent, systematic approach that explicitly lays out how he’s doing, where he excels, and exactly what needs improvement. This provides founders with concrete data points for improvement and recognizes their strengths.

Leverage or Lose the Network

Investors often promise founders access to their networks. In reality, many founders find those promises hollow. Alex, initially thrilled by the potential connections promised by his investors, now finds his board reluctant or slow to make meaningful introductions. Connections to customers, strategic partners, funding sources, and talent are critical for early-stage companies. Boards that fail to leverage their networks deprive founders of essential resources needed to scale. A board's network can open doors that would otherwise remain closed to a young startup.

Short-Term Pressure vs. Long-Term Vision

A major frustration founders like Alex feel is when boards become overly obsessed with short-term wins, losing sight of long-term strategic objectives. Investors focused solely on immediate returns inadvertently push founders toward reactive, tactical decisions rather than deliberate, strategic growth. Alex’s board frequently pressures him for rapid user growth and immediate profitability metrics that, while appealing in quarterly reviews, can compromise sustainable business strategies. Effective boards balance urgent priorities with long-term strategic vision, guiding founders toward decisions that position the company for lasting success. This strategic balance is crucial for sustained growth and avoiding a treadmill of short-term fixes.

Poor Onboarding and Board Dynamics

Alex’s frustration began from day one, during a poor onboarding experience. His board, eager to dive into immediate challenges, neglected systematic orientation. Alex, like many founders, finds himself navigating unclear expectations, hidden dynamics, and unexplained board norms, leading to confusion and inefficiency. Good boards invest heavily in onboarding, clearly establishing expectations, governance procedures, and communication norms. Without this clarity, founders waste precious energy decoding board expectations, rather than focusing fully on running their business. A well-structured onboarding process sets the stage for a productive and trusting board-founder relationship.

Communication Failures and Board Passivity

Perhaps the most pervasive issue Alex faces is board passivity—boards that fail to engage actively, question rigorously, or hold him accountable effectively. Passive boards become rubber-stamping bodies, missing critical strategic oversights and reducing governance to a superficial exercise. Moreover, poor responsiveness from investors—late replies, vague answers, and irregular engagement—creates uncertainty and disrupts timely decision-making, undermining the founder-board relationship. Effective governance demands consistent engagement, rigorous questioning, and candid dialogue. An engaged board is a vital asset, providing critical oversight and support.

The Trust Factor

Finally, the bedrock of effective founder-board dynamics is trust—genuine, mutual trust built on empathy, respect, and honest dialogue. Unfortunately, transactional and impersonal relationships are common. Alex increasingly senses his board views him merely as an asset rather than a partner. When boards fail to genuinely empathize with the intense personal and emotional toll founders face, trust diminishes, communication deteriorates, and the board-founder relationship becomes adversarial rather than supportive. Building a foundation of trust is paramount for a truly collaborative and effective partnership.

Closing the Gap

If you're a founder reading this, the good news is awareness is the first step toward bridging the gap between what you want to hear and what you actually need. Demand transparency, structured feedback, clear expectations, and active engagement from your board.

If you're an investor or board member, understand the urgency and necessity of providing clear, actionable, and candid support. Embrace structured evaluations, leverage your networks proactively, balance short-term demands with long-term vision, and above all, commit to building trust and empathy with your founders.

In short, boards should be less cheerleader and more coach, less micromanager and more strategic partner. Founders must learn to welcome—even demand—the uncomfortable truths essential for their growth. Alex’s late-night realization is powerful: the health of his startup depends not on hearing pleasant platitudes, but on receiving actionable truths. It’s uncomfortable—but essential. His success, and yours, depends upon it.

Book Preview! Why Most Startup Founders Are Destined to Fail—and How to Beat the Odds

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 21:22:13 GMT

Here's a provocative truth from my decades of coaching founders: most founders are ticking time bombs.

Visionary, bold, driven by relentless confidence—these traits build great startups. Yet, the very qualities that make founders extraordinary at launching a business can become catastrophic as the business grows. The stubborn genius who sparked the flame often can't keep the fire burning without burning everything down in the process.

In my new book, Founders Keepers, co-authored with Tien Tzuo, we reveal groundbreaking insights based on comprehensive research with 122 startup founders. We examined their personality traits, 360-degree leadership reviews, and financial outcomes—and the results were eye-opening.

1. The Myth of the Genius Jerk

The media often glamorizes abrasive, emotionally reactive founders as quintessential success stories. However, our comprehensive research clearly demonstrates that founders who exhibit traits such as empathy, diplomacy, adaptability, and emotional intelligence significantly outperform their abrasive counterparts. Being difficult isn't a path to success; it's a limitation that successful founders overcome despite, not because of, their personality.

2. Why Most Founders Can't Scale

Founders are generally gifted at envisioning innovative ideas and disrupting established norms. But these strengths often become glaring weaknesses when they must build scalable processes, delegate effectively, and implement operational rigor. Many founders resist relinquishing control, which inevitably leads to internal chaos, employee burnout, and organizational dysfunction, ultimately stifling growth.

3. Self-Awareness is a Superpower

Self-awareness is a critical but often overlooked skill in founders. Many leaders fail to recognize their own negative behaviors and how these behaviors impact their teams. Those who actively cultivate self-awareness, however, gain a powerful advantage—they become adept at adapting their leadership style to suit evolving business demands, enhancing their effectiveness and sustainability as leaders.

4. Conflict Avoidance is a Silent Killer

Ironically, despite being naturally assertive and risk-taking, many founders struggle profoundly with internal conflict. They frequently avoid or mishandle disputes, allowing unresolved issues to fester beneath the surface. This avoidance breeds mistrust, creates political factions, and undermines team cohesion, ultimately jeopardizing organizational health and stability.

5. Personality Predicts Performance

Our research revealed a direct correlation between a founder’s personality traits and their financial outcomes. Founders who demonstrate higher levels of emotional intelligence, flexibility, collaboration, and adaptability consistently achieve superior financial results. These traits were strongly predictive of achieving a tenfold return on investment (10x MOIC), while founders lacking these traits often struggled or failed outright.

6. Avoiding the Founder's Trap of Micromanagement

Many founders possess perfectionistic tendencies and high standards. While these traits can drive early success, unchecked they can lead to chronic micromanagement. Founders who micromanage inadvertently stifle their teams’ creativity, growth, and accountability. Successful founders recognize the value of trust and delegation, empowering their teams to thrive independently.

7. Adaptability Trumps IQ

Raw intelligence alone does not ensure founder success. The market is continuously evolving, and founders who rigidly adhere to their original ideas often struggle to pivot when necessary. Adaptability, the willingness to respond flexibly to changing circumstances, consistently emerged as more crucial than raw intellectual capability. Successful founders embrace adaptability, continuously refining and recalibrating their strategies.

8. Relationship Builders are Undervalued but Essential

Many founders underestimate the power of relationship-building. Those who neglect interpersonal skills risk becoming isolated, losing the trust and loyalty of key team members. Conversely, founders who master relationship-building foster deep, genuine trust, retain critical talent, and motivate their teams to tackle challenging goals collectively.

9. Vision Without Execution is Hallucination

It’s easy for founders to generate compelling visions and innovative ideas. However, without the discipline of execution, these visions remain unattainable dreams. Execution involves setting clear priorities, maintaining focus, and systematically achieving tangible results. Successful founders understand that ideas alone won't drive growth—they must couple visionary thinking with rigorous, disciplined execution.

10. The Paradox of Founder Personality

Founders often embody paradoxical traits that create internal and organizational tensions. They can be visionary yet disorganized, persuasive yet poor listeners, commanding yet lacking in empathy. Managing these inherent contradictions is essential. Successful founders recognize their paradoxes and proactively manage them, balancing their visionary strengths with disciplined execution and empathetic leadership.

If you're a founder—or you invest in, work with, or advise founders—this book gives you the tools to recognize the warning signs early, defuse your leadership "time bomb," and transform from a ticking liability into an enduring asset.

Founders Keepers launches June 17th. Learn how to beat the odds—and become a keeper, not a casualty.

Ready to defuse your ticking time bomb? Pre-order now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Why Founders Fail - The Small Business Show Interview

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 22:33:00 GMT

Founders, Keepers: Why Founders Are Built to Fail, and What it Takes to Succeed

Why Successful Founders Win—and Others Crash and Burn

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 22:22:00 GMT

Startup founders represent the ultimate paradox: celebrated for their innovative brilliance yet notoriously susceptible to failure. In reality, the difference between astronomical success and dismal failure boils down to a surprisingly consistent set of behaviors and personality traits. Drawing from extensive 360 feedback studies, personality assessments, and deep insights from Founders Keepers, we've unraveled exactly what separates winners from losers in the startup world.
Myth-busting: Genius Jerks Rarely Prevail A common myth persists that successful founders must be narcissistic, domineering, and abrasive—the stereotypical "genius jerk." Yet, our rigorous analysis of data from 122 founders, comparing the top performers (at least 10X returns) with bottom performers (zero returns), decisively shatters this myth.
Successful founders, contrary to popular belief, rarely succeed because of egocentric ruthlessness. Instead, they thrive due to their extraordinary adaptability, relationship-building skills, disciplined execution, and deep personal grounding. Meanwhile, unsuccessful founders often implode because of their rigidity, isolation, impulsivity, and inability to truly lead teams.
Adaptability: The Endless Pursuit of Product-Market Fit Successful founders understand one critical truth: product-market fit isn't a finish line; it’s a continuous process. They show an exceptional ability to:

Remain open to input, eagerly soliciting and integrating team feedback.
Effectively manage resistance, empathetically addressing team concerns.
Skillfully create buy-in, building commitment through transparency and genuine engagement.

In contrast, unsuccessful founders typically fail due to rigidity. They stubbornly anchor themselves to outdated strategies, ignore valuable feedback, and react defensively to challenges, eventually becoming roadblocks in their own companies.
Relationship Building: From Loners to Leaders A pivotal distinction lies in the ability to work effectively through others. Successful founders consistently excel in empowering their teams. They:

Delegate effectively, granting autonomy while clearly defining expectations.
Maintain trust through consistent behavior, integrity, and transparency.
Develop robust emotional intelligence, adeptly managing conflict and strengthening team cohesion.

Unsuccessful founders, on the other hand, struggle profoundly with delegation. Their chronic micromanagement erodes trust and morale, creating environments of fear and resentment. They often isolate themselves, failing to build genuine relationships, thus missing critical insights and innovations their teams could provide.
Execution: Discipline Over Charisma Execution—arguably the most underrated pillar of startup leadership—truly separates winners from losers. Successful founders meticulously:

Set clear, measurable, and achievable goals.
Follow through relentlessly, holding themselves and others accountable.
Create robust systems and processes to scale effectively.

Conversely, unsuccessful founders typically suffer from chronic disorganization and impulsivity. Their inability to prioritize, constant pivots without strategic clarity, and poor follow-through generate chaos and stifle growth.
Personal Grounding: Stability Amidst Chaos Perhaps most counterintuitively, successful founders exhibit deep personal grounding—a trait seldom highlighted in sensational startup narratives. They:

Demonstrate emotional resilience, remaining composed under extreme stress.
Exhibit patience, tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty with grace.
Maintain optimistic yet realistic perspectives, avoiding destructive cycles of anxiety or panic.

Unsuccessful founders, however, often spiral under pressure. Their volatility and emotional reactivity exacerbate crises, leading to poor decision-making and destructive interpersonal dynamics.
Self-Awareness: The Hidden Driver of Success Underpinning all these traits is profound self-awareness—arguably the most critical competency of all. Successful founders consistently seek self-improvement, humbly recognizing their weaknesses and proactively addressing them. They actively solicit honest feedback, never fearing the vulnerability required for growth.
Unsuccessful founders, conversely, often display a tragic lack of self-awareness. Their denial of shortcomings, defensiveness to feedback, and unwillingness to evolve ultimately doom their startups.
Real-World Wisdom: Voices from the Trenches Beyond the data, the human stories captured in 360 feedback illustrate these differences vividly:

Successful founders receive praise like, “He constantly solicits input, adapts swiftly, and builds deep trust. His humility makes everyone want to follow him.”
Unsuccessful founders, by contrast, earn harsh critiques: “He ignores input, reacts defensively, and insists on controlling every detail. The team is disengaged and demoralized.”

These narratives underscore the simple but powerful truth that the best founders aren't isolated geniuses—they’re skilled leaders who build environments where everyone can thrive.
The Path Forward: Turning Insights into Action If you're a founder, investor, or leader within the startup ecosystem, confront these truths head-on. Assess yourself and your organization rigorously:

Are you truly adaptable, or merely superficially agile?
Are you empowering your team, or stifling their potential?
Are you executing with discipline, or flailing with chaos?
Are you grounded emotionally, or reactive and volatile?
Are you genuinely self-aware, or defensively delusional?

Final Thoughts Ultimately, founder success isn’t about flashy charisma or ruthless ambition. It’s about a disciplined commitment to growth—both personal and organizational. Embrace adaptability, deepen your self-awareness, and master the art of leadership grounded in trust and integrity.
This is not merely good advice—it’s the proven difference between a startup’s spectacular success and its avoidable failure. What traits do you see defining successful and unsuccessful founders in your experience? Let's discuss!

Why Do So Many Founders Cross Ethical Lines? A Guide for Investors

Fri, 09 May 2025 22:16:00 GMT

We’ve all seen the headlines: visionary founders, celebrated one day, indicted for fraud the next. Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, Trevor Milton of Nikola—each a cautionary tale. But why does this keep happening? More importantly, how can investors and venture capitalists spot the red flags before disaster strikes? After decades coaching startup founders and executives, and through intensive psychological profiling research in my book, Founders Keepers, it’s clear that the qualities which make founders extraordinary can also lead them into ethical peril.
Ambition Gone Rogue Ambition is the engine of innovation, but when unchecked, it can spiral into something destructive. Elizabeth Holmes, once hailed as the next Steve Jobs, turned ambition into deception, sacrificing integrity for the illusion of success. Her willingness to misrepresent Theranos's technology eventually led to fraud convictions and a 11-year prison sentence. Similarly, Trevor Milton fabricated demonstrations of Nikola’s hydrogen-powered trucks, deceiving investors and regulators alike. Ambition that isn’t tempered by reality becomes toxic, pushing founders to prioritize appearances over substance.
Narcissism and the Cult of Personality A striking number of fraudulent founders exhibit narcissistic traits. Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is disturbingly common among indicted entrepreneurs like Holmes, Adam Neumann, and Billy McFarland. These individuals have inflated self-worth, entitlement, and a troubling lack of empathy—traits that enable them to manipulate investors, employees, and markets. Adam Neumann’s charismatic leadership at WeWork masked a self-serving agenda. He leased his own properties to WeWork and indulged in extravagances funded by investor capital. His eventual downfall underscores a critical point: charisma and confidence, unchecked by accountability, can devastate companies.
Pressure, Risk, and Rationalization Founders operate in pressure cookers. Investor demands, market competition, and internal expectations can distort ethical boundaries. Under such strain, founders rationalize questionable decisions—initially minor, then increasingly severe. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX saga exemplifies this slippery slope. Praised for his effective altruism, he secretly diverted customer funds into his own hedge fund, creating one of history’s largest financial implosions. Under extreme pressure to perform, ethical lines blurred into oblivion.
The Dark Triad and Founder Psychology Research identifies a psychological pattern—the Dark Triad: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Founders exhibiting these traits manipulate, charm, and dominate others effortlessly. Their moral compasses malfunction, viewing ethics as mere obstacles. Martin Shkreli of Turing Pharmaceuticals raised drug prices mercilessly, justified as smart business. He ultimately faced securities fraud charges. This combination of manipulative charm, moral disengagement, and ruthless pragmatism frequently ends in corporate ruin.
Red Flags Investors Can’t Ignore VCs and investors must vigilantly recognize signals of potential ethical crises:

Accountability Gaps: Founders who deflect blame, resist feedback, or evade responsibility when faced with failures.
Deceptive Fluency: Founders who remain intentionally vague, changing narratives to fit different audiences, lack transparency, and dodge specifics.
Weak Governance: Companies lacking robust financial controls, passive boards, or weak compliance protocols enable founder misconduct.
Excessive Charm: Overly charismatic leaders who evade scrutiny, foster cult-like devotion, and dismiss ethical concerns as trivial.

Case Study: When Good Intentions Go Bad Consider Charlie Javice the Frank founder. Desperate to sell her startup, she fabricated millions of fake users, deceiving JPMorgan into a $175 million acquisition. Ambition, pressure, and opportunity collided disastrously, underscoring that even well-intentioned founders can fall if ethical vigilance wanes.
Prevention through Awareness and Systems To mitigate these risks, investors must foster cultures of accountability. This means:

Rigorous Due Diligence: Deep vetting of founder histories, not just their pitch decks.
Transparent Governance: Enforcing independent oversight, clear reporting, and stringent ethical guidelines.
Balanced Teams: Encouraging founders to build leadership teams empowered to challenge decisions.

Healthy skepticism, combined with robust systems, creates a strong firewall against unethical behavior.
Redemption and Self-Awareness Not all troubled founders are irredeemable. Many need interventions—coaching, accountability partners, and structured feedback—to prevent ethical slippage. Self-awareness is key. Founders who reflect on their blind spots and acknowledge limitations have a far better prognosis.
Investing Wisely Means Looking Deeper The stark truth for investors is this: brilliance without integrity is dangerous. Investing isn't merely betting on ideas; it's assessing character. The cost of ignoring red flags is staggering, not just financially, but reputationally and ethically. Ask yourself one simple question when evaluating founders: If they weren't successful, would their behaviors still seem acceptable? The answer reveals everything. The line between visionary and fraudster is thin. Vigilance, skepticism, and structured accountability are critical tools in protecting your investments—and ensuring the next headline isn't about your portfolio.

Dr. Rich Hagberg is the author of Founders Keepers: Why Founders Are Built to Fail and What It Takes to Succeed, and a consulting psychologist who has coached hundreds of startup founders and their teams and thousands of executives over more than 40 years in Silicon Valley. INVESTOR ALERT: If you are an investor, contact us for the Founders Red Flag Checklist.

Personal Grounding: Staying Sane Amid the Madness

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:15:00 GMT

Founders live in a world of chaos. It’s exhilarating, intense, and downright terrifying. You’re constantly shifting between the thrill of new ideas and the crushing weight of responsibility. Every decision feels like a life-or-death moment for your company, and the stress is unrelenting. Yet, amid this madness, there’s one thing that determines whether you’ll thrive or crash and burn: personal grounding.

Personal grounding isn’t about being Zen or finding a mythical work-life balance (spoiler alert: it doesn’t exist). It’s about creating a mental and emotional anchor that keeps you from being swept away by the storms of startup life. Without it, you’re a ticking time bomb—burnout, bad decisions, and a business spiraling out of control are inevitable.

So how do you stay grounded when everything around you is chaos? Here are eight key insights, drawn from the research and experience detailed in our upcoming book Founders Keepers.

1. You Can’t Outwork the Madness—So Stop Trying

Founders are notorious workaholics. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you just put in more hours, you can get ahead of the chaos. But here’s the truth: no matter how hard you work, you’ll never be able to outrun the sheer volume of tasks, problems, and fires that come with building a startup. The more you chase control, the more it slips away.

The key to personal grounding is realizing that you’re not in control—and that’s okay. Embrace the madness, but don’t let it consume you. Set boundaries, and priorities, not just to protect your time, but to protect your sanity.

2. Find Solitude to Gain Clarity

Amid the noise and chaos of startup life, founders need to carve out moments of solitude. This isn’t about isolation—it’s about finding space to think deeply, reflect, and reset. The most successful founders are those who know how to step away from the noise and find clarity in silence.

One of the most powerful ways to cultivate this inner clarity is through meditation. Meditation is a powerful practice that quiets the mind by helping individuals step outside of the incessant mental chatter driven by ego, thoughts, and external pressures. By focusing on the present moment—whether through breath, a mantra, or simply stillness—meditation creates a gap between awareness and thought, offering a moment of profound stillness. This stillness fosters a deeper connection to one's inner self, free from distractions, and has transformative effects on both mental clarity and emotional resilience. It reduces stress, enhances focus, and fosters a greater sense of peace, making it a vital tool for personal and leadership growth.

3. Know When to Let Go

One of the hardest truths for founders to accept is that they are often their own worst enemies. Many founders struggle with delegation and control, believing that no one can execute their vision as well as they can. But personal grounding requires the ability to let go. If you’re micromanaging every aspect of your business, you’re not grounded—you’re drowning.

Learning to trust others and delegate is essential. Letting go doesn’t mean losing control; it means freeing yourself to focus on what truly matters—big-picture strategy, leadership, and innovation.

4. Self-Awareness is Non-Negotiable

The founders who thrive are not just aware of their companies—they’re deeply aware of themselves. They understand their strengths, weaknesses, triggers, and tendencies. Self-awareness is your compass in the chaos, helping you navigate difficult situations, make better decisions, and lead with authenticity.

Take the time to regularly assess yourself. Are you reactive under stress? Do you avoid tough conversations? Are you making decisions out of fear or ego? Personal grounding comes from having an honest relationship with yourself.

5. Stress Management Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Survival Skill

The stress of startup life can be crushing, but founders who are personally grounded know how to manage it. This doesn’t mean eliminating stress—it means learning how to handle it without letting it destroy you. Meditation can again be a game changer here, offering a powerful way to manage stress effectively. By focusing on the present moment and creating that gap between awareness and thought, meditation enables founders to handle the pressures of leadership without losing their center.

Over 40 years ago I started my research. My masters research study was on meditation. My doctoral dissertation was on stress. Our current research described in Founders Keepers reveals that founders who prioritize their mental and physical well-being are better decision-makers, more resilient, and less likely to burn out. If you’re not actively managing your stress, it’s managing you—and that’s a recipe for disaster.

6. Failure is Not a Reflection of Your Worth

One of the biggest challenges for founders is separating their personal identity from their company. When things go wrong—and they will—it’s easy to feel like you’re a failure. But here’s the truth: failure is a part of the process, and it doesn’t define you.

Founders who stay grounded understand that their company’s successes or failures do not equate to their value as a person. You are not your startup. If you tie your worth to your company’s performance, you’re setting yourself up for an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you burned out and broken.

7. Embrace Vulnerability—It’s a Strength, Not a Weakness

Founders are expected to be superhuman. Investors, employees, and even friends look to you for strength and guidance. But here’s a powerful insight: the most grounded founders aren’t afraid to be vulnerable. They admit when they don’t have all the answers, when they’re scared, or when they’re struggling.

Vulnerability fosters trust, deepens relationships, and creates a culture of openness. When you allow yourself to be human, you give others permission to do the same, creating a more supportive and resilient team. Personal grounding isn’t about being invincible—it’s about being authentic.

8. Find Purpose Beyond the Grind

Finally, personal grounding requires a sense of purpose that transcends the day-to-day grind of building a company. Founders who are deeply connected to a purpose—whether that’s improving lives, solving a meaningful problem, or making a positive impact—are more resilient in the face of adversity.

Purpose is your North Star. When the madness of startup life threatens to pull you in a million directions, it’s your purpose that keeps you grounded. It reminds you why you started in the first place and helps you stay focused on the bigger picture, even when everything else feels chaotic.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Just Survive—Thrive

The startup world is madness—there’s no way around it. But founders who take the time to ground themselves don’t just survive; they thrive. By embracing solitude, letting go, managing stress, quieting the mind through meditation, and staying deeply connected to their purpose, these founders create an internal anchor that keeps them steady amid the storm.

If you’re a founder and you feel like you’re losing yourself in the chaos, take a step back. Ground yourself. You can’t control the madness, but you can control how you navigate through it. And that’s what will determine whether you burn out—or break through.

Scaling Beyond Genius: The Unseen Work of Building a Billion-Dollar Startup

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 22:54:49 GMT

Founders often carry a mythic aura, celebrated for their vision, charisma, and relentless drive. They are the bold risk-takers who disrupt industries, change lives, and will entire markets into existence. These narratives—as addictive as they are—often lead to an unfortunate misconception: that sheer genius is enough to scale a startup. It isn’t.

Vision alone might get you through the knife-fight phase of a startup’s life, but when it’s time to scale, your brilliance can become a bottleneck. Founders who cling to the illusion that they can power through scaling challenges with charisma and creativity often fail spectacularly. This blog is a wake-up call for founders, potential founders, failed founders, and investors alike: genius alone will not carry you to the finish line. What separates the startups that thrive from those that crumble is not brilliance but the ability to build enduring systems, structures, and processes.

Let’s dispel the myths and explore the unseen and often unglamorous work that founders need to master if they hope to turn a scrappy startup into a billion-dollar business.

Myth 1: Vision Is Everything

Most founders are natural Visionary Evangelists. They see around corners, spot market opportunities, and inspire teams with their bold ideas. Investors bet on these qualities, and for good reason: vision is what ignites the startup engine. But as the company grows, the same traits that propelled its early success can become liabilities.

Vision without structure leads to chaos. Founders can’t just "will" their companies to scale. At some point, the organization’s complexity will outstrip the founder’s ability to manage it. The lack of clear systems and processes creates bottlenecks, frustrates teams, and erodes trust.

Reality Check: Vision is critical, but it’s not a substitute for operational rigor. Scaling requires founders to translate their big ideas into actionable, repeatable systems. Without this bridge between strategy and execution, even the most promising startups will stall.

Myth 2: The Founder’s Hustle Will Carry the Team

In the early days, startups thrive on heroic efforts. Founders wear multiple hats, pulling all-nighters and stepping in wherever there’s a gap. This scrappy hustle becomes a badge of honor, an identity. But as the team grows, this approach becomes unsustainable and even destructive.

Here’s the problem: many founders struggle to let go. They micromanage, make unilateral decisions, and refuse to delegate. Why? Because they’ve convinced themselves that no one else can match their passion or capability. This creates a toxic dynamic where the founder becomes the bottleneck, stalling progress and demoralizing their team.

Reality Check: Hustle is not a scalable strategy. Founders must transition from being the hero to being the architect of systems that empower others to execute effectively. This means delegating, coaching, and trusting their team to own outcomes.

Myth 3: Startups Should Avoid Bureaucracy

The word “bureaucracy” sends chills down the spines of most founders. Isn’t the whole point of a startup to move fast and break things? Isn’t bureaucracy the enemy of innovation?

Not exactly. While startups should avoid unnecessary red tape, the absence of structure often leads to inefficiency and burnout. Teams waste time reinventing the wheel because there’s no documented process. Priorities shift on a whim, leaving employees confused and disengaged. Founders who reject all forms of process in the name of agility often end up with chaos instead of speed.

Reality Check: Scaling startups need “just enough” process to provide clarity and direction. Think of processes as guardrails, not handcuffs. They should enable agility, not stifle it.

Myth 4: Scaling Is About Adding More Resources

When startups hit growing pains, the instinctive reaction is to throw more resources at the problem: hire more people, buy better tools, raise more money. While these are sometimes necessary, they’re rarely sufficient. Scaling isn’t just about doing more; it’s about doing better.

Consider this: doubling your team without clear systems in place will only amplify inefficiencies. Throwing money at problems without solving root causes leads to waste. Founders who equate scaling with “more” often find themselves with bloated organizations that are slow and unprofitable.

Reality Check: Scaling is about improving efficiency and effectiveness. Before adding more resources, founders need to optimize their existing processes to handle greater complexity.

What Successful Founders Do Differently

So, what separates the founders who successfully scale their startups from those who don’t? Here are the key actions they take:

1. Re-engineer Inefficient Processes

Successful founders don’t just patch over inefficiencies; they dig deep to redesign broken systems. They prioritize scalability from the start, asking questions like: “Can this process handle 10x growth?” If the answer is no, they fix it.

2. Shift from Doer to Leader

Founders who scale learn to let go of day-to-day tasks and focus on strategic leadership. This means empowering their team to own decisions and outcomes while providing clear guidance and support.

3. Invest in People and Culture

Scaling isn’t just about systems; it’s also about people. Great founders invest in hiring top talent, developing their team’s capabilities, and creating a culture that aligns with their values and vision.

4. Embrace Feedback and Adaptation

Scaling is a messy process that requires constant iteration. Founders who thrive are those who actively seek feedback from their team, customers, and investors—and use it to refine their approach.

5. Build Operational Discipline

This is where many founders falter. Operational discipline means setting clear goals, tracking progress, and holding people accountable. It’s about creating a rhythm of execution that ensures the company delivers on its promises.

A Challenge to Founders

If you’re a founder, ask yourself:

Are you still trying to do everything yourself?
Do your teams know their priorities, or are they constantly scrambling to figure out what matters most?
Are your processes built to scale, or are you just winging it?

Be honest. The answers to these questions will reveal whether you’re truly ready to scale your company or if you’re standing in your own way.

For potential founders: Don’t romanticize the hustle. Building a startup requires more than just a big idea and hard work. Be prepared to master the unsexy, behind-the-scenes work of creating systems and structures that enable growth.

For failed founders: Reflect on where things went wrong. Was it a lack of vision, or was it the inability to scale operations? Use those lessons to rebuild stronger.

For investors: Stop glorifying the lone genius. Look for founders who are not just visionary but disciplined in execution. Invest in those who are willing to grow alongside their companies.

The Takeaway

Scaling is not a magical process that happens when you raise enough money or hire enough people. It’s a deliberate, disciplined effort to build the systems, structures, and processes that allow your company to grow sustainably. Vision might light the fire, but operational excellence keeps it burning.

For founders willing to do the hard work, the rewards are immense. The ability to scale beyond genius is what separates the unicorns from the also-rans. The question is: are you ready to put in the work?

Leading with Integrity: Why the Best Leaders Are Models of Values

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 17:11:39 GMT

In a recent Founders Keepers newsletter entitled “When Their Moral Compass Fails, Leaders Fail: How Greed, Power, and Pressure Can Destroy Founders” I discussed how the pressure of investor demands, and the corrosive effects of power and greed can erode a founder’s moral compass. These challenges are not limited to startup founders; they affect leaders across all industries. However, our research on nearly 2,000 executives, including the top 200 leaders who emerged as the “best” based on 360-degree feedback ratings, provides a critical insight: the best leaders are unwavering models of integrity and values.

This is not just an ideal to aspire to—it’s a requirement for sustainable success. When leaders prioritize integrity and live by a clear set of values, they build trust, inspire their teams, and create a foundation for enduring impact. This post will delve into what it means to lead with integrity, how the best leaders embody these principles, and actionable steps you can take to align with these ideals.

Integrity: The Cornerstone of Leadership

Integrity in leadership is about much more than honesty. It encompasses consistency between words and actions, ethical decision-making, and a commitment to doing what is right, even in the face of adversity. Leaders with integrity act as a moral compass for their organizations, guiding decisions and behavior through a clear ethical lens.

Our research on the best leaders revealed several defining characteristics of integrity in leadership:

Consistency in Actions and Words: The best leaders “walk the talk,” ensuring their actions align with their stated values. This predictability fosters trust and reduces organizational uncertainty.
Ethical Decision-Making: These leaders prioritize ethical considerations, making decisions that align with their values rather than taking shortcuts for short-term gains.
Accountability: They own their mistakes, modeling humility and responsibility for their teams.

Take Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, as an example. Schultz demonstrated integrity by prioritizing ethical sourcing, offering healthcare benefits to part-time employees, and fostering a culture of respect and inclusion. His leadership not only built a globally respected brand but also created an environment where employees felt valued, and customers felt connected to the company’s mission.

According to a comprehensive review of the literature, leaders who demonstrate integrity cultivate stronger trust among their teams, improve morale, and enhance overall organizational performance. The ripple effects of their behavior extend to organizational reputation, customer loyalty, and financial success.

Values as the Leader’s Guiding Light

Values are the principles that define what is most important to an individual or organization. For leaders, values serve as a decision-making framework, shaping their behavior and influencing their teams. Leaders who model and promote core values create a strong organizational culture where employees feel aligned and inspired.

In our study of the best leaders, the following behaviors stood out:

Leading by Example: The best leaders don’t just articulate values; they embody them. Their behavior demonstrates the standards they expect from others.
High Standards of Conduct: These leaders maintain impeccable personal and professional standards, setting a tone that permeates their teams and organizations.
Promoting Organizational Values: By aligning their behavior with the organization’s mission and vision, these leaders reinforce the importance of shared values.

Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, exemplified these principles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced with difficult decisions, Chesky ensured that laid-off employees received generous severance packages and career support. His transparent and empathetic approach reinforced Airbnb’s values and preserved the company’s reputation during a challenging time.

The literature supports these findings, emphasizing that when leaders align personal and organizational values, it leads to increased job satisfaction, higher productivity, and reduced turnover.

Trust: The Currency of Leadership

Integrity and values contribute to the most critical currency a leader possesses: trust. Leaders who consistently demonstrate integrity earn the confidence of their employees, stakeholders, and customers. This trust forms the foundation of effective collaboration, open communication, and organizational resilience.

Our research showed that trust was a hallmark of the best leaders. They were described as dependable, reliable, and fair. Their actions consistently reflected their commitments, which inspired loyalty and respect.

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, is a shining example of how integrity builds trust. Polman led Unilever with a focus on sustainability and social responsibility, proving that profitability and ethical practices can coexist. His leadership attracted like-minded stakeholders, enhanced the company’s reputation, and set a benchmark for ethical corporate governance.

Building trust, however, is not a one-time effort. It requires continuous reinforcement through ethical behavior, transparency, and accountability. As one executive in our study remarked, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.”

The Downside of Losing Integrity

The stakes for leaders who fail to model integrity are high. Our review of business failures, including infamous cases like Enron and Theranos, highlights how a lack of ethical leadership can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Leaders who compromise their values for short-term gains risk not only their reputations but also the viability of their organizations.

The Enron scandal was rooted in accounting fraud and ethical violations by top executives who prioritized personal gain over organizational integrity. Similarly, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos allowed ambition to override honesty, leading to the downfall of a once-promising company. These examples underscore the importance of ethical leadership in avoiding reputational and financial disaster.

Expanding the Legacy: The Ripple Effects of Integrity

Leaders who model integrity extend their influence far beyond their immediate teams. They create a ripple effect that shapes organizational culture, industry standards, and even societal expectations. A consistent pattern in our research is that ethical leaders inspire ethical behavior at all levels of the organization, amplifying their impact.

For instance, Satya Nadella’s leadership at Microsoft has transformed the company culture from one of cutthroat competition to collaboration and innovation. By prioritizing empathy, inclusion, and a growth mindset, Nadella has demonstrated how values-driven leadership can rejuvenate a global organization and inspire employees worldwide.

This ripple effect is not accidental; it requires intentional effort to embed integrity into every aspect of leadership. Leaders must ask themselves: How can I ensure my values are reflected in the decisions I make, the systems I design, and the culture I cultivate?

Actionable Steps for Leading with Integrity

So, how can leaders ensure they remain models of values in the face of challenges? Here are actionable strategies based on our research and the broader literature:

Clarify Your Core Values: Take time to reflect on your principles and create a personal mission statement. Ensure your values align with your organization’s mission.
Lead by Example: Demonstrate your values through consistent actions. Be the behavior you wish to see in your team.
Be Transparent: Openly communicate your decisions and the values guiding them. Transparency builds trust and accountability.
Own Your Mistakes: When you fall short, acknowledge it. Use failures as an opportunity to model humility and resilience.
Seek Feedback: Regularly solicit input from your team to understand how your behavior aligns with your values. This fosters self-awareness and continuous improvement.
Promote Organizational Values: Reinforce the importance of shared values by embedding them into your organization’s culture and decision-making processes.
Practice Ethical Decision-Making: Develop a habit of evaluating decisions through an ethical lens. Ask yourself how your choices align with your values and their impact on others.
Amplify Your Influence: Leverage your position to mentor others, advocate for ethical practices, and inspire your industry to prioritize integrity.

An Inspiring Legacy

The best leaders are not only successful but also admired for their integrity and values. Their influence extends beyond organizational performance to leave a lasting legacy of trust, inspiration, and ethical conduct. As leaders, we must constantly ask ourselves: What kind of legacy are we building?

In the words of one of the best leaders from our study, “Leadership isn’t about being in charge; it’s about taking care of those in your charge.” By prioritizing integrity and living by our values, we can inspire those around us and build organizations that stand the test of time.

As you reflect on this, revisit the challenges I outlined in Founders Keepers —the pressures, greed, and power that can erode integrity. Let this serve as a reminder to stay grounded in your values and lead with unwavering commitment to what is right.

Success is fleeting, but integrity endures.

The Siren Call of Authoritarian Leaders: A Cautionary Tale

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 23:59:30 GMT

Look around: the world feels chaotic. You’re grappling with uncertainty, economic struggles, and a sense that the system you’ve relied on is cracking at its foundation. You’re not alone in feeling this way. Millions share your frustration and along comes someone who seems to have all the answers. They speak with confidence and charisma, cutting through the noise with promises of security, strength, and a brighter future. They tell you, “I will fix everything. Just trust me.” Sound familiar?

This is the allure of the authoritarian leader—a figure who rises to power by exploiting fear and uncertainty, offering solutions that seem simple and reassuring but often come at a steep cost. History is littered with examples of such leaders, from the tyrants of ancient empires to modern-day strongmen. They all share strikingly similar traits and tactics, and the story of their rise and the havoc they wreak—serves as a cautionary tale for us all.

How to Spot an Authoritarian Leader

Authoritarian leaders don’t wear a label announcing their intentions. Instead, they present themselves as saviors in troubled times. Here are some telltale signs to watch for:

Power Grabbers: These leaders thrive on centralizing power. They bypass checks and balances, dismiss dissenting voices, and make decisions unilaterally. They’ll tell you it’s for the greater good, but it’s really about control.
Charismatic Rhetoric: They’re often spellbinding speakers who tap into your emotions. They promise simple solutions to complex problems and use repetitive messaging to hammer their points home.
Fear Merchants: Fear is their currency. They amplify threats—real or imagined—to make you feel vulnerable. They’ll tell you that only they can protect you from “them” (whoever “them” might be).
Polarizers: Authoritarian leaders thrive on division. They’ll frame the world in black and white: us versus them, good versus evil. This creates a loyal in-group while vilifying an out-group.
Cult of Personality: They carefully craft an image of invincibility, wisdom, or moral superiority. You’re not just following a leader; you’re following a larger-than-life figure who seems destined to lead.

Sounds appealing? That’s the trap. What starts as admiration can quickly turn into blind allegiance, and before you know it, you’re complicit in empowering someone who might not have your best interests at heart.

The Toolbox of Manipulation

How do authoritarian leaders pull this off? Their playbook is both time-tested and chillingly effective. Here’s how they manipulate and appeal to people:

Emotional Manipulation

They know how to tug at your heartstrings—and your fears. A cornerstone of their strategy is fearmongering. They’ll highlight threats, exaggerate dangers, and convince you that the world is on the brink of disaster. “Without me,” they say, “you’ll be lost.” But they don’t stop at fear. They also dangle hope. Grand promises of prosperity, strength, and security make it easy to ignore the finer details—or lack thereof.

Simplifying Complexity

Ever been frustrated by how complicated the world seems? Authoritarian leaders offer relief. They boil everything down into simplistic terms: “Here’s the problem, and here’s the solution.” Of course, their solutions often ignore reality or trample over ethical considerations, but that’s easy to miss when you’re desperate for answers.

Propaganda and Censorship

Control the narrative, and you control the people. These leaders master propaganda, using state media, social platforms, and misinformation to shape public perception. Dissenting voices are silenced, creating an echo chamber where only their truth exists.

Scapegoating and Division

When things go wrong, they’ll point fingers elsewhere. Immigrants, minorities, opposing political groups, or even entire countries become convenient scapegoats. This tactic redirects your frustration away from the leader and toward a common enemy.

Rewarding Loyalty

They’re experts at creating dependency. Loyal followers are rewarded with perks, jobs, or financial incentives. This reinforces a system where loyalty isn’t just encouraged; it’s mandatory.

Why Do People Follow Them?

Here’s the million-dollar question: if authoritarian leaders are so dangerous, why do people fall for their tricks? The answer lies in psychology, sociology, and political dynamics.

Psychological Factors

The Authoritarian Personality: Some people are naturally drawn to authority. They value order, hierarchy, and tradition, and they’re more likely to submit to strong leaders who promise to uphold these values.
Fear and Uncertainty: In times of crisis, fear takes over. People crave stability and security, making them more susceptible to leaders who promise to restore order.
Need for Simplicity: Not everyone enjoys grappling with ambiguity. Many prefer simple, definitive answers, even if they’re not accurate.

Sociological Factors

Group Identity: Authoritarian leaders often appeal to a shared sense of identity, whether it’s national, cultural, or religious. By protecting this identity, they gain loyalty.
Economic and Social Inequality: Inequality breeds resentment. People who feel left behind are more likely to embrace leaders who claim they’ll “level the playing field.”
Distrust in Institutions: When traditional systems like government or media lose credibility, people look for alternatives. Authoritarian leaders exploit this vacuum.

Political Factors

Crisis Situations: Emergencies like wars, pandemics, or economic recessions create fertile ground for authoritarianism. In such moments, decisive action—even if it’s authoritarian—feels appealing.
Polarization: In divided societies, people become entrenched in their views. Authoritarian leaders use this division to consolidate power, presenting themselves as the only solution.

The Danger of Blind Loyalty

Following an authoritarian leader might feel comforting at first, but history shows us where it often leads:

Loss of Freedom: Authoritarian regimes suppress dissent, restrict free speech, and erode democratic institutions. You might find yourself living in a world where you can’t speak your mind.
Erosion of Morality: Scapegoating and division lead to dehumanization. You may start justifying or even participating in actions you once considered unthinkable.
Inefficiency and Corruption: Concentrating power in one person often leads to poor decision-making, cronyism, and corruption.
Conflict and Violence: Polarization can escalate into outright violence, whether through civil unrest or external wars initiated by the regime.

How to Resist the Siren Call

Recognizing the signs of authoritarianism is the first step to resisting it. Here’s what you can do:

Stay Informed: Seek out diverse sources of information. Don’t rely solely on what one leader or group tells you.
Question Simple Answers: Be wary of anyone who claims to have all the answers. The world is complex, and solutions usually are too.
Engage in Dialogue: Talk to people with different viewpoints. Polarization thrives on isolation; dialogue fosters understanding.
Support Institutions: Strengthen the democratic systems that keep authoritarianism in check, such as free press, independent courts, and fair elections.
Recognize Fear Tactics: When someone tries to manipulate you with fear, take a step back and analyze the situation logically.

Conclusion: The Cost of Complacency

The allure of an authoritarian leader is powerful, especially in times of uncertainty. But history’s cautionary tales remind us that the price of blind loyalty is often steep. It’s not just your freedoms that are at risk but your morality, your society, and your future.

So, the next time someone promises to solve all your problems with a wave of their hand, take a moment to pause. Ask yourself: what are they really offering, and at what cost? The answer could mean the difference between a brighter future and a darker path. Stay vigilant, stay informed, and never stop questioning.

The Confidence Myth: Why Humility, Authenticity, Empathy, and Open-Mindedness Are the Secret Weapons of the Best Leaders

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 23:31:37 GMT

What if everything you thought you knew about confident leadership was wrong?

Our extensive research into the characteristics of "Best Leaders," based on in-depth analysis of 360-degree evaluations from their followers, revealed a surprising truth. We examined both the personality traits and behaviors of highly rated leaders, and they possessed a unique brand of self-confidence. They weren't necessarily the most forceful, outspoken, or the ones who believed they were the smartest person in the room. Instead, they were consistently described with words like:

Humble: They readily acknowledged their limitations and sought out diverse perspectives.
Authentic: They were genuine in their interactions and weren't afraid to show vulnerability.
Empathetic: They deeply cared about their teams and fostered a sense of belonging.
Open-minded: They were receptive to new ideas and encouraged constructive criticism.

But here's where the paradox emerges. A deeper dive into their personality assessments revealed a seemingly contradictory picture. These humble, empathetic leaders also displayed traits like:

Assertiveness: They were decisive, driven, and pushed for results, but without being overly aggressive or domineering.
Self-Assurance: They possessed a strong sense of self, recognizing their leadership capabilities and ability to influence and motivate, but without arrogance or a need for personal recognition.
Insistence: They had a sense of urgency and could be insistent yet remained thoughtful and avoided impulsive or reckless actions.

This fascinating blend of seemingly contrasting traits challenges the conventional image of the confident leader – the bold, assertive individual who commands attention and never shows weakness. It suggests that true leadership lies in finding a delicate balance: cultivating a quiet inner strength that allows you to embrace vulnerability, empower others, and foster a culture of collaboration and continuous learning, while also possessing the drive and determination to achieve ambitious goals.

This is the confidence paradox: the most effective leaders aren't the ones who shout the loudest or boast the most impressive credentials. They are the ones who possess a deep-rooted belief in their abilities that allows them to embrace vulnerability, seek out diverse perspectives, and empower those around them, all while confidently driving their teams and organizations forward.

In this blog post, we'll delve into the intricacies of this paradoxical confidence, exploring how it differs from arrogance and hubris, why humility is its secret weapon, and how you can cultivate this essential quality to become a truly exceptional leader.

Unmasking the Hubris Trap: When Confidence Turns Toxic

We've all encountered them – the leaders who exude an air of superiority, who surround themselves with yes-men, and who bulldoze their way through decisions without considering the consequences. This isn't confidence; it's hubris, a dangerous mask that often conceals deep-seated insecurities and a fragile ego.

Hubristic leaders may achieve short-term wins, riding on the wave of their charisma and forceful personalities. However, their reign is often marked by a trail of destruction: toxic work environments where fear and intimidation stifle creativity, a lack of trust that erodes loyalty, and ultimately, catastrophic failures born from reckless decision-making.

These leaders, blinded by their inflated sense of self-importance, fail to recognize their limitations. They are resistant to feedback, dismissive of dissenting opinions, and unwilling to acknowledge their mistakes. This creates a culture of stagnation, where innovation is stifled, and the organization as a whole suffers.

The Power of Humility: The Counterintuitive Key to Authentic Confidence

Now, let's shift our focus to the "Best Leaders" we identified in our research. These individuals, while assertive and driven, also possess a profound sense of humility. They understand that true strength lies not in pretending to have all the answers, but in fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.

This is the heart of the confidence paradox: true self-assurance is often found hand-in-hand with humility. Humility, in this context, is not about self-deprecation or a lack of ambition. It's about recognizing that you are not infallible, that you can learn from others, and that your success is often dependent on the contributions of your team.

Humility allows these leaders to:

Make more informed decisions: They are not afraid to seek out diverse perspectives, challenge their own assumptions, and admit when they are wrong. This leads to more thoughtful, well-rounded decision-making that considers the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders.
Inspire trust and loyalty: Their authenticity and willingness to be vulnerable create a safe space for open communication and honest feedback. This fosters a culture of trust and mutual respect, where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas and concerns.
Foster innovation: They encourage experimentation and risk-taking, recognizing that failure is an essential part of the learning process. This creates a dynamic environment where creativity flourishes and new ideas are welcomed.
Navigate challenges with resilience: They view setbacks as opportunities for growth, inspiring their teams to persevere through adversity. Their ability to remain calm and focused in the face of challenges instills confidence in their team and helps them navigate turbulent times with grace and determination.

Confidence as a Journey: Cultivating the Inner Strength to Lead

The good news is that you don't have to be born with unwavering self-belief. Confidence is not a fixed trait; it's a dynamic quality that can be cultivated and strengthened over time. It's a journey of self-discovery, a continuous process of self-reflection, learning, and growth.

This journey involves:

Embracing challenges: Stepping outside your comfort zone, taking on new responsibilities, and pushing yourself to learn and grow.
Learning from mistakes: Viewing setbacks as opportunities for learning and development, rather than as personal failures.
Seeking feedback: Actively soliciting feedback from others, even if it's critical, and using it to identify areas for improvement.
Practicing self-compassion: Treating yourself with kindness and understanding, recognizing that everyone makes mistakes, and that perfection is an unattainable goal.

The Impact of Genuine Confidence on Leadership Effectiveness

Genuine self-confidence permeates every aspect of leadership, influencing decision-making, inspiring others, fostering resilience, and enhancing emotional intelligence.

Confident leaders are decisive, even in the face of uncertainty. They trust their intuition, weigh the available information, and make timely choices with clarity and conviction. They understand that indecision can be paralyzing, and that taking calculated risks is often necessary to achieve progress. This decisiveness, however, is not born from recklessness or a disregard for potential consequences. Rather, it stems from a deep understanding of their capabilities and a willingness to take ownership of their decisions.

Moreover, confidence has a profound impact on a leader's ability to inspire and motivate others. Confident leaders exude a sense of optimism and possibility, creating a positive and encouraging environment where individuals feel valued and empowered. They articulate a compelling vision, communicate their expectations clearly, and inspire their teams to strive for excellence. Their passion and conviction are contagious, fostering a sense of shared purpose and motivating individuals to contribute their best efforts.

Furthermore, genuine confidence is closely intertwined with emotional intelligence. Confident leaders are not only self-aware but also possess a deep understanding of the emotions and perspectives of others. They are skilled at building rapport, resolving conflict, and fostering collaboration. They recognize that emotions play a crucial role in the workplace and leverage their emotional intelligence to create a positive and productive environment where individuals feel supported and understood.

Learning from the Greats: Case Studies in Confident Leadership

History and the contemporary world offer a plethora of examples that illustrate the power of genuine self-confidence in leadership. Nelson Mandela, with his unwavering belief in justice and equality, inspired millions to fight for a better future, even after decades of imprisonment. His leadership, characterized by courage, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to his values, serves as a testament to the transformative power of genuine self-confidence.

In contrast, history is also replete with examples of leaders whose arrogance, narcissism, or hubris ultimately led to their downfall. Leaders who surround themselves with yes-men, refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, and prioritize their self-interest over their people's needs often create a toxic environment that breeds resentment, stifles innovation, and ultimately leads to failure.

By studying both positive and negative examples, we can gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of genuine confidence and its critical role in effective leadership. Analyzing the traits, behaviors, and decision-making styles of successful leaders can provide valuable insights for aspiring and current leaders alike. Equally important is the examination of cases where leaders succumbed to arrogance or hubris, allowing us to identify red flags and learn from the mistakes of others.

Ready to Rewrite Your Leadership Playbook?

If you're an executive, founder, investor, or HR professional ready to ditch the outdated "fake it till you make it" mentality and embrace a more authentic, impactful leadership style, I can help.

My leadership coaching programs are designed to help you:

Develop genuine self-confidence : Uncover your strengths, acknowledge your limitations, and cultivate the inner strength to lead with authenticity.
Build high-performing teams: Foster a culture of trust, collaboration, and innovation where every individual feels valued and empowered.
Navigate challenges with resilience : Develop the mental fortitude to overcome setbacks and emerge stronger than ever.
Achieve extraordinary results : Unlock your full leadership potential and drive your organization to new heights of success.

Let's challenge the conventional wisdom together. Let's redefine what it means to be a truly confident leader.

When Their Moral Compass Fails, Leaders Fail: How Greed, Power, and Pressure Can Destroy Founders

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 19:53:37 GMT

Success in entrepreneurship is a double-edged sword. On one side lies the glory of innovation, wealth, and influence. On the other, an abyss where unchecked ambition, greed, and power pull founders into destructive cycles. Over 40 years of coaching startup founders and executives, I’ve seen both ends of this spectrum. Some founders achieve extraordinary success by balancing ambition with integrity, while others, often blinded by their own brilliance, derail their companies and their lives.

The sad truth? Many of these failures are not inevitable; they are self-inflicted. Founders sabotage themselves by succumbing to the very traits that once made them great. These traps are amplified by the relentless pressure to perform, demands from investors, and their own inner cravings for power and recognition.

The Curse of Ambition

Ambition is a founder’s lifeblood. It drives the late nights, the impossible pitches, and the daring decisions that turn ideas into empires. But unchecked ambition? That’s a different beast. It’s the kind that convinces founders the rules don’t apply to them.

Take Elizabeth Holmes, the once-celebrated CEO of Theranos. Her ambition to revolutionize healthcare was undeniable, but it morphed into something darker. Manipulation and deceit became her tools of choice to achieve what she couldn’t deliver. Investors, employees, and even patients paid the price for her Machiavellian tendencies. And she isn’t alone. I’ve seen countless founders convince themselves that ends justify the means. The result? Burnt bridges and broken companies.

In my coaching work, I’ve encountered founders who push their teams and themselves beyond healthy limits, all in the name of ambition. They prioritize winning over relationships, cutting corners and burning out the very people who could have helped them succeed. Ambition is not inherently bad, but it becomes a curse when it blinds you to the ethical and human costs of your decisions.

If you’re a founder, ask yourself: Has your ambition blinded you? Have you started seeing people as tools to be used rather than partners in your journey? Ambition without integrity is a ticking time bomb. Don’t wait for it to explode.

The Pressure Cooker of Success

Pressure is inevitable in a founder’s life. Investors demand results, employees expect leadership, and the market moves at breakneck speed. This pressure is not just external—it’s internal too. Founders are often their harshest critics. But here’s the catch: pressure reveals character. It can either sharpen you or break you.

Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola, is a case in point. The pressure to deliver on his promises to investors led him to embellish—no, outright fabricate—the capabilities of Nikola’s technology. The market was initially dazzled, but when the truth emerged, it wasn’t just Milton’s reputation that crumbled. Investors lost millions, and the company’s credibility was shattered.

Pressure can also distort priorities. Founders often start out with noble intentions, driven by a vision to make the world better. But as the stakes rise, so does the temptation to compromise. This might mean prioritizing investor demands over employee well-being or cutting ethical corners to hit a quarterly target. In my experience, the founders who fail under pressure often lack a clear set of values to guide their decisions.

I’ve seen founders crumble under similar pressure. They start cutting corners, making promises they can’t keep, and blaming others for their failures. Pressure is a test. Are you prepared to pass it, or will you let it strip away your integrity?

Blinded by Cognitive Bias

Let me be blunt: your brain is lying to you. Cognitive biases are sneaky saboteurs, distorting your perception and decision-making. Confirmation bias, for instance, makes you seek out information that supports your beliefs while ignoring evidence that contradicts them. Sound familiar?

Elizabeth Holmes also fell victim to this when she ignored repeated warnings from scientists and engineers that her technology didn’t work. She was so invested in her vision that she dismissed anything that challenged it. Elon Musk’s infamous tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 per share is another example of overconfidence, a bias that can turn brilliance into recklessness.

Another common bias is moral disengagement—the ability to rationalize unethical behavior. Martin Shkreli’s price-gouging of life-saving drugs is a textbook case. He justified his actions as “good business,” completely disregarding the human cost.

Founders, your vision is your greatest strength, but it’s also your greatest vulnerability. Surround yourself with people who challenge you. Seek out data that disproves your assumptions. If you’re not willing to question yourself, your company’s fate is already sealed.

The Seduction of Power

Power changes people. It’s a psychological fact. The more power you have, the less empathy you feel. You begin to see yourself as invincible, above the rules. Billy McFarland, the mastermind behind Fyre Festival, exemplifies this perfectly. His unchecked power allowed him to defraud investors and sell a fantasy that was doomed from the start. The result? Jail time and a cultural punchline that no founder wants to be.

Power also creates blind spots. Founders who centralize authority often miss out on crucial feedback and alternative perspectives. Adam Neumann of WeWork built a company that revolved around his vision but failed to create the checks and balances needed for sustainable growth. When his excesses caught up with him, the fallout was catastrophic.

As a founder, it’s tempting to centralize power. After all, it’s your vision, your company, your baby. But power without accountability is poison. Build systems that hold you accountable. Empower your team to challenge you. And never, ever believe your own hype.

Greed: The Original Sin

Greed isn’t just about money. It’s about the insatiable desire for more—more recognition, more control, more validation. I’ve seen founders destroy their companies because their greed blinded them to the bigger picture. Martin Shkreli’s price gouging of life-saving drugs is a textbook example. His pursuit of profit at all costs made him a pariah and landed him in prison.

Greed can manifest in subtle ways too. Maybe it’s pushing employees harder than they can handle to meet unrealistic goals. Maybe it’s ignoring ethical concerns to secure a lucrative deal. Whatever form it takes, greed erodes trust, both within your company and with the outside world.

Founders, ask yourself: What’s driving you? Is it a desire to build something meaningful, or is it greed masquerading as ambition? Be honest, because greed will never be satisfied, and it will take you down with it.

The Culture You Create

Founders set the tone for their companies. If you’re cutting corners, turning a blind eye to unethical practices, or prioritizing results over integrity, don’t be surprised when your team follows suit. Wells Fargo’s fake account scandal is a stark reminder of how toxic cultures start at the top.

In my work, I’ve seen founders who foster cultures of fear, secrecy, and favoritism. These cultures breed resentment and disengagement, making it nearly impossible to build a sustainable business. Your culture is your legacy. Make sure it’s one you can be proud of.

Creating a healthy culture requires more than platitudes. It demands transparency, fairness, and accountability. Employees need to see that ethical behavior is rewarded and that unethical actions have consequences. Without this, your culture becomes a breeding ground for dysfunction.

The Redemption of Self-Awareness

Here’s the good news: these traps are avoidable. The antidote is self-awareness. Great founders know their strengths and weaknesses. They recognize when they’re veering off course and take steps to correct it.

One founder I coached—let’s call him Jake—was a textbook case of overconfidence. His company was growing rapidly, but his micromanagement and refusal to delegate were stifling his team. When Jake finally admitted he couldn’t do it all, he brought in a COO who complemented his skill set. The company thrived.

Self-awareness isn’t just about admitting your flaws. It’s about building systems and relationships that keep you grounded. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, not yes-men who validate your worst instincts. And never stop reflecting on why you started this journey in the first place.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging and rewarding paths you can take. But it’s also a minefield of traps that can destroy everything you’ve worked for. Greed, power, and pressure are constant companions on this journey, and how you handle them will define your legacy.

The question isn’t whether you’ll face these challenges—you will. The question is whether you’ll let them control you. Will you fall into the traps that have derailed so many founders before you, or will you rise above them?

The choice is yours. But remember success without integrity is failure by another name.

Lead wisely.

10 Strategies to Sharpen Your Decision-Making Skills as a Leader

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 23:19:37 GMT

As a leader, the ability to make sound decisions is a critical skill that directly impacts your organization’s success. However, the path to effective decision-making is often complex and fraught with challenges. In this article, we explore ten powerful strategies to sharpen your decision-making skills, ensuring that you navigate your leadership role with confidence and precision. From prioritizing deliberation and embracing velocity to building a diverse team and leveraging data analytics, these techniques will empower you to make informed, strategic choices that drive your organization forward.

1. Prioritize Deliberation in Decision-Making

Decision-making is at the core of leadership, but not all decisions are created equal. Distinguish between decisions that are reversible and those that are not. Avoid impulsive decisions on those that are irreversible and need thorough deliberation, what I call “bet the company decisions.” Prioritize careful analysis for the latter to avoid catastrophic outcomes.

2. Embrace Velocity and Avoid Paralysis

While careful deliberation is vital, speed in decision-making is equally crucial. Avoid deferring decisions to the point of stagnation. Adopt a culture that supports high velocity, making quick, informed choices that keep the organization agile and competitive.

3. Develop a Robust Decision-Making Framework

Establish a systematic approach to decision-making. Use frameworks like Lean Startup, SWOT Analysis, or Decision Trees to gather information, evaluate alternatives, and choose the best course of action. A disciplined process reduces impulsiveness and enhances the quality of decisions.

4. Build a Diverse Decision-Making Team

Surround yourself with a team of experienced and knowledgeable individuals. Leverage their insights and perspectives to mitigate personal biases and enhance the decision-making process. Diverse viewpoints lead to more balanced and informed decisions.

5. Focus on Critical Priorities

Identify and focus on the most critical priorities that drive the organization’s success. Learn to say no to distractions and non-essential tasks. Concentrate your time and energy on decisions that have the most significant impact on your business.

6. Define Problems Clearly Before Acting

Spend time accurately defining the problem before jumping to solutions. A clear understanding of the issue prevents misdirected efforts and ensures that you address the root cause rather than just symptoms.

7. Visualize Successful Outcomes

Have a clear vision of what success looks like for each decision. Define specific, realistic outcomes and use this vision to guide your choices. Knowing your destination helps you chart a more precise course.

8. Leverage Data and Analytics

Make data-driven decisions by collecting relevant facts and analyzing patterns. Use data and analytics to gain insights and guide your decision-making. This objective approach helps counteract personal biases and assumptions.

9. Differentiate Between Intuition and Impulse

Learn to distinguish between intuition, which is informed by experience, and impulse, which is driven by emotion. Trust your gut when it is supported by facts and experience, but avoid letting strong emotions drive your decisions.

10. Reflect and Learn from Mistakes

Regularly review and analyze past decisions to learn from successes and failures. Conduct post-mortems or retrospectives to identify what worked and what didn’t. Use these insights to improve future decision-making processes.

By integrating these strategies into your leadership approach, you can enhance your decision-making capabilities, leading to more effective and impactful outcomes for your organization.

Winning Together: How Exceptional Leaders Build Unstoppable Teams

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 23:13:27 GMT

Try to imagine a team so finely tuned that their collaboration feels almost magical. Over the last 40 years I’ve seen a few that stunned me with their effectiveness. Deadlines were met with precision, challenges are tackled with creativity, and morale was high. These aren’t just happy accidents; they are the product of deliberate, disciplined leadership. But what is it that these exceptional leaders do differently?

To explore what made leaders great at facilitating teamwork, I looked at the leaders who were rated the highest on overall leadership effectiveness and who were also rated as outstanding in building teams. After analyzing their 360 ratings, coworker comments and personality test scopes, I discovered a fascinating pattern. Behind every high-performing team lies six key themes that define how leaders inspire trust, build connection, and foster productivity. Beneath these themes are twelve distinct personality traits and behaviors—the true underpinnings of their success. Let’s dive into what makes these leaders exceptional, how their teams thrive, and what you can take away to transform your own leadership style.

The Catalyst: Fostering Collaboration and Inclusiveness

At the heart of every great team lies a foundation of collaboration. The best leaders understand that inclusiveness is not a buzzword; it’s the lifeblood of a successful group. These leaders create an environment where everyone feels they have a voice and a stake in the team’s success. Think of it like orchestrating a symphony—each instrument unique, but all working in harmony.

One leader I worked with described it this way: “I don’t just want my team to be good at their jobs. I want them to feel good about their contributions.” And it works. When people feel included, they give their best—not because they must, but because they want to.

Inclusive leadership goes beyond meetings. These leaders actively ensure diverse perspectives are not just heard but valued. One executive shared how they intentionally sought input from junior employees, creating a reverse mentoring system to learn from younger team members. This approach not only bridged generational gaps but sparked innovative solutions.

A remarkable example came from a retail company where the CEO spent an entire week working alongside employees at every level. This not only provided invaluable insights into operations but also inspired a wave of new ideas from employees who felt truly seen and valued.

The Power of Empowerment: Developing Team Members

“Leadership isn’t about control; it’s about empowerment.” That’s the mantra of the best leaders. They don’t micromanage; they mentor. They know their job isn’t to do the work for their team but to remove barriers so their team can shine.

A leader’s ability to delegate isn’t just about trust; it’s about fostering growth. By assigning stretch tasks and providing support, they push their people to develop new skills and, in turn, confidence.

One executive I coached took this approach to heart. When a junior manager expressed interest in leading a high-stakes project, the leader’s instinct was to say, “You’re not ready yet.” Instead, they said, “Let’s prepare you.” The manager not only succeeded but went on to take on bigger roles, crediting that opportunity as a turning point.

Empowerment also requires patience. A seasoned leader shared how they once held weekly one-on-ones with an underperforming employee, not to micromanage but to provide consistent coaching. Over time, that employee became a top performer.

Empowerment isn’t just about developing individuals—it’s about creating a culture where everyone lifts each other. In one team, a leader implemented peer mentoring, pairing experienced members with newer hires. The result? Faster onboarding and a stronger sense of camaraderie.

The Core: Creating a Positive Team Culture

Culture isn’t what’s written in your mission statement; it’s what your team feels every day. Exceptional leaders understand that positivity fuels productivity. They celebrate wins, address failures with empathy, and create an environment where people feel valued.

One leader’s approach stands out. Instead of reprimanding a team member who made a costly mistake, they called a “win-learn” meeting. They asked the team to reflect on what went well despite the setback and what could be improved. It was never about blame; it was about building resilience and trust.

Positivity doesn’t mean ignoring challenges. Another leader made it a practice to end every week by asking their team, “What’s one thing that frustrated you this week, and how can we fix it?” This proactive approach addressed problems head-on while maintaining morale.

Exceptional leaders also understand the power of symbolic gestures. One executive started a tradition of hand-delivering birthday cards to every team member. This small act created a deep sense of connection and loyalty.

The Glue: Effective Communication

Communication is the thread that ties a team together. The best leaders are master communicators, ensuring everyone knows not just what to do but why it matters. They listen as much as they speak, creating a two-way street of ideas and feedback.

One leader implemented “feedback Fridays,” where team members could share thoughts—anonymously or openly—on what was working and what wasn’t. Over time, this openness became a cornerstone of the team’s success.

But effective communication goes beyond feedback. It’s also about clarity. A leader I coached used a simple tool: at the end of each meeting, they asked team members to repeat back key takeaways. This ensured alignment and minimized misunderstandings.

Leaders who excel at communication also create forums for informal interaction. One manager set up monthly coffee chats with random pairs of team members, fostering connections and breaking down silos.

The Art of Strengths: Recognizing Individual Talents

Imagine a soccer team where everyone plays goalie. Absurd, right? Yet so many leaders fail to recognize and utilize their team’s diverse strengths. Great leaders, however, are like talent scouts—always identifying who’s best at what and positioning them to succeed.

One leader I coached used a strengths matrix to map out their team’s unique abilities. Not only did this improve performance, but it also boosted morale as people felt their skills were truly valued.

Another example comes from a tech startup where the CEO reorganized teams based on personality assessments. By aligning roles with individual strengths, they saw a 30% increase in productivity.

The Inspiration: Leading by Example

Actions speak louder than words and nowhere is this truer than in leadership. The most inspiring leaders hold themselves to the same standards they expect of others. Their dedication is contagious, setting the tone for the entire team.

One leader would never ask their team to work late without rolling up their own sleeves. “If I’m asking for extra effort, they need to see I’m all in too,” they explained. The result? A team that consistently went above and beyond because they saw their leader doing the same.

Another leader shared how they publicly admitted to their mistakes. “Owning my failures shows my team that it’s safe to take risks,” they said. This humility fostered a culture of innovation and psychological safety.

The Traits That Make It All Possible

Now, let’s pull back the curtain on the nine traits that underpin these leadership themes. These traits aren’t innate; they’re cultivated. Here are a few of the most impactful:

Social Skill: Leaders build trust and rapport effortlessly. One colleague noted, “She makes you feel like your ideas and contributions matters.”
How to Develop It: Schedule regular one-on-one time with team members to understand their motivations, aspirations, and challenges. Practice active listening by asking open-ended questions and reflecting on their responses. Attend networking events or join professional groups to practice building rapport with diverse individuals.
Emotional Grounding: They remain calm under pressure. A team member once said, “He’s unshakeable, even in a crisis.”
How to Develop It: When tensions rise, pause and take a deep breath before reacting. Practice mindfulness techniques like meditation to improve emotional regulation. Seek feedback from trusted colleagues on how you handle stressful situations and work on areas for improvement.
Consistency: Reliable leaders build trust. “She consistently communicates her expectations clearly, follows through on her commitments, and ensures everyone is on the same page, which makes it easy to trust and rely on her leadership”
How to Develop it” Start small by always following through on meeting deadlines. Create a personal system for tracking commitments and set reminders to ensure you meet them. Regularly communicate progress on tasks to build trust and reliability.
Adaptability: They see change not as a threat but as an opportunity. “"She adapts to new challenges by bringing together cross-functional teams to innovate and execute with alignment."
How to Develop It: When a new challenge arises, ask, “How can we turn this into an advantage?” Shift your mindset to see obstacles as opportunities for growth and involve your team in brainstorming innovative ways to address the situation. Encourage flexibility and experimentation, fostering a culture that thrives on change and innovation.
Trusting Nature: Leaders empower others by demonstrating faith in their team’s abilities. Trust builds confidence and accountability. One leader was described as “someone who trusts you to figure it out but has your back if you need help.”
How to Develop It: Start delegating significant responsibilities to team members, allowing them autonomy while remaining available for support. Resist the urge to micromanage and instead focus on outcomes. Celebrate when team members succeed with delegated tasks.
Achievement Orientation: These leaders are driven and inspire others to reach ambitious goals. They lead with enthusiasm and pride, creating a culture of high standards and collective success. One team member noted, “Her passion for collaboration and commitment to excellence motivates everyone around her.”
How to Develop It: : Share your enthusiasm for team wins and set clear, challenging goals that energize the team. Break down larger objectives into measurable milestones and regularly track progress. Encourage a growth mindset by focusing on effort and improvement rather than just results.
Ethical Integrity: Leaders with strong moral compasses earn respect and loyalty. They foster an environment of fairness and transparency, which cultivates trust. One observation: "He is totally trustworthy and creates a very healthy team environment by leading with integrity and setting an example of fairness and respect for everyone."
How to Develop It: Consistently align decisions with your values and ensure your actions reinforce a culture of fairness. Create a personal code of ethics and refer to it when facing difficult decisions. Be transparent about your reasoning behind choices, especially when they affect the team.
Organizational Skills: Exceptional leaders bring structure and clarity to chaos. They prioritize tasks effectively and ensure their teams stay focused on what matters most. A team member highlighted, “He provides clear structure and expectations, which keeps us aligned and productive.”
How to Develop It : Implement task management software or shared project boards to clarify priorities and keep everyone aligned. Develop a system for categorizing tasks by urgency and importance. Regularly review and update your organizational systems to ensure they remain effective.
Inspirational Vision: These leaders articulate compelling goals and rally their teams around a shared purpose. They can energize and uplift even during challenging times. One person said, “He always reminds us of why our work matters, and that keeps us motivated.”
How to Develop It: Regularly communicate your vision and tie day-to-day efforts back to the bigger picture. Practice storytelling techniques to make your vision more compelling and relatable. Seek out and share examples of how the team's work is making a tangible impact.

Are You Leading Assertively, or Just Commanding Compliance?

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:47:12 GMT

Leadership is not about having all the answers, nor is it about being the loudest voice in the room. Yet, many leaders confuse authority with aggression, mistaking dominance for effectiveness. But let me ask you this: If you weren’t in charge—if your title were stripped away—would people still choose to follow you?

That’s the real test of leadership. It’s not about how many people obey your orders; it’s about how many are inspired to join you in pursuit of a shared vision. Assertiveness—when done right—creates that inspiration. It’s not forceful. It’s not loud. It’s clear, confident, and deeply rooted in respect for others.

Aggression may yield short-term results, but assertiveness builds something far more powerful: trust. So, the question isn’t just whether you’re leading; it’s how. The following blogpost summarizes what our sample of over 200 “Best Leaders” do differently.

All of our conclusions come from our proprietary research and highlights why assertiveness of one of the most important characteristics of outstanding leaders. This comes from the data folks!

1. Assertiveness Starts with Respectful Directness

The best leaders are clear about their expectations, but they’re just as clear about their respect for the people they lead. They don’t shy away from tough conversations, but they approach them with intention. Their words focus on the issue, not the person. They’re not just communicating—they’re connecting.

Clarity Without Hostility: Consider this: A leader calmly says, “This project is falling behind schedule—what do you need to get back on track?” Compare that to someone snapping, “Why isn’t this done yet?” One creates alignment; the other creates anxiety. A team member once shared about their leader, “They never leave anyone guessing, but they never make you feel small.” That’s the kind of clarity that inspires trust.
Respect for Boundaries: Assertive leaders respect the people around them. I’ve seen leaders start conversations with, “How’s your workload? Can we discuss balancing this priority with your other responsibilities?” Feedback often highlights leaders who “make requests in a way that respects others’ boundaries and capacities,” which builds mutual respect.
Proactive, Not Reactive: Leaders who practice assertiveness address problems before they escalate. I worked with one executive who often said, “Let’s address this issue now so it doesn’t become a bigger challenge later.” Their team appreciated this proactive approach, saying, “They’re always upfront, but never in a way that makes you feel blamed.”

Key Takeaway: Respectful directness means balancing clear communication with respect. It’s not about sugarcoating or avoiding tough conversations; it’s about ensuring clarity while preserving trust and dignity. The result? Stronger connections and higher accountability.

2. Assertiveness Invites Feedback and Dialogue

The strongest leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers—they’re the ones who ask the best questions. Assertiveness isn’t about dominating the conversation; it’s about creating space for dialogue. It’s about being confident enough to listen, even when the feedback is uncomfortable.

Active Listening: Assertive leaders don’t just listen to words; they listen for meaning. I’ve seen leaders paraphrase feedback like, “If I’m hearing you correctly, you’re saying we need to adjust the timeline to maintain quality. Let’s dig into that.” Team members praised this approach, saying, “They’re upfront but considerate of everyone’s perspectives.”
Encourage Constructive Debate: Great leaders understand that disagreement is a sign of engagement, not rebellion. I’ve observed leaders say, “I love that you see it differently—how can we use your perspective to strengthen our approach?” Comments described them as “transparent and open to diverse ideas,” which fostered innovation and trust.
Adapt Decision-Making: Assertive leaders are confident enough to change course when better ideas emerge. One leader I coached responded to their team’s suggestion by saying, “I hadn’t considered that—let’s pivot and incorporate it.” Feedback described them as “decisive yet flexible,” a hallmark of trust-building leadership.

Key Takeaway: Feedback and dialogue are not threats to assertiveness; they’re essential elements of it. Leaders who create space for collaboration and debate cultivate innovation and build trust through inclusion.

3. Consistency and Fairness Build Foundations of Trust

Leadership thrives on consistency. When people know what to expect from you—when your principles guide your actions—you create a foundation of trust. Assertiveness requires that your words and actions align every single time.

Fair Application of Rules: Leaders who are assertive apply standards consistently while adapting to individual circumstances. I’ve seen executives explain, “We’re making adjustments for specific challenges, but the overall goals remain the same.” Teams described them as “fair and respectful, which builds trust across the board.”
Transparency in Decision-Making: Assertiveness means being clear about the “why” behind decisions. During a restructuring, one leader told their team, “Here’s why this is necessary and how it aligns with our long-term goals.” The response? Respect and understanding. Employees appreciate leaders who “deliver tough news professionally and transparently.”
Predictability in Behavior: Consistency is calming. I’ve observed leaders who address issues promptly and fairly, earning their teams’ loyalty. One team member said, “You always know where you stand with them—it’s refreshing and builds confidence.”

Key Takeaway: Fairness and consistency are the bedrock of assertiveness. Leaders who are predictable in their principles and actions foster loyalty and trust, creating stability in their teams.

4. Emotional Intelligence: The Unsung Hero of Assertiveness

Assertive leaders know that the way you say something is just as important as what you say. Emotional intelligence allows them to navigate sensitive issues with tact and empathy, ensuring their words land with impact—not injury.

Reading the Room: Emotionally intelligent leaders observe body language and adjust accordingly. I saw one leader pause mid-discussion to address a quiet team member, saying, “You seem concerned—can we explore that?” Feedback highlighted leaders who “address issues respectfully without ignoring individual concerns.”
Empathetic Framing: When delivering difficult feedback, assertive leaders balance honesty with care. They might say, “Your effort is clear, and I think we can take it even further by focusing on X.” Team members described such leaders as “assertive but never overbearing.”
Tactful Responses: Leaders who respect their teams redirect conversations constructively. For example, one leader reframed a suggestion by saying, “That’s an interesting idea—let’s adapt it to fit our strategy.” Teams praised leaders who “separate people from issues and focus on solutions.”

Key Takeaway: Emotional intelligence transforms assertiveness into a tool for connection. By balancing honesty with empathy, leaders ensure their communication motivates rather than alienates.

5. Assertive Leaders Are Clear and Honest

Clarity is a gift. Assertive leaders ensure their teams always know where they stand and what’s expected. They eliminate guesswork, replacing it with straightforward communication and actionable feedback.

Direct Feedback: Leaders who deliver specific, actionable feedback build confidence in their teams. One executive said, “Your data presentation was solid, but let’s make the visuals more engaging next time.” Teams described these leaders as “clear, direct, and respectful.”
Transparent Expectations: Assertive leaders leave no room for ambiguity. They say things like, “Our goal is a 10% increase this quarter, and here’s how we’ll get there.” Feedback praised leaders who “provide straightforward guidance that eliminates confusion.”
Admit Mistakes: Great leaders own their mistakes, modeling accountability. One leader told their team, “I should’ve handled this better—let’s adjust and move forward.” This humility earned their team’s trust and respect.

Key Takeaway: Honesty and clarity are non-negotiable for assertive leaders. By eliminating ambiguity and owning mistakes, they build credibility and foster a culture of accountability.

6. Confidence Without Arrogance Inspires Loyalty

True confidence is quiet, steady, and inclusive. Assertive leaders inspire loyalty because they lead with competence, not arrogance. They make decisions with conviction, but they never belittle or dismiss others.

Firm, Yet Humble: Confident leaders assert their views while inviting input: “Here’s what I’m proposing—what’s your perspective?” Teams respect leaders who balance decisiveness with humility.
Focus on Collaboration: Leaders who say, “We’ll achieve this together,” foster ownership and engagement. Feedback described them as “assertive but collaborative, which strengthens team dynamics.”
Grace Under Pressure: In high-stress moments, assertive leaders remain calm and composed. One executive said, “We’ve faced bigger challenges before—we can handle this.” Their steady demeanor inspired confidence and focus within their team.
Key Takeaway: Confidence becomes arrogance when it excludes others. Assertive leaders build loyalty by combining decisiveness with humility, ensuring everyone feels empowered to contribute.

The Big Question: Are You Inspiring or Intimidating?

Aggression may push people to act, but assertiveness inspires them to excel. When you lead with respect, clarity, and confidence, you create a culture of trust and collaboration—one where people don’t just work for you; they work with you.

So, which kind of leader are you? Share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s rethink leadership together.

The Conflict That’s Killing Your Startup

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 23:26:36 GMT

It’s Monday morning, and the leadership meeting is already off the rails. Sales is frustrated with Product for delivering a “half-baked” feature. Product fires back, blaming Engineering for missing deadlines. Engineering shifts the blame to Support, claiming that they’re drowning in unresolved customer complaints. Voices are raised, tempers flare, and the founder—the supposed leader in the room—watches silently, hoping it will all blow over.

Sound familiar?

Conflict like this isn’t just a bad day at the office. It’s a cultural cancer that erodes trust, drains energy, and can tear a company apart if left unchecked. And yet, too many founders avoid addressing it. Whether it’s fear of confrontation, lack of time, or simply not knowing where to start, the result is the same: festering tensions that hurt the team and, ultimately, the business.

Here’s the truth: conflict is inevitable in startups. But how you handle it determines whether it becomes your Achilles’ heel or your secret weapon.

The Founder’s Paradox: Bold Vision, Fear of Confrontation

Founders are often fearless in the face of business challenges but retreat when faced with interpersonal disputes. This paradox is pervasive: the same people who challenge markets, disrupt industries, and battle competitors will freeze when asked to mediate a disagreement between two key team members.

One founder I worked with was described by his team as “reluctant to wade into any disagreement unless it became a full-blown crisis.” His aversion to conflict was so pronounced that, when tensions arose between his engineering and marketing teams, he simply delegated the problem to his COO. Weeks later, the COO resigned, citing exhaustion from being the company’s de facto conflict manager.

Another one of my coaching clients struggled with a toxic relationship between two senior team members. She let it fester for months, hoping they’d resolve it on their own. Instead, the situation spiraled, culminating in one of the employees quitting and taking half the team with them. The fallout from her inaction left her shaken. “I thought I was avoiding a tough conversation, but I was really creating a much bigger problem,” she admitted later.

Why do founders avoid conflict? There are three primary reasons:

Fear of Escalation: Many founders believe that addressing conflict will make things worse.
Perceived Distraction: They see interpersonal issues as secondary to the “real” work of building a business.
Emotional Avoidance: Navigating human emotions can feel uncomfortable and overwhelming.

The result? Neglect. And as any leader who has ignored conflict knows, unresolved issues don’t go away—they grow.

The Three Deadly Patterns of Founder Conflict Avoidance

Founders don’t all handle conflict the same way, but three problematic patterns emerge repeatedly:

1. Neglecting the Problem

The most common response to conflict is doing nothing at all. Many founders believe that if they ignore a problem long enough, it will solve itself. One leader let a months-long disagreement between his head of product and his CTO linger without intervention. By the time he stepped in, the two leaders were barely on speaking terms, and product development had ground to a halt.

2. Picking Sides

Some founders attempt to resolve conflicts by quickly picking a winner. While this approach may seem decisive, it often backfires. As one employee put it, “Our CEO tends to take sides in arguments, which leaves one person feeling deflated and the other emboldened. It destroys trust and discourages honest conversations in the future.”

3. Delegating Without Ownership

Other founders assume conflict resolution isn’t their job, offloading it to COOs or HR leaders. While delegation is often necessary, conflict resolution requires the founder’s involvement to set the tone and establish cultural norms. As one executive remarked, “He thinks dealing with conflict is beneath him, so it festers until someone else is forced to clean it up.”

Why Conflict Is an Opportunity in Disguise

Here’s the irony: conflict isn’t inherently bad. In fact, when managed well, it can be one of the most powerful tools for growth and innovation.

Consider the story of a startup where the sales and product teams were locked in a constant tug-of-war. Sales wanted quick fixes to address customer complaints, while Product focused on long-term innovation. The tension was palpable, with both sides blaming each other for the company’s slowing growth.

The founder, initially paralyzed by the situation, was coached to see the conflict as an opportunity rather than a threat. By bringing both teams together and facilitating a discussion about shared goals, the founder discovered that the root issue wasn’t the teams’ competing priorities but a lack of a shared product roadmap. With this clarity, the teams collaborated on a plan that balanced immediate customer needs with strategic objectives. The result? Improved morale, better alignment, and a faster path to growth.

Conflict, when reframed, becomes a lens through which hidden problems can surface. It forces teams to question assumptions, refine strategies, and align on what truly matters.

The Founder’s Framework for Conflict Resolution

Transforming conflict from a liability into an asset requires a deliberate shift in mindset and behavior. Here’s a practical framework for founders:

1. Reframe Conflict as a Catalyst

Conflict isn’t a failure—it’s a signal that something important needs attention. Instead of avoiding disagreements, lean into them as opportunities to surface new ideas and align your team.

Another founder who led a fast-growing tech company, struggled with this. His team had grown reluctant to challenge her decisions, fearing his sharp reactions. He misinterpreted their silence as agreement—until a major product launch failed. The post-mortem revealed that his team had withheld critical feedback to avoid confrontation.

Realizing his mistake, he adopted a new approach. He began framing disagreements as a chance to improve: “If we’re all nodding in a meeting, it means we’re missing something. Let’s challenge each other to find the best solution.” This mindset shift transformed his team’s culture, making debates more constructive and decisions more robust.

2. Address the Root Cause

Most conflicts are symptoms of deeper issues. A disagreement about deadlines may actually be about misaligned priorities. A clash between department heads might stem from unclear roles or resource disparities.

One founder dealt with recurring tension between his product and sales teams. At first, it seemed like a straightforward dispute about feature delivery timelines. But through structured conversations, he uncovered a deeper issue: the lack of a shared roadmap. By addressing this root cause, he not only resolved the immediate conflict but also prevented similar issues from arising in the future.

Ask yourself: What’s really driving this conflict? Digging deeper often reveals systemic problems that, once addressed, can strengthen the entire organization.

3. Create a Safe Space for Disagreement

Psychological safety—the belief that it’s safe to speak up without fear of punishment—is the foundation of effective conflict resolution. Without it, conflicts either escalate into personal attacks or remain hidden until they explode.

Another coaching client learned this the hard way. His team had developed a culture of silent resentment, with employees avoiding tough conversations for fear of reprisal. With coaching, he implemented ground rules for meetings, such as:

Encouraging dissenting opinions with phrases like, “I’d love to hear why you disagree.”
Prohibiting interruptions during discussions.
Validating emotions while keeping the focus on solutions.

These small changes created an environment where disagreements were seen as a natural and necessary part of collaboration.

4. Follow Through

Conflict resolution doesn’t end with a handshake. Lingering emotions and doubts can undermine even the best agreements. Following up ensures that resolutions stick and builds trust over time.

Another client who founded a SaaS company, had a habit of declaring conflicts “resolved” and moving on. His team often felt otherwise, citing unresolved tensions that resurfaced later. By implementing a simple follow-up process checking in with both sides a week after each resolution—He began building a culture of accountability and trust.

The Ripple Effect of Better Conflict Management

When founders embrace conflict resolution, the benefits ripple through the entire organization. Teams become more cohesive, decision-making improves, and the company culture shifts from avoidance to accountability. But the impact goes beyond business metrics, it transforms the founder as well.

As one leader reflected, “I used to see conflict as a distraction. Now I see it as a chance to strengthen our team and refine our vision.”

Your Call to Action

Conflict is inevitable, but how you handle it is a choice. Will you avoid it, letting it fester and grow? Or will you face it head-on, turning it into a source of growth and innovation?

This week, take one step toward better conflict resolution:

Facilitate an open dialogue in your next team meeting.
Check in with an employee about a tension you’ve been avoiding.
Reflect on your own approach to conflict—are you neglecting, picking sides, or delegating without ownership?

The choice to embrace conflict isn’t easy, but it’s the mark of a true leader. And in the high-stakes world of startups, it’s a skill you can’t afford to ignore.

Transitioning Your Leadership from Seed to Scale: The Founder’s Growth Playbook

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:55:31 GMT

There’s a reason why founders are revered as the beating heart of their startups. Your creativity, vision, and grit are what bring the impossible to life. But let’s be real—your quirks and blind spots? Those can just as easily become the cracks that bring everything crashing down.

As someone who’s studied, coached, and analyzed hundreds of founders, I’ve noticed a pattern. Certain personality traits that serve you beautifully in one stage of growth can utterly sabotage you in the next. It’s like you’re building the rocket while flying it, and some of the bolts (your tendencies) keep loosening along the way.

So, let’s do some introspection. How do your strengths and weaknesses as a founder shape the trajectory of your startup through the seed stage, the traction stage, and the fast-growth stage? And more importantly—what can you do about it? Let’s dive in.

Seed Stage: The Wild West of Startups

Where the Chaos Begins

The seed stage is where you, the founder, shine. It’s about taking your big, bold idea and turning it into something tangible—a minimum viable product (MVP). You’re fueled by creativity, adaptability, and risk-taking, which makes you the perfect pioneer for this uncharted territory.

But here’s the catch: the same traits that make you a visionary can also make you a bit of a loose cannon.

What You Need to Do:

Talk to Customers (No, Really): Are you intellectually curious? Great. Use it to dig into what your customers actually want—not what you think they want. The startup graveyard is littered with the corpses of products that nobody needed.
Iterate Quickly: Your adaptability is a gift—lean into it. Test your assumptions, pivot when necessary, and don’t let perfectionism slow you down. (Yes, we know you want your MVP to “wow,” but nobody expects a Picasso in Version 1.0.)
Build a Nimble Team: Your charm and vision can attract talented people who want to join your mission. But be careful not to micromanage these early hires. Generalists thrive in this stage; just give them the space to do their thing.

Where Founders Go Off the Rails:

Overbuilding: Are you getting lost in complexity? Stop adding features nobody asked for and launch the dang thing.
Ignoring Feedback: If your independent streak is whispering, “I know better,” pause. Arrogance has no place in customer discovery.
Misallocating Resources: Sure, a sleek office might feel like success, but if you’re blowing cash on branding while your MVP is still duct-taped together, you’re doing it wrong.

Provocative Question:

How often do you really listen to customers versus listening to your own brilliant ideas? Be honest.

Traction Stage: Scaling the Engine

Now the Fun Begins

You’ve found some traction. Customers like what you’re selling (yay!), and now it’s time to scale. This stage is all about systems, processes, and data—words that can strike terror into the hearts of visionary founders.

What You Need to Do:

Focus on Metrics: Are you tracking retention, revenue, and other KPIs? If not, start yesterday. Your big-picture thinking is great, but now it’s time to get granular.
Expand the Team: This is when you need specialists. Let’s face it, you’re not great at everything (and that’s okay). Hire people who are better than you at execution and let them shine.
Refine the Product: The MVP is evolving. Listen to your customers (yes, again) and improve it. Cut what isn’t working, even if you love it.
Build the Brand: Use your charisma and social savvy to tell the world why your product matters. Just make sure you’re delivering on those promises.

Where Founders Go Off the Rails:

Micromanaging: If you’re charming but commanding, here’s a truth bomb: you might be the bottleneck. Delegation isn’t a dirty word; it’s your ticket to scalability.
Premature Scaling: Are you hiring like crazy or expanding markets too soon? Slow down, tiger. Scaling chaos is a real thing.
Avoiding Accountability: Struggling to hold people accountable? Your team sees it, and they’re frustrated. Don’t let this fester.
Poor Market Positioning: Visionaries sometimes forget that clarity sells. If customers don’t “get” your value proposition, they won’t buy.

Provocative Question Alert:

Are you micromanaging because you don’t trust your team—or because you don’t trust yourself to let go?

Fast Growth Stage: Scaling the Organization

Welcome to the Big Leagues

This is where your startup either becomes a rocket ship or implodes from its own momentum. Fast growth is exhilarating, but it’s also the stage where founders most often become the biggest problem. Why? Because the skills that got you here won’t get you there.

What You Need to Do:

Operationalize Growth: Your charming, scrappy, “figure-it-out” culture won’t scale without systems. Invest in hiring processes, customer support frameworks, and financial controls.
Invest in Leadership: You can’t do it all, and you shouldn’t try. Bring in seasoned executives who know how to handle complexity. Empower them, don’t overshadow them.
Evolve the Culture: Your early team loved the chaos; your new team needs structure. Create a culture that balances speed with sustainability.
Think Strategically: Stop fighting fires and start thinking long-term. What partnerships, markets, or innovations will keep you competitive?

Where Founders Go Off the Rails:

Founder’s Syndrome: Let’s be blunt—if you’re struggling to let go of control, you’re the problem. Stop second-guessing your leadership team.
Leadership Gaps: Are you hiring strong managers? If not, your teams will flounder. Weak leadership is a recipe for dysfunction.
Operational Chaos: Scaling without systems is like building a skyscraper on sand. Get your house in order.
Burnout and Retention Issues: If your team is burning out because you’re pushing too hard, you’re running a sprint when you should be running a marathon.
Strategic Drift: Are you chasing shiny objects instead of staying focused? Your team needs clarity, not a thousand half-baked ideas.

Provocative Question Alert:

Are you holding onto control because you think no one else can do it—or because letting go scares the hell out of you?

So, What’s the Takeaway?

Here’s the hard truth: you are your startup’s greatest asset, but you’re also its most dangerous liability. Your strengths as a visionary, risk-taker, and pioneer are what make your startup possible. But if you’re not careful, your weaknesses—disorganization, micromanagement, avoidance of conflict—will eventually hold it back.

Every stage of growth demands a different version of you. The scrappy hustler who dominated the seed stage might become a bottleneck in fast growth. The big-picture thinker who thrived in traction might struggle with the discipline of systems. Your ability to adapt, delegate, and evolve as a leader will determine whether your startup scales—or stalls.

Let’s Debate:

What’s the one personality trait you think holds most founders back?
What’s harder: building a great product or building a great team?
Are founders born or made?

Drop your thoughts in the comments—I can’t wait to hear your stories, arguments, and maybe a few war stories from the trenches.

And remember, growth isn’t just about your startup. It’s about you. Are you ready to evolve?

Extraordinary Results Decoded: Why Leader Behavior and Personality Matter

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:11:03 GMT

Leadership advice is everywhere—seminars, books, podcasts, your neighbor who thinks their PTA experience is transferable to running a Fortune 500 company. But what really separates leaders who get results from those who just "lead" meetings that could’ve been emails? Let’s dig into the principles that drive real productivity and results, complete with actionable insights and (only) business examples to keep this interesting. These insights come from a detailed analysis of personality, 360 ratings and stakeholder comments on leaders who were rated high on overall leadership effectiveness, who were also rated high on results and productivity.

1. Commitment and Determination: Not Just Buzzwords

Ever notice how some leaders seem to have an unshakeable determination to achieve their goals? They’re the ones who inspire their teams by being the first to roll up their sleeves (figuratively or literally) and wade into the mess of challenges. This isn’t about looking busy—it’s about showing you’re all in.

Commitment is contagious. When a leader stays laser-focused on a goal, the team feels compelled to match that intensity. Productivity skyrockets because distractions get the cold shoulder.

Example: Howard Schultz, when returning to Starbucks, didn’t just point fingers at what was wrong. He got in the trenches, closing stores for barista training and reminding everyone that Starbucks wasn’t just selling coffee—it was selling an experience. That level of focus transformed the company’s trajectory.

2. Clear Objectives and Follow-Through: Be the Human GPS

You know what makes people unproductive? Confusion. Ambiguous goals are like bad Wi-Fi—everyone flounders, and nothing gets done. Great leaders set crystal-clear objectives and then (here’s the kicker) follow through. It’s not glamorous, but it works.

Clear goals save time. Teams spend less energy figuring out what’s important and more energy doing it. Follow-through adds credibility, turning promises into results.

Example: Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo had a knack for setting bold goals, like pivoting the company toward healthier products without alienating Dorito lovers. By clearly defining the “how” behind her vision and checking progress relentlessly, she reshaped the brand for long-term success.

3. Empowerment and Delegation: The Anti-Micromanager Approach

Look, no one thrives under a leader who hovers like a helicopter parent over a science fair project. Delegation isn’t about handing off grunt work; it’s about giving people ownership of something meaningful and trusting them not to tank it.

When team members feel ownership, they take initiative. Empowered employees innovate, problem-solve, and—here’s the magic—free up the leader to focus on bigger fish.

Example: Anne Mulcahy took over Xerox when it was flirting with bankruptcy. Instead of hoarding decisions, she empowered her team to tackle specific challenges, creating a collective sense of responsibility that saved the company.

4. Emotional Intelligence and Integrity: No One Follows a Jerk

If you think “emotional intelligence” sounds soft, think again. EQ is the grease that keeps the wheels of leadership turning smoothly. Throw in integrity, and you’ve got a combo that builds trust and keeps drama out of the workplace.

Teams work harder for leaders they respect and trust. A leader who can read the room—and themselves—is less likely to create friction and more likely to inspire collaboration.

Example: Mary Barra of General Motors transformed a culture once notorious for finger-pointing by leaning heavily on transparency and integrity. When the ignition-switch crisis hit, she didn’t dodge responsibility; she owned it, winning back trust from both her employees and the public.

5. Adaptability and Problem-Solving: The MacGyvers of Business

If you’re waiting for the world to hand you a perfectly paved path to success, you’re in the wrong game. Great leaders adapt, pivot, and occasionally duct-tape things together while figuring out a better solution.

Adaptability keeps momentum going when the unexpected hits. Problem-solving leaders ensure teams don’t grind to a halt at the first sign of trouble.

Example: Alan Mulally took the wheel at Ford when it was careening toward disaster. Instead of panicking, he streamlined operations, kept his cool, and introduced solutions that helped Ford avoid a government bailout. Adaptability, for the win.

6. Building a Cohesive Team: Herding Cats with Grace

The best leaders don’t just manage teams; they build them. Creating a cohesive unit is part science (understanding group dynamics) and part art (knowing how to handle Frank from accounting without losing your cool).

Cohesive teams communicate better, collaborate more effectively, and waste less time. It’s like oiling the gears of a machine—everything runs smoother.

Example: Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, built not just a business but a tribe. By creating a workplace culture that emphasized shared values and collaboration, he ensured employees were as passionate about the mission as he was.

7. Efficiency and Time Management: Stop Wasting Everyone’s Time

Ever sit through a meeting and wonder why you’re there? Efficient leaders don’t let that happen. They prioritize ruthlessly, focus on what moves the needle, and cut the fluff.

Efficiency keeps teams focused on high-impact work. Productivity goes up because time isn’t squandered on things that don’t matter.

Example: Tim Cook at Apple is a master of operational efficiency, streamlining processes to keep the company’s massive machine running smoothly while fostering relentless innovation.

8. Innovation and Creativity: Cultivating the “Aha” Moments

Being innovative isn’t about having one great idea; it’s about creating an environment where ideas can flourish. The best leaders set the stage for innovation by encouraging experimentation—even if it means embracing a little failure.

Innovation drives growth and keeps teams engaged. Leaders who champion creativity unlock potential breakthroughs that competitors only dream of.

Example: Sheryl Sandberg helped Facebook move beyond its college-centric roots by championing new revenue models, including its now-massive advertising platform.

9. Communication and Influence: Less “Blah,” More “Aha”

Ever been inspired by a boring PowerPoint? Me neither. Great leaders know that communication isn’t just about relaying information—it’s about creating connection and buy-in.

Effective communication aligns teams, reduces misunderstandings, and builds enthusiasm. Influence makes people want to follow you, not just because they have to.

Example: Oprah Winfrey built a media empire by connecting with audiences and employees alike. Her ability to inspire trust and enthusiasm was foundational to her success.

10. Resilience and Positivity: Keeping Calm in the Chaos

If you think resilience is just a personal virtue, think again. It’s a productivity booster. Teams mirror their leaders, so when the leader keeps their cool and focuses on solutions, the team does the same.

Resilience keeps teams steady during turbulence, while positivity keeps them motivated to keep pushing forward.

Example: Howard Schultz (yes, him again) didn’t just bring coffee to America; he brought optimism to a struggling Starbucks. His resilience and ability to inspire helped the brand thrive during tough times.

Conclusion

Leadership isn’t about checking boxes; it’s about creating an environment where people want to excel. When you combine focus, adaptability, empathy, and a little humor, you not only drive results—you make people glad to follow you. So, go on. Be the kind of leader people tell stories about—not the one they roll their eyes at during happy hour.

The Hidden Dangers of Startup Leadership: 10 Founder Traits That Undermine Growth

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 15:47:59 GMT

Startups might be thrilling, but the cold truth is that most of them fail—and it’s often the founders themselves who unknowingly set the stage for collapse. After over 40 years of coaching founders and conducting extensive research on the financial outcomes of 122 startups, I’ve come to a sobering conclusion: the traits that drive founders to launch and grow companies are often the same traits that cause them to sabotage their own success. My research, I looked at over 50 personality traits and 46 leadership competencies on 360 ratings and then looked at financial performance as measured by MOIC (Multiple of Invested Capital). This revealed a stark truth—founder behavior can either drive extraordinary returns or lead to catastrophic failure.

But here’s the thing: the damage goes far beyond financial results. When a founder struggles with certain destructive traits, it’s not just the investors who feel the impact—employees, customers, partners, and the broader community all suffer. These self-sabotaging behaviors ripple outward, slowly eroding the business from within. The tension between a founder’s strengths and their weaknesses can make or break the company, impacting every stakeholder who depends on its success.

If you’re a founder, employee, investor, or someone with a stake in a growing company, this isn’t just about making the numbers work. It’s about building a business that sustains growth and positively impacts everyone involved. But when founders don’t get out of their own way, the fallout can be widespread and irreversible. The following are 10 common traits among founders that can fuel early success but eventually limit a startup’s ability to scale—and even worse, lead to failure and cause deep, personal costs for everyone.

1. Impulsivity: The Fast Lane to Team Burnout and Customer Confusion

In the startup world, agility is a prized quality. Founders often pride themselves on being quick to seize opportunities and pivot. But when impulsivity takes over—when every new idea becomes a priority without careful consideration—the entire company can lose its focus.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees feel the brunt of impulsive decisions. Constantly shifting priorities lead to burnout as they struggle to keep up with the latest direction. Customers get confused when the product or service changes frequently, leading to dissatisfaction and lost trust. Investors, of course, see wasted resources and a lack of focus, which directly affects returns.

What’s the Fix? Before jumping into a new idea, create a system of checks. Implement a "cooling-off" period where you evaluate whether the new initiative aligns with long-term goals. Use a trusted advisory group or senior team members to review the impact of each decision, ensuring it benefits the company as a whole before it derails the team’s focus.

2. Control Freak Tendencies: Creating a Founder Bottleneck That Frustrates Everyone

Founders who feel the need to oversee every decision often create a culture where nothing moves without their approval. This might work in the early days when a founder can handle everything, but as the company grows, micromanagement becomes a major issue.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees feel disempowered and stifled by a lack of autonomy. Talented team members often leave because they don’t feel trusted or valued. Customers may experience delays in product releases or service because decisions are constantly bottlenecked at the founder level. Investors see a business that can’t scale because the founder refuses to let go.

What’s the Fix? Start delegating, even with small tasks. Build a leadership structure that allows for independent decision-making and set clear guidelines for who’s responsible for what. Trust your team’s ability to execute without you hovering over every detail. Allow leaders to grow within the company by empowering them to make key decisions.

3. Poor Conflict Resolution: Poisoning Team Culture and Alienating Customers

Conflict is inevitable in any startup, but how it’s handled can make or break the company. Some founders avoid conflict at all costs, allowing tensions to fester, while others react aggressively, shutting down any constructive dialogue.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees feel unsafe in an environment where conflicts are mishandled or ignored, leading to low morale and high turnover. Customers may pick up on these internal tensions, especially if they lead to poor service or inconsistent products. Partners and suppliers may hesitate to work with a company known for a toxic internal culture, hurting growth opportunities. Investors lose confidence when they see leadership incapable of fostering healthy team dynamics.

What’s the Fix? Commit to learning conflict resolution techniques, whether through training or coaching. Build a culture where feedback is encouraged, and disagreements are resolved constructively. Model healthy conflict resolution by addressing issues head-on rather than avoiding them and ensure that your leadership team follows suit.

4. Narcissism and Arrogance: Alienating Everyone Who Helps You Succeed

It’s no secret that many founders are confident to the point of arrogance. While a strong belief in your vision is critical, being dismissive of others’ input or assuming that you’re always the smartest person in the room can severely damage your relationships.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees quickly become disengaged when their insights are ignored, especially if they feel their contributions are undervalued. This leads to poor team morale and high turnover. Customers suffer when a founder’s arrogance blinds them to market feedback, resulting in products that miss the mark. Partners and industry peers may avoid collaborating with an overly arrogant leader, limiting growth opportunities. Investors shy away from founders who think they know it all, as this attitude often blocks learning and adaptability.

What’s the Fix? Practice humility and active listening. Regularly seek input from your team and advisors, and take it seriously. Surround yourself with people who will challenge your assumptions. Show your team that their ideas matter by acknowledging their contributions and acting on their insights when appropriate.

5. Fear of Letting Go: Stifling Growth and Talent Development

Many founders are driven by a fear that if they hand off responsibilities, things will fall apart. This fear can manifest as micromanagement or an inability to delegate, which suffocates the company’s ability to grow.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees feel micromanaged and become frustrated with their lack of autonomy and growth opportunities. The company becomes reliant on the founder for every major decision, limiting the development of a capable leadership team. Customers may experience slower responses or delays as the founder juggles too many tasks. Investors recognize that without delegation, scaling is impossible, limiting their return on investment.

What’s the Fix? Shift your mindset from "doing" to "leading." Identify key people who can take on leadership roles, and mentor them to handle responsibilities. Let them lead without constantly stepping in. Trust your systems and your people, and focus on long-term strategy rather than day-to-day operations.

6. Lack of Focus: Disorienting the Team and Confusing the Market

Founders are often idea generators, which can be a blessing and a curse. A lack of focus, however, means constantly shifting goals and priorities. While new ideas might seem exciting, without a clear direction, the company can lose its way.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees become overwhelmed when priorities change too often, leading to confusion and burnout. The market may struggle to understand what your company actually does if messaging and product offerings change frequently. Customers may lose faith in your company’s consistency. Investors notice a lack of discipline and focus, which signals an inability to scale.

What’s the Fix? Implement a clear framework for setting priorities. Use methods like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to keep the team aligned on specific, measurable goals. Before launching new initiatives, ensure they fit into the broader strategy. Communicate these priorities clearly and often to avoid confusion.

7. Inability to Handle Stress: Creating a Toxic Culture That Affects Everyone

Running a startup is inherently stressful, but founders who don’t manage stress well often create a tense, high-pressure work environment that trickles down to the entire organization.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees feel constantly stressed and burned out in a high-pressure culture, leading to high turnover and low productivity. A stressed-out founder may make poor decisions, which can damage customer relationships and erode trust in the company. Investors worry about leadership sustainability when they see a founder on the edge of burnout.

What’s the Fix? Prioritize stress management by setting clear work-life boundaries for yourself and your team. Adopt stress-reduction practices like meditation or regular exercise. Build a leadership team that shares responsibilities to reduce the pressure on any one person. Ensure that your company culture supports balance and well-being, not just hustle.

8. Inconsistent Trust in Others: Undermining Team Cohesion

Some founders trust only a select few within their organization, which leads to unequal power dynamics. The inner circle gets more responsibility, while others are left feeling sidelined.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees who aren’t part of the “trusted few” become disengaged, feeling that they don’t have a real stake in the company’s success. This lack of trust stifles innovation and collaboration, preventing the company from reaching its full potential. Customers may sense instability or inconsistency in service when decision-making is bottlenecked among a select few. Investors recognize that an over-reliance on a small inner circle can limit scalability and sustainability.

What’s the Fix? Build trust across the organization by empowering a broader group of employees to make decisions. Create a culture of transparency, where responsibilities are clearly defined and trust is distributed evenly. Encourage collaboration between teams and leaders at all levels.

9. Avoiding Accountability: Fostering a Culture of Mediocrity

Founders who blur the lines between friendship and leadership often struggle with accountability. They may avoid holding themselves or others responsible for underperformance, which creates a culture where mediocrity thrives.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees become demotivated when they see underperformance go unchecked, leading to inconsistent results and low morale. A lack of accountability hurts customer experience, as sloppy work or poor service isn’t corrected. Investors are alarmed when they see a lack of discipline, which suggests that the company won’t meet its targets.

What’s the Fix? Implement clear performance metrics for yourself and your team and hold regular reviews to ensure accountability. Address underperformance head-on and create systems for recognizing and rewarding excellence. This helps to maintain a high standard across the board.

10. Poor Emotional Intelligence: Driving a Wedge Between Leadership and Teams

Founders who lack emotional intelligence (EQ) struggle to connect with their teams. They may be brilliant strategists, but if they don’t understand or manage their own emotions—or those of others—they’ll struggle to lead effectively.

Stakeholder Impact: Employees disengage in environments where they feel misunderstood or undervalued. This leads to low morale, poor communication, and high turnover. Customers suffer when the lack of emotional intelligence leads to bad decisions or poor handling of complaints. Investors know that a company with poor internal dynamics will struggle to execute effectively and grow.

What’s the Fix? Invest in developing your emotional intelligence by working with a coach or taking EQ training. Practice active listening and empathy with your team. Regularly check in with employees not just on performance, but also on well-being. Creating strong emotional connections within your team builds trust and fosters a positive work culture.

Conclusion: Founders, It’s Not Just About You

It’s easy to focus on numbers when running a startup, but success is about more than revenue or valuation. It’s about how well you lead, and leadership is a skill that can make or break the experience for everyone involved—employees, customers, partners, and investors alike. The traits that make you a scrappy, bold founder might also be the very traits that sabotage your company’s long-term success.

Recognize these behaviors in yourself? Good. That’s the first step to addressing them. Whether it’s learning to delegate, developing emotional intelligence, or managing stress, improving yourself as a leader will ripple out to everyone who’s counting on your company to succeed.

You owe it to your employees, your customers, your investors—and ultimately, to yourself—to be the best leader you can be. The stakes are high, and the consequences of self-sabotage can be devastating. But with the right self-awareness and action, you can turn things around and lead your company to success that benefits everyone.

The Alchemy of a Founder: Their Unique Blend of Traits Makes Them Startup Leaders

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 15:47:18 GMT

If you’ve ever met a founder—or better yet, spent time trying to understand what drives them—you’ll notice something right away: they’re wired differently. Founders think, act, and lead in ways that set them apart from the rest of us. They’re creative, fiercely independent, adaptable, and never afraid to challenge the status quo. These aren’t just personality quirks; they’re the traits that make founders uniquely suited to lead startups through the chaos and uncertainty of building something new.

Over the years, I’ve worked with and studied 122 founders. Through personality assessments, interviews, and 360-degree reviews, I’ve uncovered patterns that explain what makes these individuals tick. What I’ve learned is that their success isn’t just about being good at one thing—it’s about how a constellation of traits comes together to create something extraordinary.

Let’s explore what makes founders so different, and why their unique blend of traits is perfectly suited to turning bold ideas into reality.

1. Creativity: The Spark That Lights the Fire

Founders are, above all else, creators. Their creativity isn’t limited to brainstorming product ideas or designing clever logos—it runs much deeper. It’s about how they see the world and solve problems. Founders are experts at divergent thinking, which is the ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem. Unlike most people, who might look for the “right” answer, founders explore every possibility, often discovering connections that others miss.

One founder I worked with described his process as “building a puzzle with pieces no one else knows exist.” He didn’t just see gaps in the market—he saw opportunities to redefine the rules entirely. This is how founders come up with ideas that feel inevitable in hindsight but revolutionary in the moment. Think of how Airbnb reimagined travel or how a small fintech founder rethought home mortgages by asking, “Why does this process still feel like it’s stuck in the 1980s?”

This creativity doesn’t just happen in isolation. Founders draw inspiration from everywhere—other industries, conversations with customers, even random insights while taking a walk. They’re constantly feeding their minds, which is why their ideas often seem larger-than-life.

But creativity can also be a curse. Many founders struggle with what I call “idea overload.” They generate so many concepts that it’s hard for their teams to keep up. One founder I studied was described by his team as an “idea machine who never turns off.” While this made him a visionary, it also led to frustration when priorities shifted too frequently. The best founders learn to harness their creativity by building systems that help them filter and focus their ideas.

2. External Focus: Tuning into the World Around Them

Founders are often hyper-aware of what’s happening outside their companies. They’re not just focused on their own products or teams—they’re scanning the horizon for trends, customer feedback, competitor moves, and industry shifts. This external focus is one of their most powerful tools, helping them spot opportunities and adapt before it’s too late.

In my research, I found that many successful founders make a habit of gathering insights directly from the world around them. One founder regularly sat in cafes and struck up conversations with potential customers, asking about their frustrations and dreams. Another spent many hours reading obscure industry reports, looking for trends others hadn’t noticed yet. These habits helped them stay ahead of the curve, turning raw observations into actionable insights.

This outward-facing mindset also makes founders excellent at connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated things. One founder noticed that social media influencers were starting to dominate consumer attention and thought, “What if we built a product that turned influencers into brand ambassadors?” That insight led to a company now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But there’s a downside to being so externally focused. Founders can sometimes get distracted by shiny trends or conflicting advice. The key is knowing what to filter out and what to act on. The best founders use their external focus not as a distraction, but as a compass, helping them steer their companies in the right direction.

3. Adaptability: Rolling with the Punches

Starting a company is messy. Plans fail, markets shift, competitors emerge, and funding dries up. What separates founders who thrive from those who flounder is their adaptability—their ability to pivot, experiment, and learn from failure.

One founder in my research showed this adaptability in action during the early days of the pandemic. His business, which relied on in-person events, saw revenue plummet overnight. Instead of panicking, he quickly pivoted to virtual events, redesigning his entire business model in a matter of weeks. That ability to embrace change saved the company and even opened up new opportunities he hadn’t considered before.

This kind of flexibility doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but it’s second nature to most founders. They’re comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, and they see every challenge as an opportunity to iterate and improve. In psychology, this mindset is often linked to a trait called “tolerance for ambiguity,” which describes how well someone can function in uncertain or unpredictable environments.

However, adaptability has its limits. Founders who change course too often risk creating confusion and instability. One founder I studied was so quick to pivot that his team joked they should call him “Captain Whiplash.” The lesson here? Adaptability is a superpower, but it needs to be paired with focus and consistency to be effective.

4. Challenging the Status Quo: Rebels with a Vision

Founders don’t just accept the world as it is—they challenge it. They see rules, norms, and conventions as opportunities to innovate. This rebellious streak is often what pushes them to start companies in the first place.

One founder in my research built her business around a simple question: “Why hasn’t this been done differently?” She wasn’t content to accept the inefficiencies and frustrations of her industry. Instead, she set out to create something better, rallying her team and customers around a vision of what could be.

This ability to challenge the status quo isn’t just about being contrarian. It’s about seeing possibilities that others can’t—or won’t—imagine. Founders don’t break rules for the sake of it; they do it because they believe there’s a better way.

But being a rebel isn’t always easy. Founders who constantly push for change can sometimes overwhelm their teams or struggle to gain buy-in. The best leaders know how to channel their disruptive energy in ways that inspire, rather than alienate, those around them.

5. Independence and Nonconformity: Marching to Their Own Beat

If there’s one thing most founders have in common, it’s their fierce independence. They’re not the type to wait for permission or follow someone else’s playbook. Instead, they carve their own paths, often defying expectations along the way.

This independence is closely tied to their nonconformity. Founders aren’t afraid to stand out, think differently, or challenge authority. They bristle at bureaucracy and reject anything that feels too rigid or confining. For them, starting a company isn’t just about building a business—it’s about creating a world where they can thrive on their own terms.

This independent streak can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gives founders the courage to take risks and pursue bold ideas. On the other hand, it can make them difficult to work with. One founder I studied was so resistant to collaboration that his team described him as “a lone wolf who refuses to run with the pack.” Over time, he learned to balance his independence with a willingness to listen and delegate, transforming his leadership style in the process.

6. The Alchemy of Traits: Where the Magic Happens

What makes founders truly extraordinary isn’t any one trait—it’s the combination. Their creativity drives their vision. Their external focus keeps them grounded in reality. Their adaptability helps them navigate challenges, and their willingness to challenge the status quo pushes them to innovate. Independence gives them the grit to pursue their ideas, even in the face of doubt.

But here’s the real magic: these traits don’t exist in isolation. They interact in complex ways, creating a leadership style perfectly suited for the chaos and uncertainty of startups. For example, a founder’s creativity might fuel their adaptability, helping them come up with new solutions when things go wrong. Their independence might complement their rebellious streak, giving them the confidence to challenge norms and take bold risks.

The result is a leader who isn’t just capable of starting a company, but of leading it through the ups and downs of growth, competition, and change.

A Few Final Thoughts

The founders I’ve studied are far from perfect. Their traits can sometimes cause friction, and their leadership styles aren’t always easy to work with. But it’s precisely their quirks, contradictions, and complexities that make them who they are. They’re dreamers, doers, and disruptors. And in a world that often rewards conformity, they remind us of the power of thinking differently.

So, if you’re an aspiring founder—or just someone looking to lead with more creativity and boldness—embrace your unique blend of traits. Lean into your creativity. Stay tuned to the world around you. Adapt when you need to. Challenge assumptions. And most importantly, don’t be afraid to march to your own beat. After all, the best ideas often come from the people who refuse to fit the mold.

How Best Leaders Make Great Decisions: The Real Art of Judgment Beyond the Myths

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:21:59 GMT

Leadership is often framed as an innate skill—a natural “gift” of foresight and intuition. But here’s the first myth we’ll debunk: great decision-making isn’t magic. One of my early mentors gave me the following feedback, “Rich, sometimes you treat a wisp of inspiration as if it were a four-lane highway. It’s not that you shouldn’t trust your intuition, you just need to validate it.” This is what I’ve learned since then. Through extensive research on personality and 360 ratings of behavior on nearly 2,000 executives from diverse industries worldwide, I’ve learned that strong decision-making is a disciplined approach to judgment that distinguishes top leaders from the rest. These leaders don’t fall for quick fixes or rely on intuition alone; they build their decision-making skill through a blend of analysis, emotional intelligence, and strategic insight. Let’s explore what our research reveals about how great leaders make great decisions, challenging some pervasive myths in the process.

Myth #1: Leaders Are Born with a ‘Gut’ for Good Decisions

Many people picture a strong leader as someone who acts swiftly, relying on an almost mystical gut instinct. But from our research, it’s clear that while intuition has a role, exceptional leaders don’t lean solely on their gut. They’re analytical, dissecting problems and identifying root causes. They avoid knee-jerk reactions and use data and context as their foundation. Our findings show that leaders who rate high in analytical skills and problem identification are able to make consistently better decisions, thanks to their ability to weigh diverse inputs and arrive at well-considered conclusions.

Practical Takeaway:

Before making a quick decision, ask if it’s really grounded in analysis or just a reflex. The best leaders in our study clarify problems, consider multiple perspectives, and evaluate risk. This balanced approach—where intuition complements, rather than overrides, analysis—ensures more sound and strategic decisions.

Myth #2: Strategic Vision Means Focusing Only on the Big Picture

“See the forest, not the trees.” Sounds inspiring, right? But it’s also incomplete. In reality, great leaders don’t overlook details—they take a “zoom in, zoom out” approach to strategy. According to our research, the best leaders combine big picture thinking with a precise grasp of details, enabling them to adapt to short-term needs while aligning with long-term goals. These leaders balance the forest with the trees, recognizing that both perspectives are crucial for sound judgment in complex environments.

Practical Takeaway:

When facing a decision, don’t just go with what looks right from a high level. Drill down into specifics and examine how each choice supports your goals, now and in the future. The best leaders, as our research shows, have honed the ability to navigate both the telescope and the microscope.

Myth #3: Real Leaders Are Decisive and Unwavering

Sure, decisiveness is important. But our research underscores that the best leaders aren’t just fast—they’re deliberate. These executives make a thoughtful choice between action and patience, recognizing that impulsivity can backfire. Decisiveness isn’t about rushing; it’s about timing. Leaders who consistently rated high in follow-through also demonstrated this deliberation—when they act, they ensure their decision is fully executed, with a strong sense of timing and purpose.

Practical Takeaway:

Avoid making decisions purely for the sake of speed. Reflect on whether a pause for more data or a moment of careful thought will yield a better choice. Our findings reveal that the most effective leaders don’t view deliberation as hesitation but as essential preparation.

Myth #4: Good Leaders Always Follow Their Convictions

Leaders are often depicted as unbending in their beliefs. But our research reveals that top-performing leaders exhibit cognitive flexibility—they know when to adapt their thinking. Leaders who resist change or rigidly adhere to their convictions miss out on opportunities to pivot and adjust as new information emerges. The best leaders in our study are adaptable, unafraid to revise their strategies, and more likely to succeed in dynamic, complex environments.

Practical Takeaway:

When you’re resistant to change, ask yourself if it’s pride or fear of flexibility that’s holding you back. The leaders in our research embrace adaptability as a strength. Remember, it’s not flip-flopping if you’re improving and evolving.

Myth #5: Risk-Takers Are the Only Ones Who Move the Needle

Hollywood loves a risk-taker, but our research shows that top leaders don’t gamble recklessly. They’re experts at calculated risk-taking—distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable risks. They use a structured approach to weigh outcomes and act when the potential benefits justify the risks. These leaders consistently achieve better results than those who approach risk blindly or avoid it altogether.

Practical Takeaway:

When you’re facing a risky choice, evaluate the potential fallout and how well-prepared you are to handle it. Leaders in our study assess risk meticulously, positioning themselves for wins without courting disaster. This kind of measured risk-taking is a hallmark of sustainable leadership.

Myth #6: Emotional Intelligence Just Means Being “Nice”

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is often misunderstood as “softness.” But high EQ is a critical tool for strategic influence. Leaders with high EQ manage their own emotions well, understand others’ perspectives, and build trust. They navigate conflict with finesse and inspire team buy-in. Our research shows that social confidence and diplomacy are vital qualities for leaders who master this emotional balance, building loyalty and morale that amplify their decision-making power.

Practical Takeaway:

To develop EQ, start with self-awareness: identify your emotional triggers and examine how they influence your choices. Then, focus on understanding team dynamics. Our data show that leaders who tailor their approach to different people and situations build stronger teams and achieve better outcomes.

Myth #7: Complexity Requires Total Control

Many leaders think that managing complexity means controlling everything. But our research with executives reveals that high-performing leaders know when to let go, fostering flexibility and encouraging innovation within their teams. They act as “guiding stars,” offering direction while empowering others to make decisions and solve problems on the ground. Leaders who rated highly in empowerment excelled in their roles by encouraging this autonomy, allowing their teams to shine within a shared framework of goals.

Practical Takeaway:

Identify areas where you can empower your team. Shift from micromanaging to guiding, and trust that capable people can solve problems creatively. Our findings affirm that leaders who embrace this style often get better, more innovative results.

Myth #8: Leaders Must “Know It All”

The myth of the omniscient leader is just that—a myth. Our research highlights that leaders who embrace intellectual humility achieve more sustainable success. By recognizing their limits, these leaders actively seek diverse perspectives and feedback. They’re not afraid to say, “I don’t know.” This openness fosters a culture of knowledge-sharing and insight that enriches the entire organization.

Practical Takeaway:

Practice intellectual humility by regularly seeking feedback, not only from peers but from all levels of the organization. Our data show that leaders who do this avoid the pitfalls of overconfidence, making smarter decisions with the full benefit of collective insight.

Myth #9: Stress Should Be Suffered in Silence

There’s a persistent belief that leaders need to handle stress internally, keeping it hidden. Yet, our research shows that resilience under pressure is key to good judgment. Leaders who manage stress effectively—through deliberate resilience practices—make clearer, more rational decisions. Those who prioritize mental and physical health maintain cognitive clarity, enabling better decision-making even under intense pressure.

Practical Takeaway:

Make stress management a leadership priority. Incorporate resilience practices like meditation or structured breaks. Our findings reveal that resilience isn’t just personal—it impacts the quality of leadership judgment in high-stakes moments.

Myth #10: Leadership is All About Results

Results matter, but the process of achieving them matters just as much. Great leaders know that good judgment balances outcomes with a reflective approach to how decisions are made. The leaders in our research use “double-loop learning,” where they don’t just evaluate whether a decision worked but also examine how the decision was made. This self-reflection keeps them growing and adapting, enabling them to learn from both wins and missteps.

Practical Takeaway:

Regularly review your decision-making process, not just the outcomes. Ask, “What went right?” and “Where could we improve?” By focusing on continuous improvement, you evolve as a leader, making each decision sharper than the last.

The Bottom Line: Good Judgment is Crafted, Not Gifted

Our research on nearly 2,000 executives has shown that good judgment isn’t a mystical talent. It’s a skill crafted over time, blending analytical thinking with empathy, risk management, resilience, and intellectual humility. Great leaders don’t rest on their innate abilities; they grow through disciplined reflection, calculated risk-taking, and a willingness to learn. By balancing data with insight, courage with caution, and strength with adaptability, they build decision-making practices that create lasting value and inspire those around them.

Inspire or Undermine: The Leadership Choice That Defines Success in Tough Times

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 02:32:30 GMT

Good things happen when people are motivated and inspired. Creative ideas flow, productivity soars, and results improve. But this doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the leaders who inspire their teams that fuel this momentum. Inspirational leadership isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the cornerstone of performance, resilience, and team cohesion, especially in tough times.

The Power of Inspiration in Leadership

In over 40 years of coaching and studying leaders across industries, one factor has consistently stood out as the defining feature of effective leadership: the ability to inspire. Whether in large corporations or small startups, leaders who excel at motivating their teams set their organizations up for success—even when faced with adversity.

Based on my research with over 1,800 leaders, drawing on 360 ratings and personality measures, being an inspirational leader is the number one correlate of leadership effectiveness. Those who can "light a fire" in their teams are not only good communicators; they are visionaries who instill hope, show confidence in their people, and keep teams energized. The data is clear: leaders who inspire get better results.

Why Is Inspirational Leadership So Critical?

While monetary rewards or job security are factors, research shows they aren't enough to sustain high performance. A compelling vision, a meaningful mission, and a leader’s infectious enthusiasm can make all the difference. Inspirational leadership engages employees emotionally, and when people are emotionally invested, they perform at their best.

A Harvard Business Review study found that employees under inspirational leaders were 30% more engaged than those led by less inspirational managers. Engaged employees not only meet expectations—they exceed them. They are intrinsically motivated, bought into the cause, and willing to go the extra mile.

Leaders Are Tested in Tough Times

Every leader faces moments when their ability to motivate is tested. Economic downturns, personal setbacks, internal conflicts, or even global crises like the pandemic threaten to demoralize teams. This is when inspirational leadership matters most. Teams look to their leaders not just for direction, but for reassurance that their efforts still matter and that there is a path forward.

In times of uncertainty, a leader’s emotional tone can make or break a team’s morale. Inspirational leaders set the emotional climate, helping their teams maintain a sense of optimism and resolve. When the going gets tough, your team isn’t just watching your words—they’re watching how you act. What message is your behavior sending? Do you radiate calm and resilience, or are you contributing to the chaos?

Research-Backed Strategies for Inspiring Teams

Let’s dive into what makes a leader inspirational, backed by compelling research findings that demonstrate the profound effects of leadership on team motivation and performance.

1. Inspiration Through Vision and Mission

Effective leaders inspire by painting a vivid picture of the future, backed by a credible plan. A vision alone isn't enough—it needs to be compelling, actionable, and believable. This is where leaders fail or thrive. If your vision is too abstract or detached from reality, your team won't buy in. But when the vision is clear and aligned with strategic goals, employees feel connected to a greater purpose.

One of my clients said it best: “She sold me on the long-term vision when she interviewed me for the job. I wanted to be part of something that big.”

In fact, according to a study in Leadership Quarterly , transformational leaders—those who inspire through vision—significantly enhance employee performance. Employees who understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture feel more empowered and motivated to succeed.

2. Seeing the Big Picture

Visionary leaders don’t just focus on today’s challenges; they see around corners. They understand market trends, competitive landscapes, and how external forces may shape the future. Yet, it's not enough for the leader to see the big picture. They must communicate it clearly and continuously to their teams, aligning day-to-day tasks with long-term goals.

One employee shared this about her boss: “His forward-thinking view keeps us focused on where we’re headed, even when the day-to-day gets messy.”

Research shows that communicating a clear strategy helps employees connect their actions with organizational objectives, increasing motivation and engagement. Teams need a “North Star” to guide them through distractions and challenges, and it's the leader's job to provide that.

3. Optimism in Tough Times

Optimism isn't about ignoring difficulties; it's about maintaining a hopeful outlook even in adversity. The most inspiring leaders are those who can uplift their teams with their positive attitude and resilience. They don’t dwell on problems but instead focus on solutions, reinforcing the belief that the team can—and will—succeed.

An employee once said of her manager: “She never, ever transmits negative energy to the team, even in the hardest situations. Her optimism kept us going when things got tough.”

A study from the Center for Creative Leadership supports this, showing that leaders who inspire optimism foster greater psychological resilience in their teams, helping them bounce back from setbacks more quickly.

4. Leaders Set the Emotional Tone

Leaders are emotional contagion carriers. Their mood and energy can either lift the team or bring it down. Research from the Journal of Applied Psychology found that charismatic leaders can spread positive emotions through their teams, boosting morale and performance. When leaders project confidence, their teams feel more secure. When they radiate energy, their teams become more engaged.

One client described their leader’s effect like this: “Her positive energy and confidence inspire us to push ourselves beyond what we thought we could do.”

It’s easy to stay upbeat when things are going well, but the real test of leadership is how you maintain that energy when challenges arise. People are watching how you react. If you crumble under pressure, so will they. If you stay positive and energized, they’ll rise to the occasion.

5. Inspiring Through Meaning and Purpose

People don’t just want a paycheck—they want purpose. Inspirational leaders tap into this by connecting everyday tasks to a larger mission. A study in found that when leaders help employees find meaning in their work, motivation increases by 47%, and performance improves by 36%. This alignment between personal values and organizational goals sustains motivation, even when the work gets tough.

One employee said: “Our leader's ability to link our work to the bigger picture gives us a sense of purpose and keeps us motivated.”

6. Confidence Without Arrogance

Confidence is a critical ingredient of inspirational leadership, but it’s important to strike the right balance. Inspirational leaders are confident but not arrogant. They exude a sense of calm self-assurance that inspires trust and loyalty. Confidence without humility can easily turn into hubris, which alienates teams.

One team member shared: “His confidence is reassuring. He knows we’ll succeed, but he’s also open to feedback and isn’t afraid to admit when he’s wrong.”

This kind of humble confidence not only inspires teams but also fosters trust and collaboration, which are essential for long-term motivation and success.

7. Resilience in Leadership

The most effective leaders model resilience. They recover quickly from setbacks and remain composed under pressure, providing their teams with a sense of stability. Inspirational leaders don’t just talk about resilience—they demonstrate it in real time. Research from the Academy of Management Journal shows that when employees see their leaders remain level-headed, they are more likely to stay motivated and calm during crises.

One of my clients described their leader as: “The calm in the storm. His ability to stay composed when everything was going wrong made us all feel we’d get through it.”

How Leaders Kill Motivation and Fail to Inspire

While some leaders uplift and inspire, others stifle motivation through negative behaviors. Leaders who fail to inspire can inadvertently create environments where teams become disengaged and demoralized. Here are a few key ways leaders kill motivation:

1. Negative Energy and Pessimism

Leaders who focus on worst-case scenarios or who consistently express doubt about the future dampen the team’s morale. One employee remarked, “He’s more of a pessimist. People feel like there’s no hope for anything good to come.” This type of attitude spreads quickly and can sap the energy from even the most dedicated employees.

2. Inconsistent Behavior Under Stress

Leaders who are volatile in difficult times fail to provide the stability teams need. Their erratic behavior undermines confidence, as one comment pointed out: “When stress hits, he becomes pessimistic and angry, changing his behavior radically.” This inconsistency can fracture team morale and make difficult times even harder to navigate.

3. Focusing on the Negative

When leaders highlight only what’s gone wrong without recognizing successes, they create an environment of fear and insecurity. An employee noted, “He focuses on what hasn’t been achieved rather than what has.” This focus on the negative makes teams hesitant to innovate or take risks, fearing they will be criticized for any missteps.

4. Micromanagement and Lack of Trust

Leaders who micromanage send a message that they don’t trust their team, which can be demotivating. As one team member observed, “He micromanages everything without inspiring us.” Employees who feel constantly watched or controlled lose their sense of autonomy and creativity, which are essential for motivation.

5. Poor Communication

When leaders fail to communicate transparently, especially during challenging times, they lose the trust of their teams. One comment captured this perfectly: “Issues with trust and communication devalue what he says about the state of the company.” Without clear, consistent communication, teams are left feeling uncertain and disengaged.

6. Lack of Consistent Commitment and Enthusiasm

Inconsistent energy or commitment is another way leaders demotivate their teams. When a leader only displays enthusiasm during good times, it undermines their credibility. One employee mentioned, “He only shows energy when things are going well, but when the stress is on, it’s like he checks out.” Teams need leaders who stay present and engaged, even when the going gets tough.

Leaders who fail to inspire don’t just miss opportunities—they actively disengage their teams. Recognizing these behaviors is the first step toward reversing the damage and creating a more motivated, high-performing team.

Final Thoughts: Leadership Is a Choice

Inspiration isn’t optional. It’s a leader’s duty to uplift, engage, and inspire their teams, especially when times are tough. If you're not actively inspiring, you might be unknowingly undermining. Your team is watching, and your actions—more than your words—will define whether you lead them toward success or into disengagement. The choice is yours.

The Secret Sauce of Change Agents: Why Some Leaders Thrive on Shaking Things Up

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 02:18:37 GMT

In every organization, some leaders don’t just navigate change—they create it. These are the change agents, the individuals who push boundaries, stir the pot, and drive transformation in ways that others wouldn't even imagine. What sets them apart isn't just their skills, but a mindset shaped by unique personality traits and behaviors that propel them to champion change, even when others resist it. Here’s why they stand out, along with real-world examples illustrating their impact.

1. Challenging the Status Quo: The Firestarter’s Mindset

Change agents are relentless in questioning the way things are. They don’t settle for “that’s how we’ve always done it.” Instead, they find comfort in discomfort, constantly pushing for better ways. Their assertiveness, visionary outlook, and outspoken nature equip them to confront entrenched practices head-on. Like architects who redraw blueprints when the old designs no longer serve a purpose, these leaders know that progress requires stepping outside the familiar.

Satya Nadella exemplifies this mindset. When he took over at Microsoft, the company was clinging to its aging Windows operating system while falling behind in cloud computing and mobile technology. Nadella challenged the status quo by shifting the company’s focus to cloud services with Azure and embracing subscription-based models like Office 365. He even made the once-unthinkable decision to adopt open-source software and partner with former rivals. This bold shift revitalized Microsoft, bringing it back to the forefront of the tech industry.

Why It Matters: The ability to challenge long-held beliefs is essential for innovation. Without questioning existing processes, organizations risk stagnation. Change agents act as catalysts, enabling teams to rethink their approaches and unlock potential breakthroughs. Their visionary and freethinking attitude doesn’t just seek incremental improvements—it aims for transformations that redefine the game.

2. Encouraging Innovation and Creativity: The Alchemists of the Workplace

Effective change agents are workplace alchemists who transform ordinary ideas into game-changing solutions. They create environments where innovation thrives, encouraging risk-taking and experimentation. Their creativity and openness to new experiences mean they naturally seek out diverse perspectives and challenge conventional thinking.

Consider Mary Barra at General Motors. In the traditionally conservative automotive industry, she has led the charge toward electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous driving technologies. By championing significant investments in EV technology and acquiring Cruise Automation, a self-driving car company, Barra has set GM on a path to a cleaner future. At the same time, she maintains a balanced approach, investing in fuel efficiency and hybrid vehicles to ensure a practical transition.

Why It Matters: In today’s fast-paced world, where entire industries can shift overnight, innovation is crucial. Leaders who foster creativity can pivot quickly in response to market changes, solving complex problems with inventive solutions. Their willingness to experiment is driven by their high openness and inventive spirit, setting them apart from those who cling to what is familiar.

3. Building Credibility and Trust: The Foundation of Change

While change agents are known for shaking things up, they understand that change without trust is a recipe for chaos. They build credibility by being reliable and transparent, earning respect through consistent actions and fair treatment of others. It’s not just about saying the right things; it’s about embodying the values they advocate.

Reshma Saujan’s journey with Girls Who Code is a powerful example of building trust and credibility. She founded the organization to address the lack of women in computer science, sharing her personal story to inspire and persuade others. By demonstrating the tangible impact of Girls Who Code programs, Saujani has gained the trust of educators, parents, and policymakers, making her organization a force for change in the tech industry.

Why It Matters: Trust is the currency that allows change to happen. Without it, people are likely to resist new initiatives, no matter how well-planned they are. When change agents build credibility, they not only secure buy-in but also inspire others to follow their lead. Their high social confidence and ability to navigate relationships make them effective at rallying others around a shared vision.

4. Effective Communication and Persuasion: The Storytellers of Transformation

Change agents don’t just communicate; they compel. They craft a vision that is not only clear but also deeply compelling, helping others see the need for change in a way that feels urgent and personal. Their communication style is more than just informational—it’s inspirational. They take their audience on a journey from where things are to where they could be.

For them, effective communication isn’t just about giving directions; it’s about motivating others to act. This persuasive power is rooted in their personality traits like assertiveness, social confidence, and strategic thinking. When they speak, people listen—not because they have to, but because they want to.

Why It Matters: Change is unsettling, and people often resist it due to fear of the unknown. Leaders who can communicate effectively help reduce this anxiety, providing a sense of direction that makes the journey less daunting. When change agents speak with clarity and empathy, they create a shared purpose that propels the organization forward.

5. Leading by Example: Walking the Talk

Change agents don’t just advocate for transformation; they embody it. They demonstrate the behaviors, values, and attitudes they want to see across the organization, setting the tone from the top. Their high achievement orientation and assertiveness drive them to model excellence, showing others that the standards they set are not only achievable but also necessary.

Picture a trailblazer who doesn’t wait for the path to be cleared—they carve it out themselves. This sends a powerful message to their teams: “If I can do it, so can you.” Their actions reinforce their words, making it easier for others to follow suit.

Why It Matters: Leading by example builds credibility and accelerates the adoption of new practices. It’s one thing to advocate for change; it’s another to live it. When leaders “walk the talk,” they reduce skepticism and create momentum, inspiring others to embrace the transformation.

6. Empowering Others and Building Relationships: The Multipliers of Change

Change agents understand that true transformation requires a collective effort. They don’t just delegate tasks; they empower people by involving them in decision-making processes and recognizing their contributions. These leaders build strong relationships across the organization, creating a network of allies who feel personally invested in the change.

They’re like gardeners who don’t just plant seeds—they nurture them, ensuring the conditions for growth are optimal. Their ability to align expectations and foster collaboration is rooted in their high social intelligence and assertiveness, allowing them to navigate complex organizational dynamics.

Why It Matters: Empowering others leads to higher engagement and commitment. When employees feel valued and involved, they are more likely to contribute positively to change efforts. Building strong relationships also helps to overcome resistance by unifying different groups around common goals.

7. Strategic Thinking and Visionary Orientation: The Big Picture Thinkers

Change agents aren’t just focused on immediate challenges; they have a long-term vision for the future. Their strategic thinking enables them to assess risks and opportunities, using data and insights to guide their actions. They balance bold initiatives with practical considerations, ensuring changes are not only ambitious but also achievable.

Their visionary nature drives them to look beyond what is directly in front of them, always considering the broader implications. They are not just reacting to changes in their environment; they are actively shaping the future.

Why It Matters: A clear vision provides direction and helps people understand the larger purpose behind change. Strategic thinking ensures that transformation efforts are not only aligned with long-term goals but also adaptable to unforeseen shifts, increasing the likelihood of sustainable success.

8. Resilience and Adaptability: The Survivors and Thrivers

Setbacks are inevitable in any change effort, but effective change agents are characterized by their resilience and adaptability. They embrace uncertainty and view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than reasons to retreat. Their optimism keeps them pushing forward even when circumstances get tough, while their endurance ensures they don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal.

Think of them as bamboo, bending in the wind without breaking. Their ability to adapt to changing conditions is driven by their openness and risk-taking mindset, enabling them to pivot when necessary without compromising the end goal.

Why It Matters: Resilience is essential for navigating the complexities of change. Leaders who can adapt to evolving circumstances keep their teams on track and ensure that change efforts remain relevant, no matter what obstacles arise.

9. Creating a Sense of Urgency and Momentum: The Catalysts for Action

Change agents understand that without urgency, even the best initiatives can lose steam. They create a sense of urgency to overcome inertia and complacency, often by highlighting metrics, market trends, or competitive pressures that show why immediate action is necessary.

Their approach is like lighting a fire under the organization, motivating everyone to move quickly. They generate short-term wins to build momentum, keeping the focus on long-term goals while making the change feel both urgent and achievable.

Why It Matters: Creating a sense of urgency helps to mobilize the organization. Short-term wins provide proof that progress is being made, encouraging continued effort and commitment to the transformation.

10. Balancing Innovation with Practicality: The Realists with Big Dreams

While change agents are advocates for bold ideas, they also understand the importance of practicality. They know when to push for radical changes and when to take incremental steps. Their approach is not just about dreaming big but about executing in a way that ensures sustainability.

They are like tightrope walkers balancing bold innovation with careful steps, ensuring that resources are used effectively. This ability to combine strategic thinking with inventive problem-solving ensures that their ideas don’t just disrupt but also endure.

Why It Matters: Balancing innovation with practicality ensures changes are not only groundbreaking but also feasible and sustainable. This approach prevents burnout and resistance while still promoting progress.

These leaders, whether revitalizing a tech giant, transforming a traditional industry, or closing societal gaps, embody the essence of change agents. They challenge, inspire, and lead in ways that transform companies and entire industries, proving what’s possible when you refuse to settle for the status quo. Their distinct personality traits—assertiveness, social intelligence, resilience, and openness—are not just drivers of behavior but the very essence of what makes them effective in turning vision into reality.

Breaking Free from Founder Mode: The Power of Delegation for Startup Growth

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:02:05 GMT

Why Founders Fail to Scale: The Myth of Founder Mode and the Power of Delegation

In startup culture, there's a myth that refuses to die—a myth that the founder's obsessive control, micromanagement, and relentless involvement in every aspect of their business is what guarantees their success. Known as "Founder Mode," this mindset is seen as an essential ingredient in the early days, where the sheer hustle and hands-on approach of the founder make or break the company. But here's the twist: what made you successful in the beginning might be the very thing that causes your downfall when it's time to scale.

Through extensive research on 122 startup founders, we uncovered a fascinating—and provocative—truth: most founders are terrible at delegating and empowering their teams. This is more than just a bad habit. It's a fatal flaw, one that sabotages not only the founder's leadership but also the company’s ability to grow beyond its early-stage scrappiness.

Writing my soon to be released book, “Founders Keeper” forced me to look at my own behavior as a typical founder. I didn’t intend it to be autobiographical but when I spend two years diving into the data on the personality and behavior of founders, it became clear that I fell into the same trap that the statistical analysis revealed. I was part of the problem. I had to face the facts.

The Founder Mode Trap

The core of this myth is the notion that founders must remain in control of everything. After all, many founders kick-started their companies through grit, instinct, and a vision so clear that they believed no one could possibly execute it better than them. In the initial phases, this hands-on approach—what many call micromanagement—might be necessary. Founders are often involved in everything from product design to hiring, and their omnipresence ensures that their baby, their startup, aligns with their vision. The problem begins when this mode of operating becomes the default, long after it's needed.

Founder Mode becomes a trap, one that inhibits growth and stifles innovation. In our research, 58% of founders were poor at delegating according to their 360 feedback. That means more than half of founders are bottlenecking their own companies, undermining their teams, and ironically, sabotaging the very success they work so hard to achieve.

Founder Mode Feeds the Ego

Let’s be brutally honest: Founder Mode feels good. It feeds the ego. Being in the middle of everything reinforces the belief that the company is nothing without the founder’s constant supervision. And for a while, this narrative holds. After all, it’s intoxicating to believe that your relentless control is what keeps the ship afloat. But the reality? This is an illusion.

Micromanagement, at its heart, is a form of insecurity. Founders who struggle to delegate don’t trust others to do the job as well as they would. As a result, they hover, second-guess, and override decisions made by their team. This creates a culture of disempowerment, where team members feel like their contributions are meaningless because, ultimately, the founder will step in and "fix" everything. Over time, the best talent flees, tired of being undermined and smothered. And who can blame them? No one wants to be micromanaged, least of all the high performers you need to scale your company.

The Cost of Micromanagement: Your Team, Innovation, and Sanity

Let’s break down the real costs of staying in Founder Mode:

Talent Bleed: Talented individuals don’t stick around in environments where they aren’t trusted. Our research found that poor delegators have higher employee turnover , precisely because they suffocate creativity and initiative. In contrast, good delegators—only 41% of the founders in our study—create environments where people thrive.
Stunted Growth: As companies scale, the complexity of operations demands a shift in leadership style. The founder can no longer be involved in every decision. Micromanagement doesn’t scale. What does? Delegation and empowerment. Companies where founders effectively delegate have higher multiples of invested capital and perform better overall.
Strategic Blindness: Founders stuck in the weeds lose sight of the bigger picture. They spend their time firefighting rather than focusing on high-level strategy, innovation, or scaling. In doing so, they miss opportunities to grow, adapt, and pivot. They also lose valuable time building key partnerships and relationships that are vital for long-term success.
Burnout: Trying to do it all is a one-way ticket to burnout. Founders who fail to delegate often find themselves exhausted, stretched thin, and overwhelmed. It’s unsustainable. The irony? The very act of trying to control everything leads to losing control over the most important thing: the ability to lead effectively.

A Misconception That Hurts: Founder Mode = Success

Here’s where the rubber meets the road: Founder Mode might have helped you survive the early days, but it will kill you in the scaling phase. It’s a myth that staying in Founder Mode ensures quality, vision, and success. In fact, our research shows that founders who can effectively delegate and empower their teams outperform those who don’t —in virtually every important metric, from team satisfaction to company growth.

Let’s look at what makes a good delegator based on our research. Founders who delegate well:

Trust their teams: They place a high level of confidence in their employees, empowering them to make decisions and take ownership of their work.
Provide clear direction: They set high-level goals and let their teams figure out the best way to achieve them.
Know when to step in: Good delegators don’t abandon ship. They know when their expertise is needed but avoid getting involved in every little decision.
Focus on long-term growth: Instead of focusing on daily tasks, they dedicate their time to strategy, vision, and scaling.

The Harsh Reality: If You Can’t Delegate, You Won’t Scale

One of the most provocative findings from our research is that founders who can’t delegate are stuck in a never-ending loop of mediocrity. They might see initial success, but they never break through to the next level. Their inability to let go creates a bottleneck that slows everything down—product development, sales, hiring, you name it.

The numbers back this up: Good delegators achieve better financial outcomes. They build stronger teams, foster innovation, and create a culture of accountability and trust. These founders don’t just build companies; they build scalable, self-sufficient organizations. Bad delegators, on the other hand, stagnate. Their refusal to let go of control keeps them and their companies small.

How to Break Free from Founder Mode

Transitioning out of Founder Mode isn’t easy. It’s an uncomfortable process, often requiring founders to confront their deepest fears—fears of losing control, making mistakes, or failing. But it’s necessary. Here’s how to break free:

Start Small: Begin by delegating low-risk tasks. As you build trust in your team, gradually hand off more responsibility.
Hire Smart: Surround yourself with talented people you trust. Invest in leaders who can drive the company forward without your constant oversight.
Define Clear Metrics: Set measurable goals for your team and focus on the outcomes, not the process. Let your team figure out how to get there.
Embrace Mistakes : Understand that people will make mistakes, and that’s okay. It’s part of the learning and growth process.
Focus on Leadership, Not Control: Shift your focus from doing to leading. Spend your time on vision, strategy, and building relationships.

The New Paradigm: Empowerment Is the Real Power

If Founder Mode is the crutch that gets startups off the ground, then delegation and empowerment are the engines that scale them. It’s not about micromanaging every detail; it’s about building a team that can run without you. In the end, the most successful founders are the ones who make themselves dispensable. They build teams, processes, and cultures that don’t rely on their constant involvement. That’s the true mark of leadership.

So the next time someone tells you that Founder Mode is the key to success, challenge that assumption. Real success doesn’t come from controlling everything—it comes from empowering others to take control.

The Startup Growth Lifecycle: Re-inventing Leadership at Every Stage

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 16:45:00 GMT

Starting a company is exhilarating. The energy, passion, and creativity needed to get a startup off the ground are boundless, often resulting in rapid progress. But here’s the hard truth: what made you successful in the early days can sabotage you as you grow. There’s a breaking point—usually when your startup begins scaling—that demands a whole new approach.

Founders who fail to adapt often face disastrous outcomes. Think about how promising startups, like the infamous fall of Blackberry, once dominated their niche but crumbled under the weight of their own success because their founders were too fixated on early strategies and failed to scale. The tension is real, and many founders experience it but don’t know how to address it.

The Early Stages: A Playground for Mavericks

In the pre-seed and seed stages, founders are visionaries, hustling on every front. You’re wearing multiple hats—marketer, product designer, chief salesperson—and decision-making is quick and intuitive. These early days are defined by innovation, creativity, and the power of improvisation. Startups like Uber thrived in this environment, with Travis Kalanick’s adaptable, risk-taking leadership style playing a significant role in those formative stages.

But here’s the twist: as crucial as these qualities are, they become liabilities if not balanced as the company matures. Founders often fall into the trap of assuming that the instincts that helped them launch their company will also be their ticket to scaling. Spoiler: they won’t.

The Growth Stage: From Visionary to Strategist

As the startup enters the traction stage, the founder’s role begins to shift dramatically. This is where companies like Boo .com struggled, with Ernst Malmsten’s lavish spending and lack of focus on profitability spiraling into unchecked ambition and poor strategic management. Boo .com, a high-profile online fashion retailer that launched in the late 1990s, raised significant capital but ultimately failed due to a combination of factors, including overspending, a lack of focus on profitability, and an inability to adapt to the market's demands. This aligns with the challenges that startups often face during the growth stage, where they need to transition from a focus on innovation and customer acquisition to building sustainable systems and processes. Founders must pivot from being hands-on doers to becoming big-picture thinkers.

Key Challenge: Scaling isn’t just about adding people or increasing revenue—it’s about building systems that can handle growth.

Example: Consider a startup founder who once thrived by being decisive and intuitive. Suddenly, those same strengths become weaknesses. At this stage, data-driven decision-making, clear objectives, and team alignment become more important than gut instinct. At fab .com for example, the founder initially assumed that a flash-sales model for designer goods was enough. Fab .com's initial success was based on a niche market strategy, but as it expanded, it faced challenges in managing inventory, maintaining customer satisfaction, and adapting to the changing e-commerce landscape. This example highlights the importance of data-driven decision-making, clear objectives, and team alignment during the growth stage. It wasn’t until later, with customer feedback and market validation, that they realized the need for a much broader platform. This critical pivot fueled their continued growth.

You can no longer make decisions in isolation. Founders who don't delegate or rely on the insights of their growing teams are bottlenecking their own companies. In the early days, this might have worked, but in the traction phase, failure to delegate and empower others can crush a startup’s momentum.

Scaling Stage: Collaborative Leadership and Risk Management

As your startup moves into the expansion stage, you’re no longer a scrappy underdog; you’re playing in the big leagues. But here’s where many founders get stuck. Scaling is about efficiency, consistency, and letting go of control.

Key Challenge: Founders must move from solo decision-makers to collaborative leaders. While in the early days, your strength lay in your ability to do everything yourself, this will no longer cut it. The shift from risk-taker to risk-manager becomes critical. Founders need to balance their instinct for innovation with a more calculated, process-driven approach. The introduction of processes, governance structures, and professional management becomes essential to avoid burnout and chaos.

Consider Zynga under Mark Pincus: initially, his aggressive, growth-at-all-costs mentality helped the company conquer markets globally. However, as Zynga grew, that same aggressive attitude led to internal cultural issues, regulatory challenges, and reputational damage. This illustrates the need for founders to transition from risk-takers to risk-managers during the scaling stage and to balance their instinct for innovation with a more calculated, process-driven approach. The inability to transition from a disruptive force to a company with proper checks and balances left Zynga in need of an overhaul.

Founders who thrive at this stage are those who not only manage risk but also develop emotional intelligence. Successful founders become socially astute, supporting their teams, creating a positive culture, and understanding that leadership isn’t just about driving results but also about fostering a thriving environment for long-term success.

Continuous Growth: The Leadership Evolution

At the continuous growth stage, startups that survive are those with founders who have fully evolved their leadership styles. You’re no longer in the business of product launches and rapid pivots but rather in sustaining growth, profitability, and strategic differentiation. Your new job is governance, and the decisions you make today must focus on long-term sustainability. This is where companies like Yahoo! struggled, with Jerry Yang's inability to adapt to the changing landscape of the internet industry and his failure to embrace the rise of social media and mobile led to the company's downfall.

Key Challenge: Long-term planning and vision become more important than short-term wins. Founders must transition into CEOs who set the tone for culture, governance, and sustainable growth. This often involves a collaborative decision-making style, focusing on bringing diverse perspectives together to fuel innovation while avoiding stagnation.

Here’s where many companies fail: the founder remains overly attached to the “startup hustle.” This is no longer the place for it. Founders must shift from inspirational figures to developers of talent. Leadership is now about making your people successful, not just driving product success.

What’s at Stake?

If you fail to adapt, your startup won’t just stall—it could implode. Take the case of Pets .com, where Julie Wainwright, unwilling to let go of her early vision and failing to adapt to the realities of the pet supply industry and scaling, steered the company into disaster. In contrast, those who successfully pivot at each stage—from visionary to strategist to risk manager and mentor—will lead their startups to sustained success.

Success in the early stages of a startup often reinforces behaviors that can be destructive as the company scales. What got you here won’t get you there.

Are You Ready to Evolve?

So, ask yourself: Are you ready to let go of what made you a successful founder to become the strategic leader your startup needs? Are you willing to delegate, build systems, and adapt your leadership style as your company grows? If not, you may find yourself standing in the way of your own success. The future of your startup depends on it.

It’s time to rethink your approach to leadership—before it’s too late.

Why Startup Founders Are So Challenging to Coach—and How to Do It Right

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:54:04 GMT

Coaching startup founders is not for the faint of heart. These are individuals who are fiercely independent, relentlessly driven, and often unwilling to slow down long enough for reflection. Yet, if you can crack the code, the impact can be profound—not just for the founder, but for the entire organization. So why is it so tough to coach founders, and more importantly, how can you do it effectively?

Why Founders Are So Tough to Coach

Independence Is in Their DNA
Founders have built their companies by trusting their instincts and defying the odds. This fierce independence often makes them resistant to feedback, especially when it comes from someone they perceive as an outsider. In their minds, if they’ve gotten this far, they must be doing something right.
They Don’t Have Time for You
With a relentless pace of work, founders are under constant time pressure. They’re balancing product development, investor meetings, and hiring decisions. Slowing down to reflect or develop themselves often feels like a luxury they can’t afford.
Confidence—Sometimes to a Fault
Many founders are incredibly confident, which is a double-edged sword. This self-assurance has helped them push through challenges, but it can also make them blind to their weaknesses. They’re often too busy driving forward to look in the rearview mirror and see the gaps in their own leadership.
Fear of Letting Go
Founders often have difficulty with delegation. The company is their baby and letting go of control—whether it’s handing off responsibilities or being open to coaching—can feel like a loss of identity or influence. The fear of losing what made them successful in the first place often makes them resistant to change.

How to Coach Startup Founders Effectively

To coach founders successfully, you need more than just a set of coaching tools—you need to adapt to their world and bring real-time, action-oriented feedback. Here’s how:

Deliver Tough, Data-Driven Feedback in Real-Time
Founders are data-driven by nature. If you want to get through to them, your feedback must be grounded in hard data or real-world impact. Use metrics, 360-degree feedback, or even operational outcomes to show them how their behavior is impacting the company. Don’t shy away from tough feedback; founders respect honesty, especially when it’s backed by data. If you can tie your insights to the bottom line, they’ll listen.
Balance Challenging Them and Supporting Them
Founders crave challenge, but they also need support. It’s a delicate balance. If you only push, they’ll resist or shut down. If you only support, they won’t grow. The best approach is to challenge their thinking in a way that provokes curiosity rather than defensiveness. Help them see blind spots while simultaneously offering solutions or pathways to improvement. Founders need to feel like you’re on their side, pushing them to be better while understanding the enormous pressure they’re under.
Offer Best Practice Insights, Especially to Inexperienced Founders
Not all founders come from business backgrounds. Some are first-time CEOs with brilliant ideas but little experience managing people or scaling operations. For these founders, bringing best practices from other startups or industries is invaluable. Share insights on delegation, leadership, and operational excellence. Help them build frameworks and processes where they may have gaps. Show them how seasoned entrepreneurs solve problems, and they’ll respect your practical, action-oriented advice.
Adjust to Different Founder Profiles
Founders are not a monolith. Some may be visionary and creative but disorganized; others may be highly technical but struggle with people management. Your coaching needs to be tailored to the specific strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of each founder. A one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Whether you’re dealing with a highly extroverted, charismatic leader or a more introverted, analytical founder, understanding their individual challenges is key to breaking through.
Tap into the Conscious and Unconscious Motivations
Founders are driven by a mix of conscious ambitions (like scaling the business or disrupting an industry) and unconscious motivations (such as fear of failure, control, or the need for recognition). A skilled coach will dig into these deeper drivers. Ask probing questions to uncover what’s really motivating their decisions, behaviors, and resistance. Often, the very traits that make them successful—like their independence or drive—are also rooted in personal fears or unmet needs. Understanding this dynamic can unlock a new level of growth for the founder.

Best Practices for Coaching Founders

Use Real-Time Feedback Loops: Don’t wait until the end of a session to give feedback. Founders operate in real-time, so your feedback should follow suit. Point out issues as they arise, and relate them to immediate outcomes.
Focus on Quick Wins First: Founders need to see results. Focus on immediate, tangible improvements early on to build trust and credibility. Once they see that your coaching delivers, they’ll be more open to deeper, longer-term development.
Be Direct, but Empathetic: Founders don’t have time for sugar-coating, but they also need to feel understood. Be brutally honest but do it in a way that shows you’re invested in their success. Empathy goes a long way in building trust, especially with leaders who often feel isolated.
Drive Accountability: Founders can be notoriously unorganized, which means accountability is key. Set clear goals, track progress, and hold them to their commitments. Many founders respect structure and metrics when it helps them grow.

The Bottom Line

Coaching startup founders is a tough, high-stakes game, but when done right, it can transform both the leader and the company. The key is to adapt to their fast-paced, independent mindset while delivering real-time, data-driven feedback. Challenge them to grow, support them through their struggles, and understand the deep motivations that drive their behavior. If you can master this balance, you’ll not only coach a founder—you’ll elevate a leader who can scale their vision to new heights.

Founders need coaches who can match their intensity, provide actionable insights, and help them unlock their potential—whether they realize it or not. If you’re up for the challenge, the rewards will be exponential.

Adaptability: The Founder’s Lifeline

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 17:08:02 GMT

In the world of startups, there’s a myth many founders cling to once you’ve found product-market fit, your job is done. You’ve cracked the code. Success will naturally follow. But here’s the harsh reality: product-market fit is never "done." Markets shift, competitors pounce, customer expectations evolve. The strategy that worked brilliantly yesterday could be irrelevant tomorrow. Adaptability isn’t just a useful trait; it’s the founder’s lifeline. Without it, you’re on borrowed time.

In my years of coaching founders, one story stands out—a textbook case of brilliance undone by ego. A founder had an early win with a groundbreaking SaaS product, disrupting a major competitor and gaining massive market share. But success quickly bred arrogance. He refused to listen—to customers, advisors, or his team—thinking he knew best. He overloaded the product with unnecessary features, losing focus on what made it great in the first place. His defensive attitude crushed any room for differing opinions, driving his core users away. The very strength that fueled his initial success became the weakness that led to his downfall.

The Dangerous Comfort of Success

Think back to your early days. When you started your company, everything was about survival. You were scrappy, flexible, and willing to pivot on a dime. You had to be. But as your startup grows, something dangerous happens—you become comfortable. It’s a subtle shift, but it’s deadly. The focus moves from experimentation to preservation. You start protecting what you’ve built rather than pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

And here’s the kicker: that moment, when you feel like you’ve made it, is when you’re most vulnerable.

Let’s face it: being a founder is terrifying. You’ve built your identity on being the person with the vision, the one who had the audacity to challenge the status quo. But once that vision becomes reality, what next? How do you stay relevant when everything around you is shifting? How do you stay flexible when the very company you created is starting to demand rigidity?

Product-Market Fit is an Illusion

Most founders treat product-market fit like the Holy Grail—once you’ve got it, you’re golden. But the truth is, product-market fit is not a final destination; it’s a moving target. It’s a dynamic process that’s constantly evolving.

Think about companies like Blockbuster or Kodak—giants that became obsolete because they thought they had secured their market position. The world around them changed, but they didn’t. They failed to adapt, and now they’re cautionary tales.

If you’re a founder reading this, ask yourself: Are you keeping up? Are you too comfortable? Are you still innovating, or are you coasting on the momentum of past wins?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if your product or service worked six months ago, that doesn’t guarantee it will work six months from now. Your competitors are innovating. Your customers are changing. The question is: are you?

Founders Are Often the Problem

Let’s be brutally honest. You might be the biggest obstacle to your company’s adaptability. You built this company, and deep down, you believe you know what’s best. That’s where founders often fail.

You have blind spots—whether it’s being too emotionally attached to your original idea or not listening to your team’s insights about the changing market. Maybe you’re reluctant to admit that your once-perfect product needs a drastic overhaul. You might even be that founder who thinks, "My instincts got me this far; why change now?"

But here’s the problem: what got you here won’t get you there. Your initial vision was just that—an initial vision. Sticking to it too rigidly is a fast track to irrelevance.

Adapt or Die: The Founder’s Dilemma

Adaptability is about more than just making minor tweaks to your product or marketing strategy. It’s about being willing to change the entire way you think. It’s about embracing the idea that your original concept might need to be torn down and rebuilt. Our research on 122 founders shows that those that are most successful are more adaptable. Founders in general are adaptable but the really the successful ones, unicorns or almost unicorns, are more willing to change, learn and iterate and change both their company and their own leadership.

So, how do you cultivate that level of adaptability as a founder? Here are three hard truths to consider:

You’re Not as Self-Aware as You Think. Most founders believe they’re flexible, but their actions say otherwise. Based on our research on financially successful founders (MOIC of 10x) only the most successful founders take adaptability to the next level. They listen to feedback and look at the facts rather than defending their ego’s need to be right. So, if you find yourself repeatedly dismissing feedback, brushing off customer complaints, or sticking to your initial vision despite mounting evidence to the contrary, you’re not adaptable—you’re stubborn. Recognize that your instinct might be wrong, and that adaptability starts with humility.
Your Team Sees What You Don’t. The people around you—your employees, your investors, your customers—are constantly giving you signals about what’s working and what isn’t. Are you paying attention? Or are you so caught up in your role as the “visionary” that you’ve tuned out everyone else? Adaptability means leveraging the wisdom of those around you, not pretending you have all the answers.
Speed is Everything. The faster you can recognize that something isn’t working, the quicker you can pivot. Founders who adapt quickly are the ones who survive. If you wait for the data to conclusively tell you that your product is losing traction, it’s already too late. Don’t wait for the market to hit you in the face—anticipate the shift and move.

The Risk of Not Evolving

Here’s what happens if you don’t adapt: your competitors will. They’ll come in, identify the gaps you’re not addressing, and take over. If you’re too slow to evolve, you’re handing them the keys to your future. Adaptability is the difference between a company that stays in the game and one that fades into irrelevance.

Think about companies like Slack or Instagram. Neither of these businesses started out as the products we know today. They pivoted—hard—and it paid off. They recognized the need to change direction long before it was too late. That’s adaptability in action.

Now, imagine your company five years from now. Are you still pushing boundaries, or are you stuck defending an outdated product? Have you evolved with your market, or are you just hoping your competitors don’t out-innovate you?

How to Become More Adaptable

Kill Your Darlings. That brilliant idea that got you here? Be willing to kill it if the market demands it. Holding onto it too long is a sure way to become irrelevant.
Surround Yourself with People Who Challenge You. If your team always agrees with you, you’re in trouble. You need dissenters—people who aren’t afraid to tell you that your idea sucks. Listen to them. They’re not your enemies; they’re your lifeline.
Make Data Your North Star. Gut instinct is great, but data doesn’t lie. If your customer behavior or market trends are telling you something, don’t ignore it. The numbers should guide your next move, not your ego.
Iterate Relentlessly. Continuous improvement is the name of the game. If you’re not constantly tweaking, refining, and rethinking, you’re falling behind. Stay agile, stay curious, and never be satisfied with the status quo.

Final Thoughts: You’re Never “There”

Here’s the thing about adaptability: it’s not a one-time skill you master and move on from. It’s a mindset. It’s the ability to look at your company and the world around you and recognize when it’s time to make a change—even if that change is uncomfortable.

If you’re a founder who’s afraid that your current success might be temporary, good. That fear is what will keep you adaptable. Lean into it. Use it as a reminder that no matter how successful your startup is today, the landscape is always shifting. Your job is to keep evolving or risk being left behind.

Founders who thrive are the ones who never stop questioning, never stop learning, and never stop adapting. Are you one of them?

The 10 Things Stakeholders Want Founders to Change

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 15:27:40 GMT

Being a founder is tough, and if you’re reading this, you know it. You’ve got vision, drive, and creativity. These are your natural strengths and the reasons you started this journey. But where do you need to grow to avoid hitting the wall like most founders do in the long run? Your direct reports, investors, advisors and key employees know the answer.

Our data from 122 founders based on feedback from their teams, reveals a hard truth: You need to change. Based on coworker and investor ratings of the importance of 46 different competencies, this blog examines their priorities, the gaps between what they want and what you are doing. These aren’t just skills that would be nice for you to have. These are the areas where your key stakeholders are feeling frustrated, where they see you dropping the ball. When you fail to improve in these critical areas, you’re not just holding yourself back—you’re hurting your company. The people you work with are counting on you to step up, and when you don’t, it’s creating friction, delays, and missed opportunities.

1. Disciplined Decision-Making: Better Judgment and Overcoming Bias

Founders often thrive in fast-paced environments, but when decisions are made hastily, they risk being driven by bias rather than sound judgment. Whether it’s hiring the wrong person or choosing the wrong strategic direction, poor decisions can derail your company’s growth. Or, founders decide too quickly and impulsively and then must remake their original decision, leading to accusations of waffling. Direct reports get frustrated with reactive decisions and inconsistency, feeling confused about priorities. Investors get anxious when they see indecisiveness or impulsive decisions wasting resources. Effective decision-making requires discipline, not just instinct. Founders need to recognize their cognitive biases and tendency to be reactive and take deliberate steps to gather data, seek diverse input, and weigh all options before committing to critical decisions.

How to develop it:

Learn the difference between intuition and impulse: Founders often act on a hunch, mistaking impulse for valuable insight. Recognize that while intuition can guide you, it should be one data point among many. Treat your instincts as signals to investigate further rather than definitive answers.
Define the problem clearly: Before jumping to a solution, spend time carefully defining the problem. Often what seems like a symptom is indicative of a larger issue that requires deeper analysis.
Create a decision framework: Categorize decisions into high-impact ones that need careful analysis and low-impact ones that can be made quickly. For critical decisions, gather data and consult others. For smaller ones, act swiftly. This balances thoughtful decision-making with maintaining momentum.
Build a “star chamber” of advisors: Surround yourself with experienced voices who challenge your thinking before you make a fatal leap. Ask disconfirming questions to challenge assumptions and avoid bias: Instead of seeking validation, ask your team, “What am I missing?” or “Why might this idea fail?” These questions surface concerns, generate alternative solutions, and encourage open dialogue. This approach reduces bias and fosters a culture where diverse perspectives improve decision-making.

2. Strategic Implementation: Vision Means Nothing Without Execution

You’ve got big ideas, but without a clear, strategic plan, those ideas remain daydreams. Too often, founders confuse activity with progress, mistaking endless pivots for growth. Your team needs to know where the company is going, and you need the discipline to execute. They get discouraged when they see you spinning your wheels with little tangible progress in turning your grand vision into a concrete plan. Investors expect execution and get frustrated when you focus too much time on pig-picture thinking without a clear path to implementation

How to develop it:

Turn Vision into Actionable Steps: Break down your long-term vision into smaller, actionable milestones. Create clear, measurable goals for your team so that the grand vision is not just a distant ideal but a series of achievable steps.
Delegate Decision-Making Authority: Empower your teams to make decisions on execution. Founders often struggle with letting go, but successful implementation requires trusting your team with ownership over how goals are executed.
Institute Regular Review Cycles: Schedule frequent check-ins and progress reviews. These are not just for status updates but for course correction. Review data, analyze outcomes, and adjust strategies as needed to ensure that execution stays aligned with the broader vision.
Communicate the Why Behind the What: When assigning tasks, always explain how each piece of execution ties back to the bigger picture. Connecting the team's efforts to the company's overall vision keeps everyone motivated and aligned on priorities.

3. Focus and Prioritization: Don’t Drown in Distraction:

Most founders try to do too much and end up spinning their wheels. The result? Burnout, team frustration, and a company that’s stuck in neutral. If you’re not laser-focused on the right things, your startup is doomed to drift. You can overwhelm your team with too many initiatives leading to burnout and lack of focus. Investors lose confidence when you jump from idea to idea without delivering the results that matter the most.

How to develop it:

Learn to say no: Founders often get excited about every opportunity, but you need to say no to distractions that don’t align with your core priorities. This discipline is key to maintaining focus and driving meaningful progress.
Stop prioritizing quantity over quality: Avoid the trap of busy work. Ensure that your time and energy are directed toward high-impact activities that genuinely move the company forward.
Set ruthless priorities: Start each day by asking, “What’s the highest-impact thing I can do today?” Focus on one bottleneck at a time.
Delegate non-critical tasks: You can’t do it all, and you shouldn’t try. Hire experts for areas outside your zone of genius.

4. Finding and Attracting Talent: The Right People Make the Difference.

You can’t scale without the right team, but many founders struggle to find, attract, and retain top talent. Hiring the wrong people—or worse, keeping the wrong people—can cripple your company’s ability to grow. Poor hiring decisions or a failure to let go of ineffective team members can create a dysfunctional environment and drag the team down. If key roles remain unfilled or the wrong people are in critical positions, investors will lose faith in your ability to scale the business.

How to develop it:

Use a disciplined hiring process: Create a structured approach to interviewing and hiring. Include input from multiple team members, ensuring the final decision is based on facts, not just gut feelings.
Hire for the team, not just the position: Consider how each new hire will fit within the broader team dynamic, ensuring a cultural and functional match that supports long-term growth.
Be strategic about hiring: Focus on the roles that will have the biggest impact on your company’s next stage of growth.
Invest in leadership development: Top talent wants to grow. Create opportunities for development within your organization, or they’ll leave.

5. Building Strong Teams: The Founder Doesn’t Scale, But Teams Do

In the early days, it’s easy to rely on a scrappy, all-hands-on-deck mentality. But as your company grows, that approach doesn’t work anymore. Teams need structure, defined roles, and accountability to scale. A lack of structure and clear roles leads to confusion and inefficiency, leaving employees feeling unsupported and unclear about expectations. Investors worry that if you can’t build a cohesive team, the company will stagnate.

How to develop it:

Promote psychological safety: Encourage open dialogue within your team by creating an environment where people feel safe to share ideas without fear of retribution. This fosters creativity and problem-solving.
Clarify roles and responsibilities: As your startup scales, clearly define everyone’s role to avoid confusion and ensure that everyone knows what they are accountable for.
Foster a culture of collaboration: Your job is to align the team and ensure they work toward the same goals. Communicate openly and frequently.
Encourage Diverse Perspectives: Make diversity of thought and background a key component of your team-building strategy. Diverse teams tend to be more innovative and can tackle challenges from multiple angles, leading to better problem-solving and creativity.
Create Clear Feedback Loops: Establish a culture of continuous feedback, where team members feel comfortable providing and receiving constructive criticism. Clear feedback ensures that performance issues are addressed early, and improvements are made continuously.

6. Delegation and Empowerment: Let Go to Grow

Founders often struggle with delegation, feeling that nobody can do the job as well as they can. But this mentality only limits growth. To scale, you must empower your team to take ownership. Your employees will get frustrated with micromanagement and your failure to trust their abilities. This can cause you to become a bottleneck in decision-making. Investors will see your refusal to delegate as a sign that the company is too dependent on your decisions, limiting its scalability.

How to develop it:

Push decision-making down: Empower your team by delegating decisions to those who are closest to the issue. Trust that your team can make better, faster decisions when given the authority.
Practice devolution: Encourage your team to take ownership of key tasks, allowing them to grow into leaders while freeing you up to focus on strategy.
Delegate with trust, not oversight: Empower your leaders by giving them the freedom to make decisions.
Set clear expectations: Ensure your team knows what success looks like, then get out of their way.

7. Accountability: Don’t Just Talk, Measure

Accountability is a dirty word for many founders, but it’s what separates the dreamers from the doers. Without accountability, projects stall, and growth falters. Your team needs to know that you’ll hold them to their commitments—and that you expect the same in return. A lack of accountability can result in complacency where people are not held to high standards. Teams get frustrated if you don’t hold people responsible for missed deadlines or poor performance. If investors feel that you are not addressing underperformance, they may begin to doubt that you can maintain operational discipline and deliver on promises.

How to develop it:

Create a culture of accountability: Use metrics and milestones to track progress. Hold regular reviews to discuss what’s working and what isn’t.
Model accountability: As the founder, lead by example. If you want your team to deliver, make sure you’re following through on your own promises.
Create a team operating system: Implement a disciplined process to ensure that your team is held to high standards of excellence. Use objective data and milestones to track progress.
Publicly recognize achievements, privately address failures: A culture of accountability flourishes when success is celebrated, and mistakes are handled in a supportive, private manner.

8. Coaching: Help People Be Successful

Founders often avoid difficult conversations, whether it’s giving tough feedback or resolving team conflicts. But dodging these issues only creates more problems down the line. To build a thriving company, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Employees will feel unsupported when you avoid giving feedback. Without clear guidance, team members are left to flounder, which negatively impacts morale and performance. Investors may see your avoidance of having tough conversations as a lack of the leadership skills needed to drive a high-performing team.

How to develop it:

Have tough conversations: Use frameworks like Radical Candor to give direct but empathetic feedback.
Encourage open dialogue: Create an environment where your team feels safe bringing up issues before they snowball into larger problems.
Practice active listening: Show that you value your team’s perspectives by actively listening and considering their ideas before making decisions. This not only improves trust but also fosters a culture of collaboration.
Invest in development: People want to grow but they need to know where and how. Don’t just throw them in the deep end and expect them to swim. If you don’t feel qualified to coach them, then get outside help.

9. Systems and Processes: Your Creativity Needs Structure

Startups thrive on flexibility, but scaling requires discipline. Without systems and processes in place, chaos will eventually ensue, and your growth will stagnate. A chaotic or inefficient work environment frustrates employees, as they constantly face obstacles that slow them down. Investors worry when companies grow without proper systems in place, and see it as signaling the operational inefficiency that can stifle growth.

How to develop it:

Don’t wait for things to break: Proactively address inefficiency and mistakes.
Document processes early: Standardize repetitive tasks so your team can focus on what matters most.
Adopt agile methods: Implement frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to keep your company adaptive but focused, ensuring that systems scale as your company grows.
Regularly review and iterate: Your systems must evolve as your company grows. Continuously assess and refine your processes to ensure they remain effective and efficient.

10. Conflict Resolution: Avoiding Conflict Is a Leadership Failure

Founders often sidestep conflict, but unresolved tension drags down performance. Healthy teams have hard conversations, and great leaders create environments where those conversations happen constructively. Unresolved conflicts drag down performance and morale. Employees get frustrated when they see you not addressing tensions and let festering issues damage team dynamics. Investors worry that unresolved conflicts within the leadership team or with key employees could lead to bigger problems, such as leadership turnover or productivity losses.

How to develop it:

Address conflicts early and openly: Avoiding tough conversations allows small issues to grow into bigger problems. Founders often sidestep conflicts due to discomfort or time constraints, but this avoidance can harm team dynamics. Address issues with empathy and a focus on solutions, ensuring problems don’t escalate.
Regulate emotional reactions: Emotional outbursts can fuel conflict rather than resolve it. Founders often react with frustration or impatience, which only intensifies tensions. Practice emotional control during disagreements, giving yourself space to process and focus on finding solutions rather than letting emotions dictate actions.
Train your team in conflict resolution: Equip them with tools like active listening and negotiation to handle disagreements productively.

Final Thoughts: The Hard Work That Pays Off

Being a founder means you’re always learning—often the hard way. The skills that come naturally to you won’t always be the ones you need to succeed long-term. The sooner you face these gaps, the faster you’ll grow, and the more scalable your company will become.

The choice is yours: keep struggling in the same ways or evolve into the leader your company needs to scale. Developing these skills won’t be easy, but it’s the difference between staying stuck or thriving.

Are you ready to step up?

As a founder, you possess the vision and drive that sparked your entrepreneurial journey. But to truly unlock your company’s potential, you need to address the leadership gaps that are holding you back. The good news? You don’t have to navigate this transformation alone. My leadership coaching is designed to supercharge your abilities in the critical areas where you need growth, from disciplined decision-making to effective delegation and beyond. Imagine turning your leadership challenges into strengths and your strategic plans into executable results.

If you’re ready to evolve and lead with unparalleled effectiveness, let’s work together to turn your vision into a thriving reality. Discover how my tailored coaching can help you overcome obstacles, inspire your team, and achieve lasting success. Get in touch today to learn more and take the first step toward a transformative leadership journey.

The Founder Blindspot: Your Startup’s Biggest Obstacle Might Be You

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:25:00 GMT

The journey of startup founders is marked by a powerful paradox: they possess a unique set of strengths that make them exceptional at launching businesses but also exhibit weaknesses that can limit their ability to scale leadership as their company grows. Based on detailed research and analysis of 122 founders, it's clear that these strengths are pivotal in the early stages but can become barriers later on if not addressed. Let's explore both sides of this coin—what makes founders special and how their traits can ultimately hold them back.

The Founder’s Superpowers: Fuel for Early Success

Visionary Thinking and Passion Founders are driven by bold, groundbreaking ideas. Their visionary mindset allows them to see potential opportunities that others might miss, and they are unwavering in their belief that they can turn their vision into reality. This passion and conviction serve as a magnetic force that draws in investors, employees, and early adopters, creating momentum at critical stages when resources are scarce. This drive, however, can also lead to a disconnect between big-picture thinking and day-to-day execution as the organization grows. Founders may continue to focus on new ideas without fully considering how to operationalize them, leaving teams unclear on how to proceed.

Adaptability and Comfort with Ambiguity

In the chaotic early days of a startup, founders thrive in environments that others would find unsettling. Their ability to navigate ambiguity and make decisions quickly in the face of uncertainty is key to their success. Founders are comfortable pivoting when needed, relying on their gut instincts and a continuous flow of feedback from the market. This adaptability, though, can evolve into constant shifting as the organization scales, where the lack of stable direction may confuse teams and lead to inefficiencies.

Decisiveness and Risk-Taking Founders are known for their ability to make bold, swift decisions with incomplete data. This trait is essential in fast-paced environments where delayed action can mean lost opportunities. Their willingness to take risks often separates them from more traditional leaders who may require extensive data and time before committing to decisions. However, as the company grows, this instinctive decision-making can backfire when complex decisions require deeper analysis and input from various stakeholders. The very decisiveness that powered early success can become impulsive or reckless in a larger, more complex environment.

Creativity and Problem-Solving One of the most defining characteristics of founders is their creativity. Often referred to as “idea machines,” they consistently generate innovative solutions to complex problems. This creativity goes beyond product development; it extends to logistical problem-solving, resource maximization, and team management. Founders are relentless in seeking new approaches, which drives innovation. However, in a growing organization, the balance between creativity and execution becomes critical. Founders may struggle to transition from creative ideation to structured execution, leading to half-baked projects or teams left scrambling to keep up with a flurry of new initiatives.

Resilience and Self-Confidenc e Startup life is filled with challenges, and founders’ resilience is a cornerstone of their success. They are able to push through long hours, setbacks, and failures without losing sight of their ultimate goals. This mental toughness inspires confidence in their teams, investors, and other stakeholders, keeping the company moving forward despite adversity. However, this unshakeable confidence can lead to blind spots. Founders may become so focused on their vision that they fail to listen to feedback or adjust course when necessary, resulting in tunnel vision or decisions that are out of sync with the company’s actual needs.

The Scaling Struggle: When Strengths Become Limitations

However, the very strengths that make founders successful in the beginning stages can become obstacles as the organization scales.

Micromanagement and Control Issues Founders often struggle to delegate effectively as their startups grow. The hands-on, all-in approach that is vital in the early days becomes a barrier when the team expands. Founders may find it difficult to relinquish control, continuing to involve themselves in every aspect of the business—even in areas where they lack expertise. This micromanagement creates bottlenecks, stifling employee autonomy and slowing decision-making processes. As the organization scales, the founder’s refusal to step back and trust their team undermines their own ability to lead effectively at a higher level.

Impulsive Decision-Making In the early stages, the founder’s ability to make quick decisions was an asset. However, as the organization grows in size and complexity, this decisiveness can become impulsive. Founders may make snap decisions without considering the broader implications, leading to costly mistakes. The lack of structured decision-making processes can leave employees feeling whiplashed by constantly changing priorities, reducing overall organizational efficiency.

Overcommitment and Burnout Founders’ passion and drive often translate into overcommitment, where they take on too much responsibility, refuse to delegate, and expect their teams to work with the same intensity. While this level of commitment is necessary in the early days, it can lead to burnout for both the founder and their employees as the company scales. Founders who fail to recognize this risk create an unsustainable work culture, prioritizing effort over strategic growth, which ultimately damages long-term performance.

Tunnel Vision and Short-Term Focus Founders can become disconnected from the day-to-day operations as the company grows, leading to a lack of awareness of team morale, operational efficiency, and long-term health. Their tendency to react to immediate challenges rather than plan for the future often results in missed opportunities for scaling. Strategic long-term planning becomes secondary to solving today’s crisis, which is unsustainable as the organization grows.

Conflict Avoidance and Accountability Gaps Many founders are conflict-averse, avoiding difficult conversations or deferring critical decisions about underperforming team members. This conflict avoidance creates a lack of accountability, where poor performance goes unchecked, and team tensions simmer beneath the surface. As the company scales, the absence of clear conflict-resolution processes and a culture of accountability undermines trust in leadership and diminishes overall team performance.

Lack of Structure and Dependability Founders are known for their high-energy, chaotic approach to work, but as the company expands, this lack of structure becomes a liability. Missing deadlines, shifting priorities, and operating without clear processes erode trust and diminish the organization’s ability to operate efficiently at scale. As a company grows, founders need to embrace structure—both in their leadership and in the systems they put in place—to ensure that their teams can execute consistently and effectively.

The Founder’s Paradox: Bridging the Gap

The key to overcoming these challenges lies in a founder's ability to recognize that what worked in the early days won’t sustain them through scaling. Successful founders evolve their leadership style by:

Embracing Delegation : Letting go of control and trusting their teams to make decisions without their constant oversight.
Balancing Intuition with Data : Shifting from gut-driven decisions to a more data-informed approach, especially as complexity increases.
Prioritizing Long-Term Strategy : Moving beyond day-to-day firefighting to set a clear long-term vision and creating scalable systems and processes.
Fostering Communication and Accountability : Encouraging open dialogue, resolving conflicts head-on, and ensuring accountability across all levels of the organization.
Investing in Personal and Team Well-Being : Managing stress effectively and avoiding burnout by creating a culture of recognition and support.

Conclusion: From Founder to Leader

The qualities that make founders exceptional at starting companies can hinder their ability to lead as their ventures grow. By recognizing these potential pitfalls and making intentional changes, founders can bridge the gap between being a scrappy startup hero and becoming a scalable leader. Based on statistical analysis and feedback from 122 founders, this research highlights the founder’s paradox: to succeed long-term, the same passion and drive that launched their company must evolve into a more structured, strategic approach to leadership.

Your success as a founder isn’t just about launching—it’s about growing, sustaining, and scaling your leadership as your company reaches new heights.

Rethinking Founder Mode: What Really Drives Startup Success?

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:13:40 GMT

Recently, the concept of “Founder Mode” has ignited debates across Silicon Valley. Paul Graham’s essay on the subject, and its endorsement by influential figures like Elon Musk and Brian Chesky, has glamorized the idea that founders need to remain hands-on in every facet of their growing companies. The idea is simple: avoid the MBA-driven "Manager Mode" that emphasizes delegation, and instead, stay closely involved in every key decision to preserve the startup's vision and agility.

On the surface, this sounds like good advice. After all, founders are the architects of their companies, with unparalleled passion, vision, and an intimate understanding of the product. Why would anyone want to step away from something they've built from scratch?

But what if this hands-on approach is precisely why many startups stumble? Our research on financially successful founders reveals a different story—one that challenges the Founder Mode myth and offers a fresh perspective on what truly drives success.

The Myth of Founder Mode

Proponents of Founder Mode argue that founders should remain deeply involved in day-to-day operations to prevent their companies from losing their soul as they scale. They cite examples of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos—visionary leaders who steered their companies to massive success through hands-on leadership. In this model, delegation is seen as a necessary evil that should be kept to a minimum, and founders should immerse themselves in product development, customer experience, and even skip-level meetings to stay connected to every aspect of their organization.

But while this narrative resonates in the tech world, it glosses over a critical truth: most founders who refuse to step out of this hyper-involved role struggle to scale their companies effectively. Many burn out, lose focus, and create bottlenecks. Our research indicates that clinging too tightly to Founder Mode can hinder, not help, long-term success.

What Our Research Shows: The Real Differentiator

I have been doing research on 122 founders using data on both their personality and their behavior. I measured 50 elements of personality and 360-degree feedback on 46 leadership, management, social skills and behavioral traits. I also gathered financial results data, looking at MOIC (Multiple of Invested Capital) and compared those founders who returned 10X returns with both all other founders and with founders who were the least financially successful. This research suggests that successful founders don’t remain locked into Founder Mode indefinitely—they evolve. They understand that while their initial involvement was critical to getting the company off the ground, long-term success requires a shift in leadership style, strategic delegation, and empowering others to lead. Above all, success requires adaptability and a growth mindset.

Here’s what we found:

Adaptability, Not Rigidity, Drives Success Successful founders are adaptable. They don’t cling to Founder Mode out of fear of losing control. Instead, they know when to step back, delegate, and let others take the reins in areas outside their expertise. The most successful founders are those who evolve their leadership style as their company scales, moving fluidly between hands-on involvement and strategic delegation.
Delegation Is a Superpower, Not a Weakness Contrary to Founder Mode enthusiasts, delegation is not about abandoning your vision—it’s about empowering others to carry it forward. Financially successful founders know that scaling a company requires building systems and processes that allow teams to execute independently. Delegation is not a sign of disinterest but a strategic move to ensure the company can grow without being limited by one person.
Successful Founders Build Leadership Teams One of the clearest differences between successful and unsuccessful founders is their ability to develop and empower other leaders within the company. Micromanagement may work for a team of 10, but when you're leading a company of 200, it becomes a recipe for failure. Founders who invest in leadership development build more resilient, scalable organizations, allowing them to focus on the big picture while others handle execution.
Visionary Leadership Isn’t About Doing Everything The founders often idolized for their hands-on approach—Steve Jobs, Elon Musk—were not successful because they micromanaged every aspect of their companies. They succeeded because they knew how to channel their vision into a leadership structure that could execute effectively. Financially successful founders use their influence where it matters most: setting a vision, ensuring alignment, and fostering a culture that embodies their values.
Strong Cultures Foster Long-Term Success Companies led by founders who remain stuck in Founder Mode often suffer from toxic work cultures—where employees feel micromanaged, untrusted, and disengaged. In contrast, successful founders build cultures of accountability, openness, and shared ownership. These founders aren’t afraid to delegate because they’ve built a team and a culture they can trust to deliver.

The Fatal Flaw of Founder Mode

One of the most dangerous aspects of Founder Mode is its tendency to lead to micromanagement and burnout. While hands-on leadership can be a powerful force in the early stages, founders who refuse to evolve often find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions required in a growing company. Worse, they become the single point of failure in an organization that desperately needs to scale beyond one person’s oversight.

Our research makes it clear: founders who continue to treat their companies as if they’re still a team of 20 employees fail to adapt to the demands of a growing business. The result is burnout for the founder and stagnation for the company.

A New Model for Founder Success: Evolve, Empower, and Scale

Our research paints a clear picture: the most successful founders are not those who stubbornly cling to Founder Mode but those who recognize when it’s time to let go, delegate, and evolve. These founders understand the critical balance between staying involved in the company’s vision and empowering their teams to execute. They embrace the fact that long-term success requires more than just passion—it demands adaptability, leadership development, and a scalable strategy.

If we are to redefine what it means to be a successful founder, we must challenge the glorification of Founder Mode. The true mark of a great founder isn’t how long they can stay in the weeds—it’s how effectively they can build a company that thrives without them at the center of every decision.

Conclusion

The Founder Mode debate has captivated the startup world, but our research shows that clinging to this model can do more harm than good. Success doesn’t come from micromanaging every detail; it comes from evolving as a leader, empowering others, and creating a company that can scale. The real key to startup success is knowing when to transition from Founder Mode to a leadership style that enables growth, sustainability, and innovation.

Virtual Chaos: How to Stop Dysfunctional Behavior in Remote Meetings

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 16:45:00 GMT

Don’t Let Dysfunction Destroy Your Remote Meetings

Welcome to the New Battlefield—Your Remote Meeting

Your team may be scattered across different time zones, sitting in their home offices, but the battleground for productivity remains the same: your virtual meeting room. Unlike the physical office, where you can catch subtle cues and pull someone aside for a quick chat, remote meetings come with their own set of unique challenges. And when dysfunction strikes in this digital environment, the impact is amplified. If you’re noticing more tension, disengagement, or outright chaos in your remote meetings, it’s time to take action—before your team’s potential is completely derailed.

The Hidden Dangers of Disconnection—Why Remote Teams Struggle

Remote work has its perks—flexibility, no commute, the comfort of home—but it also comes with significant risks, particularly when it comes to team cohesion. When team members are miles apart, the sense of connection that naturally forms in an office can quickly deteriorate. This disconnection doesn’t just make meetings awkward; it lays the groundwork for dysfunctional behavior.

In remote meetings, the lack of physical presence makes it easier for participants to disengage, misunderstand each other, or hide behind technology to avoid confrontation. Miscommunication becomes rampant, and small issues that could have been resolved with a quick in-person conversation snowball into major conflicts. Before you know it, your meetings have devolved into unproductive sessions where dysfunction is the norm.

Dysfunction in the Digital Age—The New Rules of Engagement

The first step in combating dysfunctional behavior in remote meetings is to establish clear rules of engagement tailored to the virtual environment. Traditional meeting norms don’t always translate well to video calls, where technical issues, time delays, and the lack of non-verbal cues can lead to frustration and confusion.

Set Clear Expectations: Remote meetings require even more structure than in-person ones. Distribute a detailed agenda in advance, and make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them. Clarify who should speak and when, and establish norms for muting microphones, using the chat function, and sharing screens.

Cameras On, Distractions Off: In a virtual setting, it’s easy to hide behind a turned-off camera and multitask. To foster accountability and engagement, make it a rule that cameras should be on unless there’s a good reason otherwise. This helps recreate some of the social pressure of an in-person meeting, making it harder for participants to tune out.

Facilitate Active Participation: Without the natural flow of in-person conversation, it’s easy for remote meetings to be dominated by one or two voices. Use features like the “raise hand” button, or go around the virtual room to ensure everyone has a chance to contribute. Encourage quieter members to speak up and actively manage any over-talking.

The Digital Disruptors—Common Dysfunctional Behaviors in Remote Meetings

Dysfunctional behaviors that were once subtle in in-person meetings can become glaringly obvious in a remote setting. Here’s how to identify and address them:

The Invisible Participant: This is the person who shows up to the meeting but contributes nothing. They might be dealing with distractions, or they might simply be disengaged. To counter this, directly ask for their input or assign specific roles or tasks during the meeting. This encourages them to stay engaged and participate actively.
The Over-Talker: In remote meetings, some people may feel the need to dominate the conversation, perhaps to compensate for the lack of physical presence. This can stifle others and lead to frustration. To manage this, set time limits for individual contributions, and rotate speaking opportunities to ensure balanced participation.
The Technical Blamer: Some participants might frequently blame technical issues—like a bad connection or audio problems—for their lack of engagement. While technical difficulties are real, they can also become a convenient excuse for disengagement. Encourage participants to test their equipment before meetings and have a backup plan in place, like dial-in options, to mitigate these issues.
The Side-Chatter: Private chats during a meeting can create silos and exclude others from important conversations. To prevent this, set a rule that all relevant discussions should happen in the main chat or aloud. This keeps the conversation transparent and inclusive.

Bringing Focus Back—How to Refocus a Derailing Remote Meeting

Even with the best-laid plans, remote meetings can sometimes go off the rails. Here’s how to get things back on track:

Refocus the Agenda: If the conversation strays off-topic, gently steer it back to the agenda. You can say something like, “This is an important point, but let’s park it for now and come back to it if we have time at the end.”
Address Conflict Directly: If tensions are rising or disagreements are becoming personal, don’t ignore it. Address the conflict head-on by acknowledging the differing opinions and suggesting a way forward. For example, you might say, “It seems like we have different perspectives on this. Let’s take a moment to hear both sides and then decide how to proceed.”
Use Breakout Rooms: If the meeting is too large or the discussion is getting unwieldy, use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups. This can make the conversation more manageable and give everyone a chance to speak.

The Long-Term Fix—Building a Culture of Accountability in Remote Teams

Stopping dysfunctional behavior in remote meetings isn’t just about quick fixes; it requires building a culture of accountability and engagement over the long term. Here’s how:

Regular Check-Ins: Schedule regular one-on-one check-ins with team members to address any concerns or frustrations before they spill over into meetings. These conversations can help you identify and address issues early.

Feedback Loops: Create a culture where feedback is both given and received regularly. After meetings, solicit feedback on what went well and what could be improved. Use this input to adjust your approach to future meetings.

Celebrate Successes: Don’t forget to acknowledge and celebrate when things go right. Whether it’s a successful meeting or a particularly productive discussion, recognizing these moments can reinforce positive behavior and encourage more of the same.

Conclusion: Don’t Let Dysfunction Destroy Your Remote Meetings

Remote work is here to stay, and with it, the challenges of running effective virtual meetings. Dysfunctional behavior in these settings can quickly derail productivity, undermine team cohesion, and lead to frustration all around. But by setting clear expectations, fostering active participation, and addressing issues head-on, you can stop dysfunction before it takes hold.

Remember, your remote meetings are a reflection of your team’s overall health. By taking steps to ensure they run smoothly, you’re not just preventing dysfunction—you’re setting your team up for long-term success in a digital world.

Don’t let virtual chaos take over; take control of your meetings and watch your team thrive.

The Three Pillars of Leadership: Unlocking the Secret to Organizational Success

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 19:45:00 GMT

In business, success is a complex puzzle, and the most significant pieces are not just financial acumen or market opportunities—they are the leaders at the helm. I’ve spent decades dissecting what makes some leaders soar while others crash and burn. My research has revealed a one important conclusion: effective leadership is built on three fundamental pillars—The Visionary Evangelist, The Relationship Builder, and The Manager of Execution. These pillars are not just styles but skill sets that are the very lifeblood of an organization. If you want to understand why some companies thrive and others fade into obscurity, look no further.

The Visionary Evangelist: The Dreamer Who Dares

Where there is no vision, the people perish—or at least, the company does. The Visionary Evangelist is the leader who sees the world not as it is, but as it could be. These are the Steve Jobs, Elon Musks, and Thomas Edisons of the world—people who, from the outside, seem to have been born with a prophetic ability to foresee the future. They don’t just think outside the box; they burn the box to ashes and build something entirely new.

Strengths:
The brilliance of a Visionary Evangelist lies in their unshakable belief in the impossible. They are the ones who can turn a seemingly absurd idea into a billion-dollar enterprise. Visionary Evangelists possess a magnetic charisma that draws people in and a relentless drive that pushes them to pursue their dreams no matter the obstacles. Their creativity is boundless, their energy infectious, and their ability to rally a team around a common goal is nothing short of miraculous.

Weaknesses:
But here’s the catch—Visionary Evangelists are often their own worst enemies. Their genius comes with a dark side. They are notoriously terrible at the mundane but crucial aspects of running a business. Details? Boring. Processes? Stifling. Execution? Someone else’s problem. This is why so many startups led by visionary founders stumble when it’s time to scale. They are brilliant at sparking the flame but terrible at keeping the fire burning. Their lack of focus on execution can turn a promising venture into a chaotic mess. In short, Visionary Evangelists can light up the world with their ideas, but without a solid team to catch and contain that lightning, they’re likely to burn the house down.

The Relationship Builder: The Glue That Binds

In the cutthroat world of business today, where competition is fierce and the stakes are high, it’s easy to forget that companies are not just collections of assets—they are communities of people. Enter the Relationship Builder, the leader who understands that the strength of any organization lies in the bonds between its members. These leaders are the unsung heroes, the empathetic souls who quietly keep the ship sailing smoothly by ensuring that everyone feels valued and heard.

Strengths:
Relationship Builders are the emotional glue of any organization. They are the ones who know every employee’s birthday, who can defuse a tense meeting with a well-timed joke, and who instinctively understand what makes each team member tick. In a world increasingly dominated by remote work and digital communication, these leaders are more vital than ever. They are the ones who create a culture of trust and collaboration, who make people want to come to work every day, even when the work itself is challenging.

But don’t be fooled by their soft touch—Relationship Builders have a powerful impact. They are the reason people stay with a company through tough times, the ones who turn a group of employees into a true team. They are the heart and soul of an organization, ensuring that the people who make up the company are connected, motivated, and ready to go the extra mile.

For example, think about Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, who transformed the company’s culture by emphasizing empathy, collaboration, and a growth mindset. Under his leadership, Microsoft has shifted from a cutthroat, competitive environment to one where teamwork and inclusivity are prioritized, leading to significant business success. Another great example of a Relationship Builder is Tony Hsieh, the late CEO of Zappos. Hsieh was known for his extraordinary emphasis on company culture and employee happiness, which he believed were key to the success of the business. His leadership style was built on trust, open communication, and fostering strong relationships within the organization

Weaknesses:
However, the very traits that make Relationship Builders so effective can also be their downfall. Their deep empathy and desire to avoid conflict can make them indecisive and overly accommodating. They may struggle with holding people accountable, fearing that tough love might damage relationships. In the pressure cooker of startup life, this can lead to a lack of discipline and accountability that undermines the entire organization. They can be so focused on keeping everyone happy that they lose sight of the bigger picture, becoming reluctant to make the hard decisions that leadership sometimes demands. In short, they can be too nice for their own good.

The Manager of Execution: The No-Nonsense Operator

If Visionary Evangelists are the spark and Relationship Builders the glue, then Managers of Execution are the gears that keep the machine running. They are the pragmatic, detail-oriented leaders who take the grand ideas of the Visionary Evangelist and turn them into reality. These are the unsung warriors of the business world—the ones who ensure that the trains run on time, that budgets are met, and that projects are delivered with precision.

Think about Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, as an example. Barra’s focus on execution and operational excellence has driven GM through a significant transformation, including the aggressive push towards electric vehicles. Her disciplined approach has helped GM stay competitive in an industry undergoing rapid change. Another modern example is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, who succeeded Steve Jobs. While Jobs was the quintessential Visionary Evangelist, Cook is the epitome of a Manager of Execution. His meticulous attention to supply chain management and operational efficiency has allowed Apple to maintain its status as one of the most valuable companies in the world, even after the passing of its iconic founder

Strengths:
Managers of Execution are the backbone of any successful organization. They bring order to chaos, discipline to creativity, and focus to ambition. They are the ones who see the world in terms of processes, plans, and measurable outcomes. They are relentless in their pursuit of efficiency and are not afraid to make the tough decisions necessary to keep the organization on track. Their greatest strength is their ability to take a high-level vision and break it down into actionable steps that can be executed with military precision.

In the startup world, where the chaos of rapid growth can easily overwhelm even the best ideas, Managers of Execution are the ones who keep the ship from capsizing. They are the ones who ensure that deadlines are met, that resources are allocated efficiently, and that the organization remains financially viable. Without them, even the most brilliant startup is doomed to flounder.

Weaknesses:
But like the other pillars, Managers of Execution have their Achilles’ heel. Their focus on efficiency and control can lead them to become micromanagers, stifling creativity and innovation in their quest for order. They may become so obsessed with process that they lose sight of the ultimate goal, turning into bureaucrats rather than leaders. Their insistence on following the plan can make them inflexible and resistant to change, which is deadly in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Moreover, their tendency to prioritize tasks over people can lead to a toxic work environment where employees feel like cogs in a machine rather than valued members of a team.

Why All Three Pillars Matter

Here’s the ultimate my 40 years of research has uncovered: no single pillar is enough. The Visionary Evangelist, the Relationship Builder, and the Manager of Execution are all essential to the success of any organization, but each brings unique strengths and corresponding weaknesses. An organization led solely by a Visionary Evangelist may blaze bright but burn out quickly, undone by its inability to execute. A company dominated by Relationship Builders may be a great place to work but could falter without a clear vision or the discipline to deliver results. And a firm run by Managers of Execution may be efficient but soulless, marching toward mediocrity rather than greatness.

This is why the most successful organizations are those that cultivate all three pillars. It’s about balance. A great company needs the visionary spark to inspire, the relational glue to bind, and the operational rigor to execute. Each pillar supports the others, compensating for their weaknesses and amplifying their strengths.

The Founder’s Dilemma

For founders, this balance is particularly crucial—and particularly challenging. Founders often excel as Visionary Evangelists, brimming with ideas and passion. But as their companies grow, the skills that made them successful in the early days—creativity, risk-taking, relentless energy—can become liabilities. Without the execution skills to scale operations or the relational skills to build a cohesive team, even the most brilliant founders can find themselves at the helm of a sinking ship.

This is why many startups struggle to transition from a scrappy, innovative startup to a sustainable, growing company. Founders must either develop the other pillars or, more realistically, bring in leaders who can complement their strengths. The best founders are those who recognize their limitations and surround themselves with a team that can fill in the gaps.

Leadership in Larger Organizations

As companies grow, the need for leaders who embody all three pillars becomes even more critical. In a large organization, it’s not enough to be a visionary or a people person or an operational expert—you need to be all three, or at least understand how to lead a team that covers all these bases. Leaders who can only see through the lens of one pillar are doomed to fail in the complex, multifaceted world of big business.

The best leaders are those who can switch between these styles as the situation demands, who can dream big, connect deeply with their team, and deliver results—all at the same time. It’s a tall order, but those who can master this trifecta are the ones who leave a lasting legacy.

The Path to Lasting Success

The Three Pillars of Leadership offer a roadmap for building a successful organization, but they also serve as a warning. Lean too heavily on any one pillar, and your organization may crumble. The real power lies in balance—in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each leadership style and ensuring that your team has all three pillars represented.

For founders and leaders alike, the message is clear: embrace your strengths, but don’t ignore your weaknesses. Surround yourself with people who can do what you can’t, and you’ll build an organization that’s not just successful but unstoppable. In the end, it’s not just about being a visionary, a connector, or an operator—it’s about being all of them, or knowing how to lead a team that is.

Safe to Speak: The Impact of Psychological Safety on Team Dynamics

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 16:30:00 GMT

Don't Just lead - create a safe environment for dialogue

The Power of Feeling Safe

Every decision has the potential to make or break a company, but one might assume that hard data and relentless drive are the keys to success. However, there’s an often-overlooked factor that can make or break team performance—psychological safety. This invisible yet potent force can transform teams from dysfunctional groups into collaborative powerhouses. But what is psychological safety, and why is it so crucial?

Psychological safety isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a critical component of team dynamics that, when cultivated, can lead to extraordinary outcomes. It’s not about creating a comfortable environment where no one ever feels challenged. Instead, it’s about ensuring that everyone on the team feels safe enough to take risks, voice their opinions, and share their ideas—no matter how controversial or unconventional they might be. This blog will explore why psychological safety is essential, how it impacts team performance, and what leaders can do to foster it.

What Is Psychological Safety, and Why Should You Care?

Psychological safety, a term coined by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson, is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It’s the foundation of open communication, where team members feel free to express themselves without fear of retribution. But why is this so important?

When psychological safety is present, teams thrive. Members are more likely to admit mistakes, share ideas, and challenge each other's thinking, leading to better decision-making and innovation. On the other hand, without it, team members remain silent, disengaged, and afraid to contribute, leading to poor decisions and stagnation.

The value of psychological safety extends beyond just making team members feel good; it’s about enhancing the quality of team interactions. When people feel safe, they are more likely to collaborate, experiment, and engage in productive conflict—all of which are crucial for innovation and progress. In contrast, a lack of psychological safety can lead to groupthink, where dissenting opinions are suppressed, and suboptimal decisions are made. This is why psychological safety isn’t just a “nice-to-have” but a fundamental element of successful teams.

The Dark Side of Silence: How Leaders Kill Open Communication

Imagine being on a team where the leader dismisses your ideas, criticizes you openly, or pits team members against each other. This toxic behavior doesn’t just hurt morale—it destroys psychological safety. When leaders create an atmosphere of fear, team members learn to keep quiet, avoid conflict, and hide their true thoughts.

This silence is deadly. Research shows that decisions improve when all perspectives are considered, but when leaders are unwilling to listen, their biases go unchallenged, leading to flawed and often disastrous outcomes. From confirmation bias to overconfidence, unchecked leadership biases can steer an organization off course, all because team members don’t feel safe to speak up.

Leadership plays a pivotal role in either fostering or stifling psychological safety. Leaders who are overly critical or dismissive create a culture of fear, where team members are too intimidated to share their honest thoughts. This not only limits the flow of ideas but also undermines trust and collaboration within the team. In such environments, innovation grinds to a halt, and team members become disengaged, leading to a decline in overall performance. On the flip side, leaders who actively encourage open dialogue and treat every contribution with respect can transform the team dynamic, unlocking the full potential of their team members.

Psychological Safety: The Secret Ingredient in Google’s Recipe for Success

Google’s Project Aristotle, a massive study on teamwork, revealed that psychological safety is the most critical factor in effective teams. When team members feel safe, they’re more likely to take risks, admit they don’t know something, and ask for help. This openness leads to better problem-solving, more creativity, and stronger collaboration.

In contrast, teams lacking psychological safety struggle with communication, fail to innovate, and often make poor decisions. The takeaway? Psychological safety isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for any team that wants to succeed.

Google’s findings underscore the importance of creating a team environment where psychological safety is prioritized. When team members feel psychologically safe, they’re more willing to voice dissenting opinions, which can lead to more robust discussions and better decision-making. Furthermore, psychological safety encourages continuous learning within the team. When mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth rather than failures to be punished, teams can learn and adapt quickly, leading to sustained success in a rapidly changing business landscape.

The Leader’s Role: Creating a Safe Space for Open Dialogue

As a leader, you hold the keys to creating psychological safety. It starts with how you treat your team members. Are you respectful? Do you listen without judgment? Do you encourage everyone to speak up, even if their ideas are half-formed? These behaviors are crucial in fostering an environment where everyone feels safe to contribute.

But it’s not just about being nice. Leaders must also be willing to call out negative behavior that threatens the team’s psychological safety. This means addressing disrespect, silos, and competitive attitudes that undermine collaboration. At the same time, positive behavior—like supportive and collaborative actions—should be recognized and rewarded.

Leaders also need to model vulnerability. Admitting when you don’t have all the answers or when you’ve made a mistake can set a powerful example for your team. It shows that it’s okay to be human and that mistakes are part of the learning process. This openness fosters a culture where team members feel comfortable taking risks and being honest about their challenges. Furthermore, leaders should focus on creating an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are welcomed and valued. This not only enhances psychological safety but also drives innovation by incorporating a wide range of ideas and viewpoints.

The Ripple Effect: How Psychological Safety Transforms Teams

When psychological safety is established, the effects are profound. Teams become more resilient, innovative, and engaged. They’re willing to tackle tough problems, admit when they’re wrong, and build on each other’s ideas. This level of openness and trust not only leads to better decisions but also creates a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

In a world where business is more competitive than ever, psychological safety gives teams the edge they need to succeed. It’s the silent catalyst that turns average teams into unstoppable forces, capable of achieving extraordinary results.

The ripple effects of psychological safety extend beyond individual teams and can positively impact the entire organization. When psychological safety is woven into the fabric of a company’s culture, it encourages open communication at all levels, fosters cross-functional collaboration, and drives collective problem-solving. Moreover, it creates an environment where employees are more engaged and satisfied with their work, leading to higher retention rates and overall organizational success. In essence, psychological safety is the foundation upon which high-performing, innovative organizations are built.

Don’t Just Lead—Create a Safe Environment for Dialogue

Psychological safety might be an intangible concept, but its impact is anything but. For leaders who want to build high-performing teams, fostering a safe environment where open communication thrives is non-negotiable. So, take a step back, evaluate your leadership style, and ask yourself: Are you creating a space where your team feels safe to speak up? If not, it’s time to make some changes—because the success of your team depends on it.

Creating psychological safety is not a one-time effort but an ongoing commitment. It requires consistent action, reflection, and adjustment to ensure that all team members feel valued, heard, and respected. By prioritizing psychological safety, leaders can unlock the full potential of their teams, driving innovation, collaboration, and success in ways that might have previously seemed out of reach. Don’t just lead—create a safe space for greatness to emerge.

BEST LEADERS SERIES

rahagberg@gmail.com (Rich Hagberg) — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 23:28:54 GMT

#1 The Spark of Leadership: How Outstanding Leaders Inspire Others

The ability to inspire has become a critical hallmark of effective leadership. Inspirational leaders are not just figures of authority but are also role models who influence their teams to achieve beyond their perceived limits. They ignite passion and creativity, driving not only individual growth but also organizational success. The importance of being an inspirational role model cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts employee engagement, productivity, and the overall work environment.

A true leader is defined not by their title but by their ability to show strength through optimism and resilience, guiding others with unwavering confidence and commitment, especially in challenging times. As the adage goes, "The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example." Inspirational leaders transform visions into reality by empowering others to achieve the impossible, demonstrating that leadership today is about influence, not authority.

The Core of Inspirational Leadership

Our research highlights several key characteristics that outstanding leaders embody to inspire others effectively:

Optimism and Positive Attitude Inspirational leaders consistently display a hopeful and upbeat outlook. Their optimism is infectious, creating a workplace environment where employees feel encouraged and confident about the future. As one quote aptly puts it, "Inspiration stems from a leader's unwavering energy and commitment, offering hope and guiding others through the toughest of times." By maintaining a positive demeanor even in challenging situations, these leaders uplift and reassure their teams, setting a tone of resilience and possibility.
Energy and Enthusiasm Leaders who bring energy and enthusiasm to their roles inspire and motivate others. Their spirited approach to work is contagious, making the workplace dynamic and engaging. As the saying goes, "Optimism in leadership is contagious, spreading hope and inspiring action even in the face of adversity." This vitality not only drives productivity but also fosters a culture of excitement and dedication.
Leading by Example Inspirational leaders serve as role models through their actions and behavior. They set high standards for themselves and consistently meet them, demonstrating the qualities and work ethic they expect from their team. This principle of "Leaders light the way by turning obstacles into opportunities and challenges into steppingstones" resonates as they earn respect and inspire others to follow their lead.
Handling Tough Situations Well In times of crisis or difficulty, leaders who remain calm, composed, and resilient provide stability and direction. Their ability to manage stress and navigate challenges effectively instills confidence in their team, turning challenges into opportunities and radiating confidence and energy to inspire hope in others. As one quote states, "The power of a leader is revealed through their ability to maintain enthusiasm and inspire others with confidence when challenges arise."
Commitment and Determination Deeply dedicated to their goals and responsibilities, these leaders inspire their teams by showing that hard work and perseverance can lead to significant accomplishments. Their unwavering commitment serves as a beacon, illustrating that "A leader's commitment and determination shine brightest when the path is steep, providing the energy and inspiration needed for others to continue."
Encouragement and Support Leaders who actively encourage and support their team's growth and well-being build a trusting and collaborative environment. By providing positive reinforcement, constructive feedback, and mentorship, they help team members feel valued and motivated to excel, embodying the belief that "A true leader lifts people up, making them believe in their own potential."

Characteristics of Leaders Who Fail to Inspire

While some leaders shine through inspiration and motivation, others struggle to engage and uplift their teams. Here are some characteristics of leaders who often fail to inspire:

Pessimism and Lack of Optimism Leaders who focus on negative outcomes rather than positive possibilities may struggle to inspire their teams. A pessimistic outlook can dampen morale and prevent team members from feeling motivated to overcome challenges. As the saying goes, "In times of adversity, a leader’s optimism and enthusiasm become the beacon of hope, inspiring others to persevere."
Lack of Emotional Intelligence Leaders lacking emotional intelligence may not connect well with their teams, failing to inspire them through empathy and understanding. Emotional intelligence helps leaders navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and inspire through positive relationships.
Inconsistent Behavior and Reliability Leaders who exhibit inconsistent behavior or fail to reliably support their teams can undermine their credibility. Consistency in actions and words is critical for leaders to inspire confidence and trust among their followers.
Lack of Charisma and Inspirational Communication Charisma and the ability to communicate inspirationally are key traits of effective role models. Leaders who struggle in these areas may find it difficult to engage and motivate their teams to strive for excellence and innovation.
Focus on Self over Team Leaders who prioritize their own interests over those of their team can struggle to inspire loyalty and motivation. Inspirational leaders often exhibit selflessness and a genuine interest in the well-being and success of their team members.
Ineffective in Challenging Times Inspirational leaders are often defined by their ability to uplift and motivate their teams during difficult periods. Those who fail to do so may not be seen as reliable or encouraging figures, affecting team morale and performance. As the quote says, "During tough times, a leader’s optimism and energy are the lifeline that inspires others to believe and move forward."

The Impact of Inspirational Leadership

The benefits of inspirational leadership are profound. Research from Harvard Business School indicates that such leadership is the most significant factor in fostering high levels of employee engagement and commitment. Employees inspired by their leaders are more likely to go above and beyond their job requirements, leading to increased productivity and innovation.

Inspirational leaders also create a positive and supportive work environment, where employees feel valued and empowered, resulting in increased job satisfaction, reduced turnover rates, and a stronger sense of teamwork and collaboration. They encourage their teams to think creatively and challenge the status quo, driving innovation and propelling the organization forward.

Moreover, by demonstrating integrity, authenticity, and a genuine concern for their employees' well-being, inspirational leaders earn trust and loyalty. This creates a strong foundation for a high-performing team that is resilient in the face of challenges.

Being an inspirational role model is not just about achieving personal success but about igniting a fire within others and helping them discover the leader within themselves. As one of the quotes poignantly states, "Inspirational leadership is about igniting a fire within people, not just around them." By embodying these principles, leaders can transform their teams and organizations, creating a culture of excellence and mutual support. Ultimately, the best leaders inspire greatness in others, challenging them to dream more, learn more, and do more.

Is Your Ego Destroying Your Leadership?

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 21:38:00 GMT

Our research on almost 2000 leaders suggests that self-confidence is an important factor in effective leadership. However, this is not as straight-forward as one might think. Those who are rated as effective leaders by their coworkers have a healthy balance of belief in themselves and their capabilities but recognize their limitations. They do believe they are capable, are destined to lead others, have good judgment and often believe they will do great things. This gives them a willingness to take risks, follow their vision, take initiative, set lofty goals, guide the organization through difficult times and make tough, critical decisions.

Their confidence inspires and reassures their followers.

As successful as they are, these leaders are not arrogant. They recognize that they have flaws, shortcomings and limitations, but they are comfortable with who they are. They acknowledge their weaknesses rather than becoming defensive, and accept the fact that they must work around their shortcomings. They are willing to question themselves, reflect upon their successes and failures and make an effort to learn and grow in order to be more successful. They will seek out feedback and really listen to input. They are comfortable in their own skin rather than needing to receive recognition. They can laugh at their own mistakes and admit when they are wrong. In other words, their ego is “right-sized.”

In contrast, overconfident leaders frequently have serious problems. They overestimate their ability, performance, and potential for success. They fail to think about what may go wrong. They are unrealistic about their limitations and flaws and are blind to their potential for making mistakes. They don’t recognize the gaps in their knowledge or ability. They have a difficult time asking for help, advice and feedback. They don’t listen to their subordinates or question their own judgment or assumptions. In other words, their ego can be their undoing.

So, self-confidence can serve as a positive force or it can stand in the way of success. It is a delicate balance. On the one hand, if my central focus is myself, my goals, my achievements, my status, if my whole world revolves around me and my endless quest to get ahead and to prove my worthiness, why would anyone else want to play a part in that movie? Such a hyper-inflated ego is rightly seen as a problem, an inner voice that needs to be minimized or rooted out.

This begs the question about the relationship between self-confidence and egotism. Self-confidence is a belief in yourself and your abilities. The ego can be seen as a façade or mask which masquerades for confidence, but is really rooted in insecurity. The ego seeks self-validation, approval, praise and seeks to be “right” and promote an image of invulnerability. This makes it difficult for the person to admit they are wrong and causes a leader to focus on self-aggrandizement.

The egotistic leader is self-centered, self-righteous and self-congratulatory. This leads to criticism of others’ ideas, actions, and abilities in order to prove one’s superiority. Genuine, justified confidence inspires and builds followership; egotism drives followers away. For egotistic leaders, the game is about themselves, protecting their image, winning every argument, feeling entitled and defending and justifying their decisions. Egotists don’t learn from their mistakes, they defend them. They are afraid to be wrong, to show vulnerability, to listen to other’ views, and they resent having to do work they consider beneath them. They focus on personal ambition, power, status, and inflating and promoting an image. As T.S. Eliot put it, “Half the harm that is done in the world is due to people who want to feel important. “

Narcissism

Narcissism is an extreme form of over-confidence that is actually quite common in leaders. Narcissistic leaders use their self-confidence and charisma to draw others and initially inspire them to follow. Dr. Berit Brogaard is both a physician and professor of philosophy at the University of Miami. She has spelled out some of the main characteristics of people who have a narcissistic, exaggerated sense of their own worthiness.

They have a grandiose sense of self-importance, tend to exaggerate their achievements and talents, and expect to be recognized by others as superior — even if their achievements don’t warrant it.
They are preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance.
They believe they are “special” and unique, and can only be understood by other special, high-status individuals.
Thus they require excessive admiration and have a sense of entitlement.
They are interpersonally exploitative, and tend to take advantage of others to achieve their own ends.
They lack empathy, and are unable to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
They are often envious of others or believe that others are envious of them.
They are arrogant and haughty.

These are all signs of an ego that has run amok.

So what exactly is the ego?

The ego isn’t only about an inflated sense of self-importance. It goes deeper than that. Ego is that function of our psyche that defines the self, that tells the story of who we are, or who we think we are, and gives us our sense of identity. It is a mask, a persona, a facade that works like a protective armor to help us navigate safely in an unpredictable, ever-changing, and potentially dangerous world.

For most of us, ego is heavily influenced by how we see ourselves in relation to others. It is a person’s self-image-a set of beliefs about the sort of person one is and how one differs from others. Often this involves our social role or other attributes that differentiate us from others: Man, woman, father, mother, artist, dentist, athlete, helper, lawyer, entrepreneur, expert, Virgo or Capricorn, construction worker, teacher, CEO, king, engineer, kind person, rebel, youngest son or daughter, Harvard graduate, New Yorker, attractive woman or man, wise person, tough boss, smart, young, old, veteran. Each of us has numerous role definitions that convey who we are. It is a mental image of “me”, a sense of identity that we construct early in life based on our personality traits, abilities, physical attributes, lessons learned, experiences, and feedback from our parents, teachers, and peers. But it is a narrow and confining definition of “me”. It is not all of who we are. It is simply who we think we are. I will come back to this idea later.

The ego labels not only ourselves — “I am smart, I am capable, I am a CEO, I am an innovative thinker, etc.” — but also labels the objects and people in our sphere of living to help us make sense of the world. We may see others as potential partners or threatening competitors, as resources we can use or as fools to stay away from.

Richard Alpert, the former Harvard psychology professor who became world famous as a spiritual teacher known as Ram Dass, developed a deep understanding of ego from both a spiritual and psychological perspective. As he put it, “The ego has convinced us that we need it-not only that we need it, but that we are it.” The ego, he says, “selects its costumes, learns its lines, its timing, its gestures, its way of movement, even the choices of roles it may play when it leaves the dressing room and stands before an audience of other Egos. . . . Unlike an actor, however, who realizes that he or she is onstage playing a role, we tend to forget who we really are once we’ve taken the stage.” Although theoretically we can either play the role when needed or step out of it to express our authentic self, much of the time we become identified by it, and trapped by it.

For example, leaders can get trapped by playing the “leader” role. As you are promoted to higher level positions and acquire power and influence, your coworkers, particularly your subordinates, listen to you more, agree with you more, defer to you more and are increasingly reluctant to challenge your ideas. This power can go to your head, and often does.

SOME CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS OF EGO-FILLED PEOPLE:

They claim they did all the work. As someone described such a person, “They built the company with their bare hands, did all of the sales and marketing, ran the numbers every night until 2 a.m., emptied trash cans and even replaced the toilet paper rolls.”

Well, probably not.

They believe they’re the smartest people in the room. They assume they are always right, don’t listen to others’ opinions and ideas, don’t trust others, and end up trying to do everything themselves.
They talk but don’t listen. Or if they appear to listen, they don’t actually act on the advice or information given.
They don’t acknowledge the contributions of others. Many great leaders find a way to praise team members and give them all the credit for success. Ego-driven people seek out the praise and gladly take all the credit.
They don’t delegate tasks or responsibilities, don’t train others, and won’t give up control. So they are excellent candidates for burnout, and their teams never live up to their full potential.

The hubris syndrome

For centuries observers of the human condition have noted the negative effects that power can produce in those who wield a lot of it. But it’s only in the last decade that researchers have found a way to describe these effects in a systematic way, and to point out the dangers to both the power holders and all those they influence. In a recent book, David Owen, a physician and prominent high level official in the British government for over 40 years, described what he called the Hubris Syndrome. The elements of this syndrome will sound familiar to anyone who has seen the effects of power on the character and behavior of people who have held positions of power over a long term. They resemble the qualities we just looked at as described by Dr. Brogaard, but here they apply specifically to leaders and leadership:

They have a tendency to see their world primarily as an arena in which they can exercise power and seek glory. This can be a problem for entrepreneurs and early-stage company founders. But it is definitely a problem when companies grow large and attract leaders who are not particularly passionate about the mission or vision and are just there for the power, money and status.
They take actions which seem likely to cast them in a good light, to enhance their image. Narcissistic leaders want to be the center of attention. This is common among leaders who are charismatic, inspirational and good at influencing others. Once a company starts thinking about going public, the importance of representing the company and its brand and selling its image becomes part of the job of the leader. When the company gets to a certain size it hires a PR person or firm. It is their job to cast the leader and the company in a favorable light. This can play into the leaders ego needs.
They have a messianic way of talking about what they are doing and how great it is. This is what visionary evangelists do — evangelize the mission, vision, values and aspirations of the organization. The best ones are charismatic and persuasive and frequently passionate and inspirational.
They identify with their nation or organization to the extent that they regard their personal destiny and that of the larger entity as identical. Leaders and particularly founders are strongly identified with their creation. In my early consulting days, I got surprised by the defensiveness of CEOs when they were presented with the results of the culture survey if it was even slightly negative. It was their baby, we were telling them that the baby was ugly, and they didn’t like it.
They have excessive confidence in their own judgment and contempt for the advice or criticisms of others, as well as exaggerated belief, bordering on a sense of omnipotence, in what they personally can achieve. Sunflower bias, confirmation bias, over-confidence bias can lead to not considering what might go wrong, or that one’s own judgment might be flawed. A big ego and arrogance lead to bad decisions.
They truly believe that rather than being accountable to colleagues or public opinion, they are accountable only to History or God. This is a big problem when the CEO/Founder owns the majority of the stock or is the single largest shareholder. It’s also a problem with small businesses and family businesses, where there is really nobody who has oversight. I’ve seen a lot of these owners funneling money to family members and running personal expenses through the company.
They lose touch with reality, and often live in a bubble of increasing isolation. This is conducive to developing what I have called “the distorted view from the top.”
They are prone to recklessness and impulsiveness. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize winner for his research on decision-making, has cautioned that, “The brain is a machine for jumping to conclusions.” If you think you are the smartest person in the room and possess unique abilities and intuitive judgment, you probably won’t consider what might go wrong, what you may have overlooked, what information is missing, what assumptions need to be questioned or what might be the consequences of taking a risk.
They have a tendency to allow their belief in the rightness of a proposed course to override considerations of practicality, cost or potential outcomes, with the result that things go wrong.
They feel entitled and have a distorted sense of their own omnipotence. Thus they don’t plan and don’t handle the things that need to be done. They just assume things will work out for them and don’t think about the details or the difficulties of implementation.

These factors reflect the “dark side” of the power of a leader. It is instructive to consider that the very same qualities that support strong leadership, such as decisiveness, persuasiveness, and so on can lead to impetuosity, a failure to listen to or take advice even from members of one’s own chosen team, and in David Owen’s words, “a particular form of incompetence when impulsivity, recklessness and frequent inattention to detail predominate.” This is hubris, “exaggerated pride, overwhelming self-confidence,” that at its worst breeds “contempt for others. This can result in disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale,” damage to the individual’s leadership ability and credibility, and damage to the organization. [Hubris Syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years, by David Owen and Jonathan Davidson, BRAIN, A Journal of Neurology, 2009, Vol 132 pages 1396–1406]]

I have found this syndrome, this constellations of qualities and characteristics, in a surprisingly large number of the thousands of leaders I have worked with over nearly 40 years. It seems to go with the territory, an occupational hazard of those who rise to power positions, whether in business, government, the military, or even academia. And it seems to arise even in people who showed no predisposition to be tyrannical, authoritarian, or power-hungry before they were actually in a position of power. The longer you are in a position of power, it seems, the greater the chance of developing the hubris syndrome. Take this as a warning. There is a very old saying, proven true by experience: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Dangers of an out-of-control ego: How does this happen?

A big ego is all too common among high-achieving leaders. As we’ve seen, leading a growing organization requires a leader to be ambitious, confident and to possess a high degree of drive and willpower. But often it does not stop there. As the organization grows and the leader’s power also grows, they often develop a distorted sense of their own importance, a need to be right, and a belief that they are more capable than others.

You get a higher salary, more stock options, a bigger office, and often media attention as well. Slowly you can become surrounded by sycophants who will feed your ego and ultimately will manipulate you to further their own ends.

Let’s now look at what are some of the consequences and challenges that result when these conditions converge and a leader’s ego begins to expand beyond reasonable boundaries.

You can start seeing yourself as the center of the universe and begin to put your own needs, agenda, and self-gratification ahead of others.
You spend more time promoting yourself than your organization or other leaders.
You don’t really listen to others, or if you manage to listen, you don’t act on any suggestions or advice.
You put your views and opinions ahead of the perspectives of your subordinates. This can lead to confirmation bias, over-confidence bias, over-optimism bias and cause the leader to disregard the realities and challenges that could negatively influence their own and their organization’s success. They start believing their own rhetoric. Ultimately reality is going to be the winner and a good leader needs to face it, rather than believe in their own delusional omnipotence.
You let it be known that the success of the company is due to you, and that you’ve done all the hard work and deserve the credit. This can also result in the leader starting to take credit for others’ ideas.
Your ego tells you that you’re the only one who can get things done, or done right, so you keep a watchful eye on everyone’s work and micromanage their progress. Nobody likes this. You begin belittling other people’s views or recommendations, and are more prone to blame and find scapegoats rather than taking responsibility when things go wrong. Similarly, you fail to acknowledge or recognize team members when they do things right,
You use intimidation, outbursts, punishment for mistakes and criticism of other’s flaws to put people in their place. Working for an insecure, egocentric leader fosters stress, frustration and fear and creates an unhealthy organizational culture.
Subordinates will not take risks and will do the bare minimum to avoid triggering an outburst or criticism. And they will ultimately resent you for failing to make them successful and for letting your ego damage the success of the company.
Power and success often begin to corrupt and can distort your values, your perspective and can corrupt your behavior.
The ego’s desire for fortune, fame, influence, attention and power can cause you, or any leader, to start believing they are entitled to special treatment, perks and privileges.
It can cause the leader to be rude and disrespectful, selfish and condescending.
It can lead to defensiveness and the need to always be right, which will prevent you from hearing feedback and thus learning from your mistakes
What this adds up to is that you begin to live in a self-centered, kind of ivory tower universe where you only see and hear what you want to, a universe that upholds your views and your value.

Avoiding the trap of the inflated ego is thus a real challenge. The ego can become a huge barrier to your effectiveness as a team and company leader by destroying a collaborative environment.

A Dark Secret

Underneath the surface many, if not most leaders have self-doubt. They are actually afraid of making mistakes. This insecurity makes them afraid to be wrong and unwilling to be vulnerable. To compensate, they try to project a false sense of strength, as if they have all the answers and have everything totally under control. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

Things You Tell Yourself When Your Ego May Be In Control or Gaining a Foothold

Don’t they know who I am?
Eventually, they will realize that I’m right
I deserve it: credit, recognition, a generous perk, a big salary, a private airplane
Well, that doesn’t apply to me
Because I say so
I could have done that better
I wish he would shut up and let me talk
My job, house, car, salary, looks, achievements, hometown, spouse/girlfriend/partner is better
They should show me more respect
I’m clearly smarter and more capable
Nobody is going to tell me what to do
They are a bunch of idiots
I must admit, I’m good
There is no way we could fail at this
How could anyone disagree?
Well, enough about me. What do you think about me?

Some things I’ve learned about the Best Leaders

Through extensive research, interviews and consulting with thousands of leaders, and a database that includes leaders’ in-depth personality profiles, 360 degree reports, and more, I have learned a lot about what makes the Best Leaders who they are. And also what they are not, especially when bloated egos get in their way.

Here is a quick sketch of some of the findings that I’ll be discussing in future blogs.

Ego-driven leadership

There is no doubt that some leaders are driven by ego, and we all know such people. They may seem to be propelled by “legitimate” goals such as building or expanding an organization, but what is foremost in their minds and emotions is making a success for themselves, gaining fame, fortune, influence, and personal power. They are also driven to a great extent by fear and self-protection, which is reflected in the pessimism that many of them exhibit, as well as inflexibility because they feel they have to hold on to positions, ideas, and ways of doing things that have worked in the past. In short: they are afraid of change. They are motivated to try to control change rather than embrace it.

What is the source of Best Leaders drive and motivation?

The Best Leaders, on the other hand, have harnessed or even transcended their egos and are motivated by ambitions greater than themselves, such as service, or making a meaningful contribution to their society.

They are determined to make a difference — They are driven to be the best and to make a difference. They will not be satisfied until they are the best in their field. This is related to the need to learn and grow but it also involves a willingness to work longer and harder and do more than others have done to achieve their vision.
They have a sense of purpose — They are mission-driven — they have a sense of purpose or mission that is beyond themselves. As leaders, they focus on the organization’s greater good, rather than worrying about their own self-interest.
They are seen as highly inspirational due to their vision, dedication to the mission, passion and willingness to take the lead and to get things done. They are extremely persistent and won’t give up when they hit obstacles or have setbacks. They work hard, are a model of commitment and dedication. They believe in themselves and their mission and are confident that ultimately, they will succeed.
They are genuinely secure — As we’ve discussed, the Best Leaders are highly self-confident. Most of them report that leadership is natural to them, often saying something like, “I was born to be a leader,” or “I am going to accomplish great things in my life,” confidence and drive coming together with a sense of mission or destiny. But they are confident without being arrogant. The fact that “I often seek other people’s advice” shows up strongly in their profiles shows that they understand that they don’t have all the answers, and recognize that others’ views and ideas are helpful.
They face the facts and accept who they are — Ego-driven people hide their weaknesses, even from themselves — there’s no room in their self-image of superiority for flaws and failings. On the other hand, the Best Leaders are comfortable with themselves and accept themselves, including their flaws. They are not afraid to say, “There are times that I have done things that I later regretted.” They are willing to question themselves and seek out feedback from others, and they really listen. People who are heavily invested in their ego can get very defensive about shortcomings, but the more enlightened accept that they are who they are, and make an effort to work around weaknesses or make changes where possible. They monitor their behavior to avoid situations and triggers that bring out their shortcomings. They act decisively when they are relatively certain they have the experience, facts and understanding required. But they are humble enough to listen to alternative solutions and ask disconfirming question to avoid over-confidence bias, over-optimism bias etc. When they are uncertain due to a lack of experience, knowledge, expertise or information, they ask for advice and help.
They are self-reflective — What may surprise you is that these dynamic leaders are highly self-reflective. While an inflated ego is a sure obstacle to accurate self-assessment, of all the 340 items on the Personality and Leadership Profile (PLP) that we use, “I frequently spend time reflecting on my past successes and failures” has the highest score among the Best Leaders. This reveals self-scrutiny and humility, quite opposite to the brash arrogance that can characterize ego-driven leaders. Rated almost as high is the statement, “I try to avoid situations that bring out the worst in me.” This too shows self-awareness and humility: these people recognize that they have character defects, and deliberately try to avoid having them do damage to their effectiveness. They have a willingness to look at the full picture, both what they’re good at, and what they’re bad at. They look at the whole balance sheet — their assets and liabilities, which translates into opportunities and risks. It has been said many times that “leaders get paid to make decisions;” I would add that the best decision makers face the facts.

Perhaps because they are so self-reflective, when asked to rate their overall capability they generally disagree with the statement, “I am more capable than most of my coworkers.” They also don’t subscribe to the statement, “I am exceptionally intelligent.” They know they are smart and have natural leadership traits like influencing people and getting people to buy in and work together, but they are aware of their shortcomings and don’t feel that they are more capable overall.

Because they are confident, secure, and comfortable in their own skin, they are able to be natural, open, honest and spontaneous without hiding behind a facade or playing roles. They don’t need to receive special recognition. Not needing to protect a fragile ego, they can laugh at themselves and the mistakes they have made. Their good sense of humor helps them — and others — to keep things in perspective and even allows them to have a playful attitude toward problems. They are willing to admit when they are wrong. This relaxed attitude helps them to handle stress effectively.

They risk being vulnerable and transparent — They are not afraid to show their humanness. They are very approachable and not only make a positive first impression but have the ability to build strong relationships with coworkers and business partners over the long haul. They are comfortable speaking up and stating their opinions in meetings, and they can be surprisingly open to hearing and discussing opposing points of view. They are genuine and don’t pretend to like things they don’t. They are realistic and objective about life, people and themselves. They are tolerant of people who have different views and values and are accepting of people who come from all levels of society.
They are willing to listen and accept feedback — Having good listening skills is like a master key that can open many doors. It is highly correlated with getting buy-in to your initiatives and proposals, and being able to adapt and change your behavior to adjust to changing circumstances. Being able to listen to others is strongly linked with inspiring employees, building effective relationships with stakeholders, creating and sustaining effective teams, and reading group dynamics and organizational politics. Effective leaders know they need to take charge yet at the same time be willing to listen and not exert too much control when making team decisions or they can become vulnerable to errors of judgment caused by confirmation bias and false consensus based on their position power.

Ego vs. the True Nature Of Self

Ultimately, there is no such thing as Ego. As I said above, Ego is the idea we have of ourself, of who we are. It is just that: an idea, a notion, a mental construct without substance. You can search all you want through your brain and you will not find a door with a nameplate announcing Department of the Ego. As powerful an internal force as ego is, in the end, it’s just a mirage, a set of ideas that, if you look closely (meditation helps with this) you’ll find nothing substantial or permanent, although it is true that some of the ideas we have about who we are can last a long time and influence our thinking and behavior for decades.

So if Ego is not who we really are, who are we? In many spiritual traditions, the true Self (often written in upper case) is, rather than a “thing,” a field of pure consciousness or inner awareness. It is the source of creativity and intelligence at the heart of not only our individual life, but of all life.

Often, in meditation, when the cacophony of thoughts and internal and external noise quiets down, the Self is experienced as pure awareness, without an object; no thought, no sensation, no perception, just silent witnessing of one’s own inner life. This subtle observer watches the mind, the emotions and the continuous flow of perceptions. It is the watching presence. It is a universal field of Being that we all share, from which we all draw nourishment. In the traditional texts, and the “living texts” that are the great masters of the tradition in every generation, it is known as ananda or bliss, a field of silence and peace at the heart of life, the proverbial calm at the eye of the ever-shifting storm of life.

Thus, to be in touch with this inner ocean of intelligence, grounded or established in it, gives us not only a deep sense of who we are that goes beyond our limited personality (which of course is still there), but also a stable place to stand. Some people define this as beyond Ego — others say this is the ultimate unfoldment or development of Ego, a state of awakened consciousness in which we identify not merely with our personal self with its endless concerns and demands, its likes and dislikes, but with the whole of the universe.

When a leader is grounded in the silence of the Self, stresses, work demands, failure and success, fame and shame, loss and gain still occur. What is different is that these experiences don’t overshadow the leader’s equanimity, judgment and awareness of his/her fundamental nature.

Let’s be very clear that the ego isn’t something that needs to be killed off, suppressed or controlled. When leaders quiet their mind and recognize and develop a deeper awareness of their true nature, one that lies behind the egoic identity, behind the conditioning of their mind, and become stabilized in pure, silent awareness, the positive and life-supporting characteristics of identity begin to influence day-to-day behavior. The leader is released from the negative influence of the ego, but the uniqueness of his/her character remains.

New talents, qualities, attributes, motivations, and characteristics emerge. These reflect a mind that is at peace, that is more tranquil, happy, and stable. There is greater strength to handle the demands of leadership, better judgment in decision-making due increased clarity, and greater happiness due to an inner sense of fulfillment that comes from within, deeper than any worldly pleasures.

Discover the transformative power of Dr. Rich Hagberg's leadership coaching, rooted in data-driven analysis. With decades of experience, Dr. Hagberg excels in enhancing self-awareness, balancing strengths and weaknesses, and fostering effective decision-making. His tailored approach helps founders build strong teams and navigate growth challenges seamlessly. Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success?

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The 10 Fatal Flaws of Ineffective Leaders—and How to Overcome Them

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 23:28:18 GMT

When you are the leader a single misstep can derail an entire team, disrupt progress, and diminish morale. While many leaders excel at inspiring and guiding their teams, some fall into patterns of behavior that not only undermine their authority but also corrode the very fabric of their organizations. These are the traits of ineffective leaders—the ones who fail to recognize that leadership is not just about holding power, but about wielding it wisely.

Drawing from my research on 360-degree feedback from nearly 2,000 executives across various industries worldwide, I've identified the most common and detrimental characteristics that define ineffective leaders. In my previous post, we celebrated the traits of leaders who get results. Today, we delve into the darker side—the habits and behaviors that can turn a leader from a beacon of inspiration into a cautionary tale.

1. Lack of Emotional Control

Problem:
The worst leaders struggle to maintain their composure under pressure. They are prone to losing their temper and having outbursts in stressful situations, creating a hostile work environment. This behavior undermines their credibility, sets a negative tone, and can lead to a breakdown in communication and trust within the team.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders need to develop emotional intelligence, particularly in managing their emotions under stress. Best leaders maintain composure and a positive outlook, even in difficult situations. They are emotionally stable and use their calm demeanor to de-escalate conflicts and maintain a productive environment. To improve, worst leaders should practice mindfulness, stress management techniques, and active listening to better control their emotional responses and set a positive tone for their team.

2. Inconsistent Assertiveness

Problem:
Worst leaders are often inconsistently assertive, either failing to stand up for their team or becoming overly aggressive and disregarding the rights and feelings of others. This inconsistency creates confusion and resentment within the team, leading to a lack of cohesion and collaboration.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders must find a balance between being assertive and respectful. Best leaders are consistently assertive in a way that respects others’ opinions and encourages open dialogue. They know when to stand firm and when to adapt their approach based on the context. Developing self-awareness and empathy is crucial for worst leaders to ensure their assertiveness is consistent and constructive, rather than aggressive or passive.

3. Poor Communication Skills

Problem:
Ineffective leaders struggle with clear and transparent communication. They may fail to articulate expectations, provide necessary feedback, or engage in meaningful dialogue. This lack of effective communication leads to misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and disorganization, further damaging trust and credibility.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders need to enhance their communication skills by being clear, transparent, and consistent. Best leaders excel in communication by effectively articulating their vision, expectations, and feedback, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed. To improve, worst leaders should focus on conveying messages clearly, actively listening to their team, and fostering an environment where open communication is encouraged.

4. Micromanagement

Problem:
Worst leaders tend to micromanage, stifling their team’s creativity and autonomy. By failing to delegate tasks effectively and controlling every detail, they demoralize team members, reducing their sense of ownership and accountability, which ultimately hampers productivity and innovation.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders should learn to delegate effectively and trust their team’s capabilities. Best leaders empower their teams by delegating responsibilities and providing the autonomy needed to succeed. They focus on the big picture rather than controlling every detail.

Worst leaders need to practice letting go of control, offering guidance when needed, but allowing their team members to take ownership of their tasks, fostering growth and innovation.

5. Inability to Inspire or Motivate

Problem:
The worst leaders often fail to inspire or motivate their teams. They may lack the vision, enthusiasm, or energy needed to rally their team around a common goal. This results in disengagement, decreased productivity, and a lack of commitment to organizational objectives.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders must develop the ability to inspire and motivate their teams. Best leaders are passionate and enthusiastic, using their energy to rally their teams around a shared vision. They recognize individual contributions and celebrate successes. Worst leaders should work on connecting their team’s work to a larger purpose, showing genuine appreciation for their efforts, and creating a positive, motivating work environmen t.

6. Ego-Centric Behavior

Problem:
Worst leaders are often overly concerned with their own image, power, or success, frequently at the expense of their team. They may take credit for their team’s work, blame others for failures, and make decisions based primarily on self-interest. This behavior fosters resentment and disengagement, damaging team morale and trust.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders need to shift their focus from themselves to their team. Best leaders prioritize the success of their team over their own ego, often giving credit where it’s due and taking responsibility for failures. Worst leaders should practice humility, putting the team’s needs first and recognizing that leadership is about serving others. This mindset shift can help build trust and loyalty among team members.

7. Avoidance of Accountability

Problem:

Ineffective leaders frequently avoid taking responsibility for their actions, especially when things go wrong. They may shift blame, make excuses, or ignore problems rather than addressing them directly, which creates a culture of fear and mistrust within the team.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders should embrace accountability as a core leadership value. Best leaders hold themselves and their teams accountable, fostering a culture of responsibility and integrity. They are transparent about their actions and decisions, and they address issues head-on. Worst leaders need to develop the habit of acknowledging their mistakes, learning from them, and encouraging a culture of accountability within their team.

8. Resistance to Feedback and Development

Problem:
Worst leaders are often resistant to feedback and unwilling to engage in personal or professional development. They dismiss constructive criticism, refuse to acknowledge their weaknesses, and are generally unwilling to change. This resistance limits their growth and stifles a culture of learning within the team.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders should become more open to feedback and committed to continuous development. Best leaders actively seek out feedback and use it as a tool for growth. They understand that leadership is an ongoing learning process. Worst leaders should cultivate a growth mindset, regularly soliciting input from others, reflecting on their performance, and making necessary adjustments to improve their leadership effectiveness.

9. Failure to Build Relationships

Problem:
Poor leaders often neglect the importance of building strong, positive relationships with their team members. They may be aloof, unapproachable, or indifferent to the needs of their employees. This lack of relationship-building leads to a lack of trust, poor teamwork, and disengagement.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders must prioritize building strong, positive relationships with their team members. Best leaders invest time in understanding their team, showing empathy, and fostering a collaborative environment. They are approachable and genuinely care about their team’s well-being. Worst leaders should work on developing their interpersonal skills, being more available to their team, and creating an inclusive, supportive culture where everyone feels valued.

10. Inflexibility and Rigidity

Problem:
Worst leaders are often inflexible and rigid in their approach, refusing to adapt to changing circumstances or consider alternative perspectives. This rigidity stifles innovation, creates frustration, and leads to poor decision-making, as these leaders are unable to pivot when necessary.

What to Learn/Change:
Worst leaders need to adopt a more flexible and adaptable approach to leadership. Best leaders are open to change, willing to pivot when necessary, and consider alternative perspectives. They are not rigid in their thinking but are instead innovative and responsive to new information and challenges. Worst leaders should practice being more open-minded, learning to adapt their strategies as needed, and encouraging their team to be innovative and proactive in problem-solving.

The Ultimate Guide to Leadership Mastery: Insights from 45 Years of Executive Coaching

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 20:02:27 GMT

Leadership is not just about guiding teams; it's about sculpting the future. Over the past 45 years, I've dedicated my career to understanding what truly sets exceptional leaders apart. This journey has taken me across the globe, working with executives from a myriad of industries, cultures, and organizational structures. My conclusions aren't based on theory or a few isolated experiences. They are the result of meticulous analysis of thousands of 360-degree assessments, encompassing 46 leadership competencies and a staggering 64,000 pages of comments from leaders' coworkers. This treasure trove of data has revealed patterns, behaviors, and strategies that define the hallmarks of extraordinary leadership.

The Data-Driven Leader: Where Science Meets Practice

When it comes to leadership, anecdotal evidence isn’t enough. My research has focused on gathering quantitative and qualitative data to draw meaningful conclusions. The thousands of 360 assessments I've analyzed provided not just a snapshot of leader performance but a detailed map of what works and what doesn't. These assessments have consistently highlighted 22 key competencies that leaders must master to drive success. These include visionary thinking, emotional intelligence, strategic foresight, adaptability, and ethical integrity. But it’s not just the competencies that matter; it’s how these leaders embody them day in and day out.

Vision: The North Star of Leadership

At the heart of great leadership is vision. Exceptional leaders don’t just react to the present; they anticipate the future. They set clear, compelling goals that inspire and align their teams. But vision alone isn’t enough. These leaders are strategic thinkers who can turn vision into reality. They understand the big picture, foresee challenges, and navigate their organizations toward long-term success. Their strategic mindset ensures that every decision they make is in service of a larger purpose, and they communicate this purpose with clarity and passion.

The Power of Emotional Intelligence

In my decades of research, one trait has emerged as a non-negotiable for successful leadership: emotional intelligence. Leaders who excel in this area connect deeply with their teams, understanding not just the professional but the personal dynamics that drive performance. They manage their emotions and those of others with finesse, fostering an environment of trust and collaboration. These leaders are the ones who can navigate the rough seas of organizational change with grace, maintaining morale and cohesion even when times are tough.

Adaptability: The Survival Skill of the Modern Leader

We live in a world of constant change, and the best leaders are those who can adapt on the fly. The data shows that flexibility is critical and leaders who thrive in dynamic environments are those who can pivot strategies quickly in response to new information. But adaptability isn’t just about survival; it’s about innovation. These leaders encourage their teams to think creatively, to embrace change as an opportunity rather than a threat. They foster a culture where new ideas are welcomed, and calculated risks are taken, driving continuous improvement and keeping the organization ahead of the curve.

The Ethics of Leadership: Integrity as a Foundation

Throughout my career, I’ve seen that the most respected leaders are those who lead with integrity. They embody high moral standards and make decisions that are ethical and transparent. This isn’t just about following the rules; it’s about setting a tone for the entire organization. Leaders with integrity build trust—both within their teams and with external stakeholders. They create an environment where people feel safe, respected, and valued, which in turn drives loyalty and performance.

Communication: The Glue That Holds Everything Together

No matter how brilliant a leader's vision or strategy, it will fall flat without effective communication. The best leaders I’ve studied are those who excel at communicating clearly and persuasively. They ensure that everyone in the organization understands not just what needs to be done, but why it matters. They foster open dialogue, encourage feedback, and make sure that their message resonates at every level of the organization. This clarity in communication helps to align efforts, reduce misunderstandings, and drive the organization towards its goals.

Empowerment and Delegation: Trusting the Team

One of the most consistent findings from the thousands of pages of comments I’ve reviewed is the importance of empowerment. Exceptional leaders don’t micromanage; they trust their teams. They delegate effectively, giving team members the autonomy to take ownership of their tasks. This not only enhances productivity but also fosters a sense of accountability and empowerment. These leaders understand that their role is to provide guidance and support, not to control every detail. By empowering their teams, they create an environment where innovation flourishes and where employees feel valued and motivated to contribute their best work.

Continuous Improvement: The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence

Great leaders are never satisfied with the status quo. They are always looking for ways to improve processes, drive innovation, and enhance performance. This commitment to continuous improvement is what keeps organizations competitive in a rapidly changing world. The data shows that leaders who encourage creativity and support calculated risks are the ones who drive their organizations forward. They create a culture of learning, where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth rather than failures to be punished.

The Bottom Line: Leadership is Both an Art and a Science

After 45 years of research and experience, one thing is clear: leadership is both an art and a science. It requires a deep understanding of human behavior, strategic thinking, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. But it also requires a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. The best leaders are those who are constantly refining their skills, who are open to feedback, and who are always looking for ways to better serve their teams and their organizations.

The insights I’ve gained from analyzing thousands of 360 assessments and tens of thousands of pages of comments have given me a unique perspective on what it takes to be a great leader. It’s not about having all the answers; it’s about asking the right questions. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about being authentic. And most importantly, it’s about understanding that leadership is a journey, not a destination. The path to exceptional leadership is one that requires dedication, humility, and a relentless drive to be better every day.

The Delegation Dilemma: Letting Go of Control to Unlock Startup Growth

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 17:45:00 GMT

Startup founders are often the heart and soul of their companies. They are the visionaries who turn ideas into reality, the relentless drivers of innovation and progress. However, as their startups grow, founders face a critical challenge: the delegation dilemma. This struggle to let go of control and trust their team can be a significant barrier to scaling. Overcoming this dilemma is crucial for unlocking the full potential of their startups and achieving sustainable growth.

The Allure of Control

In the early days of a startup, founders are involved in every aspect of the business. From product development to marketing, from customer service to finance, they wear multiple hats and make countless decisions every day. This hands-on approach is not just necessary—it’s part of the startup’s DNA. Founders are the driving force, infusing their passion and vision into every detail.

Control provides a sense of security. Founders know their business inside and out, and they trust their judgment implicitly. They have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and how to get there. This intense involvement can be exhilarating and satisfying, reinforcing the founder’s belief in their indispensable role.

The Downside of Micromanagement

However, as the startup begins to scale, this need for control can become a significant impediment. Founders who struggle with delegation often find themselves micromanaging their teams, unable to relinquish even minor tasks. This micromanagement stifles creativity, slows down decision-making, and leads to frustration and disengagement among team members.

Micromanagement also creates a bottleneck. When every decision has to go through the founder, the company’s ability to move quickly and adapt to changing conditions is severely limited. The founder becomes a single point of failure, and the organization’s growth is constrained by their capacity to manage everything.

The Trust Factor

At the heart of the delegation dilemma is a matter of trust. Founders may fear that their team won’t execute tasks to their standards or that mistakes will be made. This fear can be paralyzing, leading founders to hold on to control even when it’s counterproductive.

Trusting others with key responsibilities requires a leap of faith. It means accepting that there will be different approaches and, inevitably, some mistakes. However, it also means recognizing that a team of capable individuals can achieve far more collectively than any single person can alone.

The Benefits of Effective Delegation

Embracing delegation and trusting the team can unlock tremendous benefits for a startup:

Enhanced Efficiency
Delegation allows tasks to be distributed according to expertise and capacity, leading to more efficient operations. When team members are empowered to take ownership of their roles, projects move forward more smoothly and quickly.
Greater Innovation
When founders step back and give their team the freedom to experiment and innovate, new ideas flourish. Team members who feel trusted are more likely to contribute creative solutions and take initiative, driving the company forward.
Scalability
Effective delegation is essential for scaling. As the startup grows, the complexity of operations increases, and it becomes impossible for one person to manage everything. Delegating responsibilities ensures that the organization can expand without hitting bottlenecks.
Leadership Development
Delegation helps identify and develop future leaders within the organization. By giving team members the opportunity to lead projects and make decisions, founders cultivate a pipeline of talent that can take on greater responsibilities as the company grows.
Improved Morale and Retention
A culture of trust and empowerment boosts team morale and job satisfaction. Employees who feel valued and trusted are more engaged and committed to the company’s success, leading to higher retention rates.

Overcoming the Delegation Dilemma: Strategies for Founders

To overcome the delegation dilemma, founders need to shift their mindset and adopt practical strategies that facilitate trust and empowerment:

Start Small
Begin by delegating smaller tasks and gradually increase the level of responsibility as trust is built. This incremental approach helps both the founder and the team gain confidence in the delegation process.
Set Clear Expectations
Clearly communicate the desired outcomes, deadlines, and standards for delegated tasks. Providing this clarity helps ensure that team members understand what is expected and can deliver accordingly.
Provide Support and Resources
Equip the team with the tools, training, and support they need to succeed. This investment in their success fosters a sense of empowerment and capability.
Encourage Autonomy
Allow team members to take ownership of their work and make decisions within their areas of responsibility. Encourage them to solve problems independently and offer guidance when needed, rather than micromanaging.
Celebrate Successes and Learn from Failures
Recognize and celebrate the achievements of team members who take on delegated tasks. When mistakes happen, use them as learning opportunities rather than assigning blame. This positive reinforcement builds trust and confidence.

The Path to Sustainable Growth

The delegation dilemma is a common challenge for founders, but overcoming it is essential for sustainable growth. By learning to let go of control and trust their team, founders can unlock the full potential of their organization. Effective delegation not only drives efficiency and innovation but also creates a positive and empowering work culture.

In the end, the true measure of a founder’s success is not just their ability to lead but their ability to build a team that can lead with them. Embracing delegation and trust is not a sign of weakness—it’s a strategic move that paves the way for greater achievements. By overcoming the delegation dilemma, founders can scale their startups to new heights and create lasting impact.

So, if you’re a founder struggling with letting go, take the leap. Trust your team, delegate with confidence, and watch as your startup thrives. The journey to growth and success is a collective effort, and together, you can achieve greatness.

Dealing with Stress-- Managing the Unique Pressures of Growing a Startup

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 17:45:00 GMT

Scaling a startup is a thrilling yet daunting journey. The promise of growth brings with it the excitement of new opportunities, increased revenue, and greater market presence. However, this period of expansion also introduces a unique set of pressures and stressors that can overwhelm even the most resilient founders. Understanding and managing these stressors is crucial for maintaining personal well-being and ensuring the long-term success of the company.

The Excitement and Challenges of Scaling

In the early stages of a startup, the focus is on survival—getting the product to market, securing initial funding, and attracting early customers. This phase is characterized by a scrappy, all-hands-on-deck mentality. As the startup begins to scale, the dynamics change dramatically. The stakes are higher, the challenges more complex, and the demands on the founder's time and energy increase exponentially.

Increased Complexity and Responsibility

One of the primary stressors of scaling is the sheer increase in complexity. As the company grows, so do its operations. Founders must manage a larger team, more intricate processes, and a wider range of products or services. This complexity can lead to decision paralysis, as the founder struggles to keep up with the myriad of details requiring attention.

With growth also comes increased responsibility. Founders feel the weight of their employees’ livelihoods, the expectations of investors, and the pressures of market competition. Every decision carries more significant consequences, and the margin for error becomes slimmer. This heightened responsibility can lead to anxiety and self-doubt, as founders grapple with the fear of letting others down.

The Pressure to Perform

Scaling often involves significant financial investment, either from venture capital, private equity, or reinvested profits. Investors expect returns, and this financial pressure adds another layer of stress. Founders are constantly under the microscope, with every move scrutinized and every setback questioned. The relentless drive to meet targets and milestones can be exhausting.

Moreover, the need to continuously innovate and stay ahead of competitors adds to the pressure. Founders must keep pushing the envelope, finding new ways to grow the business and delight customers. This unending pursuit of excellence can lead to burnout if not managed properly.

The Importance of Personal Grounding and Stress Management

Given these intense pressures, it’s crucial for founders to prioritize their personal well-being. Managing stress effectively is not just about maintaining mental and physical health—it’s also essential for making sound business decisions and leading the company successfully.

Developing Personal Grounding:
Personal grounding refers to the stability and resilience that come from having a strong sense of self and a balanced life. For founders, this means cultivating interests and relationships outside of work, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and finding time for rest and rejuvenation. Activities like exercise, meditation, and spending time with loved ones can provide a much-needed counterbalance to the demands of scaling a startup.
Implementing Stress Management Techniques:
There are several strategies that founders can use to manage stress effectively. Time management techniques, such as prioritizing tasks, delegating responsibilities, and setting clear boundaries, can help reduce feelings of overwhelm. Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and deep-breathing exercises, can provide immediate relief from stress and improve overall mental health. Additionally, seeking support from mentors, coaches, or peer groups can offer valuable perspectives and emotional support.
Building a Supportive Team:
A strong, cohesive team can alleviate some of the pressures on the founder. By building a trusted leadership team and delegating key responsibilities, founders can share the burden of decision-making and execution. Creating a culture of collaboration and open communication also ensures that challenges are addressed collectively, rather than falling solely on the founder’s shoulders.
Maintaining Perspective:
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day pressures of scaling, but maintaining perspective is crucial. Founders should regularly step back to assess the bigger picture, celebrate successes, and reflect on the progress made. This can help keep stress in check and remind founders of the purpose and vision that drive their efforts.
Embracing Flexibility and Adaptability:
The ability to adapt to changing circumstances is a critical skill for managing the stress of scaling. Founders should embrace flexibility, understanding that plans may need to be adjusted and that setbacks are a natural part of the growth process. This mindset not only reduces stress but also fosters a more resilient and agile organization.

The Path to Sustainable Growth

Scaling a startup is undoubtedly challenging, but with the right strategies in place, founders can manage the stress and pressures effectively. By prioritizing personal grounding and implementing robust stress management techniques, founders can maintain their well-being and lead their companies to sustainable success.

The journey of scaling a startup is filled with highs and lows, but it’s also an opportunity for tremendous personal and professional growth. By embracing the challenges and focusing on holistic well-being, founders can navigate the complexities of scaling with confidence and resilience. Remember, the health of the founder is intrinsically linked to the health of the company. Taking care of yourself is not just a personal priority—it’s a business imperative.

Visionary or Dictator? The Leadership Tightrope for Startup Founders

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:00:00 GMT

Startup founders are often hailed as visionary heroes, individuals who can see what others can’t and inspire teams to achieve the impossible. But there's a thin line between being a visionary and being a dictator. As startups grow and scale, this distinction becomes critical, and the ability of a founder to navigate this tightrope can mean the difference between success and failure.

The Early Days: Visionaries at the Helm

In the nascent stages of a startup, visionary leadership is not just beneficial—it’s essential. Visionary founders are the ones who dare to challenge the status quo, dream big, and take the risks that others shy away from. Their unorthodox thinking and relentless drive are the lifeblood of innovation. They are the ones who can rally a team around a shared dream, painting a picture of the future that is so compelling that it galvanizes everyone around them.

These visionaries operate with a sense of urgency and passion that can be intoxicating. They are often the first in the office and the last to leave, working tirelessly to turn their vision into reality. In these early days, their informal, undisciplined style works. The team is small, everyone is in constant communication, and decisions can be made quickly and flexibly. This dynamic environment is where visionaries thrive.

The Scaling Challenge: When Vision Turns into Dictatorship

However, as the startup begins to scale, the very traits that made the founder successful can become liabilities. The transition from a small, tight-knit team to a larger, more structured organization requires a different kind of leadership—one that many visionary founders struggle with.

As the company grows, the founder's need for control and their reluctance to delegate can turn them from a visionary into a dictator. The informal, ad-hoc decision-making process that worked in the early days now becomes a bottleneck. The founder's tendency to micromanage stifles the initiative and creativity of their team. What was once seen as passionate and driven behavior now appears dictatorial and inflexible.

This shift is often not intentional. Founders are deeply invested in their vision and feel a personal responsibility for every aspect of the company. However, this can lead to a toxic work environment where team members feel undervalued and overruled. The result is high turnover, low morale, and a company culture that revolves around the whims of a single individual.

Balancing Act: From Dictator to Facilitator

To avoid this pitfall, founders must recognize the need to evolve their leadership style. This means learning to let go and trust their team. Delegation is not a sign of weakness but a necessary step in building a scalable organization. Founders need to shift from being the sole decision-maker to being a facilitator who empowers others to lead.

Building a robust leadership team and establishing clear processes and structures are crucial. This not only ensures that the company can operate efficiently but also frees the founder to focus on strategic vision and long-term goals. It’s about creating a culture where everyone feels valued and has the autonomy to make decisions.

The Path Forward: Embracing Evolution

The journey from visionary to dictator is not inevitable. Founders can avoid this fate by being self-aware and proactive in their development as leaders. This requires a willingness to seek feedback, embrace change, and invest in personal growth. It’s about recognizing that the skills that got them to this point are not the same skills needed to take the company to the next level.

In the end, the most successful founders are those who can evolve with their companies. They are the ones who understand that leadership is not about holding onto power but about empowering others. They strike a balance between maintaining their visionary edge and fostering a collaborative, inclusive work environment.

So, the question remains: Are you a visionary or a dictator? The answer lies in your ability to adapt and grow. Embrace the journey, trust your team, and transform your leadership style to build a lasting legacy.

Avoiding the Lone Wolf Syndrome-- Together We Can Do So Much

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 17:35:40 GMT

In the early days of a startup, founders often find themselves wearing multiple hats, doing everything from coding to customer service. This hands-on approach is essential for getting the business off the ground. However, as the company grows, it becomes clear that no single individual can drive sustained success alone. The true power of a startup lies in its team. As Helen Keller famously said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

The Lone Wolf Syndrome: A Recipe for Burnout

Founders are often celebrated as lone wolves—visionary leaders who can single-handedly steer their companies to success. This myth is perpetuated by stories of iconic entrepreneurs who seemingly did it all by themselves. However, this perception is not only misleading but also dangerous.

Trying to do everything alone leads to burnout, mistakes, and missed opportunities. Founders may find themselves stretched too thin, unable to focus on strategic vision while getting bogged down in day-to-day operations. The pressure to be everything to everyone can be overwhelming and ultimately unsustainable.

The Power of Teamwork: Leveraging Collective Strengths

The reality is that successful startups are built on the collective strengths of their teams. Each member brings unique skills, perspectives, and energy to the table. By leveraging these diverse talents, startups can achieve far more than any individual could alone. Diverse perspectives drive innovation. When a team is composed of individuals with different backgrounds and experiences, it brings a variety of perspectives to problem-solving and decision-making. This diversity fuels creativity and innovation, leading to more robust solutions and breakthrough ideas.

Moreover, a shared workload reduces burnout. Delegating tasks and responsibilities allows founders to focus on their core strengths and strategic vision. A well-balanced team ensures that no single person is overwhelmed, reducing the risk of burnout and improving overall productivity. Complementary skills enhance execution. A successful startup requires a mix of skills, from technical expertise to marketing savvy to financial acumen. Building a team with complementary skills ensures that all aspects of the business are well-managed and executed effectively.

Furthermore, collaboration fosters a supportive culture. A collaborative environment encourages open communication, trust, and mutual support among team members. This positive culture boosts morale, enhances job satisfaction, and fosters loyalty, leading to lower turnover and a more resilient team. Collective problem-solving accelerates growth. Tackling challenges and obstacles as a team allows for faster and more effective problem-solving. Collaborative brainstorming sessions can uncover solutions that might not have been apparent to a single individual.

Building a Strong Team: Key Strategies

To harness the power of teamwork, founders must prioritize building and nurturing a strong, cohesive team. Look beyond resumes and qualifications to find individuals who align with the company’s values and culture. Focus on hiring team players who show potential for growth and a willingness to collaborate.

Encourage transparency and open dialogue within the team. Regular check-ins, team meetings, and feedback sessions are essential. Create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, concerns, and suggestions. Delegate responsibilities and empower team members to take ownership of their roles. Trust in their abilities and provide the autonomy they need to excel, while being available for support and guidance.

Provide opportunities for professional development and team-building activities. Encourage continuous learning and skill enhancement to keep the team motivated and capable. Recognize and celebrate individual and team achievements. This reinforces a sense of unity and shared purpose. Celebrations, both big and small, build camaraderie and reinforce the team’s collective efforts.

The Path to Collective Success

In the journey of a startup, the founder’s vision is the starting point, but it is the collective effort of the team that transforms that vision into reality. Embracing the power of teamwork allows startups to leverage diverse strengths, drive innovation, and navigate challenges more effectively.

The most successful startups understand that their true power lies not in the brilliance of a single individual, but in the collaborative spirit of their team. By fostering a culture of teamwork, founders can ensure that their company not only survives but thrives, achieving heights that would be impossible alone.

Remember, as the saying goes, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Embrace the power of your team, and watch your startup soar.

The Gift of Failure

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 02:27:11 GMT

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities for Growth and Adaptation

For startup founders failure is often seen as a four-letter word—something to be avoided at all costs. However, the reality is that failure is an inevitable part of the entrepreneurial journey. The most successful founders are not those who never fail but those who learn to fail forward. This mindset involves viewing failures not as setbacks but as opportunities for growth and adaptation. It’s about embracing failure as a critical component of innovation and long-term success.

The Fear of Failure

Founders are driven by a desire to succeed. They pour their hearts and souls into their ventures, fueled by passion and vision. This intense commitment can make the prospect of failure feel particularly daunting. The fear of failure can be paralyzing, leading to risk aversion and a reluctance to take bold steps. This fear is compounded by societal pressures and the glorification of success stories, creating an environment where failure is stigmatized.

The Reality of the Startup World

However, the startup ecosystem is inherently risky. The path to success is rarely linear, and setbacks are common. Products may fail to gain traction, funding may dry up, and market conditions can shift unexpectedly. In this volatile landscape, failure is not just possible—it’s probable. The key difference between those who thrive and those who falter lies in how they respond to these inevitable failures.

Failing Forward: A Mindset Shift

Failing forward is about shifting the perception of failure from a negative outcome to a valuable learning experience. It involves recognizing that each failure carries lessons that can inform future decisions and strategies. This mindset is characterized by resilience, adaptability, and a relentless drive to improve.

Learning from Mistakes
Each failure provides a wealth of information about what doesn’t work. By analyzing these mistakes, founders can gain insights into areas for improvement. This learning process involves asking critical questions: What went wrong? Why did it happen? What can be done differently next time?
Embracing Iteration
Startups thrive on iteration—the process of refining and improving products, services, and strategies based on feedback and outcomes. Viewing failure as a step in this iterative process helps founders remain flexible and open to change. Each iteration brings the company closer to success.
Cultivating Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward. It’s a critical trait for founders navigating the unpredictable startup landscape. Cultivating resilience involves maintaining a positive outlook, staying motivated, and viewing challenges as opportunities to grow stronger.
Fostering a Culture of Experimentation
A culture that encourages experimentation and accepts failure as part of the process fosters innovation. When team members feel safe to take risks, they are more likely to explore creative solutions. This culture requires leadership that models and rewards learning from failure, rather than punishing it.
Reframing Failure as Feedback
Reframing failure as feedback shifts the focus from the negative outcome to the actionable insights gained. This perspective encourages continuous improvement. Feedback loops, where failures are analyzed and used to inform future actions, are essential for adaptive learning and growth.

The Benefits of Failing Forward

Adopting a failing forward mindset has several key benefits for startups:

Enhanced Innovation
When failure is viewed as a learning opportunity, it encourages experimentation and risk-taking. This can lead to breakthrough innovations that might not have been possible otherwise. Innovation thrives in an environment where failure is not feared but embraced as part of the creative process.
Improved Decision-Making
Learning from past failures helps founders make better-informed decisions. Each setback provides data that can guide future choices. This iterative learning process leads to more strategic and effective decision-making over time.
Stronger Team Dynamics
A culture that accepts failure fosters psychological safety, where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and taking risks. This openness and trust enhance collaboration, creativity, and overall team performance.
Increased Adaptability
Startups that fail forward are more adaptable and resilient in the face of change. They can pivot quickly and efficiently in response to new information and market shifts. This agility is crucial for navigating the uncertainties of the startup world and seizing new opportunities.

Embracing the Journey

Failing forward is not just a strategy—it’s a philosophy that transforms the way founders and their teams approach challenges. It requires a willingness to embrace vulnerability, take risks, and view every setback as a stepping stone toward success. By adopting this mindset, startups can turn failure into a powerful tool for growth and innovation.

In the end, the journey of entrepreneurship is marked by highs and lows, successes and failures. The founders who thrive are those who understand that failure is not the end but a vital part of the journey. By failing forward, they continuously learn, adapt, and evolve, ultimately building stronger, more resilient companies.

So, the next time you encounter a setback, remember: failing forward is not about falling down—it’s about getting back up, learning from the experience, and moving forward with renewed determination. Embrace the lessons of failure, and watch your startup soar to new heights.

What Got You Here, Won't Get You There--Transforming Your Startup for Scalable Success

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 20:45:00 GMT

In the chaotic early stages of a startup, success often hinges on a founder’s scrappy, informal approach. The ability to pivot quickly, make decisions on the fly, and maintain a close-knit, high-energy culture can propel a startup from idea to initial traction. However, as the company begins to grow, these very traits that fueled early success can become significant obstacles. To achieve scalable and sustainable success, founders must recognize that what got them here won’t get them there. This requires a fundamental shift in mindset and processes—re-engineering the very DNA of the company.

The Early Days: Scrappy and Agile

In the beginning, startups thrive on informality and agility. Founders and their small teams operate in an environment of constant flux, where rapid iteration and flexible thinking are essential. Decisions are made quickly, communication is fluid, and everyone wears multiple hats. This scrappy approach is vital for survival and initial success. It allows the startup to move fast, adapt to feedback, and seize opportunities in a competitive landscape.

The culture in these early days is often characterized by a strong sense of camaraderie and shared mission. The team is small, everyone is in the loop, and the founder’s vision permeates every aspect of the business. This close-knit environment fosters creativity and innovation, driving the startup to achieve its early milestones.

The Scaling Challenge: When Informality Becomes a Liability

As the startup begins to scale, the dynamics change dramatically. The informal, ad-hoc methods that worked in the early days start to show their limitations. Increased complexity requires more structured processes and clear communication channels. The team expands, and the once-tight-knit culture can become strained as new employees join and the founder’s direct influence diminishes.

Without a deliberate shift in mindset and practices, the startup can struggle to manage this growth. Decisions that used to be made quickly now require more deliberation and coordination. The lack of formal processes can lead to inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and confusion. As the company grows, the need for a scalable infrastructure becomes evident.

Re-engineering for Scalability: Key Strategies

To transition from a scrappy startup to a scalable enterprise, founders must embrace a new way of thinking and operating. Here are some key strategies to facilitate this transformation:

Implement Robust Systems and Processes
Moving from informal practices to structured systems is crucial for managing growth. This includes establishing standardized processes for operations, finance, and HR. Utilizing project management tools and software can streamline workflows and improve efficiency. By creating clear procedures and guidelines, the startup can maintain consistency and quality as it scales.
Develop Strong Leadership and Governance
Building a capable leadership team is essential for scaling. Founders need to delegate responsibilities and empower leaders within the organization. Establishing governance structures, such as a board of directors or advisory board, provides oversight and strategic guidance. This helps ensure that the company remains aligned with its long-term goals and can navigate the complexities of growth.
Foster a Scalable Culture
While it’s important to preserve the entrepreneurial spirit, the company culture must evolve to support scalability. This involves promoting values such as accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Encouraging open communication and feedback helps maintain a positive and inclusive environment. Investing in team development and training ensures that employees are equipped to handle new challenges and responsibilities.
Embrace Data-Driven Decision Making
As the startup grows, relying on intuition and gut feeling is no longer sufficient. Implementing data-driven decision-making processes helps the company make informed choices based on real-time insights. This includes leveraging analytics tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure progress. By basing decisions on data, the startup can identify trends, optimize operations, and drive growth.
Plan for Long-Term Growth
Strategic planning is essential for scaling successfully. Founders must set clear long-term goals and develop a roadmap to achieve them. This involves identifying key milestones, allocating resources effectively, and anticipating potential obstacles. Regularly reviewing and adjusting the strategic plan ensures that the company stays on track and can adapt to changing market conditions.

The Path to Sustainable Success

Recognizing that what got you here won’t get you there is a crucial realization for any founder looking to scale their startup. By re-engineering the company’s mindset and processes, founders can create a solid foundation for sustainable growth. This transformation requires a deliberate shift from informal, ad-hoc methods to structured, scalable practices.

The journey from a scrappy startup to a successful enterprise is challenging, but it’s also an opportunity for tremendous growth and innovation. By embracing this transformation, founders can unlock the full potential of their startups, ensuring long-term success and impact. Remember, the ability to adapt and evolve is what sets great leaders apart. Embrace the change and pave the way for a thriving future.

The Innovator’s Trap: Balancing Creativity and Execution in Startups

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 20:42:49 GMT

Startups are born from big ideas and bold visions. Founders are often celebrated as innovators, individuals who can see what others can’t and create what hasn’t been created before. Innovation is the lifeblood of a startup, driving it forward and setting it apart from competitors. However, there’s a hidden danger in this relentless pursuit of innovation—a trap that can ensnare even the most brilliant founders. This is the innovator’s trap: the peril of focusing so much on creating that execution falls by the wayside.

The Allure of Constant Innovation

In the early stages of a startup, innovation is everything. It’s what attracts initial investors, draws in early adopters, and generates buzz. Founders spend countless hours brainstorming, iterating, and refining their ideas. The excitement of creating something new fuels long nights and relentless work.

This focus on innovation is crucial at the outset. It’s what allows startups to disrupt established markets and offer unique value propositions. Founders who can dream big and think differently are able to carve out niches in even the most competitive industries. However, as the startup begins to grow, the constant drive to innovate can become a double-edged sword.

When Innovation Becomes a Liability

The innovator’s trap occurs when the obsession with creating new things overshadows the need to execute effectively. Founders may find themselves perpetually chasing the next big idea, constantly pivoting and tweaking, but never settling on a concrete plan of action. This endless cycle of innovation can lead to several problems.

First, it creates a lack of focus. With so many ideas in play, it becomes difficult to prioritize and execute on the most critical tasks. Resources are spread thin, and the team may feel pulled in too many directions. This can lead to burnout and frustration, as progress seems slow and fragmented.

Second, it hampers execution. Great ideas are worthless without effective implementation. A startup that is constantly innovating but failing to execute will struggle to grow and scale. Customers may become frustrated with unfinished or perpetually changing products, and the company’s reputation can suffer as a result.

Third, it can alienate the team. While founders may thrive on the chaos of constant innovation, team members might not share the same appetite for uncertainty. The lack of clear direction and achievable goals can lead to disengagement and high turnover, undermining the company’s ability to build a cohesive and productive team.

Balancing Innovation with Execution: Key Strategies

To avoid the innovator’s trap, founders must learn to balance their creative impulses with the practical demands of running a business. Here are some strategies to achieve this balance:

Prioritize Ruthlessly:
Not all ideas are created equal. Founders need to develop a framework for evaluating and prioritizing ideas based on their potential impact and feasibility.
Focus on the initiatives that align most closely with the company’s strategic goals and have the highest likelihood of success.
Set Clear Goals and Milestones:
Establishing clear, achievable goals helps maintain focus and ensures that the team is working towards common objectives.
Break down larger projects into manageable milestones, and celebrate progress along the way.
Build a Culture of Execution:
Encourage a culture that values execution as much as innovation. This means recognizing and rewarding team members who excel at implementing ideas and driving projects to completion.
Foster an environment where execution is seen as a critical component of the company’s success.
Create Structured Processes:
Implementing structured processes can help manage the flow of ideas and ensure that they are developed and executed systematically.
Use project management tools and techniques to track progress, allocate resources, and keep the team aligned.
Maintain Flexibility Without Losing Focus:
While it’s important to remain flexible and open to new ideas, founders must also be disciplined about sticking to the plan.
Regularly review and adjust the strategic plan as necessary, but avoid constant pivots that disrupt progress.

The Path to Sustainable Innovation

Innovation is the engine that drives startups, but without effective execution, even the most brilliant ideas will fail to take off. By learning to balance creativity with practical implementation, founders can avoid the innovator’s trap and set their companies on a path to sustainable success.

The most successful startups are those that can dream big while also executing meticulously. They understand that innovation and execution are not mutually exclusive but are instead two sides of the same coin. By fostering a culture that values both, founders can ensure that their companies continue to innovate while also delivering on their promises.

In the end, the true mark of a successful innovator is not just the ability to come up with great ideas but also the ability to bring those ideas to life. Avoiding the innovator’s trap means embracing the dual role of creator and executor, and in doing so, paving the way for long-term growth and success.

From Scrappy to Scalable: The Essential Evolution Every Startup Must Make

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:48:04 GMT

Startups are born from scrappy beginnings. Founders and their small teams hustle tirelessly, doing whatever it takes to get their product off the ground. This scrappy mentality is often the key to early success. However, as the startup begins to grow, this informal, improvisational approach must evolve into a structured, scalable model. The journey from scrappy to scalable is critical, and how founders manage this transition can determine the future of their company.

The Scrappy Early Days: Chaos and Creativity

In the early days, startups thrive on chaos and creativity. With limited resources and tight deadlines, founders and their teams become adept at doing more with less. There’s a sense of camaraderie and shared mission that fuels long hours and intense focus. Decisions are made quickly, often on the fly, as the team navigates uncharted waters.

This scrappy approach is vital for rapid iteration and responsiveness. It allows startups to pivot quickly based on feedback and to seize opportunities as they arise. The informal structure fosters innovation, with everyone wearing multiple hats and collaborating closely.

The Scaling Challenge: When Scrappiness Becomes a Liability

However, as the startup begins to scale, the very scrappiness that was an asset in the early days can become a significant liability. With growth comes complexity. The team expands, customer demands increase, and the stakes get higher. What worked with a small, tight-knit group starts to break down under the weight of a larger organization.

The lack of formal processes and systems leads to inefficiencies. Communication becomes more challenging, and important details can slip through the cracks. The founder’s hands-on approach can become a bottleneck, slowing down decision-making and execution. As the company grows, the need for a more structured, disciplined approach becomes apparent.

Building a Scalable Foundation: Key Strategies

To successfully transition from scrappy to scalable, founders need to embrace several key strategies:

Implement Robust Systems and Processes:
Establishing clear processes and systems is essential for managing growth. This includes everything from project management and workflow automation to customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Standardizing operations helps ensure consistency and efficiency, enabling the company to handle increased volume without sacrificing quality.
Develop Strong Leadership and Governance:
Building a strong leadership team is crucial. Founders need to delegate responsibilities and empower other leaders within the organization.
Implementing a governance structure, including an advisory board or board of directors, provides oversight and strategic guidance.
Focus on Scalable Infrastructure:
Investing in scalable technology infrastructure is important for supporting growth. This includes cloud-based solutions that can easily expand as the company grows.
Ensuring the company’s IT systems and data management practices can scale with increased demand is vital.
Cultivate a Scalable Culture:
While maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit is important, founders need to instill a culture that values process and discipline.
Encouraging continuous improvement and innovation within a structured framework helps balance creativity with scalability.
Plan for Long-Term Growth:
Strategic planning becomes increasingly important as the company scales. Founders need to set clear long-term goals and develop a roadmap for achieving them.
Regularly reviewing and adjusting the strategic plan ensures the company stays on track and can adapt to changing market conditions.

The Path Forward: Balancing Scrappiness with Scalability

The transition from scrappy to scalable is not about abandoning the qualities that made the startup successful in the first place. Instead, it’s about balancing those qualities with the discipline and structure needed for sustainable growth. Founders must learn to let go of some control and trust their team to execute the vision.

This evolution requires a mindset shift. Founders need to recognize that the skills and approaches that worked in the early days may not be sufficient for the challenges ahead. Embracing change and being willing to adapt are crucial for navigating this transition.

From Startup to Sustainable Success

Ultimately, the journey from scrappy to scalable is about building a company that can sustain success over the long term. It’s about creating a foundation that supports growth while preserving the innovative spirit that drives the startup. By implementing the right systems, building a strong leadership team, and fostering a scalable culture, founders can ensure their company not only survives but thrives.

In the end, the most successful startups are those that manage to retain their scrappy, entrepreneurial edge while embracing the structures and processes needed for scalability. They strike a balance between creativity and discipline, innovation and execution. By doing so, they set the stage for sustainable success and create a legacy that endures far beyond the initial burst of startup energy.

The Startup Time Bomb: The Hidden Risks Every Founder Must Defuse

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:35:24 GMT

Startups are exhilarating and a killing field at the same time. The rush of launching a new venture, the thrill of rapid growth, and the dream of disrupting entire industries can be intoxicating. Founders, armed with visionary ideas and boundless energy, often seem unstoppable. But lurking beneath this exciting surface is a ticking time bomb—an explosive combination of traits and pressures that can lead to spectacular failure if not carefully managed.

The Dual-Edged Sword of Founder Traits

Founders are often celebrated for their extraordinary vision, creativity, and resilience. These are the qualities that enable them to see opportunities where others see obstacles, to innovate relentlessly, and to push through the inevitable setbacks of startup life. However, these very traits can also be double-edged swords.

Visionary founders, driven by their grand ideas, can become overly focused on their vision to the detriment of practical execution. Their creativity, while essential for innovation, can lead to a chaotic work environment where priorities shift constantly. Resilience can turn into stubbornness, with founders refusing to pivot even when the market signals that it’s time to change course.

The High-Risk Environment of Startups

The startup environment itself is a pressure cooker. Unlike established companies, startups operate with limited resources, intense competition, and an unrelenting demand for rapid growth. Venture capitalists, while providing much-needed funding, often add to the pressure with their high expectations for quick returns. This high-stakes environment exacerbates the natural tendencies of founders, pushing them to their limits.

The high-risk nature of startups means that mistakes can be costly. A single wrong move can derail progress, and the margin for error is razor-thin. Founders must navigate this treacherous landscape while maintaining their vision and motivating their team—a Herculean task that few manage to accomplish without stumbling.

The Transformation from Strength to Liability

One of the most insidious aspects of the startup time bomb is how founder strengths can transform into liabilities as the company grows. In the early stages, a founder’s hands-on approach and intense involvement in every aspect of the business are assets. But as the company scales, this same approach can become a major hindrance.

Founders who fail to adapt their management style often find themselves overwhelmed by the demands of a larger organization. Micromanagement, once a sign of dedication, becomes a bottleneck. The ability to make quick, unilateral decisions, so useful in the early days, leads to inefficiencies and frustration among team members. The very qualities that drove early success can precipitate later failure if not managed correctly.

Defusing the Time Bomb: Strategies for Sustainable Growth

So, how can founders defuse this time bomb?

The key lies in recognizing the need for evolution—both personal and organizational. Founders must develop the self-awareness to understand their strengths and weaknesses and the willingness to adapt their leadership style as the company grows.

Embrace Delegation: Trusting and empowering a capable team is essential. Founders need to delegate responsibilities and focus on strategic vision rather than day-to-day operations.
Build Robust Systems: Implementing efficient processes and systems can reduce chaos and improve scalability. This involves moving from an ad-hoc approach to a more structured, process-driven model.
Seek External Feedback: Regularly soliciting feedback from mentors, advisors, and peers can provide valuable insights and help founders stay grounded.
Invest in Personal Growth: Continuous learning and development are crucial. Founders should seek out leadership training and be open to coaching and mentorship.
Balance Vision with Practicality: Maintaining a clear vision is important, but it must be balanced with practical execution. Founders need to be willing to pivot and adapt based on market feedback.

The Path to Longevity

The startup time bomb is not an inevitable fate. By recognizing the risks and proactively addressing them, founders can transform potential pitfalls into stepping stones for long-term success. It’s about striking a balance—maintaining the visionary spark that drives innovation while building the practical foundations for sustainable growth.

Founders who successfully navigate this transition not only defuse the time bomb but also set their companies on a path to enduring success. They learn to harness their strengths without letting them become liabilities, creating a legacy that goes beyond the initial burst of startup energy.

In the end, the journey from a scrappy startup to a thriving enterprise is a marathon, not a sprint. Founders must pace themselves, adapt to changing conditions, and be prepared to evolve. By doing so, they can ensure that their startups don’t just survive but thrive in the long run.

The Narcissistic Founder Syndrome

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:22:13 GMT

How Overconfidence, Self-Centeredness, and Unilateral Decisions Can Stunt Company Growth

Confidence is essential for founders but it’s a potential Achilles Heel. Founders need to believe in their vision, their product, and their ability to succeed against the odds. This high self-confidence is often what sets them apart and drives their early success. However, when taken to extremes, this confidence can morph into narcissism—a dangerous trait that can hinder delegation and empowerment, ultimately stunting company growth. This phenomenon is known as the Narcissistic Founder Syndrome.

The Birth of a Visionary

Founders are often visionary leaders with an unshakeable belief in their ideas. This self-confidence is critical in the early stages of a startup. It fuels the passion and perseverance needed to overcome obstacles and rally a team around a shared vision. Without this unwavering belief, many startups would never get off the ground.

In these early days, the founder’s hands-on approach is not only necessary but also effective. They are involved in every aspect of the business, making quick decisions and driving the company forward with their energy and enthusiasm. Their charisma and conviction attract investors, employees, and customers, setting the stage for initial success.

The Dark Side of Confidence

However, as the company grows, the founder’s high self-confidence can begin to show its dark side. What once was seen as decisive leadership can start to look like stubbornness and an unwillingness to listen to others. The need for control, initially a strength, becomes a liability as the organization scales.

Narcissistic founders often struggle with delegation. They have a hard time letting go of control and trusting others to make decisions. This can lead to micromanagement, where the founder is involved in every detail, stifling the autonomy and creativity of their team. Employees may feel undervalued and overruled, leading to frustration and disengagement.

This need for control can also hinder empowerment. Founders who are used to being the center of attention may find it difficult to share the spotlight. They may be reluctant to empower their team members, fearing that it will dilute their own influence. This can create a culture of dependency, where employees are hesitant to take initiative or make decisions without the founder’s approval.

The Impact on Company Growth

The Narcissistic Founder Syndrome can have serious implications for company growth. When founders are unable to delegate effectively, they become a bottleneck, slowing down decision-making and execution. The company’s ability to scale is compromised as the founder’s limitations become the organization’s limitations.

Moreover, a lack of empowerment can stifle innovation and creativity. When employees feel that their ideas are not valued or that they are not trusted to take ownership of their work, they are less likely to contribute fully. This can lead to a loss of talent, as top performers seek opportunities where they can have a greater impact.

The result is a company that is overly dependent on its founder, with a stagnant culture and limited growth potential. The very traits that led to early success become the roadblocks to sustainable growth.

Breaking Free from the Syndrome: Key Strategies

To overcome the Narcissistic Founder Syndrome, founders must recognize the need to evolve their leadership style as their company grows. Here are some strategies to help achieve this:

Cultivate Self-Awareness:
Founders need to be aware of their own tendencies towards narcissism and understand how these can impact their leadership.
Seeking feedback from trusted advisors, mentors, and team members can provide valuable insights.
Embrace Delegation:
Letting go of control and trusting others to make decisions is crucial. Founders should focus on building a strong leadership team and delegating responsibilities.
Clear delegation of roles and responsibilities ensures that everyone knows their areas of ownership.
Empower the Team:
Creating a culture of empowerment involves giving team members the autonomy to make decisions and take initiative.
Recognizing and celebrating the contributions of others fosters a sense of ownership and engagement.
Focus on the Big Picture:
As the company grows, founders should shift their focus from day-to-day operations to strategic vision and long-term goals.
This allows them to guide the company’s direction while empowering others to handle the details.
Invest in Personal Development:
Continuous learning and personal development are essential for evolving as a leader. Founders should seek out leadership training, coaching, and mentorship.
Developing emotional intelligence and humility can help balance confidence with empathy and collaboration.

The Path to Sustainable Leadership

The journey from a scrappy startup to a scalable organization requires founders to evolve from being the central figure to being a facilitator of growth. Overcoming the Narcissistic Founder Syndrome involves recognizing the need for change and embracing a more collaborative leadership style.

Successful founders understand that their role is not just to lead but to build a team that can lead with them. By letting go of control and empowering others, they can unlock the full potential of their organization and set the stage for sustainable growth.

In the end, the true mark of a great founder is not just their vision and confidence, but their ability to inspire and empower others to achieve that vision together. Breaking free from the Narcissistic Founder Syndrome is not just about personal growth—it’s about creating a legacy of collaborative success.

10 Traps Founders Should Avoid When Building Early Stage Startup Teams

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:14:39 GMT

Steer Clear of These Pitfalls to Build a Strong and Motivated Startup Team

While building a startup team, it's crucial to recognize and avoid common pitfalls that can hinder your success. Here are ten traps founders should steer clear of to ensure their team remains effective and motivated.

One of the most significant traps is hiring for control rather than competence. It's tempting to bring on people who will only agree with you, but this can stifle innovation and critical thinking. Instead, seek out team members who challenge and expand your ideas. Don’t undervalue the importance of experience and domain knowledge; these qualities are essential for navigating the complexities of a startup.
Micromanaging team members is another common pitfall. Constant oversight can demoralize employees and stifle creativity. Trust your team to handle their responsibilities without hovering over them. Micromanagement can create dependency, preventing team members from developing their problem-solving skills and taking initiative.
Failing to define roles clearly can lead to confusion and conflict within the team. Without well-defined roles, team members might duplicate efforts or leave critical tasks undone. Clearly establishing who is responsible for what promotes efficiency and accountability.
Neglecting team culture is a mistake that can lead to a toxic work environment. A strong, positive culture aligns team members with the company’s values and mission. Failing to address cultural issues can result in misalignment and decreased morale.
Ignoring team input is a surefire way to miss valuable insights and innovative ideas. Engaged team members are more likely to contribute their best work. When their input is overlooked, it can lead to disengagement and reduced morale. Make it a priority to listen to and act on feedback from your team.
Inadequate communication can create significant problems. Information gaps result in misunderstandings and mistakes, while team members may feel isolated and disconnected from the company’s vision and goals. Prioritize clear, transparent communication to keep everyone aligned and informed.
Overemphasizing short-term goals at the expense of long-term planning can be detrimental. While immediate objectives are important, focusing solely on them can hinder sustainable growth and strategic planning. Additionally, an intense focus on short-term results can lead to team burnout and high turnover rates.
Resisting change is another trap that can prevent a company from evolving and staying competitive. Being open to new ideas and adapting strategies as needed is essential for growth. Failing to embrace change can result in missed opportunities for innovation and improvement.
Poor conflict management can damage team cohesion. Ignoring conflicts allows issues to escalate, while ineffective resolution can lead to lingering resentment. Developing strong conflict resolution skills is crucial for maintaining a healthy team dynamic.
Finally, overconfidence in leadership can create blind spots. While self-confidence is important, too much can prevent you from seeing your own weaknesses and the potential for mistakes. A strong ego can make it difficult to accept and act on constructive criticism, hindering personal and team growth.

By avoiding these common traps, founders can foster a positive, productive team environment that supports sustainable growth and success. Implementing these strategies will help ensure that your startup team remains motivated, innovative, and aligned with the company’s vision.

10 Things Founders Should Do to Build Strong Early Stage Startup Teams

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 21:20:29 GMT

Founders' Playbook: Crafting a Cohesive and Dynamic Team for Startup Success

Building a successful startup requires more than just a groundbreaking idea; it demands a robust and cohesive team. As a founder, it's essential to implement strategies that will ensure your startup team is strong, motivated, and effective.

One of the first steps in building a solid team is surrounding yourself with knowledgeable and experienced people. Seek out individuals who have the technical and functional expertise that complements your own skills. A diverse team with varied backgrounds can bring multiple perspectives to problem-solving, which is invaluable for innovation and growth. Continuously upgrade your team with people who can teach you new insights and push the company forward.
Empowering your team members is equally important. Give high-powered team members the independence to make decisions within their areas of expertise. Encouraging a sense of ownership and responsibility for their work can significantly enhance their motivation and commitment to the company's success. Avoid the temptation to micromanage; instead, trust your team to perform their roles effectively without constant oversight.
Recognizing and valuing individual contributions is crucial for maintaining a positive and productive team environment. Regularly acknowledge and celebrate the efforts and achievements of your team members. Foster a culture where each member's unique contributions are valued and respected. In meetings and decision-making processes, ensure that all voices are heard and considered, promoting inclusivity and collaboration.
To prevent confusion and inefficiency, it's essential to clarify roles and responsibilities within the team. Establish well-defined roles and hold team members accountable for their specific areas of responsibility. This clarity not only promotes accountability but also facilitates collaboration, as everyone understands their part in the bigger picture.
Encouraging continuous learning and development is another key strategy. Invest in training and provide opportunities for professional development and skill enhancement. Support your team members in pursuing new knowledge and experiences that will benefit the team. Consider pairing less experienced team members with seasoned professionals to facilitate mentorship and growth.
Fostering open communication is vital for team cohesion. Maintain open lines of communication about company goals, challenges, and successes. Create a culture where feedback is welcomed and acted upon, and hold regular team meetings to discuss progress, share information, and address concerns.
Building a collaborative environment involves aligning team members around common objectives and a shared vision. Encourage cooperation over competition within the team and support team-led projects and ideas that contribute to the company's goals. A collaborative environment enhances productivity and innovation.
As a leader, it's important to lead by example. Demonstrate the attitudes and behaviors you expect from your team. Maintain an open-door policy so team members feel comfortable approaching you with their ideas and concerns. Act with honesty and integrity to build trust and respect within the team.
Adapting your leadership style to meet the team’s needs and the startup's stage of growth is crucial. Be flexible and adjust your approach based on the evolving circumstances. Encourage innovation by supporting creative thinking and risk-taking. Stay informed about industry trends and adapt your strategies accordingly.
Finally, balance support and challenge within the team. Provide the resources and backing your team needs to succeed, while also setting high expectations and pushing team members to exceed their limits. Recognize and reward achievements to reinforce a culture of excellence.

By implementing these ten strategies, founders can create a dynamic and resilient team capable of driving their startup toward success.

10 Strategies to Sharpen Your Decision-Making Skills as a Leader

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:45:04 GMT

Leadership Coaching Strategies: Enhancing Productivity and Managing Chaos in a Startup Environment

Effective leadership is crucial for maintaining productivity and managing chaos. Leadership coaching provides essential strategies for guiding teams through the turbulence of rapid growth and constant change. By focusing on key leadership skills, such as communication, resilience, and decision-making, leadership coaching helps leaders inspire and support their teams, fostering a productive and harmonious work environment even in the most challenging circumstances.

Here are 10 strategies to sharpen your decision-making skills as a leader:

1. Prioritize Deliberation in Decision-Making

Decision-making is at the core of leadership, but not all decisions are created equal. Distinguish between decisions that are reversible and those that are not. Avoid impulsive decision on those that are irreversible and need thorough deliberation, what I call “bet the company decisions”. Prioritize careful analysis for the latter to avoid catastrophic outcomes.

2. Embrace Velocity and Avoid Paralysis

3. Develop a Robust Decision-Making Framework

4. Build a Diverse Decision-Making Team

5. Focus on Critical Priorities

6. Define Problems Clearly Before Acting

7. Visualize Successful Outcomes

8. Leverage Data and Analytics

9. Differentiate Between Intuition and Impulse

10. Reflect and Learn from Mistakes

By integrating these strategies into your leadership approach, you can enhance your decision-making capabilities, leading to more effective and impactful outcomes for your organization.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Unlocking Hiring Success: 10 Proven Strategies and Executive Coaching Tips for Startup Founders

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:15:00 GMT

Mastering the Hiring Process

Hiring the right talent is one of the most critical challenges for startup founders. With the potential to make or break a company's success, effective hiring requires a strategic approach and keen awareness of common pitfalls. In this article, we explore ten essential keys to hiring success, providing actionable insights to help founders build strong, cohesive teams. Additionally, we delve into the transformative role of executive coaching, demonstrating how personalized guidance can refine hiring processes, enhance decision-making, and ultimately drive startup growth.

Below are my top 10 strategies for achieving success in hiring:

Acknowledge Your Weaknesses Recognize that hiring is a specialized skill. Many founders, despite their talents, are not naturally adept at interviewing or assessing candidates due to a lack of experience. This often leads to hasty decisions based on gut feelings rather than objective criteria. By admitting this limitation, you open the door to seeking expert advice and support, such as hiring a seasoned recruiter or using structured interviewing techniques. This self-awareness can prevent costly mis-hires and improve the overall quality of your team.
Develop a Disciplined Hiring Process Establish a structured hiring process that includes multiple stages: detailed job descriptions, candidate sourcing, thorough interviews, and gathering feedback from references. This process should be documented and followed consistently to ensure every candidate is evaluated on the same criteria. A well-defined process helps avoid impulsive decisions and provides a clear framework for comparing candidates. Additionally, involving multiple team members in the process can provide diverse perspectives and reduce biases.
Hire for Team Chemistry, Not Just Individual Talent While individual skills and experience are important, how a candidate fits within the existing team dynamics is crucial for long-term success. Look for candidates who complement the strengths and weaknesses of your current team members. This means considering their interpersonal skills, work style, and ability to collaborate effectively. Avoid the trap of hiring only "rock stars" who may have strong individual capabilities but struggle to work well with others, leading to friction and reduced overall team performance.
Use Data-Driven Hiring Tools Implementing data-driven tools, such as personality assessments and job scorecards, can provide objective measures of a candidate's suitability. These tools help identify key traits and skills that align with the job requirements and company culture. For example, a job scorecard outlines the specific competencies, experiences, and outcomes expected from the role, providing a clear benchmark for evaluating candidates. This approach minimizes the risk of biases influencing hiring decisions and ensures a more thorough and fair assessment process.
Diversify Your Candidate Pool T o find the best talent, it’s essential to cast a wide net beyond your immediate network. Relying solely on personal connections can lead to a homogenous team that lacks diverse perspectives. Engage your investors, board members, and professional networks to reach a broader pool of candidates. Additionally, consider using specialized recruiting firms that have access to talent in niche areas. A diverse team brings varied viewpoints and problem-solving approaches, which can drive innovation and better decision-making.
Practice Extreme Backchanneling Backchanneling involves gathering informal feedback about a candidate from their former colleagues and supervisors. This process goes beyond standard reference checks to uncover deeper insights into the candidate’s performance, work ethic, and interpersonal skills. Focus on specific, concrete questions about the candidate’s past behavior, such as their role in projects, challenges faced, and interactions with team members. This detailed feedback can reveal potential red flags or confirm the candidate’s suitability for your team.
Sell Your Vision Interviews are not just about assessing candidates; they are also an opportunity to sell your company’s vision and culture. Talented candidates often have multiple job offers and need to be convinced that your startup is the right choice. Share your company’s mission, values, and growth potential. Highlight the impact they can make and the opportunities for personal and professional growth. A compelling vision can attract candidates who are passionate about your mission and willing to invest their talents in your startup.
Adapt to Different Stages of Growth The type of talent your startup needs will evolve as the company grows. Early on, you may need generalists who can wear multiple hats and handle a variety of tasks. As you scale, the need for specialists and experienced leaders increases. These individuals bring expertise in specific areas, such as product development, marketing, or operations, and can help navigate the complexities of scaling a business. Continuously reassess your hiring needs based on your company’s growth stage and adjust your recruitment strategy accordingly.
Leverage Recruiting Firms Strategically Choosing the right type of recruiting firm can significantly impact your hiring success. Contingency recruiters are useful for quickly filling mid-level positions without upfront costs. Retained search firms are ideal for senior roles where the impact of a hire is significant, offering a dedicated and thorough search process. Boutique firms provide niche expertise, particularly valuable for specialized roles. In-house recruiters, once the company has reached a certain size, offer long-term alignment with your culture and continuous talent pipeline development. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firms can handle large-scale hiring needs efficiently, though with potential cultural misalignment risks.
Emphasize Flexibility and Innovation To attract top talent, emphasize the dynamic environment and the innovative, disruptive nature of your startup. Highlight the opportunities for creativity, problem-solving, and personal growth within your company. Candidates who thrive in such environments are often more adaptable and capable of handling the ambiguity and challenges that come with startup life. Showcase your company’s flexibility, such as remote work options or flexible hours, to appeal to candidates who value work-life balance and the freedom to innovate.

By following these strategies, founders can significantly improve their ability to hire top talent, ensuring their team is strong, cohesive, and capable of driving the company towards its goals. Want to maximize your hiring performance, work with an experienced Leadership Coach.

Why Executive Coaching Matters

Hiring the right talent is a complex and nuanced process, requiring not only technical skills but also strong interpersonal and strategic capabilities. Founders, often focused on growth and product development, might lack the time or expertise to refine these skills independently. An experienced executive coach can provide invaluable support in several key areas to improve a founder's hiring process.

Personalized Assessment and Feedback
Executive coaches offer personalized feedback based on thorough assessments of a founder's strengths and weaknesses. This tailored approach helps founders understand their natural biases and blind spots that may affect their hiring decisions. By working with an executive coach, founders can develop a more objective and balanced perspective, leading to better hiring outcomes.

Developing a Structured Hiring Process
An executive coach can assist in designing and implementing a structured hiring process. They bring expertise in best practices for job descriptions, interview techniques, and candidate evaluations. With a coach’s guidance, founders can create a consistent and repeatable process that reduces the risk of bad hires and ensures that all candidates are assessed fairly and thoroughly.

Enhancing Interview Skills
Many founders struggle with the interpersonal aspects of interviewing, such as active listening, reading non-verbal cues, and building rapport. An executive coach can provide training and practice sessions to improve these skills. They can role-play interview scenarios, offer constructive feedback, and help founders develop the confidence and competence needed to conduct effective interviews.

Improving Decision-Making
Executive coaches help founders enhance their decision-making capabilities by teaching them how to evaluate candidates based on objective criteria rather than gut feelings. They can introduce data-driven tools and techniques for assessing candidate fit, such as competency models and behavioral interview questions. This structured approach leads to more informed and rational hiring decisions.

Facilitating Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Effective hiring requires a high level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Executive coaches work with founders to develop these traits, helping them become more attuned to their own emotions and those of others. This increased emotional intelligence enables founders to better understand candidate motivations, assess cultural fit, and create a positive interview experience.

Building a Positive Company Culture
An executive coach can guide founders in defining and communicating their company culture and values. This clarity helps attract candidates who align with the company’s mission and vision. Coaches also assist in integrating new hires into the company culture, ensuring a smooth onboarding process and higher retention rates.

Navigating Difficult Conversations
Hiring often involves difficult conversations, such as providing feedback to unsuccessful candidates or making tough decisions about current team members. An executive coach can provide strategies and frameworks for handling these conversations with empathy and professionalism. This skill is crucial for maintaining a positive employer brand and fostering a respectful work environment.

Continuous Improvement
The hiring process is not a one-time event but an ongoing activity that evolves with the company. Executive coaches help founders establish a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing and refining their hiring practices. This iterative approach ensures that the hiring process remains effective and aligned with the company’s changing needs.

An experienced executive coach can significantly enhance a founder’s ability to hire top talent. By providing personalized feedback, developing structured processes, improving interview skills, and fostering emotional intelligence, coaches enable founders to make better hiring decisions. This investment in coaching not only improves the quality of hires but also contributes to the overall growth and success of the startup.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Sharper Focus, Supercharged Results: Why It Pays to Be Mindful

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 02:40:01 GMT

Unlocking Your Potential: The Science and Strategy of Focus

In our information-overload age, staying focused feels like a superpower. But focus isn't just about willpower; it's a scientifically proven cognitive skill that fuels achievement and well-being. Let's delve into the science behind focus and explore how prioritizing what matters most unlocks your potential.

The Focus Advantage: A Cognitive Deep Dive

Our brains have a limited capacity for attention. Imagine your focus as a spotlight – it can illuminate a specific area brilliantly, but the surroundings fade into obscurity. Research by Daniel Goleman, author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, highlights this concept. When we focus, we filter out distractions, allowing for deeper information processing.

This translates to:

Sharper Decision-Making: Focused attention allows us to weigh information critically, leading to better choices with fewer errors.
Enhanced Learning: When focused, we encode information more effectively, fostering stronger memory and knowledge retention.
Increased Productivity: Focus helps us enter a "flow state" – a state of complete absorption in the task at hand. This minimizes distractions and optimizes performance, leading to getting more done in less time.

Prioritization: The Key to Focused Achievement

Focusing on results goes beyond simply completing tasks. It's about setting clear goals, prioritizing effectively, and channeling your efforts towards achieving those goals. Here's why prioritizing fuels focus and accomplishment:

Goal Clarity: A clear vision of what you want to achieve provides direction and motivation. Knowing your desired outcome helps you make choices that align with your goals, eliminating distractions.
Strategic Allocation: Prioritization forces you to identify the tasks with the biggest impact on achieving your goals. This ensures you spend your time and energy on activities that truly move the needle forward.
Reduced Mental Clutter: Having a prioritized to-do list reduces the mental load of juggling multiple options. This frees up cognitive resources for deeper focus on the task at hand.

Unlocking Focus: Actionable Strategies

Mastering focus takes practice, but the science provides a roadmap for success. Here are some research-backed tips to cultivate sharper focus and achieve outstanding results:

Minimize Distractions: Silence notifications, silence your phone (or put it away!), and create a clutter-free workspace. This reduces external stimuli vying for your attention.
Embrace Mindfulness: Meditation helps train your attention and reduce mind-wandering, allowing you to stay present in the moment. Studies by researchers like Amishi Jha demonstrate the positive impact of mindfulness on focus.
Set SMART Goals: Make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This clarity keeps you focused on achieving the desired outcome within a specific timeframe.
Schedule Breaks: Our focus naturally wanes over time. Take short breaks (ideally with some movement) to refresh your mind and prevent burnout.

Focus: Your Gateway to Achievement

Prioritizing focused work isn't just about achieving results; it's about empowering yourself. By honing your focus, you become better equipped to navigate distractions, make sound decisions, and achieve what truly matters to you. Remember, a focused mind is a powerful tool – use it wisely to unlock your full potential and achieve the results you desire.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

The Toxic Allure of the "Genius Jerk" and Why Founders Should Steer Clear

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 01:17:08 GMT

Breaking the Myth: Why Empathy and Respect Outshine Tyranny in Leadership Success

The mythology of the "genius jerk" is deeply ingrained in the startup culture. Tales of Steve Jobs' fiery temper, Elon Musk's relentless demands, and Larry Ellison's ruthlessness are often romanticized, leading many young founders to believe that such behaviors are synonymous with success. But is emulating these notorious figures truly the best path to follow? Our extensive research on financially successful founders suggests otherwise.

The Misleading Myth of the Genius Jerk

Let's start with the elephant in the room: Steve Jobs. Widely celebrated for his visionary genius, Jobs is equally infamous for his abrasive, often downright cruel management style. While his success at Apple is undeniable, attributing his achievements solely to his tyrannical tendencies is both simplistic and misleading.

Correlation vs. Causation: Just because Jobs was successful and behaved poorly doesn't mean his behavior was the cause of his success. Other factors, such as his unparalleled vision, relentless pursuit of excellence, and deep understanding of design and technology, played a far more critical role.
Survivorship Bias: We often hear about the "loud, successful jerks" because their stories are more dramatic and thus more newsworthy. This creates a skewed perception that such behavior is a prerequisite for success. In reality, there are countless successful founders who lead with empathy and respect but don't receive the same media attention.
Hidden Qualities of Successful Founders: The true drivers of a founder's success are often less visible and more nuanced. Qualities like resilience, strategic thinking, and the ability to build and lead strong teams are critical. These are not the traits of a jerk but of a reflective and adaptable leader.

The Research: Debunking the Genius Jerk Myt h

Our research on 122 financially successful founders reveals a compelling narrative that challenges the myth of the genius jerk. These founders, while often driven and demanding, possess a suite of qualities that starkly contrast with the behaviors of notorious figures like Jobs and Musk.

Adaptability and Reflection: Successful founders are not rigid autocrats but adaptable individuals who reflect on their actions and decisions. They are capable of evolving their strategies and behaviors based on feedback and changing circumstances.
Emotional Control and Social Insight: Unlike the volatile temperaments of some famous founders, our research subjects exhibit emotional control and social insight. They understand the importance of maintaining composure and are adept at reading social cues to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics.
Diplomacy and Likeability: These founders may be demanding, but they are also diplomatic and likeable. They build alliances, foster goodwill, and create a positive work environment that attracts and retains top talent.

The Flaws in Emulating Jerks

Short-term Gains vs. Long-term Sustainability: Autocratic, abusive behaviors might yield short-term results, but they often lead to long-term issues such as high employee turnover, low morale, and a toxic work environment. Sustainable success is built on a foundation of trust and mutual respect.
Misinterpreting Strength and Decisiveness: Young founders might mistake aggression and abrasiveness for strength and decisiveness. True strength in leadership comes from patience, empathy, and the ability to inspire and motivate others.
Overlooking Team Dynamics: Effective leadership isn't just about the leader's personality; it's also about how they interact with and build their team. A supportive, collaborative environment is crucial for innovation and productivity.
Cultural Glamourization: Media often glorifies the "genius jerk" archetype, making it seem more appealing. This cultural phenomenon leads to an inflated sense of the importance of these behaviors. The reality is that many successful leaders operate in a much more considerate and inclusive manner.

Building a Positive, Supportive Leadership Style

Research on effective leadership styles consistently highlights the importance of clear communication, respect, and prioritizing employee well-being. Leaders who foster a positive, supportive work environment are more likely to attract and retain talented individuals, driving long-term success.

Clear Communication: Transparent and honest communication builds trust and ensures that everyone is aligned with the company's goals and vision.
Respect and Empathy: Treating employees with respect and empathy fosters a positive work culture where individuals feel valued and motivated.
Employee Well-being: Prioritizing the well-being of employees leads to higher job satisfaction, better performance, and lower turnover rates.

Conclusion: Embrace the Positive Path

The allure of emulating the behaviors of high-profile, autocratic leaders like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk is understandable but misguided. Our research unequivocally shows that the true drivers of success are qualities like adaptability, emotional control, social insight, diplomacy, and the ability to build a positive, supportive work environment. These are the traits that young founders should strive to emulate.

Success in the startup world doesn't require being a jerk. It requires being a thoughtful, reflective, and empathetic leader who can inspire and motivate a team to achieve great things. The sooner we debunk the myth of the genius jerk, the better off the next generation of founders will be.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

The Ideal Characteristics of a Leadership Coach for Startup Founders

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:45:00 GMT

Empowering Founders: The Essential Traits of Effective Leadership Coaches for Startup Success

The role of a leadership coach is crucial in guiding founders through the complex and often tumultuous journey of building a successful company. The ideal leadership coach for startup founders should possess a blend of experience, empathy, and strategic insight.

Here are the key characteristics that make an effective leadership coach for startup founders:

1. Deep Understanding of Startup Dynamics

A leadership coach should have a profound understanding of the unique challenges and dynamics of startups. This includes the ability to navigate the fast-paced, high-risk environment that startup founders operate in. Coaches like Richard Hagberg, who have extensive experience in Silicon Valley, understand the critical phases of startup growth and the common pitfalls founders face .

2. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence

Empathy is a cornerstone of effective coaching. A great coach demonstrates genuine interest in the personal and professional growth of the founder. They should be able to build trust and foster a safe environment where founders feel comfortable sharing their struggles and vulnerabilities. Emotional intelligence helps coaches to connect with founders on a deeper level, providing support that is both compassionate and constructive.

3. Ability to Provide Honest and Direct Feedback

Founders need coaches who can deliver honest and direct feedback without sugarcoating the truth. This involves identifying the core issues and underlying problems that may not be immediately apparent. Coaches who can cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters are invaluable. This directness helps founders to address their weaknesses and leverage their strengths more effectively.

4. Strategic Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills

An effective leadership coach should possess strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills. They help founders to develop a clear vision and actionable strategies to achieve their goals. This involves guiding founders through complex decision-making processes, helping them to anticipate challenges and devise solutions proactively.

5. Balancing Support and Challenge

A great coach knows how to balance support with challenge. They provide the encouragement and motivation founders need while also pushing them to step out of their comfort zones and tackle difficult issues. This balance ensures that founders grow not only in their leadership capabilities but also in their personal resilience and adaptability.

6. Data-Driven Insights and Experience

Leveraging data and empirical evidence is a powerful tool for leadership coaches. Coaches like Richard Hagberg use extensive data sets and research to inform their coaching practices, offering founders a clear picture of their strengths and areas for improvement based on concrete metrics and feedback.

7. Inspirational and Motivational Skills

Lastly, an effective coach must be inspirational. They should be able to motivate founders to pursue their vision with passion and commitment. This involves instilling a sense of purpose and direction, helping founders to see the bigger picture and stay focused on their long-term goals.

The ideal leadership coach for startup founders is one who combines deep industry knowledge with empathy, directness, strategic insight, and motivational prowess. Such coaches not only guide founders through the technical aspects of leadership but also support their personal development, ensuring they grow alongside their companies. By fostering a balance of support and challenge, these coaches help founders to navigate the complexities of startup life and achieve sustainable success.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

10 Key Strategies for Effective Planning, Prioritization, and Focus

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:45:59 GMT

Mastering the Essentials: Proven Techniques to Enhance Your Startup’s Efficiency and Achieve Greater Success

Efficiency is the key to unlocking success and staying ahead of the competition. "Mastering the Essentials: Proven Techniques to Enhance Your Startup’s Efficiency and Achieve Greater Success" delves into actionable strategies that can transform your business operations. From streamlining workflows and leveraging technology to fostering a culture of productivity and collaboration, this article provides the essential tools and insights needed to elevate your startup's performance and drive sustainable growth. Discover how to optimize your processes and achieve remarkable success with these proven techniques.

Identify and Focus on the Biggest Bottleneck
The first step in effective prioritization is identifying your startup's most significant constraint. By relentlessly tackling this bottleneck until it is resolved, you ensure that the most critical issues impeding your progress are addressed. For instance, if customer acquisition is your biggest hurdle, concentrate all your efforts on refining your marketing strategy until you see improvement. This approach ensures you are constantly working on the most impactful areas of your business, allowing you to move on to the next major issue once the current one is resolved.
Drown Your Distractions
Distractions such as social media, constant notifications, and unnecessary meetings can severely hinder your focus. To combat this, identify these distractions and work diligently to minimize them. This could involve turning off non-essential notifications, using apps that block distracting websites during work hours, and setting specific times for checking emails. By reducing distractions, you can maintain a clearer focus on your priorities, enhancing your productivity and allowing you to concentrate on what truly matters.
Mitigate Your Switching Costs
Multitasking can reduce your productivity by up to 40%. When you're constantly switching between tasks, you are not able to focus on any one task long enough to complete it effectively, leading to mistakes and cognitive overload. To mitigate these switching costs, focus on one task at a time. Techniques like time blocking can help, where you allocate dedicated time slots for specific tasks, ensuring that you are not constantly switching between different activities. This approach can reduce stress, decision fatigue, and cognitive overload, leading to more effective and efficient work.
Balance Long-term and Short-term Focus
Allocating your time effectively between strategic, long-term planning and immediate operational tasks is crucial for startup founders. Tools like time blocking can help you dedicate specific periods for strategic thinking and day-to-day operations. Setting aside 30 minutes each morning to plan your long-term strategy and spending the rest of the day executing immediate tasks ensures that both short-term and long-term goals are addressed. This balance helps maintain progress towards your overarching vision while managing daily operations efficiently.
Learn the Art of Following Through
Following through on plans is essential for maintaining organizational focus. Regularly monitoring progress against your plans and adjusting as needed prevents missed milestones and ensures projects stay on track. Using project management tools to keep track of progress and holding regular check-ins with your team to discuss any potential roadblocks can help maintain momentum and drive organizational focus. This practice ensures that your initial enthusiasm translates into sustained action and tangible results.
Rank Everything
Prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. Important and urgent tasks should be handled first, while important but non-urgent tasks can be scheduled for later. Delegating or eliminating tasks that are neither important nor urgent can free up your time to focus on high-impact activities. Using frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix can help categorize and prioritize tasks effectively. This systematic approach to prioritization helps ensure that you are always working on tasks that will have the most significant impact on your startup's success.
Learn to Say No
Not all opportunities are worth pursuing, and being able to decline tasks or projects that do not align with your strategic priorities is crucial. For instance, politely declining meetings or projects that don't directly contribute to your startup's goals allows you to focus on more critical tasks. This ensures that your efforts are directed towards the most impactful activities, preventing the dilution of your focus and resources. Learning to say no is essential for maintaining clarity and ensuring that you are not overwhelmed by less critical demands.
Stop Prioritizing Quantity Over Quality
Completing numerous low-impact tasks can create a false sense of productivity. Instead, focus on high-impact activities that drive significant progress. For example, spending a day developing a key feature for your product that will attract more users is far more valuable than spending that time on administrative tasks like answering emails. Prioritizing quality over quantity ensures that your efforts are concentrated on activities that will yield substantial results, moving your startup forward in meaningful ways.
Set Clear Objectives
Each task or project should have a clear objective. Defining success metrics for a new product launch, such as reaching a specific number of sales or receiving positive customer feedback within a set timeframe, ensures that everyone knows what they are working towards. Communicating these goals and the reasons behind them to your team encourages buy-in and helps maintain focus. Clear objectives provide direction and benchmarks for measuring success, making it easier to track progress and make necessary adjustments.
Get Organized
An organized workspace and clear tracking of tasks can enhance productivity and reduce stress. When you have a clear understanding of your priorities and a system for managing your workload, you can make informed decisions about how to allocate your time and resources. Implementing a task management system like Trello or Asana can help track your goals, deadlines, and progress, reducing stress and ensuring that you stay on track. Organization creates a structured environment where tasks are managed efficiently, and priorities are clear.

How can an Executive Coach Can Aid in This Process?

An executive coach can be instrumental in helping founders develop and refine their planning, prioritization, and focus. By providing an objective perspective, an executive coach helps you see blind spots and biases that you might not notice on your own. This objective view can be invaluable in identifying and focusing on the most critical areas that need attention.

Additionally, coaches bring structured methodologies and tools that can streamline your planning and prioritization processes, helping you set realistic goals, create action plans, and monitor progress systematically. Having an executive coach also means having an accountability partner who ensures that you stay committed to your priorities and follow through with your plans. Regular check-ins with a coach can keep you on track and motivated, reducing the likelihood of procrastination or distraction.

Moreover, coaches can help you develop essential skills such as time management, delegation, and strategic thinking, which are crucial for maintaining focus and driving the long-term success of your startup.

Emotional support is another significant benefit of having an executive coach. The startup journey can be emotionally taxing, and coaches provide support and strategies to manage stress and maintain a healthy work-life balance. This emotional support can improve your overall well-being and effectiveness as a leader.

By implementing these strategies and leveraging the expertise of an executive coach, founders can significantly improve their ability to plan, prioritize, and focus, ultimately driving their startups towards greater success.

Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success?

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

10 Things All Leaders Need to Do to Improve Accountability

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:30:00 GMT

Strategies for Leaders to Foster Accountability and Drive Team Success

Accountability is more crucial than ever for driving team success and achieving organizational goals. Leaders play a pivotal role in fostering a culture of accountability, ensuring that team members understand their responsibilities and are committed to meeting them. By implementing effective strategies and maintaining a transparent, fair, and supportive environment, leaders can significantly enhance accountability within their teams. Here are ten essential practices that all leaders need to adopt to improve accountability and boost overall performance.

1. Set Clear Expectations

Leaders must ensure that every team member understands their roles, responsibilities, and the standards they need to meet. This clarity helps avoid confusion and sets a solid foundation for accountability. Performance goals should be specific, measurable, and realistic with clear deadlines.

2. Stop Avoiding Tough Conversations

Avoiding difficult conversations can lead to bigger problems down the line. Leaders need to address performance issues head-on, prepare thoroughly for these conversations, and focus on solutions rather than problems. Open and honest communication can prevent misunderstandings and improve relationships.

3. Give Regular Feedback

Regular feedback is crucial for maintaining accountability. Leaders should establish a routine for check-ins and updates, providing continuous feedback on performance. This helps employees understand where they stand and what adjustments they need to make.

4. Recognize Great Performance

Acknowledging and rewarding good performance can significantly boost morale and motivation. Leaders should make a conscious effort to recognize and praise employees' achievements, ensuring that appreciation is specific and tied to the behaviors and outcomes they want to see repeated.

5. Stop Being Too Lenient

While being liked is nice, it's not the job of a leader to be overly lenient. Leaders must be firm and fair, holding everyone to their commitments and ensuring that all team members are accountable for their performance.

6. Stop Being Too Harsh

On the flip side, being overly critical can create a culture of fear and resentment. Leaders should focus on constructive feedback, understanding the reasons behind performance shortfalls, and fostering a supportive environment where employees feel safe to take risks and share their thoughts.

7. Model Accountability

Leaders need to set an example by holding themselves accountable. This means meeting their own commitments, admitting mistakes, and demonstrating personal responsibility. By modeling accountability, leaders can inspire their team to do the same.

8. Create a Culture of Openness

Fostering a culture of openness and honesty encourages team members to share their views, give each other feedback, and discuss problems openly. This transparency builds trust and helps the team work together more effectively.

9. Avoid Micromanaging

Micromanaging can stifle creativity and demotivate employees. Leaders should delegate responsibilities, give team members autonomy, and focus on higher-level strategic tasks. Clear expectations and regular check-ins can help ensure that work is on track without the need for constant supervision.

10. Stop Playing Favorites

Fairness is key to maintaining trust and accountability within a team. Leaders should ensure that all team members are held to the same standards and that recognition and feedback are distributed equitably. Avoiding favoritism helps build a cohesive and motivated team.

Improving accountability is about creating a transparent, fair, and supportive environment where everyone understands their responsibilities and is committed to meeting them. By implementing these ten practices, leaders can enhance accountability and drive better performance across their teams.

Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success?

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

From Visionary to Strategist: Mastering the Art of Startup Leadership

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 22:02:23 GMT

Transforming Entrepreneurial Energy into Sustainable Growth and Strategic Success

A popular e-commerce company faces rapid growth challenges: legacy systems, legal issues, and new competition. The founder focuses more on social media than enterprise issues. The board hires a COO, but resistance leads to no strategic alignment, resulting in bankruptcy.

What is Strategy?

Contrary to popular belief, strategy is not a static master plan but a dynamic, ongoing alignment process. Eric Van den Steen describes it as “the smallest set of choices to guide other choices.” It adjusts while maintaining its core purpose, linking objectives to actions and allowing flexibility in achieving goals.

Why Founders Struggle with Strategy

Many founders avoid strategy because their initial success didn’t require it. However, growth brings complexity, requiring a shift from vision-driven to strategic thinking. Low-strategy founders, driven by fear and anxiety, struggle to adapt, often mistaking tactical activity for strategic productivity and failing to translate vision into actionable plans.

Common Pitfalls

Operational Scaling**: Founders resist developing systems and processes, causing inefficiencies.
Financial Management**: Inadequate financial planning leads to missed insights and poor decision-making.
Brand Building**: Overlooking long-term brand strategies risks commodification.
Talent Development**: Ignoring structured leadership development results in disengagement and turnover.

Strategic Questions

Are we aligned with our mission and values?
Do we understand our customers’ evolving needs?
Are our products solving the right problems?
What emerging trends could impact us?
How can we improve operational efficiency?
Are we balancing short-term needs with long-term vision?
How can we foster innovation?
Are we making data-driven decisions?
How can we improve team dynamics?
What can we learn from competitors?
Are we managing risk effectively?

Advice: How To Implement Strategy

Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but culture and strategy are intertwined. Adjusting your strategy as your startup grows is essential for staying relevant and competitive. Embrace flexibility and iterative planning to align with market needs and internal capabilities.

Fire Yourself Early

As your organization grows, complexity increases, making top-down management ineffective. Empower your team to handle strategic decisions. Push problems down the structure to get better decisions and buy-in.

Strategic Planning Process

A strategic plan answers: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How will we get there? Make strategy a habit, not an event. Conduct research, pitch ideas, and present a plan annually. Review and adjust regularly.

Implementation

Know your strategy is working when employees understand why they work for you, what the strategy is, and how they contribute. Align goals with SMART criteria and schedule regular reviews.

The Stepping Stones

Proof of Concept**: Validate ideas with research and feedback.
Product-Market Fit**: Focus on understanding your customer base before scaling.
Traction Stage**: Account for real-world challenges and avoid relying on a “cascade of miracles.”

Strategic planning and continuous alignment are crucial for transforming vision into reality and ensuring long-term success.

Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success?

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Scaling Startup Founder Leadership Effectiveness: The Role of Coaching

Fri, 31 May 2024 14:15:39 GMT

Enhancing Startup Leadership: The Impact of founder leadership Coaching on Scaling Success

Scaling a startup from a fledgling venture to a robust enterprise requires more than a great product or a disruptive idea. It demands a transformation in leadership—one that is often facilitated through targeted coaching. Founders, who are typically strong in vision and innovation, often face challenges in execution and team management as their companies grow. This blog explores the essential elements of founder coaching aimed at enhancing leadership effectiveness during the critical scaling phase.

Understanding the Three Pillars of Leadership

Effective founder coaching hinges on developing three fundamental skill clusters, known as the Three Pillars of Leadership: Visionary Evangelist, Relationship Builder, and Manager of Execution. These pillars represent distinct styles and roles that are essential for managing and directing a growing organization.

Visionary Evangelist: Founders often excel as Visionary Evangelists. They are adept at creating excitement, enthusiasm, and optimism, painting a compelling vision for the future, and challenging the status quo. However, their strengths can also lead to weaknesses, such as impracticality, stubbornness, and a lack of follow-through.
Relationship Builder: This pillar focuses on fostering strong teamwork and collaboration. Relationship Builders create a sense of shared purpose, trust, and open communication. They are empathetic, supportive, and skilled at building partnerships and alliances. Yet, they may struggle with making tough decisions, holding people accountable, and prioritizing results over relationships.
Manager of Execution: Effective execution requires detailed planning, organization, and process management. Managers of Execution excel at establishing systems, clarifying roles, and ensuring accountability. Founders often find this the most challenging pillar, as it demands a shift from visionary thinking to disciplined management.

Key Coaching Areas for Scaling Leadership

To enhance leadership effectiveness, coaching for startup founders should focus on several critical areas:

1. Enhancing Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence

Founders must develop a deep understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses. This involves using tools like 360-degree feedback and personality assessments to gain insights into their leadership style and its impact on the organization. Emotional intelligence—particularly empathy, self-regulation, and social skills—is crucial for navigating the complex interpersonal dynamics of a growing team.

2. Building Effective Teams

As startups scale, the ability to build and manage effective teams becomes paramount. Coaching can help founders learn how to delegate responsibilities, empower team members, and create a culture of trust and accountability. This includes understanding the importance of praise and recognition, fostering a positive work environment, and addressing conflicts constructively.

3. Strategic Decision-Making and Execution

Founders need to transition from reactive, impulsive decision-making to a more strategic and data-driven approach. Coaching can provide frameworks for setting clear goals, measuring progress, and making informed decisions. This also involves developing the discipline to follow through on commitments and maintaining a long-term focus.

4. Navigating Change and Adaptability

The ability to adapt to changing circumstances is a key differentiator between successful and unsuccessful founders. Coaching should emphasize the development of an iterative mindset, resilience, and a tolerance for ambiguity. Founders must learn to pivot when necessary and continuously seek improvement and innovation.

5. Maintaining Personal Well-Being and Balance

Scaling a startup is a demanding endeavor that can lead to burnout if not managed properly. Coaches can help founders develop strategies for maintaining personal well-being, such as stress management techniques, work-life balance, and sustainable leadership practices. This ensures that founders remain effective leaders over the long term.

The Impact of Effective Coaching

Effective leadership coaching transforms not just the founder, but the entire organization. By developing the Three Pillars of Leadership, enhancing emotional intelligence, building strong teams, and fostering adaptability, coaches help founders navigate the complexities of scaling a startup. The result is a more resilient, innovative, and high-performing company.

Founder coaching is an invaluable investment for startups aiming to scale. It equips founders with the skills and insights needed to lead their organizations through growth challenges and achieve sustainable success. As the startup ecosystem continues to evolve, the role of coaching in shaping effective leaders will only become more critical.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

10 Proven Strategies to Master Conflict Resolution on Your Team

Fri, 31 May 2024 01:28:18 GMT

Proven Strategies to Transform Conflict into Growth Opportunities for Your Team

Effective conflict resolution is a crucial skill for any successful team. Unresolved conflicts can lead to disruptions, decreased productivity, and a toxic work environment. In this article, we explore ten proven strategies to master conflict resolution within your team. From setting conflict resolution as a priority to fostering a culture of candid conversations and empowering self-resolution, these techniques will help you turn conflicts into opportunities for growth and cohesion. By embracing these strategies, leaders can transform their teams, ensuring clarity, empathy, and fairness in every interaction. Dive in to discover how you can lead your team through conflicts with confidence and effectiveness.

1. Make Conflict Resolution Your North Star

Dodging conflicts or pushing them aside only turns them into ticking time bombs. Embrace conflict resolution as a top priority. Set aside dedicated time to tackle issues head-on before they snowball into bigger problems.

2. Play the Referee, Not the Judge

In conflicts, impartiality is your best ally. Don’t take sides; instead, facilitate fair and balanced discussions. Ensure everyone feels heard and respected, laying the groundwork for genuine resolution.

3. Cultivate a Culture of Candid Conversations

Encourage your team to voice their concerns openly and honestly. Foster an environment where people feel safe to express their views without fear of backlash. This transparency can turn potential conflicts into opportunities for growth.

4. Listen so hard you get a hernia, then avoid jumping to conclusions

Listening is more than hearing words; it’s about understanding the emotions and intentions behind them. Develop strong listening skills to show empathy and defuse tensions. Your team will appreciate your genuine understanding and support.

5. Spot and Address Conflicts Early

Don’t wait for conflicts to explode. Be proactive in identifying potential issues early on and address them before they escalate. This proactive approach can save your team from unnecessary turmoil.

6. Lean on Data and Logic

When resolving conflicts, let data and logical reasoning be your guide. This ensures that your decisions are fair, objective, and free from personal biases. A measured approach can turn heated disputes into reasoned agreements.

7. Empower Self-Resolution

Encourage team members to work through their differences directly. This not only empowers them but also fosters a culture of mutual respect and self-reliance. Sometimes, stepping back is the best way to move forward.

8. Facilitate Constructive Dialogue

When self-resolution isn’t an option, step in as a mediator. Guide the conversation to find common ground and work towards a solution that everyone can agree on. Your facilitation can transform conflict into collaboration.

9. Be Transparent and Just

Transparency and fairness are the bedrock of effective conflict resolution. Clearly explain your decisions and ensure everyone understands the rationale behind them. This builds trust and reinforces your commitment to equity.

10. Follow Up and Follow Through

Resolving a conflict is only half the battle; ensuring the resolution sticks is just as important. Follow up to make sure agreed-upon solutions are being implemented and that underlying issues have been fully addressed.

By embracing these strategies, you can turn conflict from a team’s Achilles’ heel into a powerful driver of growth and cohesion. Lead with clarity, empathy, and fairness, and watch your team thrive even in the face of disagreements.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

How Leadership Coaching Improves Decision-Making Skills and Enhances Judgment in Startup Founders

Sat, 25 May 2024 22:32:32 GMT

5 Key areas of Improvement through leadership coaching

Effective decision-making is a critical skill for startup founders. The ability to make sound, timely decisions can mean the difference between success and failure in the fast-paced startup environment. Leadership coaching plays a vital role in developing these decision-making skills and enhancing the judgment of startup founders. This blog explores how coaching can significantly improve these competencies, drawing insights from research and expert practices.

Understanding Decision-Making Challenges

Startup founders often face unique challenges when it comes to decision-making. They are typically highly visionary, which can lead to an overemphasis on big-picture thinking at the expense of detailed execution. Moreover, the high-stress environment of startups can impair judgment and lead to impulsive decisions. Founders need to learn how to balance intuition with data-driven analysis, manage stress effectively, and involve their teams in the decision-making process.

Key Areas of Improvement through Coaching

Enhancing Self-Awareness Self-awareness is the cornerstone of effective decision-making. Founders need to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and biases. Leadership coaching helps founders become more self-aware by providing feedback and helping them reflect on their decision-making processes. This awareness allows founders to recognize when they are relying too heavily on intuition or when they are being swayed by emotional impulses.
Developing a Disciplined Decision-Making Process A structured approach to decision-making can mitigate the risks of impulsive actions. Leadership coaches guide founders in developing disciplined processes such as SWOT analysis, decision matrices, and scenario planning. These tools help founders gather relevant information, evaluate alternatives, and make more informed decisions.
Leveraging Data and Analytics C oaching emphasizes the importance of leveraging data and analytics in decision-making. Founders learn to collect and analyze data, identify trends, and use these insights to guide their decisions. This data-driven approach helps founders remain objective and reduces the influence of cognitive biases.
Improving Emotional Regulation Stress and high emotions can significantly impair judgment. Coaches help founders develop techniques for managing stress and maintaining emotional control. This includes practices such as mindfulness, reflection, and seeking external perspectives. By keeping emotions in check, founders can make more rational and thoughtful decisions.
Fostering a Collaborative Decision-Making Environment Founders often need to make quick decisions, but involving their team can provide valuable insights and improve the quality of those decisions. Coaches teach founders how to build a culture of open dialogue and collaboration. This includes soliciting feedback, encouraging diverse viewpoints, and creating an environment where team members feel comfortable challenging ideas.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Unlock Startup Success: Essential Traits of a Top-Tier Leadership Coach for Founders

Sat, 25 May 2024 16:30:00 GMT

7 ideal characteristics of a leadership coach for startup founder

In the high-pressure world of startups, the role of a leadership coach is crucial in guiding founders through the complex and often tumultuous journey of building a successful company. The ideal leadership coach for startup founders should possess a blend of experience, empathy, and strategic insight. Here are the key characteristics that make an effective leadership coach for startup founders:

Deep Understanding of Startup Dynamics A leadership coach should have a profound understanding of the unique challenges and dynamics of startups. This includes the ability to navigate the fast-paced, high-risk environment that startup founders operate in. Coaches like Richard Hagberg, who have extensive experience in Silicon Valley, understand the critical phases of startup growth and the common pitfalls founders face.
Empathy and Emotional Intelligence Empathy is a cornerstone of effective coaching. A great coach demonstrates genuine interest in the personal and professional growth of the founder. They should be able to build trust and foster a safe environment where founders feel comfortable sharing their struggles and vulnerabilities. Emotional intelligence helps coaches to connect with founders on a deeper level, providing support that is both compassionate and constructive.
Ability to Provide Honest and Direct Feedback Founders need coaches who can deliver honest and direct feedback without sugarcoating the truth. This involves identifying the core issues and underlying problems that may not be immediately apparent. Coaches who can cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters are invaluable. This directness helps founders to address their weaknesses and leverage their strengths more effectively.
Strategic Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills An effective leadership coach should possess strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills. They help founders to develop a clear vision and actionable strategies to achieve their goals. This involves guiding founders through complex decision-making processes, helping them to anticipate challenges and devise solutions proactively.
Balancing Support and Challenge A great coach knows how to balance support with challenge. They provide the encouragement and motivation founders need while also pushing them to step out of their comfort zones and tackle difficult issues. This balance ensures that founders grow not only in their leadership capabilities but also in their personal resilience and adaptability.
Data-Driven Insights and Experience Leveraging data and empirical evidence is a powerful tool for leadership coaches. Coaches like Richard Hagberg use extensive data sets and research to inform their coaching practices, offering founders a clear picture of their strengths and areas for improvement based on concrete metrics and feedback.
Inspirational and Motivational Skills Lastly, an effective coach must be inspirational. They should be able to motivate founders to pursue their vision with passion and commitment. This involves instilling a sense of purpose and direction, helping founders to see the bigger picture and stay focused on their long-term goals.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

How Leadership Coaching Transforms Startup Founders from Reactive to Strategic Leaders

Sat, 25 May 2024 02:32:15 GMT

From Chaos to Clarity: The Role of Leadership Coaching in Shaping Strategic Startup Founders

Startup founders are often caught in a cycle of reacting to immediate crises and focusing on short-term goals. This reactive mindset can hinder long-term success and growth. Leadership coaching provides the tools and guidance necessary to shift from this reactive approach to a more strategic, forward-thinking mindset. This blog explores how leadership coaching can improve the ability of startup founders to stop being reactive, focus on strategic planning, and ultimately enhance their leadership effectiveness.

The Challenge of Reactivity

Many startup founders thrive on the adrenaline of solving immediate problems. This reactive behavior can be beneficial in the early stages when quick decisions and rapid pivots are often necessary. However, as the company grows, this approach can become a liability.

Founders who remain stuck in a reactive mindset may struggle with:

Short-Term Focus: Constantly addressing immediate issues can prevent founders from setting and pursuing long-term goals.
Burnout: The relentless pace of reacting to crises can lead to exhaustion and decreased effectiveness.
Lack of Strategic Direction: Without a strategic plan, companies can become directionless, chasing every new opportunity without a clear focus.

How Leadership Coaching Helps

Leadership coaching provides a structured approach to help founders transition from reactive to strategic leaders. Here are key ways coaching can facilitate this transformation:

1. Developing Strategic Thinkin g

Coaches work with founders to lift their gaze from day-to-day operations and focus on long-term objectives. This involves envisioning where they want their startup to be in the future and identifying the pathways to get there. A dynamic strategic planning process is essential, one that adapts to the changing business landscape while keeping the team aligned and motivated.

2. Enhancing Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is crucial for founders to recognize their reactive patterns and understand their impact on the organization. Coaches help founders reflect on their behaviors, identify triggers for reactive decision-making, and develop strategies to manage stress and maintain focus on strategic goals.

3. Establishing Clear Goals and Priorities

One of the most significant benefits of leadership coaching is the ability to set clear, achievable goals that align with the company’s long-term vision. Coaches assist founders in breaking down these goals into actionable steps and setting priorities that guide daily activities. This clarity helps prevent the scattergun approach of reacting to every new issue and keeps the organization focused on what truly matters.

4. Implementing a Structured Planning Process

Coaches introduce founders to planning frameworks such as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. These tools help founders translate their vision into concrete plans and metrics, ensuring that everyone in the organization understands their role and how it contributes to the larger mission.

Practical Steps to Shift from Reactive to Strategic

1. Regular Strategic Reviews

Setting aside dedicated time for strategic reviews helps maintain focus on long-term goals. These reviews should involve assessing progress, adjusting plans as needed, and communicating updates to the team. Regular check-ins ensure that strategic objectives remain at the forefront of decision-making.

2. Delegating Operational Tasks

To focus on strategic issues, founders need to delegate operational tasks to capable team members. This not only frees up the founder’s time but also empowers the team and builds a culture of trust and accountability. Effective delegation is a hallmark of strategic leadership.

3. Prioritizing Impactful Activities

Founders must learn to differentiate between urgent and important tasks. Leadership coaching helps founders prioritize activities that have the most significant impact on their strategic goals. This involves saying no to low-impact tasks and focusing on what drives the company forward.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

How Leadership Coaching Improves the Ability of Startup Founders to Delegate and Empower Their Teams

Sat, 25 May 2024 02:13:52 GMT

Unlocking Startup Success: The Transformative Power of Leadership Coaching in Delegation and Empowerment

Effective delegation and empowerment are crucial for the success of any startup. Founders who master these skills can build stronger, more autonomous teams, driving their companies to new heights. Leadership coaching plays a significant role in enhancing these abilities, providing founders with the tools and insights needed to foster a culture of trust, accountability, and collaboration. This blog explores how leadership coaching can improve the delegation and empowerment skills of startup founders, supported by insights from expert practices and research.

The Importance of Delegation and Empowerment

Delegation and empowerment are essential for several reasons:

Scalability: As startups grow, the workload increases exponentially. Founders who fail to delegate become bottlenecks, hindering their company’s progress. Effective delegation allows founders to focus on strategic initiatives while their teams handle operational tasks.
Team Engagement and Ownership: Empowering team members by delegating responsibilities boosts their engagement and sense of ownership. This leads to higher motivation, better performance, and increased innovation.l
leadership Development: Delegation provides opportunities for team members to develop their skills and prepare for leadership roles. This creates a pipeline of capable leaders within the organization, ensuring long-term sustainability.

Challenges in Delegation and Empowerment
Despite the clear benefits, many founders struggle with delegation and empowerment. Common challenges include:

Control Issues: Founders often have a strong attachment to their vision and may find it difficult to trust others with critical tasks.
Communication Barriers: Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes, making founders reluctant to delegate.
Fear of Failure: Founders may fear that team members will not meet their high standards, leading to a reluctance to delegate important responsibilities.

How Leadership Coaching Helps

Leadership coaching addresses these challenges by providing founders with strategies and tools to improve their delegation and empowerment skills:

Building Trust and Letting Go of Control Coaches help founders develop the trust needed to delegate effectively. This involves recognizing the strengths of team members and trusting them to handle responsibilities. Coaches also work with founders to let go of the need for control, encouraging them to step back and allow their teams to take ownership of tasks.
Enhancing Communication Skills Effective delegation relies on clear communication. Coaches work with founders to improve their communication skills, ensuring that they can articulate expectations, provide constructive feedback, and foster open dialogue within their teams. This reduces the risk of misunderstandings and mistakes, making delegation more successful.
Setting Clear Roles and Responsibilities L eadership coaching helps founders establish clear roles and responsibilities within their teams. This clarity ensures that everyone knows what is expected of them and can focus on their tasks without ambiguity. Clear roles also make it easier to hold team members accountable for their performance.
Encouraging Empowerment and Autonomy Coaches emphasize the importance of empowering team members by giving them the autonomy to make decisions and solve problems. This not only boosts team morale but also encourages innovation and proactive behavior. Empowered teams are more engaged and capable of driving the company forward.

Leadership coaching is a powerful tool for improving the delegation and empowerment skills of startup founders. By building trust, enhancing communication, setting clear roles, and encouraging autonomy, coaching helps founders create stronger, more effective teams. As startups grow and evolve, the ability to delegate and empower becomes increasingly critical, making leadership coaching an invaluable investment for long-term success.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

How Leadership Coaching Helps Startup Founders Avoid Distractions and Focus on Strategic Priorities

Wed, 22 May 2024 18:05:52 GMT

Steering Startups to Success: How Leadership Coaching Keeps Founders Focused Amidst Distractions

Startup founders are often visionaries, brimming with new ideas and opportunities. However, this propensity for innovation can sometimes lead to a lack of focus, where founders chase after every "shiny object" that comes their way. Leadership coaching can be a game-changer, helping founders to develop the discipline and strategic focus necessary to steer their companies towards sustainable success. This blog explores how leadership coaching can improve the ability of startup founders to avoid distractions and maintain the necessary focus for both their organization and themselves.

The Distraction Dilemma

In the fast-paced world of startups, distractions are everywhere. Founders are often tempted to pivot at the sight of new opportunities or trends, leading to scattered efforts and diluted resources. This phenomenon, known as "shiny object syndrome," can be detrimental to a startup’s long-term success.

Key issues include:

Loss of Focus: Constantly shifting priorities can prevent the team from completing critical tasks and projects.
Resource Drain: Pursuing too many initiatives at once can spread resources too thin, reducing the effectiveness of the organization’s efforts.
Team Confusion: Frequent changes in direction can confuse and demoralize the team, leading to decreased productivity and engagement.

How Leadership Coaching Helps

Leadership coaching provides the tools and strategies founders need to stay focused and avoid unnecessary distractions.

Here are several ways coaching can help:

Enhancing Self-Awareness Self-awareness is crucial for recognizing when you’re being distracted by non-essential opportunities. Leadership coaching helps founders become more self-aware, understanding their tendencies towards distraction and learning how to manage them. Coaches work with founders to identify their core values and strategic goals, helping them stay aligned with what truly matters.
Setting Clear Priorities Coaches help founders establish clear, achievable priorities that align with their long-term vision. This involves distinguishing between urgent and important tasks and learning to say no to opportunities that do not align with strategic goals. By setting clear priorities, founders can focus their time and energy on what will drive their company forward.
Developing Strategic Planning Skills Leadership coaching equips founders with the skills to develop and follow a strategic plan. This includes creating a roadmap that outlines key milestones, resources, and timelines. Strategic planning helps founders stay focused on long-term objectives and avoid getting sidetracked by short-term distractions.
Improving Time Management Effective time management is critical for maintaining focus. Coaches introduce founders to time management techniques such as time blocking, which allocates specific periods for strategic work and operational tasks. This structured approach ensures that founders dedicate sufficient time to high-impact activities and strategic thinking.
Encouraging Accountability Leadership coaches hold founders accountable for their commitments and strategic goals. Regular check-ins and progress reviews help ensure that founders stay on track and do not deviate from their established plans. This accountability is crucial for maintaining focus and achieving long-term success.

Practical Tips for Maintaining Focus

Use Project Management Tools Implementing project management tools can help founders track progress, manage tasks, and stay focused on strategic goals. Tools like Trello, Asana, or Jira provide a visual representation of tasks and timelines, making it easier to prioritize and delegate effectively.
Regular Strategic Reviews Scheduling regular strategic reviews ensures that the team remains aligned with the company’s long-term vision. These reviews provide an opportunity to assess progress, adjust plans, and reaffirm priorities, keeping everyone focused on what’s important.
Learn to Say No Founders must develop the discipline to say no to opportunities that do not align with their strategic goals. This involves evaluating each new idea or opportunity against the company’s priorities and being willing to pass on those that do not fit

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Enhancing Communication Skills in Startup Founders through Leadership Coaching

Wed, 22 May 2024 17:00:00 GMT

Unlocking Leadership Potential: How Coaching Enhances Communication Skills for Startup Founders

Effective communication is a cornerstone of successful leadership, particularly for startup founders who must navigate the complexities of scaling their ventures. Leadership coaching plays a pivotal role in developing these essential communication skills, enabling founders to articulate their vision, build strong teams, and foster a culture of collaboration. This blog explores how leadership coaching can improve the communication skills of startup founders, drawing insights from industry experts and empirical research.

The Importance of Communication in Leadership

Startup founders often excel in visionary thinking but may struggle with the nuances of effective communication. The ability to convey ideas clearly, listen actively, and engage in meaningful dialogue with stakeholders is critical for several reasons:

Articulating Vision and Goals: Founders need to inspire their teams with a clear and compelling vision. Effective communication ensures that everyone understands the company's direction and their role in achieving it
Building and Leading Teams: Good communication fosters trust, collaboration, and a sense of shared purpose among team members. It is essential for resolving conflicts, building relationships, and creating a positive work environment
Navigating Change and Growth: As startups scale, clear communication helps manage the complexities of growth, ensuring that all team members are aligned and working towards common objectives.

Key Communication Skills for Founders

Leadership coaching helps founders develop several key communication skills:

Active Listening: Active listening involves fully concentrating, understanding, responding, and remembering what is being said. For founders, this means engaging with team members, investors, and customers to understand their perspectives and concerns. Active listening fosters a culture of respect and inclusion, encouraging more open and honest communication.
Clarity and Conciseness: Founders must be able to convey their ideas clearly and concisely. This involves being precise in their language, avoiding jargon, and ensuring their messages are easily understood. Clarity reduces misunderstandings and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others. High EQ enables founders to communicate more effectively, build stronger relationships, and handle stress and conflict more adeptly.
Feedback and Constructive Criticism: Providing and receiving feedback is crucial for personal and team development. Founders need to learn how to give constructive criticism that is specific, actionable, and delivered with empathy. Equally important is the ability to receive feedback without becoming defensive, using it as a tool for growth and improvement.

The Role of Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching provides a structured and supportive environment for founders to develop these communication skills. Here are some ways in which coaching can enhance communication:

Personalized Feedback: Coaches provide founders with personalized feedback on their communication styles and effectiveness. This feedback is often based on 360-degree assessments and real-world observations, helping founders identify specific areas for improvement.
Role-Playing and Simulations: Through role-playing and simulations, coaches can help founders practice and refine their communication skills. These exercises mimic real-life scenarios, allowing founders to develop strategies for different communication challenges they might face.
Building Self-Awareness: Coaching helps founders become more self-aware, recognizing how their communication style impacts others. This awareness is the first step in making positive changes and becoming a more effective communicator .
Developing Emotional Intelligence: Coaches work with founders to enhance their emotional intelligence, providing tools and techniques to manage emotions and build stronger interpersonal relationships. High EQ is particularly important in high-stress startup environments where clear and empathetic communication is essential.

Effective communication is vital for the success of any startup, and leadership coaching offers a powerful avenue for founders to develop these skills. By focusing on active listening, clarity, emotional intelligence, and constructive feedback, coaches help founders become more effective leaders. The result is not just better communication, but stronger teams, improved morale, and a more cohesive organizational culture.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

The Importance of Leadership Coaching for Startup Founders

Fri, 17 May 2024 01:18:52 GMT

How Leadership Coaching Transforms Visionary Founders into Successful Leaders

In the high-stakes world of startups, founders are often celebrated for their vision, tenacity, and ability to disrupt industries. However, beneath the surface of these successes lies a complex reality: the same qualities that drive early-stage triumphs can lead to significant challenges as the company grows. Leadership coaching emerges as a crucial tool to help founders navigate these challenges and transform their startups into sustainable, thriving enterprises.

The Unique Challenges of Startup Founders

Startup founders are a unique breed. They are visionary, risk-takers, and often possess a relentless drive to succeed. Yet, these same traits can become liabilities as the startup scales. According to research, founders typically excel in areas like creativity, external product awareness, and visionary thinking but struggle with execution, team-building, and conflict resolution.

Founders are often described as "ticking time bombs" due to their high potential for burnout, mismanagement, and interpersonal conflicts. Their intense focus on innovation and growth can lead to neglect in areas such as process development, delegation, and team management. As a result, many founders face significant hurdles in maintaining their company's trajectory once it gains traction.

Why Leadership Coaching Matters

Enhancing Self-Awareness: Leadership coaching provides founders with a mirror, helping them see their strengths and weaknesses more clearly. Through tools like personality assessments and 360-degree feedback, coaches can pinpoint areas where founders excel and where they need improvement. This self-awareness is the first step in personal and professional growth.
Balancing Strengths and Weaknesses: Founders often have a natural aversion to structured processes and management tasks, preferring to focus on big-picture ideas. Coaches help them understand the importance of balancing visionary thinking with effective execution. By developing skills in areas like delegation, conflict resolution, and team-building, founders can create a more stable and productive work environment.
Improving Decision-Making: The startup landscape is fraught with uncertainty and rapid changes. Coaches assist founders in developing more structured and strategic decision-making processes. This can prevent the chaos that often arises from impulsive or poorly planned actions and help maintain a clear direction for the company.
Building Effective Teams: A founder's inability to delegate and empower others can stifle growth and innovation. Leadership coaching emphasizes the importance of trust and empowerment in building strong, capable teams. By learning to delegate effectively, founders can focus on strategic goals while their teams handle operational tasks.
Navigating Growth and Scaling: As startups grow, the complexities of managing a larger organization increase. Coaches guide founders through the transition from a small, close-knit team to a more structured and scalable organization. This includes implementing systems and processes that support sustainable growth without sacrificing the company's innovative spirit.

Leadership coaching is not just a luxury for startup founders; it's a necessity. In a world where the odds of startup success are dauntingly low, coaching provides the tools and insights needed to navigate the complex and often treacherous journey of entrepreneurship. By enhancing self-awareness, balancing strengths and weaknesses, improving decision-making, building effective teams, and guiding growth, leadership coaching helps founders turn their visionary ideas into sustainable realities. As the startup ecosystem continues to evolve, the role of coaching will only become more critical in shaping the leaders who drive innovation and change.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Creating Buy-in

Wed, 01 May 2024 23:51:00 GMT

Getting Buy-in For Your Initiatives

Creating Buy-In

There’s a common understanding that executives are hired to make decisions. True enough. But they are also hired to insure that the decisions are implemented. Coming to a decision – choosing a direction, formulating a strategy or deciding on an action plan – is difficult enough in these complex times. Getting people to buy in – to understand, accept, and align behind the plan - is another matter.

Nobody creates a successful business alone

No matter how brilliant or visionary you are, how innovative your ideas or your product, you need other people to help you transform your vision into reality. Leaders get results by working through others.

You need cooperation and support for your initiatives from investors, employees, and other stakeholders if you are to lead successfully and accomplish your goals.

The authoritarian leadership style is a dinosaur

We no longer live in a world where the person at the top can dictate terms to followers and employees and automatically get his or her way. It doesn’t work like that. Leaders on every level operate in a complex web of relationships and inter-relationships. They have to work with people who have differing agendas, viewpoints, and leadership styles, and need to find ways of working together to achieve common goals.

So you need to create buy-in

One of the ongoing challenges you will face as a leader is creating buy-in – getting the people whose support you need as fired-up as you are about what you are creating together. People who take on your vision as their own, who will enthusiastically put in the hours and the focus because they believe in you and your objectives and truly want to see your idea come to life. The more your agenda becomes theirs, something they want to achieve because they believe in it, the better your chances of success.

How will you do it?

This will not happen by itself. How will you light the fire that will make people passionate about building the organization needed to realize your dream? How will you enlist the cooperation of those who are not passionate, but whom you need on your side?

And how will you avoid the pitfalls that get in the way?

Here are some ideas that are relevant both for specific projects that you want to pursue, and for the overall success of your organization.

Steps to create buy-in:

Determine what you want
Creating buy-in first requires knowing what you want (your goals, priorities, and needed resources). So, before trying to present your idea or suggest an action, it’s important to carefully think through your proposal. Ask yourself:

What is most important to you in this situation?
What is your primary goal or core agenda?
What do you need others to agree to or support, both immediately and in the future?
What actions or changes do you want to see?

Determine what you can give up

Differentiate between your “A” priorities and your “B” and “C” priorities.
What are you willing to give or trade to get what is most important to you?
Be clear about the relative importance of getting the current task accomplished or initiative supported, versus maintaining or building a long-term relationship with those you are trying to influence.

Prepare the ground – do your homework
If you need an individual or group to buy in to your idea or initiative, set up a meeting and prepare for it carefully. Don’t impulsively jump into action before you have your plan thought through.

Know what you want to achieve.

Get clear what points you want to make, and how you want to state them.
Make whatever notes you may need so you can give a thorough, cogent, and persuasive presentation.
Get your facts straight and know the details.
Do your homework so that your argument has credibility. This is how you want people to see you: “She is so knowledgeable that her ideas and proposals have immediate credibility.”

Anticipate the opposition
Before you meet, make a list of all the people your proposal will affect. Talk to key players to find out how they think and what they want:

What are their concerns, agendas, and motivations?
What do they care about the most?
How are they likely to react to your proposal?
Try to anticipate likely disagreements or any opposing views you may face. Adjust your presentation accordingly.

Try to understand the person or persons you want to influence

One factor that inexperienced leaders – and some who should know better – often fail to take seriously is learning all they can about the people they wish to influence. It’s a common, and very natural mistake to feel that your vision, your personal persuasive powers, and your position authority should be enough to bring others into alignment with what you want. But it isn’t.

Before you aim directly for buy-in, try to understand the situation from the point of view of the people you’ll be addressing. When you talk to them, explain your ideas but be in a listening mode. Pay attention to what they say, and adapt your approach based on what you learn they want and what the forces are that are acting on them. If you understand their world and have a bit of empathy for what they are facing, you will be more likely to see them as allies rather than as the evil opposition.

Clarify what you have to offer in exchange

The unspoken question people will almost always have when considering whether to buy in to someone else’s initiative is, “What’s in it for me?” So before you try to influence and persuade, it’s important to clarify not just what you want, but what you have to offer. What can you trade for something they want or need? Important: This is likely to be different for each stakeholder, so you need to get to know your people. It’s not always about money.

Here are some things people value:

Meaning: Being involved in a project that has broader meaning and significance
Challenge: The chance to work on a demanding, stimulating project or problem
Money: Making more of it
Growth: Expanding their territory of influence or their level of responsibility
Learning something that is useful to their career advancement
Acknowledgement or praise for their accomplishments, competence, or knowledge
Being listened to – feeling that their ideas and contributions are appreciated
Getting support for a pet project in the form of financial or other resources such as staff, equipment, or office space
Greater visibility in the organization, profession, or industry
The opportunity to work with a person they admire or respect
Receiving coaching or mentoring
Feeling that they are a valued part of a group or team

Action Plan for Creating Buy-In:

Build consensus with key people

Identify the stakeholders whose buy-in you most need, whose input may influence or even change your approach or your course of action. That usually means all of your direct reports and your peers, and if you're the CEO, your board members.

Talk with them, and listen to what they have to say. You want key players to get behind you, but the process of persuading almost always involves listening to their concerns before you try to convince them of your rationale. They may have insights you don't have or concerns you don’t know about until you reach out to them.

Note: Pretending to listen – going through the motions with no intention to take the other’s ideas seriously – is not listening. Most people can spot a phony.

Line up your support

In their book, Influence Without Authority, educators and consultants Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford suggest that you consider starting with

People you know or are pretty sure are supportive. “Early wins help.”
People whose support will bring others along with them.
People whose expertise can improve your case.
People who are likely to oppose you if you do not incorporate their demands.

Connect with employees and direct reports

Ultimately, you want buy-in from everyone, not just critical stakeholders. Depending upon the size of the company you may or may not have sufficient time to establish relationships with everyone, but do the best you can.

Easy ways to create rapport and build support

Preferably before you need people to support an initiative:

Invite people for a one-on-one, perhaps for coffee or to share an informal lunch.
Pause at somebody's work area and ask what they're working on, what is exciting to them, and what frustrates them. Ask: “How can I help? What do you need?”
If they are new in town – perhaps they’ve moved in order to work with you and your team - ask if they are comfortably settled, and how partners or family members are.
Take a minute to find common ground in personal interests – sports teams, music, etc. – and share your enthusiasm. “Did you see the game last night?” “Have you heard the new song?”

It doesn’t take a lot of time to show interest or say a kind word. Fostering positive, trusting relationships is an investment in creating buy-in.

On the other hand, if you only show up when you want something they will quickly get onto it, and their trust level will be damaged.

Influence, don’t push

The tendency among entrepreneurs is to focus almost exclusively on pushing their idea. But forcing things tends to create resistance. Creating buy-in is ultimately about influencing others, not making demands on them. It may require a little time to truly listen and take others’ concerns into consideration, but if you need to build support to get something done, or must work collaboratively with others over the long haul, it’s worth the investment.

Involve people in decision making

An effective way of creating buy-in with your team is to involve them in problem-solving and decision-making. Not every decision or problem requires consensus but involving people in problem solving, whether it's gathering relevant facts or getting suggestions for potential actions or approaches, is very useful. People love to feel that their opinions and insights are valued, i.e., that they are respected members of the team.

Keep people in the loop

Explain your decisions and share the rationale for your conclusions or actions. This helps people understand how you think about problems and empowers them to develop capability for independent decision-making. The more they can do that, the more you can trust them and the less you will feel the need to micromanage.

Inspiration generates buy-in

People need to know where the leader is leading them, and they need to feel that the destination is meaningful and attainable. Visionary Evangelists have a natural gift for painting a verbal and conceptual picture of their vision, delivered with enthusiasm, that draws people to want to follow their lead and makes them feel, “We can do this!”

Share your vision and keep it fresh

You have the big picture, and at least a partially developed long-term strategy, and you know what you need to have happen as you go forward. Your employees do not have this vision or understanding, unless you share it with them. One of the most powerful ways to generate buy-in is to paint that big picture, and repeatedly remind them of where you are going as an organization and how they can help.

Create an atmosphere of openness, not fear

If a leader is autocratic and intimidates or bullies people, it fosters the development of a culture of yes-men. Then you’ll never know what people are thinking, or what is really going on in your organization. If you want to elicit people’s best thinking and most committed action, you need to allow others’ voices to be heard. Create an atmosphere where people will bring forward their ideas. They will do that, if they believe you are really listening.

Try to take time for your people even when you feel you don’t have an y

A critical factor facing the entrepreneur that others may be blissfully unaware of is the sense of urgency he or she likely feels because funding is limited, the fuses are burning, and the runway is getting shorter. With this kind of pressure – with so much to accomplish in a short time frame – it feels impossible to take time soliciting people’s opinions and building support. Try to do it anyway.

Apologize if you screw up

If you snap at someone because of the pressure, apologize as soon as you can. “I’m sorry, the time crunch is getting to me. You didn’t deserve that. You’re doing a great job.” This will go a long way to soothe hurt feelings and build a stronger relationship with your team.

Model the values you expect others to follow

Creating buy-in starts with the first people you hire, and continues through all phases of the organization’s growth. You need to be sure that all the individuals are in alignment with the values and goals of your company. You can’t expect this to happen unless you make those goals and values clear, explain why they are important, and demonstrate them in your own behavior and relationships.

People will buy in to the project or plan if they trust the leader’s sincerity and are convinced he or she has the right people, resources, expertise, and managerial skill to bring the vision to life.

Integrity counts

People are naturally drawn to support and get behind a leader of integrity, who is trustworthy and respected. If a leader intentionally misleads people, chances are very strong that the truth will eventually come out, and from then on, trust and credibility will be damaged and the leader’s ability to get people to buy in will be undermined. Not being truthful and transparent, taking the easy way out of a difficult situation, may seem expedient in the moment, but this behavior ultimately amounts to self-sabotage.

People are not just “resources”

Many entrepreneurs are lacking in social awareness and may not consider the needs of others when they make decisions, or the impact their decisions will have on people. They see their employees as means to an end, as “resources,” they see them as part of a numbers calculation, but not as people. This may work for a little while, but it will fail in the long run.

Followers will be much more likely to buy in to the goals you set for the organization if they feel you are committed to their personal growth and advancement.

Be sure employees and team members are buying in from the get-go

Generating commitment and dedication will be an ongoing challenge for you as your organization evolves, new initiatives are on the table, and new people start appearing. It begins with finding, hiring, and inspiring the right people. For a startup it will be up to the entrepreneur, the one with the vision and passion, to craft a core leadership team whose members are not only expert in their area, but who share the vision and are on board with the goals and values that drive the company.

As you expand and need to take on more people, ask yourself:

Do they care about the company’s mission?
Do they understand the exceptionally hard work and long hours that will be required?
Do they see value in what the organization wants to create in the world?

You need to hear unambiguous Yes’s to these questions!

Obstacles to Creating Buy-in:

Communication Breakdown

One of the chief hang-ups preventing buy-in is that one or more of the parties has not clearly heard or fully understood the others’ position. From your side as the leader, you need to be sure

That your communication is clear, logical, data-driven when possible, and conveys the value of your initiative for all concerned, and
That you have truly listened and understood the opposing or counter-argument. Often, simply clarifying positions resolves opposition.

Clash of values/desires/expectations

If the positions are understood yet there is still a problem, look beneath the surface for different or opposing values, desired outcomes, or expectations. Clarify these as much as possible (this will require some time), and negotiate, trying to find ways for all parties to get something they value.

The hard sell doesn’t work

Most entrepreneurs are very strong-willed people who can be far more forceful and intimidating than they realize. Pushiness and bullying don't capture people's hearts, and without that deeper commitment, you can’t get the kind of motivation you need to sustain an effort.

Forcing compliance may work in the short run but not in the long run. Not only will people not put forth their best effort, they may come to resent you if they sense you are just pushing your own agenda.

Authoritarian leadership is a dinosaur

With reference to the Three Pillars model, creating buy-in is primarily a Relationship Builder skill set. Leaders who are accustomed to making demands without listening to their peers and subordinates are not good at it. If you don’t relate to people with at least some degree or warmth, caring, and approachability, you may find it hard to elicit support for your ideas, projects, and goals. Good relationship builders do have a natural advantage, but this is a skill that can be learned.

Summary and Recommendations for Creating Buy-In:

It’s not all about them

Contrary to what you might expect, creating buy-in is not only about persuading people to adopt your agenda. It actually starts with you: who you are, how you present yourself, and how you treat others. It requires knowing what you want - your goals, priorities, and resources.

Her combination of friendliness and professionalism helps her win over everyone.

Be clear on who you are and what you want

Before trying to present your idea or persuade others to get onboard with a plan or strategy, ask yourself, what is most important to you in this situation? Keep in mind your primary goal or core agenda. What do you need them to agree to or support, both immediately and in the future? What actions or changes do you want to see? What are your priorities? Think about what you are willing to give or trade to get what is most important to you.

Consider others’ needs, values, and priorities

Be aware that you may be working with people who have different goals and measures of success. Find out what they want and need. Learn what is driving them. Invest in understanding their needs and motivations in order to gain alignment and find mutually beneficial solutions.

He includes us at the inception of new initiatives. He really wants to know our thoughts.

Earn trust

If people sense that you are manipulating them and just going through the motions of openness to their input while pushing your own agenda, they're going to be much less likely to trust what you say. You build trust by being trustworthy – truthful, consistent, and ethical.

He is someone you feel you can trust. He has a reputation for sound decision-making and judgment. People just believe him.

He has earned the loyalty of his team by being clear, consistent, open, and reliable.

Listen and Adapt

Take the time to listen to your main stakeholders, discuss your proposed initiative, and reach consensus. You may need to adapt your approach based on learning what others want and what the forces are that are acting on them. Try to understand what is driving them and what or who may be influencing their goals and concerns.

He talks with all of his partners one-on-one on virtually every critical issue affecting the organization.

Her approach is very consultative, and she makes sure that she hears all viewpoints before she decides her next steps.

Ask for their support

Rather than make demands, ask for the support of all involved. Let them know that the success of what you are trying to achieve depends on their active and enthusiastic participation. Be sure they fully understand why this initiative is important, what is at stake, and how achieving the end you are proposing will benefit them as well as the organization.

I have seen him create buy-in by creating a sense of ownership in the whole project.
Everyone feels they have a stake in the success of the project.

Do your homework

Be prepared. Before talking to individuals or groups, think things through, know what you want to achieve, try to anticipate the opposition you may face, and make whatever notes you may need so you can give a powerful and persuasive presentation. Know not only what points you want to make, but how you want to state them. Get your facts straight and know the details.

What are you offering?

In return for their support and participation, what are you offering in exchange? Try to clarify what you can put on the table that may be of value, before sitting down to try to influence them. What can you trade for something they want or need? It could be expertise, information, or knowledge; it could be appreciation, gratitude, recognition, assistance, or support for a pet project; it could be financial or other resources like staff, equipment, or office space. Work toward a win-win solution.

See the Big Picture

Various stakeholders within your organization will have diverging agendas and demands. The bigger the organization, the more complex this becomes. You have to be the one who takes all the factions and points of view into consideration in order to come up with the solution that will be best for everyone. Don’t just charge ahead with your own plan before you truly consider what outcome the others are looking for, and what they will accept if they don’t get everything they want. And that goes for you, too.

Take a long-term view
Weigh the relative importance of getting the current task accomplished or initiative supported versus maintaining or building a long-term relationship with those you are trying to influence. You don’t want to win the battle and lose the war, alienating the other person or group. If there is a lot of opposition, ask yourself if you really need to win this one. They may be holding on to the status quo or have some other agenda that you need to overcome, or they might actually see consequences that you don’t.

Be open to their input. It will help a lot toward creating buy-in and achieving a positive outcome if you can show that you understand where they are coming from.

Ego-Driven vs Principle-Driven Leadership

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 02:21:29 GMT

Navigating the Highs and Lows: The Dual-Edged Sword of Ego-Driven Leadership

Ego-driven leaders

This type of leader often sees themselves as the architects of their own fates, solitary figures in the harsh world of business where competition is fierce and only the strong survive. They prize individual success and recognition above all else, their self-worth rooted deeply in personal triumphs. In their world, each decision is a step on the path to victory, which they walk with unwavering confidence. To them, leadership is less about marshalling the collective strength of a team and more about showcasing the force of their own unique vision. Their approach is characterized by a focus on the immediate, with a horizon that often doesn't extend beyond the next win, the next deal, the next acclaim.

This type of leader regards the people around them as instrumental to their own narrative, valuing them for what they can contribute to the next achievement. Relationships are often seen through a lens of self-interest, with an underlying expectation of personal gain. They make decisions unilaterally, trusting in their own judgment and instincts above the counsel of others. They are mavericks who challenge the status quo, sometimes at the expense of the greater good, bending rules when they feel it's necessary to reach their goals. To these leaders, success is not just the best measure of their worth; it is often the only one that matters. They push boundaries, and in doing so, they can either lead their ventures to new heights or to precarious edges.

They view life as a competition where for them to win, others must lose.
Their self-worth is tightly bound to winning and personal achievements.
They prioritize their own interests and believe in their unique talents.
Recognition of their abilities and contributions is essential for them.
They have a strong sense of entitlement and predestination for leadership.
Enjoyment of attention and a conviction in their own ideas characterize their self-image.
They adopt a utilitarian view of success, willing to use any means to achieve goals, even if it involves manipulating others.
The value of others is assessed based on their utility in achieving personal ambitions.
They see relationships transactionally, ensuring personal gain.
Self-assurance in their judgment leads to a preference for autocratic decision-making.
They trust their intuition over others' input and feel they have a superior understanding of the “big picture.”
They are willing to bend or break rules if it serves their vision of innovation and success.
Ethical flexibility is rationalized if it leads to profitability or maintaining power.
There’s a reluctance to admit fault, often attributing criticism to jealousy or misunderstanding.
They have a short-term focus on immediate gains rather than long-term strategic planning.
Societal norms or ethics may be disregarded if they conflict with personal goals.

The Consequences of Ego Driven Leadership

Their resistance to criticism and feedback severely limits their capacity for learning and adaptation. By prioritizing their own ideas and dismissing others', they miss out on valuable insights that could steer the company away from potential pitfalls or toward innovative solutions. This closed-minded approach can hinder a startup's ability to pivot or adapt to market changes, a crucial aspect of scaling successfully
Their transactional view of relationships undermines trust and loyalty within the team. Viewing interactions as mere exchanges diminishes the intrinsic motivation of team members and erodes the sense of community and belonging. As startups grow, the complexity and demands of managing a larger team require a cohesive, motivated workforce. Ego-driven leaders struggle to foster this environment, leading to high turnover rates and difficulty in attracting and retaining top talent.
The overconfidence of ego-driven leaders in their abilities and judgment can lead to risky and impulsive decisions without adequate consideration of potential consequences. While risk-taking is a part of startup culture, unchecked ego can push a company toward unnecessary dangers. Scaling successfully requires balanced, data-informed risk-taking that ego-driven leaders might overlook in favor of bold, but ill-advised, moves.
Ego-driven leaders' tendency to bend rules and ethical boundaries for short-term gains can pose significant reputational risks. Such behavior not only jeopardizes the company's standing with customers, investors, and regulatory bodies but can also lead to internal cultures that justify unethical actions. As startups scale, maintaining a strong ethical foundation becomes increasingly important for sustainable growth and avoiding legal and reputational pitfalls.
Their focus on immediate results often comes at the expense of long-term planning and sustainability. Ego-driven leaders might prioritize quick wins to boost their image or satisfy short-term financial goals, neglecting the investments in infrastructure, culture, and strategy necessary for scaling. This shortsightedness can stunt a startup's growth trajectory and leave it ill-prepared for future challenges.
Lastly, the need for control that characterizes ego-driven leadership impedes their ability to delegate effectively and empower team members. Scaling a startup requires distributing responsibilities and trusting others to make decisions. Ego-driven leaders struggle with this aspect of growth, often becoming bottlenecks for decision-making and innovation, which can slow down the organization and demotivate talented employees

Principle-Centered Leadership

Leaders who exhibit emotional maturity and responsibility steer their teams with a clear sense of purpose, guided by the ethos of service and community impact rather than personal glory. They recognize their role as an opportunity to uplift and empower, measuring triumph not in the echo of their accolades but in the progress and well-being of their collective. They understand that a variety of perspectives fuels smarter strategies and true innovation, and they champion a collaborative approach that harnesses the collective strength of their team.

At the heart of their leadership style is a commitment to trust and respect, essential ingredients in cultivating an environment where open communication and innovation can thrive. These leaders are adept in emotional intelligence, balancing empathy with self-awareness, and adjusting seamlessly to change. Their decisions are anchored in integrity, serving as a living example to their teams. With a gaze set on the long-term horizon, they emphasize sustainable practices and resilience, knowing that meaningful success is not a sprint but a marathon. By investing in their people, they're not just building a team; they're nurturing an ecosystem where every member can flourish.

They view leadership as a duty to serve rather than a right to command.
They measure success by the positive impact on the team and community.
They prioritize serving others and contributing to the greater good.
They value diverse perspectives and encourage every voice to be heard.
They emphasize collaboration and shared leadership for collective success.
They practice and model integrity and transparency.
They create a safe space for innovation and honest feedback.
They celebrate collective achievements to motivate and unite the team.
They believe in the interconnection of the team's and organization's welfare.
They utilize emotional intelligence for empathetic and effective leadership.
They commit to personal growth and adaptability based on continual feedback.
They uphold ethics and integrity as foundations for all decisions.
They focus on sustainable success with a long-term perspective.
They invest in building strong relationships and a cohesive team.
They maintain resilience and positivity in the face of challenges.

16. They encourage work-life balance for team health and sustained performance.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Decoding Success: My Methodology of Distinguishing Founders' Competencies

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:45:59 GMT

DR Rich’s Leadership coaching Research Methology

The role of founders is paramount. But what sets apart successful founders from the rest?

Enter my methodology, a comprehensive approach that delves deep into the intricacies of founder competencies to unearth the secrets of success. Through meticulous analysis and categorization, my methodology provides valuable insights into the behaviors that correlate with success, offering a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs navigating the startup journey.

Profiling All Founders

At the heart of lies the meticulous profiling of founders. By creating composite profiles of 122 founders, encompassing 46 personality traits and 360 ratings of 47 leadership, management, social, decision-making skills, and other behaviors, I aime to capture the essence of entrepreneurial prowess. This comprehensive approach ensures a holistic understanding of the diverse range of traits and competencies exhibited by founders.

Gap Identification

Through rigorous comparison between successful and less successful founders, my methodology identifies significant differences in competencies. By pinpointing these gaps, it becomes possible to discern the distinguishing factors that contribute to success. Rather than relying solely on anecdotal evidence or superficial assessments, this methodical approach offers a data-driven perspective on the attributes that underpin success in the startup realm.

Success Definition

Crucially, my methodology defines success not merely in terms of personal traits or accomplishments but by the tangible impact on shareholder value. By shifting the focus from individual characteristics to measurable outcomes, this approach ensures a pragmatic assessment of founder efficacy. Success is thus gauged by the ability to significantly enhance shareholder value, reflecting the ultimate goal of sustainable growth and profitability.

Competency Analysis

A detailed examination of founder competencies lies at the core of the methodology. By scrutinizing the disparities between successful and less successful founders, valuable insights emerge regarding the behaviors that correlate with success. This nuanced analysis goes beyond surface-level observations, offering a deeper understanding of the competencies that drive entrepreneurial achievement.

Categorization

My methodology categorizes critical competencies into four distinct pillars: Vision, EQ (Emotional Intelligence), Execution, and Personal Grounding. These pillars serve as the cornerstone of founder efficacy, encompassing a diverse array of skills and attributes essential for navigating the complexities of the startup landscape. By categorizing competencies into these distinct domains, Rich's methodology provides a structured framework for assessing and enhancing founder capabilities.

Startup Lifecycle

Acknowledging the dynamic nature of startups, my methodology recognizes that entrepreneurial endeavors evolve through various stages, each demanding different priorities and adaptations from founders. Informed by the Three Pillars of leadership—Strategy, Execution, and People—this approach emphasizes the importance of agility and resilience in responding to the changing demands of the startup lifecycle. By aligning founder competencies with the evolving needs of the venture, the methodology equips entrepreneurs with the tools necessary to thrive in a dynamic and competitive environment.

My methodology offers a holistic and data-driven approach to understanding the competencies that distinguish successful founders. By profiling founders, identifying competency gaps, and categorizing critical attributes, this methodology provides valuable insights into the behaviors that correlate with entrepreneurial success. Moreover, by recognizing the iterative nature of the startup lifecycle, it empowers founders to adapt and evolve, ensuring their continued effectiveness throughout the entrepreneurial journey. Whether embarking on a new venture or seeking to enhance existing capabilities, this serves as a valuable guide for aspiring entrepreneurs navigating the complexities of the startup ecosystem.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Team Strength is Key in Securing Second-Round-Funding for Startups

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:31:52 GMT

Securing second-round funding is often a pivotal milestone on the journey toward success. While innovative ideas and promising markets certainly capture investors' attention, one fundamental aspect consistently stands out as a critical factor: the strength and experience of the founding team.

Behind every groundbreaking startup is a team with the vision, expertise, and determination to turn dreams into reality. Investors recognize that a strong team can navigate challenges, capitalize on opportunities, and drive sustainable growth. Let's delve into why team strength matters and explore the statistical evidence supporting its importance in securing second-round funding.

Diverse Skill Set: The Engine of Innovation

A diverse skill set within the founding team is akin to having a well-equipped toolbox for tackling the complexities of startup life. Startups require a range of talents spanning product development, marketing, sales, finance, and operations. According to research conducted by Harvard Business Review, teams with diverse backgrounds and skill sets are more innovative and better equipped to solve complex problems.

Investors seek teams that complement each other's strengths and compensate for weaknesses, fostering a culture of collaboration and creativity. Startups with diverse teams are more likely to identify unique market opportunities, develop innovative solutions, and adapt to evolving industry landscapes.

Relevant Industry Experience: Navigating the Terrain

Experience is invaluable in the startup ecosystem, where uncertainty and rapid change are constants. Investors place great emphasis on founding teams with relevant industry experience, as they bring insights, networks, and best practices that can accelerate growth and mitigate risks.

According to a study by CB Insights, startups founded by teams with industry experience are more likely to achieve higher levels of success and attract follow-on funding. Seasoned entrepreneurs understand market dynamics, customer needs, and competitive forces, positioning their startups for strategic advantage and sustainable growth.

Track Record of Execution: Turning Vision into Reality

Ideas are abundant in the startup world, but execution is the true currency of success. Investors scrutinize the track record of founding teams, seeking evidence of execution prowess and the ability to deliver results in the face of challenges.

Startups that have demonstrated traction, achieved key milestones, and effectively allocated resources are viewed favorably by investors. According to data compiled by PitchBook, startups with proven execution capabilities are more likely to secure second-round funding and position themselves for long-term success.

Investing in People, Investing in Success

Team strength emerges as a decisive factor in securing second-round funding. Investors understand that while ideas may spark interest, it is the people behind those ideas who ultimately drive success.

Startups with diverse teams, relevant industry experience, and a track record of execution stand poised to capture investors' attention and fuel their growth trajectory. As the startup ecosystem continues to evolve, the emphasis on team strength remains unwavering, underscoring the timeless adage: "Invest in people, and success will follow."

For startups eyeing the next stage of growth and expansion, investing in team strength is not just a strategic imperative—it's the cornerstone of enduring success.

For startups eyeing the next stage of growth and expansion, investing in team strength is not just a strategic imperative—it's the cornerstone of enduring success. It is however important to understand that: What got you here, isn't going to get you there!. Being ready and willing to accept that there needs to be some measure of personal growth is what sets Founders who can scale, apart from those who won't.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

What defines a Founder?

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 20:14:31 GMT

In the realm of entrepreneurship, the label 'founder' carries diverse connotations. Is it a product of academic pedigree, age, or professional experience? Or perhaps, it's a blend of biography and personality? Despite common perceptions, founders defy easy categorization. While stereotypes persist—ranging from Ivy League dropouts to seasoned professionals—research dispels many misconceptions.

Consider age: successful founders hail from varied backgrounds, with the median age resting in the mid-30s. Educational pedigrees and technical prowess also lack determinative influence, as evidenced by diverse founder profiles. Whether driven by personal missions or market trends, founders display a spectrum of inspirations. Moreover, solo ventures and partnerships hold equal potential.

Amidst the gender gap and the high failure rates, a nuanced understanding of founder dynamics emerges. Venture capitalists prioritize risk mitigation, valuing both youthful zeal and seasoned expertise. Yet, beyond demographics lies a common thread: tenacity. Repeat founders, in particular, embody resilience—a trait prized above all.

So, what truly defines a founder? Biographical narratives yield to a deeper inquiry into personality traits. Through rigorous analysis, distinct patterns emerge. Founders excel as keen observers, challenging norms and igniting change. Their confidence fuels risk-taking, while their visionary leadership inspires others to join their narrative. Their journey, though arduous, epitomizes relentless pursuit and unwavering commitment.

Yet, amid their strengths lie inherent challenges. Founders grapple with focus, scalability, and delegation. Conflict resolution and empathetic leadership demand refinement. Balancing ambition with empathy remains a perennial struggle. Yet, therein lies the essence of the founder equation—embracing the complexity, harnessing strengths, and confronting limitations head-on.

In unraveling the enigma of foundership, we illuminate pathways to growth and resilience. Together, we navigate the intricacies, forging a new narrative of entrepreneurial success—one defined not by stereotypes, but by the transformative power of vision and perseverance."

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:36:00 GMT

SETTING THE CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS

Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results.

It is the process of clarifying expectations and holding people responsible for getting the desired results.

It involves objectively measuring outcomes against established goals, while rewarding achievement and confronting poor performance.

If you do a Google search you will find that many sources define “Accountability” in terms of assigning blame when something goes wrong, or like a parent checking up on and correcting a problem child. One well-known book (Crucial Accountability by Patterson, Grenney et al) describes it as “resolving violated expectations, broken commitments, and bad behavior.” We have a different perspective.

To be accountable means to be reliable, to take responsibility, and to meet commitments. This is behavior that produces results. To hold people accountable means to expect them to follow through, to reward them if they do and to ask for explanations and remedy the situation if they do not.

Sure, there may be times when a leader needs to confront poor performance in a forceful way, and this chapter offers tips to help you do that effectively. But in our view, a more productive mindset sees accountability as a supportive collaboration, a partnership between leader and followers, rather than a parent-child relationship, to enable people to successfully meet their commitments and goals.

Organizations succeed or fail based upon their results. As a leader, it is your job to create an environment in which everyone understands that achieving excellence is expected, and everyone gets the resources and support they need for maximum accomplishment. And just as the talent in your organization are all accountable to you, you are accountable to investors and to your Board (once you have one) to build a dynamic, successful organization.

This article will help you establish procedures so that:

responsibilities and expectations are clearly defined
people know what is expected of them
processes are in place to monitor progress toward achieving those goals and therefore “violated expectations and broken commitments” arise as little as possible.

First: Be accountable to yourself

If you want people to be accountable to you and the organization, you have to first be sure that you are accountable yourself, that you take responsibility for your commitments and follow through. What are you going to commit to do, and what results are you going to deliver, in order to move things ahead?

Do you say in meetings that you will do X and Y, and then do them? Or do you let them slide? Either way – especially if you fail to follow through – people will notice. As I will remind you throughout the book, when you are the leader, people are watching you. What you do or don’t do, how you interact with others, how true you are to your word, how fair your decisions appear to be, set the tone for others’ behavior and for the organization’s culture.

If you don’t do what you said you will do, no one will pay attention to the next goal and the consequences that you set. If you don’t take deadlines, target dates and meeting times seriously, nobody else will. So, follow through. If you lack discipline in meeting your commitments, the people who work for you will model that, and you will be a negative role model.

Set goals for yourself, your team, and the organization.

Just as you will be asking your teams to set goals and monitor progress toward achieving them, you need to do the same for yourself. Goal-setting – especially writing down your goals and referring to them frequently – is a tried-and-true method of supporting achievement on a personal level as well as for organizations. (See box, “Goal Setting”) You will probably share your organizational aspirations with your team in goal-setting meetings, such things as:

growing sales revenue
Increasing average revenue per user
reducing customer acquisition costs
reducing churn rate
more effectively monitoring burn rate
raising a Series B round at the highest possible valuation
increasing monthly recurring revenue from new sales
increasing the accuracy of forecasts and performance in preparation for an IPO and ultimately, being profitable and going public.
Improve the recruiting process and in order to acquire more experienced engineers

If you are comfortable being a little self-revealing, you might also share some personal goals:

“I aim to start all meetings on time. I realize that being late isn’t fair to others.”
“I will try to delegate more and empower people to make decisions, rather than trying to do everything myself.”

People appreciate this kind of honesty and vulnerability; admitting that you are human doesn’t detract from your leadership ability! When people realize that you have these goals, they will help you achieve them. If you make a point of wanting to start meetings on time, they are more likely to show up rather than straggle in a few minutes late. If you say you want to delegate, someone will come to you and quietly say, “You said you wanted to delegate more responsibility. I feel I could take on the XYZ project. Please consider it.”

Goal Setting

Goal setting is a tool that many successful executives and leaders use to maximize their effectiveness. If you are not familiar with this practice, google “goal setting” and you will be confronted by (as of today) 22,500,000 hits with titles like, “10 tips for setting goals” and “The 4 secrets of goal setting.” Use those sources to make your own goal-setting system.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Divide your goals into various areas of your life, such as Personal (which might include health, learning, exercise, relationships, getting more rest, etc.) and Work/Career (delegate more, be sure to regularly communicate strategic priorities, etc.) Goals for the organization will likely require a separate list, that you may wish to develop in collaboration with others.
Write down your goals, and regularly check to see how you are progressing. Consider using goal setting or project management software.
Simplify. For each goal area (personal, health, etc. ) list 2 or 3 things you’d like to achieve in a given time-frame. If your list is too long, your chances of success diminish.
Compete with yourself. Set measurable goals and aim to meet or beat them. Even hard-to-measure goals, such as being more patient and helpful to others, can fit here: you will know when you fail to measure up and can take aim and try again.

How to hold people accountable: helpful attitudes and behaviors

The most important and necessary step in holding people accountable is to let people know what you want them to accomplish, and what is required of them in order to get there, what their responsibility is. For this, you have to be absolutely clear in yourself what you want to achieve, and then communicate it clearly. It all starts with you.

Here are some important tips:

Trust but verify: Communicate that you believe the person can succeed but also be clear that you will be meeting with them regularly to track progress. This is not about micro-managing. In a lot of early-stage companies, those who are heading up engineering, marketing etc. are not deeply experienced. They may be doing the job for the first time. They can easily get over their heads and get stuck. If employees are afraid to go to the leader/entrepreneur for help getting unstuck, the entrepreneur gets frustrated because the desired results aren’t coming, and if the situation persists, the person ultimately gets fired. The following steps will help you avoid this outcome.

Be organized and structured in your approach. Set up a plan, goals, clear deliverables, milestones, and a schedule of meetings.
The key to accountability is a disciplined process of planning, goal setting, and fixing timetables to allow you to assess progress and troubleshoot.

Commit to actively helping and supporting your people.
To make accountability work, you have to commit to giving people whatever help they need in order to accomplish their goals. The amount of support will vary a lot. (See Sidebar below, Situational Leadership) The level of competence and experience a person has will dictate the level of direction and support that you need to give them. When you have an experienced “old pro,” you will not need to provide much support or direction – they might know their area better than you do, and a more laissez-faire approach will be appropriate. You can ask them to set goals, put together a plan, and then come to you with it.

On the other hand, less experienced people need a higher level of direction. If you ask them to put together a plan, they may not know where to start. You have to be more involved, both in the planning for a project, and in the various stages of execution, and you may need to bring in some more experienced people to help run the function.

Let them know you expect them to meet their commitments and take the process seriously. You cannot run an organization that is growing and scaling without having a way to be disciplined about meeting commitments.

Set high but reasonable goals.
If you set stretch goals that are too high, people will get discouraged, or will not take them seriously. If you expect 100% accomplishment of all the goals, they will not aim high and will set goals that are easy to reach. Goal setting works best as a collaborative process, challenging people when they come to you with their plans and timelines, but not imposing goals that will make them feel like a failure if they don’t hit their targets.

Don’t be afraid to confront poor performance but avoid being overly aggressive and confrontational in your attempt to challenge them. If people perceive you as intimidating, they won’t be likely to come to you for advice when they’re stuck, and they may need that advice in order to proceed.

Tip: Remember, it’s a collaboration, a partnership to ensure that commitments are met, and it is up to you to set it up to be effective.

Expect that people’s progress may be gradual. Emphasize sustained momentum rather than getting frustrated with any backsliding or lack of rapid results. Patience can be difficult for an entrepreneur, who feels intense pressure due to limited funding and limited time to produce results. You know your runway is short. You know what your burn rate is and how many months you have left. You have critical deadlines when results must be delivered. There are times when things are moving too slowly, and times of crisis, that demand a sense of urgency.

However, even though the start-up leader must be continually aware of things like the organization’s burn rate, a successful startup is often a marathon rather than a sprint. A continuous sense of urgency can create burnout, over-focus on tactical firefighting, and bad, ill-considered decisions. So, this is not black and white. You don’t want to be the boy who cried “wolf!” because people will stop taking you seriously, they won’t believe your sense of urgency is real after a while. And you can’t always lead as if your hair is on fire.

It depends on the situation. If you are running out of funds and you have to get funding in the next three months, you’d better have a sense of urgency! But if you push people too hard, they won’t be able to sustain it and will burn out.

Be supportive and try to inspire commitment but don’t be overly concerned about being liked. It’s not a popularity contest. If people need a push, it’s your job to push.

ASK YOURSELF . . .

Now that you can see some of the attitudes and behaviors that support greater accountability, take a few minutes for a self-assessment to see how well you hold people accountable as a leader and what you might need to learn or improve:

Do I hesitate to hold people accountable because I am avoiding conflict?
Have I told myself that it’s easier to do the job myself than to hold others accountable for doing it?
Have I made sure people understand goals, expectations and standards and measures of performance that I am going to hold them accountable for achieving?
Have we discussed what are acceptable and unacceptable levels of performance?
Am I coaching when I see substandard performance?
Am I giving enough praise and recognition for improvements in performance and accomplishments? Is the praise timely (soon after the event) and specific?
Am I being too sensitive, too nice, too laissez faire?
Am I willing to make tough decisions when poor performance persists?
Am I focused on results?
Is our compensation program (bonuses, promotions) tied to actual performance?
Do I understand the difference between holding people accountable for meeting their commitments and responsibilities, and micromanaging, looking over their shoulder and not giving them enough discretion for decision-making.?

Impact Of High Levels Of Accountability

The benefits for the organization of holding people accountable for their progress and achievements is huge. Our research shows that it is one of the most important factors in an organization’s success. Here are some of the payoffs we have seen: New ideas will be implemented more quickly because people are aligned behind common objectives.

The organization will more rapidly respond to trends and threats and be able to seize business opportunities
The organization will hit its targets and more efficiently achieve its goals
The organization will more quickly detect and correct errors and learn from mistakes that hamper success
The organization will gain a reputation as a meritocracy, and will attract and retain the best people in the industry
The organization will continue to develop new solutions and approaches that will allow it to adapt to changing business conditions

Key Elements of Accountability

[or, How to Hold People Accountable]

The remainder of this chapter is based on a simple model of key steps to promote greater accountability in your organization. While going through these steps, keep the following fundamental principles in mind:

The leader or manager’s job is to achieve desired results by working through others, and providing the necessary direction and support they need to succeed:

By collaboratively defining success
Facilitating an environment in which employees can perform at their best
Providing whatever resources teams and individuals need to succeed
Checking in with them often enough to provide necessary guidance
Coaching when needed
Monitoring results periodically to keep projects on track
Recognizing, appreciating, and rewarding good work
Adjusting your leadership and coaching according to their level of competence
Confronting poor performance and helping them correct mistakes and solve problems

Step One: Define Success, Set Clear Goals and Measurable Expectations

Setting goals and expectations and establishing measurable outcomes for each objective is the key to managing accountability. Make sure people understand the goals they are accountable for achieving, what they “own” and are responsible for. Everything flows from this. “Well begun is half done” - do this right and you’re on the road to success.

Define what success looks like. What are we striving for? Employees and team members must understand that they are expected to deliver results, and will be held accountable for achieving – or not achieving – their goals and objectives.

Clear communication is crucial. People cannot read your mind, and they don’t always see things the way you do.

Communicate expectations in clear, specific language. Team members should be able to answer the question, “What exactly am I responsible for? How will I know if I have met expectations?" And that failing to meet their commitments has consequences: “People who don’t deliver on their commitments don’t last long at this company.”

Goals should be specific, measurable and verifiable by objective standards, and time specific. Write them down. State goals in terms of desired results and the actions needed to achieve them : what you want done and when you want it.

“Sudhir is very clear with team members when communicating his expectations and assigning duties and he holds them accountable for getting results. He insists that his people set objective and realistic goals and that they strive to achieve the desired results. ”

Use the SMART formula for your goals. They should be:

S pecific

M easurable

A ctionable

R ealistic

T ime-related

Be crystal clear about deliverables, dates, and who owns what.

Goals should be attainable but still stretch people. They should have a 70-80% chance of success.

Ask, “How will we tell if the goal is accomplished?” What milestones will have been reached? What metrics will show us whether enough progress is occurring or that performance is up to expected to standards.

Ask, “What outcomes could we agree on as a measure of success?”

Be willing to adjust and reformulate goals as the project advances and new conditions arise.

“Joanna will take as much time as necessary to ensure you understand exactly what her expectations of you are. She will then expect you to give her your very best and will not hesitate to let you know if you are not. She is very fair and will work with you if needed.”

Set Milestones

Milestones mark important stages of achievement of a project. Setting milestones provides a way to monitor progress and track where you are in the process of taking an idea from inception through various stages of development to completion. Project milestones help everyone involved recognize and work toward specific goals. They help ensure that projects are completed and delivered on time and turn out as expected and desired.

Setting milestones is like creating a roadmap, or better, a timeline, as each step is designated with a date. Successful achievement of predefined milestones indicates that a project is on track. Failure to meet a milestone indicates that a project is not proceeding according to plan.

Milestones do not have to be only for major steps; achieving a series of minor milestones gives the team a sense of momentum and boosts confidence.

Typical milestones:

Concept approval or approval of a design stage
Obtaining funding
Identifying staffing needs, hiring or assigning people for key roles
Completion of a project phase or stage
Product testing started/completed
Bugs fixed
Product operational

All projects should have at least 4 major milestones:

requirements complete,
design complete,
code complete and test ready,
product shipped/accepted/deployed.

Engage, don’t impose

Involve talent in goal-setting and creating milestones. Don’t just impose expectations. Get their understanding and input. Set expectations together, through dialogue.

Don’t micromanage. Try to establish a genuine partnership, an attitude of collaborative inquiry in setting and monitoring goals.

Avoid falling into a parent/child relationship of micromanaging – checking up on them too often or looking over their shoulder. When the leader micromanages, team members feel distrusted. Once everyone knows what is expected of them, back off and let them work.

Micromanaging focuses on process and attempts to control it; accountability focuses on outcome and getting results.

Empower your team to succeed. You are interested in outcomes, not how people get there. Trust them to figure it out. They don’t have to do it your way in order to get good results.

“Genevieve is the exact opposite of a micro manager - which is exactly what makes her so effective. She gives a task and allows completion. She isn't so concerned about making sure it is done ‘her way’ but rather about making sure it is done. She provides responsibility to those below her which is appreciated.”

People are more motivated when they have a say in how goals are set and measured. Motivation rises when they feel that what they do matters, so remind them. Show them how their function and their team contributes to the success of the whole. Get their skin in the game.

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do.

We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

The premise of Situational Leadership is that your leadership style should be adjustable and adaptable, relative to the level of “readiness” – competence and motivation – of the people you are responsible for leading. (Some call this “tailoring your message to your target audience.”) The takeaway: it is your responsibility as the leader to figure out the leadership style that will work best for specific talent and team members.

For example, with experienced, competent people who have bought into your goals, a more supportive and laissez-faire style works well, while neophytes will likely require more support and help setting direction, identifying goals, and even figuring out tactics to achieve those goals.

There are many variations of this theory, perhaps the most well-known coming from Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey, who designated four main styles:

Directing – The leader makes the decisions, sets the objectives, directs others on what to do and how to do it, and then closely supervises. This is a very top-down approach, with mostly one-way communication, recommended for new employees or people with the lowest levels of both skill and prior experience.
Coaching – Rather than dictate to employees, leadership “sells” their ideas and plans, explaining and persuading, allowing for discussion and input. This is effective for people with more experience and skill, but who may lack motivation or confidence. Supporting – Employees have more responsibility for decision making. Leaders are available to provide direction but give more attention to feedback and support.
Delegating – Leaders provide minimum guidance and follow-up, delegating authority to employees to make decisions and plan strategies for implementation. The more capability they demonstrate, the more autonomy you can give them. The highest level is empowerment: enabling employees to set their own work goals, make decisions, solve problems on their own, and take responsibility for the result.

“Ricardo recognizes his high performers and gives them flexibility in innovating and determining future paths for their projects and careers.”

S1 – Directing: The leader defines roles and sets goals, tells talent what tasks to do as well as how to do them. Communication is primarily top down and one directional. Effective for people with low competence.
S2 – Coaching/Selling: For people with greater competence than S1, the leader serves as motivator and coach.
S3 – Supporting/Facilitating: A more collaborative relationship in which leader and followers share in decision making. Employees are more competent and aligned, but leader may still need to provide motivation or coach some skills.

S4 - Delegating: Competent and motivated talent now need little direction or support from leaders, who can delegate tasks and stand back and let talent run with the ball.

Could conclude at the bottom, “Leaders need as many people as possible who are in the bottom left quadrant: self-starting, capable, competent.”

Step Two: Coach, Develop, and Support

One of the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs is that they have a high need for autonomy and independence. They are often non-conformists who do not like to be controlled or told what to do. As a result, when they take on a role as leaders – often their first time managing anything – they may fail to provide sufficient clarity about purpose and goals to their direct reports. But not everyone is an independent self-starter like they are. One of their lessons is to recognize that both individuals and the organization as a whole need the direction and support that only they, as the leader, can provide.

The amount of direction and support will vary, depending on how experienced and competent a person is. A more capable and experienced person needs less of your attention than someone who is new to the job or to the organization. (See Situational Leadership image below)

The ideal is to have employees who are competent and self-directed. But even someone who is knowledgeable may lack motivation, and your job then becomes to light a fire under them, giving support and encouragement.

The main question you need to ask yourself is, How can I ensure that they have the best chance to achieve the goals we have set together? This is the underlying attitude that will make the collaboration effective and set people up for success.

Provide the Resources Needed for Success. Needed resources may include
More team members with experience and domain expertise
Funding necessary to get the job done
Information that will enable them to make good decisions and set the right priorities
Connections who can help, support, and mentor them
Invest in training and developing the skills critical to achieving your strategic objectives
Make sure people are prepared to do the tasks assigned to them. Provide training where it is needed.
Don’t assume people will always figure it out on their own.
Successful leaders and their organizations are adept at setting goals and then helping employees attain those goals through training, coaching, and doing whatever it takes to move forward. Setting goals and then throwing people in the deep end of the pool with the hope that they will swim rather than sink – that they will figure it out and come through with results – is not an effective strategy.
Make sure you have the right people – in the right roles
Is current talent capable not only of meeting present demands, but also scaling, growing the organization? If you see that some people are over their heads as growth and success transform the company, you may need to make some changes in personnel.
This is especially true if you do not have time to coach, train, and develop the people you have. Coaching everyone is not feasible, nor is it necessarily in the organization’s best interest, especially if the timeline is short.
Letting people go can be difficult for you if someone has been loyal and hard-working, perhaps part of the original team, yet is now struggling to keep up. Possible solution: See if you can retain the person, but move him/her to a position better fitted to their capabilities, or bring in a more experienced person, from whom they can learn.
In addition to the right people, you need enough people. You may have one engineer developing a product or feature, but to get it out the door in the time frame you have set, you may need three.

Determine and allocate the financial resources that are needed

How are you going to pay for those additional engineers? (Or whatever else you need.) Obviously, budgets are a constraining factor. If the project is critical, you may need to find resources elsewhere, such as moving somebody off a non-critical project.

Step Three: Monitor

Monitoring progress is a vital part of accountability. As the leader, you need to set clear, measurable goals, get the process of achieving those goals started, keep it moving along, and regularly monitor progress. Establish not only a final goal, but interim objectives to mark successful, partial progress.

Consider using OKR software to help set, align, and track progress, which can be very helpful in clarifying desired results, setting up timelines and delivery dates, and tracking progress. We’ll talk about OKRs more fully later in the chapter. Check in periodically, both in an informal way and through the objective measures and metrics you have established, to ensure that things are progressing, and be there to help if people are encountering difficulty. This does not mean interfering or micromanaging.

Tips for effective monitoring:

It is important to formally and informally review plans and progress. Set up regular meetings as a routine. Tip: Don’t only call meetings when there are problems.
If you feel it would be helpful, have employees send you progress reports at specified intervals. (See below)
Set up metrics and objective measures of success and progress. Establish benchmarks. Without data, how will you measure progress?
Use tools such as OKR software to determine whether people are hitting the performance targets they have been assigned or have agreed to meet.
Establish the expectation that you want to hear about problems before they become serious.
Create an atmosphere of trust, in which people feel you are there not to judge them but to help them be successful. Then they will not be afraid to come to the boss for help when they become stuck. Otherwise people may hide the difficulties they are encountering.

Important: If problems are not brought up, and the employee continues to be stuck, the leader may become frustrated because expected results are not coming. This may erupt as anger and/or overly aggressive, combative, confrontational behavior. Try to avoid this, by building trusting relationships and encouraging people to bring up problems while they are still minor, rather than letting them grow. On the other hand, a little “tough love” may sometimes be needed to help the person wake up to his/her responsibilities and get back in focus.

Progress Reports

Progress reports on ongoing projects, made accessible to all stakeholders, can provide continuing, transparent assessments of the project’s status. They are helpful for those directly involved in the project, for you as the leader, and for interested stakeholders who do not have ready access to the project or team.

One of the great benefits of progress reports is that they help to identify problems and risks early, so course corrections can be made in a timely way.

Written reports require some time for reflection and formulating ideas in more depth and detail than a verbal check-in, so we recommend them. Progress reports are not necessary in all cases, but If you feel you’d like to receive reports to be sure the goals you set are being met:

Establish a schedule for reports to be submitted
You may need to help design the format of the progress report and what it should include
Designing the report will take a little time, but once it’s done, subsequent reports will just be about filling in the needed information
If deadlines are missed, ask for an explanation of why, and how the individual or team plans to correct the situation

A typical Progress Report might include some or all of these topics:

Key owners or project manager of each deliverable
Project scope (example: one-year project involving 5 departments and $14 million)
Brief verbal summary including
Current project status including percentage completed
Major deliverables completed
Milestones reached
Key priorities for the upcoming week/month
Is the project on time and on budget?
Important decisions needed
Project performance rating: red, yellow, or green
Green = on target (project deliverables are on track and delivery is on target for projected date)
Yellow = at risk (project is X percentage complete and in X phase]
Red = off-track (project is delayed)
Key Milestones: milestones scheduled for achievement since the last report, and performance against those milestones
Review: What is the impact of achievement or non-achievement of key milestones for the previous period?
Budget: planned expenditure, actual expenditure, surplus, problems
Timing: original planned completion date, current planned completion date, actual completion date (for a completed project)
Brief summary of key accomplishments for the last period
Important risks for next period?
Additional issues

When a problem comes to your attention, try to understand what has happened.

Did the person know and understand what was expected?
Did you communicate expectations clearly?
Did they have an effective plan of action?
Did they diagnose the problem accurately?
Did they exercise good judgment?
Did they not have the skill to solve the problem?

Help them analyze and understand the difficulty, but in most cases, you are not the person responsible for solving the problem, you are there to help and to brainstorm with them.

Organize a skip-level meeting.

If you feel the need for a broader perspective on issues within the organization, you might schedule a “skip-level” meeting, where you meet one on one with the people directly involved in a project, for example the engineers rather than just the head of engineering.

Leaders sometimes get isolated from the “grass roots” level of activity, especially in bigger companies, and this is never healthy.

Skip-level meetings should be seen as a common, generic phenomenon, so managers don’t feel they are being singled out to be checked up on. It is okay for them to sometimes attend these meetings, but you need to tell them, “Sometimes it’s important for you not to be there, so people feel free to speak their minds.” (See image, Questions to Ask at a Skip-level Meeting)

For Teams:

Are you getting the cooperation you need from other functions and teams?
What are some of the things your team has accomplished in the last few months that you feel most proud of?
What are the biggest challenges your team faces?
Are there any specific obstacles holding you back from achieving your goals? What could company leadership do to remove the obstacles and help you be more successful?
What can we do to more quickly and efficiently bring in needed talent?

For a one-on-one:

What parts of your job give you the most satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment?
What do you like most about your job, and about working here? Least?
Is it clear to you how your job fits into the company mission, vision, and strategy?
What could be done to make this a better place to work?
What are the areas of inefficiency you see, that get in your way?
What are your biggest sources of frustration?
What made you interested in joining our company? What were you most excited about when you started? Is it working out the way you hoped?
If you were CEO, what would you do differently, emphasize or de-emphasize?
Do you feel that people get enough recognition for work well done?
If you could change one thing about your job, or about the company, what would it be?
What are your personal career interests and aspirations? How can we help you fulfill them here?
If you encounter a problem you can’t solve, where do you go for help and support?

Learn about your people through surveys

To learn more about individuals in the organization, as well as about morale and engagement in the company as a whole, you can make use of various kinds of survey instruments.

Two examples:

360 degree multi-rater feedback surveys - these gather assessments from an employee’s colleagues, supervisors, and subordinates to create a picture of their performance.
Engagement surveys - these gauge overall employee engagement, their job satisfaction, enthusiasm, and commitment to the organization, their trust in management and relationship with their manager, their sense of the company atmosphere, and so on.

Create a true meritocracy by objectively assessing performance and putting the most capable people in critical positions

One of the keys to keeping top talent is to create a meritocracy, using objective criteria to determine how well people are performing and living up to their commitments and responsibilities, and rewarding those who do well.

Advancement in the company, in a meritocracy, is not based on subjective evaluation, political clout, or whether you are the boss’s brother, but on whether you are actually delivering results.

Don’t expect people to do it your way

You are in the position you’re in because your way of doing things was successful. Your route up to the mountaintop is what got you there. But there are other routes. So it’s best to focus on results. Give people a chance to find their own way. Of course you will have processes in place to measure their success and redirect them if they’re heading toward a cliff, but as long as the needle is moving, and the metrics and milestones show that progress is being made, try to be open and supportive of alternatives.

Tip: Experienced, capable people do not want to be told what to do. You will lose them if you insist on micromanaging, or that everything be done your way.

Provide regular, honest feedback about performance

Discuss with people on every level what are acceptable and unacceptable levels of performance.

It is the responsibility of leaders and managers to provide people with direct feedback about their performance. People are usually eager to receive feedback. They want to know what they are doing well, and how they can improve.

“With James you always know how you are performing. You know the goals of the operation as well as your personal goals. Some people have a hard time with James because he is upfront and honest on your performance and most people aren't used to having this honest discussion. Many leaders beat around the bush on performance but James doesn't”.

This doesn’t mean they won’t get defensive if you let them know where they fall down and need improvement. But if you have objective data, such as from the 360, an engagement survey, and the fact that you talked to people at a skip-level meeting about their performance, they are likely to listen.

Based on whatever metrics you are using to monitor performance, offer praise and recognition for meeting their goals, and hold them accountable and offer suggestions for improvement when they don’t.

It is better to provide feedback early and often rather than letting problems grow and fester.

Giving feedback throughout the life of a project allows for adjustments when necessary, and prevents surprises at the end. A common failing, especially among inexperienced leaders, is that they tend neither to offer enough recognition for work well done, nor are they direct enough in confronting poor performance, giving forceful feedback when there is a problem. [See Step Four below, “Reward and Confront”]

Important: Be sure people really understand that your goal in pointing out mistakes and making suggestions is not to criticize but to help them improve their effectiveness. “We’re all in this together.”

" Heidi not only holds people accountable, but she also makes herself available – her door is always open for you to come and ask for help to achieve results. If she is not able to help, she will seek help from other resources.”

Don’t wait for end-of-quarter or year-end reviews to give feedback, when it is too late.

Check-ins

The “check-in” slots that you see between major phases in the Accountability model indicate times for the leader to check in with subordinates to ascertain how things are going. This can take the form of a meeting, whether one-on-one or with the team, or it can be as informal as running into each other in a hallway and asking, “How are things going with the ABC project?” or “What’s the latest on the product launch?” It’s good to schedule check-ins regularly and keep to the plan without allowing the latest “fire” to control your schedule.

When you check in:

Listen to what they’re doing
Ask probing questions, don’t just accept “Fine, it’s going great.” Find out if there are any challenges, if they are stuck, or what are the specifics of their latest progress
Offer support if they are stuck or have questions
Challenge them: to raise the bar, to question processes, to make an effort to hit targets, to improve the level of output. Sometimes, with a high achiever, all you need to say is, “I think you could do a little better job on X,” or, “If you put in a little more time and thought, I think this could be improved,” or, “I’m sure you can find a way that you and your team could get this back on track,” or, “Can you think of a way to achieve this goal more quickly or efficiently?”

Check-ins are valuable at any point, to let the talent know your attention is on what they are doing, and for you to keep your finger on the pulse of the company.

Make a priority of managing your time.

If you are new to management and leadership, it may be difficult for you to switch from being a “doer” to being manager of a group of doers, but it is a necessary transition if you are going to survive without burning out. As time goes by and the company grows and scales, you will need to spend more time working on the company, rather than in the company.

A powerful system for increasing accountability: OKR = Objectives and Key Results

The OKR system, created by former Intel CEO Andy Grove and popularized by venture capitalist John Doerr, was designed to align all members of the team behind a common set of objectives. Each manager and his or her reports work together to establish objectives and key results. They set timelines and dates and set up metrics to track progress, milestones, and steps of achievement. The organization as a whole has strategic objectives and key results that it is looking to accomplish; each function has objectives and key results; and within the function all the talent – engineers, sales, etc. – have their individual objectives and key results.

Goals and results can be displayed openly at all-hands meetings for the entire organization to see. Many companies use a red light – yellow light – green light system, where teams that fail to move the needle toward achieving their objectives since the previous meeting get a red light, those who have moved forward to a measurable extent are rated with the yellow light, and those who reach their goals are colored green.

Nobody wants to stand up in front of the whole company and admit that for the third month in a row they have failed to make progress toward a key OKR. It’s a powerful form of social pressure to encourage individuals and teams to live up to their commitments, and to get the whole organization aligned behind the strategic objectives.

In a transparent system of accountability like OKR, people get rewarded and/or promoted because they hit their targets, not because of political favoritism. Likewise, when somebody gets fired for poor performance, it is obvious to everybody why it happened.

Ideally all members of the team feel accountable for specific results, not just to the boss, but also to each other. This adds greatly to the effectiveness of OKR as a tool for creating a culture of accountability.

Step Four: Reward and Confront

My experience is that young entrepreneurs, particularly those with a tech/engineering background, are not strong either in rewarding and praising, or in dealing with conflicts and problems on the team or in the organization. They tend to be conflict averse. They love to solve problems, but not necessarily the human kind that may entail messy emotions, so even if they become aware that a conflict situation exists or is brewing, they may hold back and take no action until forced to by a crisis. But there are always problems, and ultimately the leader is responsible for getting them fixed – not fixing them yourself, but making sure that issues get resolved and obstacles to progress and productivity are removed. The longer you let things slide, the more difficult it becomes to set them right. So whatever the difficulty, it’s best to deal with it as soon as possible.

“Ingrid rewards her people for their good work and also challenges them to do better, when she believes that their performance is below par. She holds each employee responsible for their own actions. She has rewarded me with a lunch for all the good work I have done. But when there is someone not meeting standards she has no hesitation in reprimanding them.”

Entrepreneurs are also frequently perfectionists with very high standards, and they expect everyone else to do as thorough and “perfect” a job as they do. So just as they are not great at giving critical feedback, they also do not freely offer recognition or praise or celebrate milestones for work well done.

But recognition and praise are extremely important to most people, and they are strong motivators to continue performing at a high level. People want to be respected and valued for their contributions.
Failure to offer praise and reward for people who deserve it, is counter-productive. It’s a missed opportunity for leadership. The research is clear: when people feel valued, productivity and satisfaction increase, and so does motivation.

Did you know this? Research has verified that the most effective ratio of praise to blame, positive to negative feedback, is 7 to 1. How well do you stack up to this formula for maximizing effectiveness?

Bottom line: leaders need to learn both to confront poor performance, and to praise progress and achievement.
“Dennis will be the first one to let you know you have not achieved the ideal result, but he will also be the first one to recognize achievement and he will be the first to congratulate you on it. I find that this is a great motivating tool and pushes employees to work towards their best.”

Tip: Whether you are delivering praise or questioning poor performance, do it yourself, live – not by email, not by delegating someone else to do it. Probably you will not want to do this (especially the tough stuff) but it will have a much greater impact if it comes from you.

Be on the lookout for individuals who are doing things right, and reward them.

A lack of praise and recognition is a strong factor in making people unhappy with their jobs. A study by the Gallup organization showed that those who go unrecognized are 3 times more likely to quit. A study by Heaphy and Losada at the University of Michigan Business School found that the best performing teams used 6 times as many positive comments for every negative one, while the worst performing teams used 3 negative comments for every positive one. Excessive criticism dampens enthusiasm and commitment.

Many times, dependable, +-consistent and trustworthy people are taken for granted. Create heroes in every role by recognizing excellence at all levels.

Keep a close eye on everyone on your team and find something you like. Search for people doing things right rather than focusing on mistakes.

Help people understand how their efforts are contributing to the overall mission and strategy of the organization. Take time to show them the deeper meaning and purpose of their work.

There are many ways to show your appreciation

Money, in the form of salary increases and stock options, is a tried-and-true method of rewarding employees and team members for making a positive difference. But it is far from the only way.

In a book entitled, “1001 Ways to Recognize Employees”, author Bob Nelson suggests that the top two drivers of employee performance are: “I am able to make a difference at work” and “I have been recognized recently for what I do.” He found that money ranks a distant fifth place.

Here are a few suggestions that will make your people feel appreciated and motivated:

Simplest of all: Offer a sincerely spoken “thank you”. Important: For praise to be most effective it needs to be specific. Tell the person what they did that was beneficial and what was the positive impact
Recognize heroic efforts, people who have gone the extra mile or who have been essential to the success of an initiative or project. Send them an email or a handwritten note of appreciation, or arrange a personal meeting
Offer a paid training or professional development opportunity of their choice
Take them to lunch
Find an opportunity for a verbal shout-out in front of everyone
A promotion or a move to a different part of the company they are interested in exploring
A gift card for Amazon, a favorite restaurant, or a store you know they like
Free tickets to a ballgame or concert
For a significantly large contribution: a paid vacation
A voucher for a massage or an afternoon at a spa
Express interest in their personal life, partner, children
Offer a flexible work schedule, or some time off

For more ideas for rewarding your people, a quick Google search brings up, for example, “101 Ways to Reward Employees (Without Giving Them Cash)”, “52 Epic Ways to Reward Your Employees,” and many, many more. Tip: Don’t offer praise unless it is truly deserved. Any insincerity will be noticed. Praise needs to be genuine and heartfelt and delivered with conviction and emotional connection. A passing, “Good job” means very little. Be specific in praising the behavior that you want to see repeated: “I thought the way you handled the situation with our big customer at the meeting last week was very effective, because you said XYZ and that addressed their concern.”

Reward managers and team leaders for challenging ineffective practices and outdated assumptions, and for finding more efficient ways to do things

Encourage an organization-wide mindset of excellence and continual improvement. Develop a culture of discipline. Communicate to others that we will not be truly successful unless we focus our efforts on striving to be better – individually and as an organization.

Cultivate a learning organization that continually strives to improve and learn from successes, mistakes and failures

To deepen the knowledge and insights that lead to success, the most effective leaders and their organizations learn from their mistakes as well as their achievements. When projects fail to produce the desired results, try to understand what happened. Ask, “What did we do wrong,” in order to avoid making the same mistakes in future. You can also learn by analyzing your successes to see what worked and what you can carry forward from those victories into new projects. One effective tool is periodic debriefing.

Debriefing: Learn from your successes and failures

At the conclusion of a project or even at various stages of progress, conduct a debriefing with your people and discuss what worked and what did not work. Lessons can be learned from both. More than a mere discussion, a debriefing should probe more deeply, inquiring why things happened the way they did, and what can be done to retain positive elements and eliminate mistakes. Encourage people to take part in the discussion with openness and a desire to improve personal, team, and organizational performance. Here are some suggestions for effective debriefing:

Decide how often you want to conduct debriefing sessions, and stick to the schedule. Some teams hold a short session every morning (you may not need to participate that often) to review the previous day’s progress and set goals for the day. Once a week, or even once a month can work. One benefit of scheduling – people know it’s going to happen, and begin to gather their thoughts on what to share beforehand.
It’s all about learning – not just rehashing, and never about blaming. The underlying thought should be: How can we do better? What can we improve?
Keep it relaxed and informal: but focused.
Ask yourself and the team:
Did we hit our objectives? This will be obvious if you set clear targets and established metrics.
Why do you think we hit/missed the target? What did we do right? Where did we mess up? In almost all cases, there will be a mix of positive and negative factors. (We were aligned and focused, we put in the necessary time, we jumped in without sufficient planning, we weren’t strongly motivated, etc.) Try to come up with at least 4 or 5 reasons for how things turned out.
If you reached or exceeded your goal, acknowledge and celebrate that, and thank team members for their contribution.
Take responsibility for any ways you personally failed to meet your own targets or failed to provide adequate guidance and direction. If you do this at the beginning of the session – which means you have to think about it ahead of time – then others will be inspired to speak openly, and you will have a more fruitful discussion.
Write down, together, what you have discovered, and how you can apply it to future projects. Decide on action steps to implement your findings. Distribute this document to everyone involved

How to give constructive criticism

Remember that both praise and criticism can be motivators
Be thoughtful of the person you’ll be speaking to, and weigh the risks and benefits before giving any negative feedback
Start by letting the person know that their contributions are appreciated. Then make a specific suggestion for how to improve their effectiveness. Avoid chit-chat; get to the point
Deliver criticism in private, behind closed doors – never in front of others
Never deliver a critique when you are angry or upset. Take time to cool down but still deliver constructive feedback as soon after the incident as possible. Difficult conversations can morph into lawsuits, so be very careful what you say
Focus on behavior that you have observed and avoid personally attacking the person. This will lead to defensiveness
Be specific about the behavior and the implications of this behavior to the organization
Tell the person that you still have confidence in them and their abilities but emphasize that their performance needs to change
Give them a chance to respond to your statements and really listen
Agree upon the future performance you expect
Establish a timeline for following up on their progress

Recognize that people from some backgrounds may not be comfortable confronting or being confronted with poor performance issues

It could be cultural: some cultures, such as Indian and East Asian, have more indirect ways of dealing with performance problems, compared to the more direct confrontational style of the West. There are also different corporate cultures, some more laissez-faire than others
It could be personal: Some people are tougher than others in their ability to issue and receive strong critiques
So be aware of who you are dealing with and moderate your approach – but that doesn’t mean you can avoid facing problems head on.

What to do when there is a performance problem

No matter how many precautions you take to set up clear expectations, give firm direction, and set people free to be creative, problems will arise. Results will lag; people will fail to ask for help when they need it; unexpected obstacles will come up and the project may get derailed.

Everybody Gets Stuck “All people and all work units get stuck. Effective leaders recognize when their team is stuck and either figure out what to do to get it unstuck or get help from others to do so. Although it may be hard to admit that you need help, it is a fact of corporate life.” – Successful Manager’s Handbook , PDI Ninth House, 2010

When someone is stuck and is having difficulty moving forward on a project, or when there is a gap or discrepancy between what you expected and what gets delivered, go into a conversation about accountability with the intention to understand what happened, and to find a mutually workable solution to fix the problem and set up conditions so it won’t be repeated. Don’t be looking to assign blame, or to discipline the person (although that may in the end be necessary) but rather to understand. Try to have a scientific attitude of curiosity: What happened? Why?

Try the following steps to resolve the problem:

Meet privately with the person. Advice from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests, “Treat the person respectfully, but don’t engage in small talk to put off the issue. Acknowledge immediately that this is going to be a difficult conversation about serious performance issues.” [reference: “11 Tips for Talking About Poor Performance: How to protect your organization when handling the hard stuff” By Jonathan Segal, https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0416/pages/11-tips-for-talking-about-poor-performance.aspx]
You might begin by saying there seems to be a gap between expectations and performance. Does the person see that, and understand that there is actually a problem?
If so, are they motivated to resolve it?
Determine whether the problem is due to poor communication, faulty understanding about goals and objectives, lack of skill or knowledge, or they simply don’t have experience with the challenges they are facing
What have they tried, how have they attempted to deal with the problem?
Is it a one-time issue, or a repeating pattern?
Does the person agree that a change in behavior or approach will help resolve the issue?
Does the person feel he or she has what it takes to overcome the difficulty?
If the discrepancy is minor, ask the person to come up with a plan to get back on track, and put the plan in writing
If the problem is major, ask the individual to meet with you to develop a plan for meeting their goals
They might need coaching or formal training
They might benefit from a mentor being brought in, or a consultant
Seek knowledgeable advice. Find someone, within the company or in another organization, who has dealt successfully with this issue, and solicit their help. Ask them how they have handled this problem, what solutions have worked for them, etc. If you value your employee, the expense and time can be worth it.
Avoid being too quick to take the entire task back or assign it to someone else. Give them a chance to make it right – unless it’s obvious they are not able to.
Monitor their progress on the new plan.
Acknowledge positive steps made.
Make yourself available for feedback and encouragement.

Tip: Don’t fixate on problems so much that you neglect to acknowledge and reward achievements.

Accountability and the Three Pillars of Leadership

Visionary Evangelist – Visionary Evangelists are passionate about turning their vision into reality. They can therefore be demanding, and focused on their own agenda. They can also be prone to micromanagement because of their obsession with excellence and a desire to control all decisions about product. They usually believe their way is the best, or even the only way. Because they tend to be overly optimistic, their goals and timelines are often unrealistic.

Because they are extremely self-starting, they often fail to recognize that others need more support and direction. They tend to throw people in the deep end.

They have high expectations, but they often don’t take the time to define or communicate them. They set high goals for others (as well as for themselves) and get frustrated and sometimes angry when others don’t perform as well as they would like.

They often don’t follow through in a disciplined manner or set up a systematic process of check-in and monitoring to ensure that accountability happens.

They need to either learn to create those structures, or bring in a Chief Operating Officer or someone with a Manager of Execution profile to help them.

Relationship Builder – Relationship Builders are the most socially skilled. Naturally warm and friendly, they easily engage people in the goal-setting process, and try to generate a coherent, harmonious work environment.

They are free with praise and generous with support and coaching.

They create the kind of warm and friendly atmosphere that everyone likes to be around, but may lack a strong enough drive for successful outcomes. They tend to be overly informal and easy-going and don’t set up a clear expectation that people have to work hard and produce results.

Because they strongly desire harmony and for everybody to get along, they tend to avoid confronting people when there are problems, such as failure to meet promised deadlines, and thus they may fail to hold people accountable.

They are often too trusting that people will keep their commitments, so they don’t monitor carefully or verify progress toward performance goals.

For Relationship Builders, whether they admit it or not, harmony and being liked are often more important than results. It is hard for them to be demanding and to make tough decisions when performance is sub-standard. Providing negative feedback, or disciplining people when it’s needed, is hard for them. Rather than deal with problems when they are small, they take a “wait and see” approach. Sometimes problems do sort themselves out, but often they only grow and become harder to deal with.

Manager of Execution – Managers of Execution are the best of the Three Pillar types at holding people accountable. They are the most focused on results, and best organized. Their process is the most structured and methodical. They have an easy time setting goals, metrics, and milestones – it comes naturally to them.

They expect commitment and hard work from the people they’re delegating to. They take their responsibilities extremely seriously, and expect their people to do the same.

The problem is that they can be so focused on driving for results that they can be insensitive to what people are experiencing and what may be in the way of their achieving results. They don’t really listen to the reasons why somebody may be struggling, or pay enough attention to internal barriers or motivation, they just want the job to get done.

They can be overly demanding and critical, only focusing on what’s lacking, what’s not being done – they give very little recognition for work well done, and very little praise.

Like Visionaries, they are prone to micromanaging because they are worried about mistakes, and losing control, and are overly focused on the details.

Rather than working collaboratively to create mutually acceptable goals, they tend to impose their goals. And they can be intimidating: they don’t create an environment that allows people to feel safe in sharing what they don’t know or that they are stuck.

They are often lacking in empathy and compassion. And like Visionary Evangelists, they are strongly focused on doing it their way.

In an “accountability conversation,” when performance is inadequate and results are lagging, the skill sets of Relationship Builders and Managers of Execution are most important.

Leaders need to be able to relate to employees in a non-threatening way to reach a resolution of problems, and at the same time to take a tough-enough line if a person has been lacking in motivation, effort, or application.

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

Inspiring Your Team in Good Times and Bad

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 19:53:00 GMT

Inspiring and Motivating People: The #1 Correlate of Outstanding Leadership

Inspiring Your Team in Good Times and Bad

Good things happen when people are motivated and inspired. Creative juices flow, ideas proliferate, people work harder, productivity rises, and results improve. When this motivation is sparked by the leader, the organization or the country can thrive and survive the toughest of times.

In more than 40 years of coaching and studying effective and ineffective leaders as well as starting numerous entrepreneurial companies myself, one factor has stood out above all others. In large established corporations, growing start-ups and organizations in every industry around the world, what makes a leader most effective is the ability to inspire people. This means giving them vision and mission, and motivating them through the leader’s own optimism, energy, confidence, enthusiasm, determination, and commitment. This is even more important in the challenging times we live in today.

In my research on over 1800 leaders, utilizing 360 ratings and personality measures, being an inspirational leader was the #1 correlate of leadership effectiveness . This was measured by an average of 12 raters being asked to rate the leader on “Overall Leadership Effectiveness,” after they had completed ratings on 47 dimensions of leadership and management, social skills, problem-solving, character and decision making. When I dug deep into the data, it clearly showed that leaders who can light a fire under people, had unique characteristics that helped them serve as an inspiration to others. They excelled at building trust, showing confidence in the organization's ability to achieve its goals, instilled hope and motivated and energized people to persevere.

Why is the ability to inspire people so important?

Sure, people are motivated by making money and achieving financial security. Money is important, but not the only or even the most important motivator of employees. As many have said before, a compelling vision, dedication to a meaningful mission gets people mobilized. But, a leader’s optimism and enthusiasm, integrity, resilience, supportiveness and self-assurance are also critical in inspiring people to follow. It has been said that paychecks can’t buy passion. Engaged and motivated employees are far more likely to excel and to exceed performance targets. They have genuinely bought into the cause.

The ability to motivate people plays a vital role at every stage of company growth. Leaders of early stage as well as established organizations are constantly called upon to motivate people during many of the organization’s everyday challenges and problems. This is even more important in the kind of difficult times an organization will inevitably encounter, when obstacles seem to be piling up and people are becoming stressed or demoralized.

Your ability to lead will be tested when your team members are feeling discouraged about their own performance challenges, by organizational setbacks or economic downturns, by conflicts with coworkers, company politics and their own personal life problems. At this point in time, the coronavirus pandemic threatens the lives and the livelihood of all of us. This requires inspirational leadership.

If you are a leader, you can inspire by the words you speak, the vision you convey, the encouragement and support you offer, but most of all by your example. People are always watching the leader. It is well known that we humans learn best by emulating an example. The leader’s commitment, focus, follow-through and values are always on display, and set the tone for others.

A deeper dive into what helps leaders inspire and motivate people

They are vision and mission driven

Leaders can inspire people when they paint a clear vision of what they want to accomplish and can skillfully and persuasively communicate this vision. But the vision must be followed with a credible plan. Ideas and big dreams are not enough. Many leaders feel destined to do something significant, even something great with their lives. The most effective leaders turn their dreams into a realistic and actionable strategic plan.

“He sold me on the long-term vision when he interviewed me for the job. I joined the company because he told a compelling story and I wanted to be part of it.”

Ask yourself, have you formulated a clear and compelling vision for yourself and your organization?
Have you shared that vision enough times and with enough clarity that others truly get it?
Have you turned this vision from a picture in your own head into a plan that people can understand and believe in?

They see the big picture and communicate its meaning to others

In order to create a vision and a solid strategy, a leader must be able to understand the broad context: market trends, technology trends, economic patterns, the competitive landscape etc. and then be able to see the subtle connections, relationships, and implications of internal and external events. When the leader sees things that others don’t recognize, their insights can create products and potential markets that others just don’t see. This helps their decisions and the organization’s actions to have greater impact.

It’s easy to let the tyranny of the urgent and the need to accomplish an endless stream of daily tasks cause you to lose perspective on the broader significance of what you do. Excessive urgency can cause a leader to make a series of reactive decisions without consideration of the larger mission and long-term priorities.

“His forward-thinking view is amazing,” one person said of her boss. “This has helped the team stay focused on delivering on today’s challenges while keeping in mind where we are going over the long-term.”

But, seeing around corners and having a vision in your head isn’t enough. People tend to follow leaders who have clearly communicated where the organization is headed. Turning vision into strategy allows people to link their actions with the organization’s broader objectives. Teams need to be aligned around a “North Star” and avoid getting distracted by unimportant details. Through emails and texts, slack channels, all-hands meetings, videoconference and frequent updates, inspirational leaders continuously share their vision with followers. These things help employees see why their actions are important and where their job fits in the larger plan.

“He is able to paint a clear picture and turn it into a clear road map. Hearing his vision for the company and for our group gives us a sense of confidence and excitement for what’s to come.”

“Her clear picture of the future and ability to link our current work to the long-term strategy helps us understand our roles and feel connected to the vision.”

They are genuinely optimistic, cheerful, and enthusiastic

The most effective leaders uplift the people around them with their upbeat demeanor and a consistently hopeful, optimistic outlook. They have a positive view of the world and genuinely tend to see the good and the potential in others. They don’t dwell on negative events and people’s shortcomings. However, their optimism is grounded and realistic, not naïve. And it’s not contrived. They don’t speak in feel-good platitudes. Their positive attitude brings out the best in others.

“She is optimistic, cheerful, and enthusiastic. Her positive energy and confidence in our ultimate success inspires team members to push themselves.”

“He never, ever transmits negative energy to the team, even in the most difficult situations. He has been genuinely optimistic during some really tough times.”

They communicate hope in tough times

Part of the job of any leader is to be Chief Inspirational Officer, on a daily basis. It is easy to be cheerful when things are flowing smoothly but life is not always like that. All organizations (as all of us as individuals) have down times when the going is rough, obstacles seem bigger, and it is hard to maintain motivation and focus. Leaders who are inspirational motivate people with their positive attitude and can-do spirit. Employees recognize and appreciate this:

“His optimism, positive outlook and sense of humor helped to keep everything in perspective during tough times."

“Without her positive attitude, the bleakest days would have been too much to take.”

They love their work, and this is infectious

Inspiring leaders consistently have extremely high levels of job satisfaction. They truly love their jobs. But more than that: they seem to enjoy their lives, and their work is simply a part of that. They have a passion for their mission and for the daily steps taken toward achieving it. This attitude is contagious and inspires others.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs

They are models of commitment and value s

When it comes to organizational values, the leader sets the tone. Everyone is always watching. Everything the leaders does makes a speech about what they really value, how they really feel, what frustrates them or who and what gets their time and attention. Leaders must consistently adhere to their own and the organization’s values. Leaders must also show commitment to the organization and its greater good rather than only their self-interest.

Inspiring leaders also model honesty and integrity and this motivates the people around them. Their behavior is guided by principles and an understanding of the implications and ramifications of their decisions and actions. They act authentically, responsibly and in alignment with their values and the mission and values of the organization. They have a strong inner compass, otherwise known as conscience. They walk their talk. They follow through on their commitments. They insist upon fairness, honesty, and integrity.

“He practices all the core values of the organization every day and exhibits the highest standards of personal conduct. He is a perfect role model for any team member to follow.”

Motivating leaders set the standard of commitment for everyone in the organization. They work hard, putting in all the hours needed to do the job as effectively as they can. They show up on time and “own” every aspect of the work. They always do their best, and that commitment inspires others to perform at their best. They don’t avoid difficult or challenging situations, but they keep striving to be successful.

“It definitely makes me feel better when I see her determination, energy, and confidence, particularly when things start to fall apart.”

They show remarkable resilience and level-headedness

Effective leaders also inspire their followers with their calm, steady and consistent style, showing them that they have a firm hand on the wheel, which is reassuring during tough or stressful times. Their composure in times of crisis helps their team remain calm. They recover quickly from setbacks. They keep the big picture in mind and don’t let the small unimportant things upset them. They also take the time to reflect and recharge. This allows them to maintain a certain serenity in situations of loss, failure and crisis.

They offer support and encouragement and show they care

Inspirational leaders also motivate people by being supportive and providing encouragement. They are authentically caring, respectful of others, and willing to listen to people on all levels of the organization. They make a concerted effort to boost the self-esteem of their followers and help them believe in themselves, what they can accomplish, and understand how their work contributes value to the organization. This attitude of helpfulness is genuine and unselfish and unleashes the potential in people. And it fosters loyalty. These leaders know that their own effectiveness depends on bringing the best out of their people.

So, my advice here is to be lavish with praise and recognition – where it is deserved.

Increase the ratio of praise to criticism
Praise specific behaviors and achievements
Look for employees doing things that are positive and valuable to the organization, and show your appreciation
Recognize and celebrate accomplishments
Deliver praise as soon after the event as possible

They know how to get buy-in

Inspiring leaders motivate people by making an effort to enlist their support, ask for their input, genuinely consider their needs and opinions and get them to feel part of the solution or initiative. They know that they can’t create a successful business alone. They know they need cooperation and support for their proposals from a variety of stakeholders if they are going to accomplish their goals.

They have the ability to influence, persuade and motivate others to support their initiatives. They systematically identify key individuals and organizations whose support is essential and what are the things that each of these stakeholders’ values. Then they propose their ideas or initiative to them in a manner that combines persuasion based on a credible command of the facts with a willingness to listen and adjust to their needs, values, priorities and concerns.

Building support requires dialogue, really hearing others perspective and the reasons for their resistance. They understand how to influence rather than demanding, intimidating or just pushing too hard. This simply creates resistance. They understand that proactively involving people in problem-solving or decision-making helps to build cooperation and support because they become part of the solution and their points of view and suggestions may not only be useful but makes them feel a part of the solution.

They show confidence without arrogance

Inspirational leaders are confident and secure, and their teams can sense this. They simply feel that they have what it takes to succeed, and this is reassuring to their followers. In other words, they are comfortable in their own skin. They are not plagued by fear or insecurity. They believe in themselves. As a result, they don’t hesitate to take charge when the situation requires them to do so. Their sense of self-worth is solid and secure without arrogance, pride and hubris.

Many are quite modest about their accomplishments and openly admit that they have weaknesses. They reflect upon their past successes and failures and recognize and learn from them. As one direct report put it, “His confidence inspires us, but he is also humble and always willing to learn.” This causes others to see them as human, authentic and unpretentious. They are simply real; what you see is what you get.

Building Startup Teams: The Challenge for Entrepreneurs

Fri, 12 May 2023 18:44:00 GMT

The Building Startup Teams: The Challenge for Entrepreneurs

Leadership is not a solo performance, but a partnership between leaders and their followers. No matter how visionary, charismatic, or competent a leader is, he or she will not get very far without followers willing to work hard and enthusiastically to implement the vision and create a great, even world-changing organization. The most important way this works in today’s world, in business as well as in almost every public sphere, is through teams.

Why Teams Are Important

According to an internal Google study (Project Aristotle), “The team is the molecular unit where real production happens, where innovative ideas are conceived and tested, and where employees experience most of their work.”
Skill in forming and leading teams is essential in leading any organization. It demands all of the competencies of an effective leader.
Teams are more than just a group of individual contributors working together. Teams utilize the experience, background, and expertise of a diverse group of people, each bringing his or her own contribution to the table.
Individuals possess varied talents and skills, different strengths and weaknesses. What one person can’t do well, somebody else may excel at. Bringing them together on a team helps to augment the skills and negate the weaknesses – as the saying goes, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” or as leadership guru Ken Blanchard said, “None of us is as smart as all of us”.
Teams serve the leader’s decision-making process by putting forward multiple points of view, helping to avoid bias based on narrow or limited vision.
Effective teams have a shared purpose, interdependency, and skill in communicating and working together. This creates a shared identity and spirit of cooperation and collaboration that allows the team to work more effectively together.
One of the benefits of teamwork is that it divides up the tasks to be done and increases the chance of success. On a very basic level, a team divides up the tasks and responsibilities needed to get something accomplished, whether short-term problem-solving or a large-scale, long-term project. Most projects today are too complex for one individual to handle. If the workload is shared intelligently, allocating tasks according to people’s strengths, the work gets done more efficiently and effectively. That translates to higher productivity.
Working collaboratively in a group people can give and receive feedback and support to each other.
Collaboration can help solve difficult problems. Brainstorming in a team based in trust provides a perfect opportunity to surface ideas and bring up creative ways of doing things.
Teams unify the energy and intelligence of individuals behind a common goal.

The Critical Importance of Teamwork for Startups

Teamwork is important for any organization, but it is especially critical for a startup. Our research shows that as companies scale, different elements of leadership differentiate great leaders from the rest of the pack. Looking at all companies – small, medium and large – as one group, the qualities and behaviors of the Inspirational Role Model form the most important differentiator characterizing great leaders. However, for early stage companies Facilitating Teamwork stands out as the key to great leadership.

Why is this the case? In a small, scaling company the leader is often involved in everything. If this continues, the leader ends up creating a self-limiting organization that is too leader centric. He or she is involved in the details of too many things, tries to control too many decisions, and becomes a bottleneck. Such a leader has not figured out how to gain leverage by working through others. Micromanagement could become an issue. This style can dramatically impede the organization’s ability to scale.

Those leaders who learn to work through others by building high-performing teams stand out. They have learned to share leadership with strong function heads who balance their weaknesses and bring domain expertise to important decisions. They have learned that the best decisions often emerge from intense and productive dialogue that utilizes the perspectives and information provided by a diverse team of empowered experts who balance any biases the leader might have.

This type of leader gets the most out of the team by utilizing a motivating style that makes team members feel like partners with a shared sense of ownership in the team’s decisions and actions, rather than depending on fear and intimidation to get compliance and conformity. They have learned to gel a group of individuals into a cohesive team focused on a shared direction and acting in a coordinated and collaborative manner. For these and many other reasons that will become apparent, startup leaders stand out who have the ability and know-how to get the most out their team.

The Challenge for Entrepreneurs

The entrepreneurial leader needs a genuine and strong belief that the synergy of teamwork is powerful and real. They must make the transition to a different view of their role, as the facilitator of teamwork, who greases the rails to get the most out of the team. This attitude can’t be faked. They must really believe that better-quality decisions will result from utilizing the diverse views and expertise of team members – that together we can solve problems more effectively than any one of us alone.

This is especially important knowledge for entrepreneurs because, as our research suggests, many entrepreneurs, particularly tech entrepreneurs, are naturally independent loners who have strong needs for autonomy. Too often, they “don’t play well with others.” They tend to be non-conformists who resist restrictions on their freedom. Taking the time to get buy-in to their ideas and dealing with messy, emotional resistance doesn’t seem worth the effort. Their natural tendency is to go off to the mountain and talk to God and come down with the tablets. Making decisions by themselves is their default mode. They can be proudly – and stubbornly – self-reliant.

When they become leaders, their tendency is to trust their own judgment first and foremost. They aim to persuade people rather than engaging in open dialogue and getting all the facts and perspectives on the table. They try to control meetings and decisions, engage in micromanagement, and utilize a hub-and-spoke style of managing subordinates. Their long-standing pattern of independence keeps them from getting the benefits of teamwork and synergistic decision-making.

What they’re doing is trying to manage the team as a group of individual contributors whom they can control more easily. This translates into holding meetings one-on-one with Individuals rather than the whole team, giving individuals goals and following up with them privately. Secretly, they don’t really like group meetings and have little tolerance for open disagreement with their ideas. After all, in the past, they’ve done their best, most creative and productive work by themselves. They are skeptical whether group problem-solving and decision-making or strategic planning are going to add value.

Many tech entrepreneurs are very smart, but their IQs are higher than their EQs. In other words, their Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence need to be developed. They can rely on their intellect, see patterns, learn quickly and develop penetrating insights into problems, provided that the problems don’t require deep insight into people’s motivations and feelings or reading their impact on others. When dealing with team members they may lack empathy, tact, courtesy or sensitivity. They often damage relationships by trying to manage the organization as if it were a machine.

Just because they may be able to persuade investors or paint an inspiring vision to promote the interests of the company, doesn’t mean they have a nuanced understanding of how people work. In general, they are task and results-oriented rather than people-oriented and are often quite unaware of the individual personality differences and group dynamics that impact a team. They get so focused on what they are trying to accomplish that they don’t see how their behavior may hurt feelings or intimidate people. In short: Social astuteness is not their strong suit.

Both experience and research tell us that this style can make it difficult to create an effective, smooth-running team. It’s not enough to have a common goal. It also takes patience, perseverance, and attention to social dynamics. Because independent-minded entrepreneurs easily get frustrated with group decision-making and the need to work closely and build consensus with team members, they can become a roadblock to the creativity and effective decision making that teamwork can foster.

A related challenge for entrepreneurs – as it is for all leaders – is the need to balance empathy, trust, empowerment of team members and a generally supportive approach, with challenging team members and demanding that they do their best work and produce results. As the leader, you need to honor the imperative to deliver results while at the same time sustaining the awareness that you need to work through your people, so it’s vital to build and maintain good relationships.

Five Approaches to Effective Decision Making

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:45:00 GMT

There are many approaches to making an effective decision

Decision Making: A Critical Leadership Skill

Making effective decisions is crucial to a leader’s success. However, given the pressure to make decisions quickly, often without having all of the data necessary, it is easy to make the wrong choice. "On an important decision one rarely has 100% of the information needed for a good decision no matter how much one spends or how long one waits," said author and educator Robert K. Greenleaf. Although it is true that we don’t know what we don’t know, when you have a difficult decision to make, try to assess what information you lack, and how to obtain it.

It’s Too Easy to Make Bad Decisions A McKinsey study found that 72% of senior executives thought their companies frequently made more bad decisions than good decisions. This stunning finding should be a wake-up call to all executives to create and prioritize an effective decision-making process for your team or organization. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his research on decision-making, concluded that irrationality often trumps rationality in decision making. His research showed that 95% of all decisions are impaired by reasoning that engages in fallacies and systematic errors due to our use of mental shortcuts and rules of thumb that cloud our judgment.

Among the most effective antidotes to faulty decision making is to include the perspective of others who have different expertise, complementary functional or domain knowledge, or who can provide more objectivity or perspective on a leader’s decision. This includes not only your immediate team, but our network of colleagues, former mentors, and so on.

Do I Make The Decision Myself or Involve Other? Who you bring in to help you make a decision depends not only on who is available, but also on the nature of the problem you are trying to solve. They need to have deep knowledge or experience that will add critical facts and perspective to your analysis and help you identify alternatives, implications, risks, or other factors you might have overlooked.

Deciding Too Fast vs. Deciding Too Slow Of course, adding more people to the discussion is likely to slow things down. And there is no denying that including your team or other experts may add to the complexity of the decision or result in intense discussion and differences of opinion. But sometimes slowing down and being more thoughtful and deliberate is just what you need. “If there Is time to reflect, slowing down Is likely to be a good idea,” says Daniel Kahneman. Taking the time to gather evidence from as many relevant places as you can, brainstorming with knowledgeable people, and carefully weighing all the information rather than making a too-hasty decision could save you from making a huge error that could cost a lot of money, or even cost you your job or damage the organization’s chances of succeeding.

“There are times when delaying a decision has benefit. Often, allowing a set period of time to mull something over so your brain can work it through generates a thoughtful and effective decision.” - Nancy Morris, author of Procrastinate Now

So, what is a leader to do when there is pressure to make decisions quickly, but you know that your own biases and lack of complete information have the potential to lead to disastrous results? Is there a best way to make decisions?

This blog will take the position that there is no single best way to make decisions. Different circumstances and different types of decisions require different approaches.

In what follows, I will discuss five basic ways decisions can be made, what situations call for each approach, and the tradeoffs of different approaches. But first I will summarize the general benefits of including others in the decision-making process. Why Should I Involve My Team?

You must admit that making decisions by yourself is efficient and uncomplicated when you don’t have to consider others’ perspectives and concerns. When time is short, it is an attractive alternative. But solo decision making can easily lead to being heavily influenced by the leader’s biases, blind spots, reactivity, and focusing on too few options and too narrow a perspective.

By contrast, increasing the diversity of thoughts and opinions can generate more alternatives and innovative solutions. Bringing together the right group of people who have different skills, experience, viewpoints, functional perspectives and styles can create synergy that, in turn, can lead to dynamic discussions that yield new insights, more relevant facts and more objectivity.

Team Participation Is Empowering and Increases Buy-in Involving your team in decisions is not only good for you and for the success of the decision process, but also good for the team: it demonstrates that you value their viewpoints and makes them feel more engaged and likely to feel both appreciated and trusted. It suggests to them that you value their skills, knowledge and ideas. Both experience and research have shown that involvement in decision-making dramatically increases buy-in and ultimately elicits more support from team members when it comes to implementation. Participation in the process can increase their feeling of being invested in the decision and in their jobs and improves engagement and alignment. Gallup research also suggests that this can increase employee retention and reduce burn-out.

Team Participation Helps Grow Leaders Being engaged in a well-managed decision process can also help team members develop their judgment and their own leadership capability, by exposing them to the process of gathering facts and opinions, weighing alternatives, and the discipline of working in partnership with others to come up with the best solution for the problem at hand.

Team Participation Fosters Cohesiveness This experience of collaboration with the leader and other team members fosters team cohesiveness and increases a sense of shared identity because they are working to solve problems together rather than operating in and focusing on their functional silos. The feeling of accountability to the group grows as they take on greater responsibility for arriving at the decision.

Team Participation Shows A Willingness To Share Power But remember, when you decide to involve your team in making decisions, you are deciding to share power and the decision may not always be the one you had in mind at the beginning. It tests your willingness to let go of control and let others be leaders. Ultimately this can result in better quality decisions and greater engagement, but it will test your ego’s need to have the answer and be right all the time. It will challenge your willingness to trust others.

When should you involve your team in decisions?

1. When creating your strategy or long-term goals

2. When you realize that you have been too “top down” in your leadership style and need to be more open to input and do a better job of listening to feedback and ideas

3. When you have made some bad decisions in the past because you went off on the mountain and talked to God and came down with a solution that proved to be faulty

4. When you realize you have missed important information, leading to bad judgment

5. When trusting your gut rather than using a rational, systematic decision process led to bad results, hiring mistakes, confirmation bias, blindness to critical facts or alienation of team members

6. When you have received feedback that you are viewed as not trusting your team

7. When you need broad alignment and buy-in to ensure coordinated implementation

8. When the decision is consequential, difficult, complex or ambiguous and you could benefit from the collection of diverse viewpoints and facts

9. When you want to help team, members develop by exposing them to facts, ideas and decision disciplines

10. When you believe that the experience of collaboration and problem solving together and with the leader will foster team cohesiveness, encourage shared learning and increase a common sense of identity

Guidelines for Team Decision Making

• Be sure to involve the right people. The experience, skills and knowledge necessary to produce the best insights differs with each decision. The more diversity of perspective, the better. Including people based only on their seniority or their role can provide too narrow a perspective. Consider bringing in an expert regardless of their role or a person from outside who has domain knowledge relevant to the decision.

• Let the members of your team know which of these leadership styles you are going to use. If you are aiming for consensus, each person’s opinion and perspective is vital and must be brought out. If you are going to make the decision yourself based on some input from the team, it will be good for them to know this from the start.

• Consider setting up a meeting that is specifically designed to focus on this decision rather than trying to fit it into your usual staff meetings that often get hijacked by information exchange and reporting rather than high-level problem solving.

• Consider your time constraints and deadlines. Do you have time to involve others and gather additional viewpoints and alternatives? Do you have enough information, and the right information, to make a good quality decision?

• Be sure you carefully define the problem you are trying to solve rather than jumping too quickly into finding solutions. If you define the problem too narrowly, focus on a symptom rather than the broader root cause, or jump quickly to a single solution, the danger is that you will focus the team on the wrong thing and reach the wrong conclusion.

• Actively draw in ideas and viewpoints from all team members. Start with knowledgeable experienced team members and those with expertise in the problem area but consider also including opinions from the more junior before turning to your most senior people or expressing your own opinion. Patiently listen and be the last to weigh in.

• Try to create an environment where team members feel safe being open and honest and saying what they really think.

• Draw people out. Ask questions that surface alternative views, areas of concern, and problems that might prevent success. Invite team members to challenge each other’s opinions, including yours. Try to get the team to generate multiple possible solutions rather than locking in on one solution too soon. “That’s a good idea. What other angles can we come up with?”

• Take the time to look at the most important side effects that might negatively impact the outcome you are seeking. Ask everyone to consider: What could go wrong? It is important for a leader to discuss the proposal with people who are likely to disagree with it or uncover its drawbacks.

• Two common types of biases frequently have a negative effect on management decision, confirmation bias and over-confidence bias. Confirmation bias involves giving too much weight to information that supports your existing beliefs, conclusions or recent experience and discounts information that contradicts them. Overconfidence bias occurs when you overestimate your ability and fail to consider the risks that could lead to failure.

• It’s important to be aware and cautious about the potential problems and dangers, but equally important for you to dwell on the factors that could lead to succeeding in achieving your objective. And share that vision with your team.

• Play communication traffic cop. Ensure that people are listening, paying attention when others are speaking, are not interrupting, are being respectful of others’ views, and are building on each other’s ideas rather than trying to prove they are right.

• Don’t let certain team members dominate the discussion or dominate it yourself. Especially when your aim is consensus, it’s vital that everybody has a chance to state their views.

The following discussion considers various ways to make decisions, some involving other people and some not. There are many ways to get to the right answer.

5 Approaches To Making Leadership Decisions

1. The leader decides and informs the team Although in general it is always helpful to draw your team into the decision-making process, gathering their input and opinions, sometimes circumstances demand an immediate choice of direction: the decision is time-sensitive, and you need to take action now! You simply don’t have time to explore all the factors and ramifications with your team, so you need to decide and move forward on your own.

This unilateral approach to making a decision works best when the leader has sufficient information as well as some expertise in the relevant domain or domains. It can also be useful for low-impact decisions and simple, routine, administrative decisions which don’t require much input or deliberation. It’s relatively safe for you to use this mode when you know your team is likely to support and implement the decision despite having no input. Whenever possible, leaders should share their insights, analysis, and rationale for proposed changes with their team, even though their proposal might meet resistance and challenge from team members. Leaders do need to seek buy-in, but there are times when they need to take a direction even in the face of resistance. This partly depends upon the level of experience, domain expertise, and insight possessed by other team members.

Leaders frequently have insights and the ability to see around corners, making connections and spotting patterns sooner than the rest of the team. This is particularly true of visionary entrepreneurs. When the leader is working with a junior team and is many steps ahead of them, sometimes he or she doesn’t have time to bring the others along and must make a unilateral decision. The danger is that this can become a default pattern and may get in the way as the sophistication of the team increases and the complexity of decisions becomes greater and greater.

Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are exceptionally creative visionary leaders, who saw things other people missed. On the other hand, not everybody is Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. A lot of leaders justify autocratic leadership by citing Jobs and Musk and concluding that this is the way to be a leader. It’s one way – but unless you are so ridiculously brilliant that people are willing to put up with your arrogance, bossiness, intolerance, etc., it’s not a great way to lead, because you will have trouble retaining top people, you are likely to make biased decisions, and you will alienate people whose support you need. When the decision is yours alone, you run the risk of deciding without having all the important and relevant information and the benefit of your team’s experience. When there is no team interaction and team members are deprived of offering their input, they may resent the decision you’ve made and not support it. People on the team may feel disempowered and offended: “Why didn’t you ask for our input? Why were we excluded?” And because they didn’t have input in the decision, getting their buy-in may be problematic.

The one-person decision-making process is definitely efficient, and avoids time spent (or lost, depending on your perspective) to discussion and debate, but in doing that, it bypasses the group problem solving and brainstorming that can bring fresh and creative ideas to any situation.

And remember, when the decision is unilaterally yours, it is subject to your personal biases and blind spots. And when you are the sole decider, you are also solely accountable for the outcome!

2. The leader gathers input then decides Midway between the unilateral approach to decision making and the effort to broaden participation and generate consensus is the procedure where the leader consults with team members, solicits input of ideas and opinions, and then makes the final decision. This approach is effective when you are ultimately going to be the Decider. The whole team does not have to come to agreement on the best way to proceed, but you feel their input will be valuable and you want to hear their ideas. You realize that people from different backgrounds bring a variety of experience and understanding to bear on each situation, and you want to take advantage of what they know. As the leader, either speak with team members individually to gauge their position, or facilitate a group discussion of issues, pros and cons, possible outcomes from different courses of action, and so on. For this collaborative approach to work, team members need good communication skills, and must be open to lively discussion of ideas. It requires a leader able to facilitate a thorough exploration and discussion, and willing to absorb and process the information and then make decisions. Encourage team members not to just rubber-stamp your views, but to bring their own experience and perspective to the table. It can be helpful if someone is willing to be the “devil’s advocate” and question or even oppose your views for the sake of clarifying the issues.

But team members must be clear that although their input is solicited and viewed as valuable, in the end the leader is going to have the final say.

One advantage of this decision-making model is that even though you as the leader are ultimately responsible for whatever decision is made, the group input and involvement can take some of the pressure off your shoulders. That is good for you, and good for team members; if they feel they have some skin in the game they will be more energized and willing to work toward the desired outcome.

3. Consensus Consensus decision making is a method enabling a team or group to reach a decision by discussion and mutual agreement. Participants have a chance to contribute their ideas and opinions. Instead of the final decision being based on a vote, letting the majority get their way, the whole team commits to finding a solution that they can all support or at least live with. This approach encourages all team members to get involved and have some say in the decision.

It is an attempt to avoid having an individual team member or a minority feel like they have lost, that their concern or point of view is over-ridden or cancelled and that they cannot or will not support the final decision. To avoid this, the entire team as well as the leader must be willing to make a genuine effort to find solutions or alternatives that address the concerns and needs of all members. That means that you need to have input – and ultimately acceptance, support, and alignment – from all team members. The key is communication, an open flow of ideas and views among team members, including the leader.

There is a difference between consensus and a decision that is unanimous. In a unanimous decision, all the participants are in full agreement and accord. It’s 100 percent. If you have succeeded in creating a culture in which everyone feels that it’s safe to be fully honest, this kind of unanimity will be rare; there will almost always be some doubts, disagreements, and viewpoints that could not be reconciled. Consensus means that everyone has agreed to put their remaining differences aside, and a decision has been reached that everyone can and will support in order to move forward. Aiming for consensus can generate a thorough discussion of issues and produce innovative alternatives. Done well, it may involve long discussions and require surfacing and balancing diverse and sometimes opposing opinions and demands. Team members must have access to all relevant data. To reach consensus, the team needs to be able to work collaboratively and systematically together, and you need to be a skilled facilitator. Be careful to involve everyone, and don’t allow the loudest voices to control the discussion. The higher the level of involvement by team members, with everyone working together through all the discussion and deliberation and arriving at consensus, the more support you will ultimately have for implementation. Because of the broader base of individuals contributing to the discussion, the danger of narrow, silo-based focus of a small part of the team dominating the discussion and the outcome is reduced.

Consensus building is an effective, democratic way to create alignment and solidarity among team members, but it is not the right approach for every situation. It is probably not the way you want to proceed in emergencies or high-pressure, time-sensitive situations. Striving for consensus can take a lot of time and energy and will not be the most effective approach when you are facing a deadline, or a crisis and decisions need to be made in a hurry.

So, what should you do if there is a time crunch, you need to make a decision in the next 24 hours, and you don’t want to shut team members out of the decision-making process? In that case, decide which team members have the most expertise relevant to the problem, or who will be most involved in implementation of the decision, and talk to them. If you can’t get consensus of the whole team, at least get the solid support of this select group. If the consequences of making a bad decision are significant and you need to be sure that you have considered all the ramifications, consensus with careful consideration is probably the right approach. But if the cost of missing an opportunity is high, you may need to move faster, and consensus isn’t the right solution.

When you do need to act quickly, it is a good idea to designate an agreed-upon decision maker for every meeting. The approach is then called “consultative decision-making”. This could be you as the leader, or a trusted team member. You strive to gather the facts, generate discussion of ideas and alternatives and listen to concerns and opinions of team members who disagree with you and others. You want lively discussion of the issues and you want to hear the opinion of experts or those with domain knowledge. But the team doesn’t need to come to a consensus decision. Once the discussion of facts, viewpoints and alternatives is sufficient, the designated decision-maker steps in and makes the call. “Thanks for your input, I’ll let you know what I decide.”

“You want to make sure that everyone participates…. You want to get to the best idea. Your job as a CEO . . . is not to forge a consensus, but to run a process where the best idea emerges." – Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, quoting legendary Silicon Valley executive coach Bill Campbell.

4. Consensus with fallback If it seems likely that two factions in your organization will not be able to compromise and reach consensus and a clear path forward, then it’s a good idea to pre-set a course of action that you will take if the team cannot come to an agreement and you are required to step in and make the decision. Let everyone know that this is what will happen if they cannot reach accord.

Setting a time limit may be necessary. If the leader fails to set limits, the discussion may go on endlessly without coming to an acceptable conclusion. A time limit puts pressure on the team, which can be a good thing or not. On the plus side, pressure can catalyze the process by pushing people to make concessions and compromises, particularly on issues that are not of central importance to them. Find out what concerns are most important to each of the disagreeing parties, and their willingness to compromise on issues that are less important.

On the other hand, the team may feel rushed and that they don’t have enough time for proper consideration of the relevant factors. Conflicts may surface, and fundamental disagreements may not be worked through, with the result that alignment within the team, and of the team with the organization, may not be complete.

5. The leader delegates to the team or sub-group of the team Sometimes it may be that you and your immediate team are not the best people to solve the problem. It may be a specialized marketing or engineering question that requires expertise other than yours. Who on your team can you turn to, who can be trusted to dig deeply into the issue and come to an informed decision, or make a knowledgeable recommendation?

If, as is often the case with the founders of start-ups, you are accustomed to being on top of all decision making, don’t panic, use this as an opportunity to let go of some responsibilities and decisions, and delegate to others the power to choose a direction, or at least to analyze the data and bring their suggested solution to you.

The key is to remain calm under pressure, trust the team you have built, and use the data available to make the best possible decisions. – Brent Gleeson, former Navy Seal, founder of TakingPoint Leadership

There will come a time when letting go of the reins will be necessary – there is just too much going on in too many areas of your growing organization for you to keep up with it all. It will not be easy for you but doing so will ultimately set you free to use your time and talents for other matters and builds confidence and leadership ability in team members. You may even have to look outside your organization to consultants who specialize in dealing with the kind of situation you are facing.

The danger here is that delegating fails to make use of the talents and expertise of the entire team. It limits team interaction. When fewer people are involved, there is more chance for an individual’s personal biases to cloud their vision. And because not everyone is involved in the decision, it doesn’t build broad and strong commitment to implementation of whatever decision is made.

This issue is of special relevance to entrepreneurs, who frequently have to make decisions in areas where they would be better off delegating, but they have limited funds and thus limited personnel. So, they themselves become central and crucial for all decisions, even on minor issues that would be best pushed downward. For major matters, if you feel the need to reach out beyond your team, you can solicit advice and suggestions from former colleagues who may have dealt with similar dilemmas, or from teachers or mentors.

I was working 12 hours a day with 10 hours of work that easily could have been outsourced. I had never been in a situation where I didn’t want to do all the work myself. One day, I needed four things done by the end of the week and realized I didn’t have the time. That’s when I hired my first employee. . . I never looked back. I hired three more freelancers and ended up hiring one of them full-time within the first month. I now have five full-time employees. [Will Ellis, Founder of Privacy Australia.] When should you use these different leadership styles?

Each of these five styles or modes of leadership has its appropriate time and place. You are likely more comfortable with one or two of them, but to become the most effective leader you can be, it will be helpful to become familiar with all of them, and to be flexible and adaptable enough to shift from one to another as circumstances demand. This is sometimes referred to as “conditional leadership.” For example, a less-experienced team might need a strong guiding hand and a more authoritarian or leader-centric style, while a team of accomplished people can be trusted with a more democratic or even laissez-faire style where they are mostly on their own once tasks and roles are well understood.

Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success?

Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

The Visionary Evangelist

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 22:09:00 GMT

Their Superpowers and Their Dark Side

Occasionally a leader comes along who not only develop this vision of the future, but also use their influencing skills to motivate others, by persuading them to join the cause. They are “pied pipers” who energize and inspire followers to get on board. Their vision gives their followers a sense of purpose and direction for their team, their company, their industry or their nation. It inspires followers by giving them a vision of possibilities, a compelling sense of destiny and meaning.
Throughout history these visionaries have challenged their societies to think and act in new ways. They see what others have missed. They find opportunities others have ignored and challenge what others accept as given. They are pioneers. They are non-conformists. They are inventors. They open new vistas. You may not like them and think they are self-centered and narcissistic but, you have to admit, they have changed the organizations or societies in which they lived.
In our time, leaders such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and the late Steve Jobs have shared a common bond – they are Visionary Evangelists.
Some visionaries, like Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb as well as the prototype systems and structures for distribution of electric power, are seen as heroes. Others, like Joan of Arc are burned at the stake. They influence business, politics, science, religion, the arts and economics and change the course of history. The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton, Thomas Jefferson, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Martin Luther King, Pablo Picasso, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, were all probably Visionary Evangelists.
Visionary Evangelists see the world differently. They see beyond the status quo and envision what might be. Perhaps they have a broader perspective or deeper level of insight. They are certainly much more creative than most of us. They dream up new products and new ways of doing things. They are independent risk takers who can’t help but challenge the status quo. As one business leader said, they “create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” [that was Jack Welch but we don’t have to say so.]
When the organization’s vision, strategy and goals need to motivate and influence employees, shareholders, or the investment community, it’s usually the Visionary Evangelist who stands up to do it. They know how to get people to follow their lead. They are filled with energy and drive, they hold up the flag and run forward; they take charge, push for action, and instill a sense of urgency to achieve the organization’s goals. It is difficult to imagine any organization succeeding without the creative vision, persuasive skill, and dynamic leadership of the Visionary Evangelist.
Elon Musk

As a boy in his native South Africa with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Elon Musk often read for 10 hours a day. He devoured two complete sets of encyclopedias, virtually memorizing them with his photographic memory.

In college, he declared that he “wanted to be involved in things that would change the world,” and after making his first fortune from the sale of PayPal, rather than stashing any of it away, he immediately sank the entirety of the $180 million he made into companies that are creating humanity’s future.

He’s CEO of Tesla, producing steadily more affordable, rechargeable electric cars to replace the pollution-generating vehicles most of us still drive. He is CEO of SpaceX, designing, building, testing, and now operating rockets that, among other things, bring supplies to the International Space Station. His vision for SpaceX: to transport 80,000 people to colonize Mars, making humanity a “multi-planetary species.”

He is also heavily involved in Solar City, which Tesla purchased in 2016, one of the largest installers of solar panels in North America, toward the goal of replacing the electrical grids currently in use with pollution-free, renewable solar energy.
In 2012 Musk proposed what he called a Hyperloop system of high-speed ground transport, in which pressurized pods or capsules, containing either people or freight, would move through low-pressure or vacuum tubes either in tunnels or set above ground on stanchions. Speeds up to 760 mph would allow travelers, for example, to go between Los Angeles and San Francisco (approximately 350 miles) in little more than half an hour.

To facilitate the tunnel-creating aspect of Hyperloop travel, Musk started The Boring Company in 2016.

So who is this man? “The thing that makes Elon Elon is his ability to make people believe in his vision,” said Dolly Singh, former SpaceX executive. Like most Visionary Evangelists, Musk is an eloquent speaker, “an incredibly compelling spokesman” for what he believes and aims to accomplish. Jim Cantrell, former SpaceX engineer, adds, “The guy is…three or four steps ahead.…Most of us can’t conceive these things working; he can’t conceive them failing.” They take what others see as big risks, but in their minds, they are sure they will succeed.
“People are drawn to his companies by his incredible vision, dedication, and perseverance,” said one writer. “Due to his work ethic and dedication, Musk inspired a generation of young engineers to work at his companies and believe in a shared vision.” [http://bradlm3.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-leadership-of-elon-musk.html]
Justine Musk, Elon’s first wife, said of visionary geniuses like her husband, “They don't think the way other people think. They see things from angles that unlock new ideas and insights…it’s this that allows them to open up windows to another, deeper reality in which transformation is possible and things of awe happen on a regular basis.” “They might make lousy husbands and terrible wives,” she said, “they might be the friend who never sends you a birthday present and forgets to show up for coffee, but they bring light to the dark, and they show us the universe.”
Musk has been described as pushy and confrontational, sometimes falling into “fits of rage.” Yet most people who work with him remain loyal, perhaps because they appreciate his world-changing vision. “If anyone in our generation has the chance of being remembered 200 years from now,” says an article in Fast Company, “it’s probably Elon Musk.”
Steve Jobs
If you wanted to create a poster child who exemplifies the qualities and characteristics, both positive and negative, of the Visionary Evangelist, you couldn’t do better than Steve Jobs, the co-founder and long-time public face of Apple.
On the plus side, he was a visionary and a driven perfectionist who played a key role in the development of the Macintosh computer, as well as iMac, iTunes, iTunes Store, Apple Store, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In addition, he helped to develop the visual effects industry when he helped create Pixar, which produced Toy Story, the first of many computer-animated films.
He was also an eloquent, charismatic, and persuasive speaker, which made him the perfect spokesperson for Apple products. Although he was not an engineer, he loved electronics, understood how things work, and could talk about them intelligently and convincingly.
According to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, “Steve was filled with contradictions. He was a counterculture rebel who became a billionaire. He eschewed material objects yet made objects of desire.” A student of Zen Buddhism as a result of a trip to India in his 20s, he lived very simply, preferred to sit on the floor, and was a vegan.
He had a formidable intellect. “He was very often the smartest guy in the room, and he would let people know that,” according to Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell.
“Steve Jobs was not a great person,” commented a reader of his biography. He could be – and often was - dictatorial, vicious, ruthless, and so volatile as to be unpredictable. His interactions with people were often marked by harshness and nastiness. He had a violent temper.
But there is no denying the enormous legacy he left behind for our generation and into the future.
Problem Children?
From a young age, Visionary Evangelists can be difficult, particularly with those in authority to try to get them to conform. Their inquisitive nature and proclivity for exploration often drives their parents crazy and sometimes endangers life and limb. Steve Jobs is typical. He had difficulty functioning in a traditional classroom, rebelled against authority figures, got in trouble, and was suspended a few times.
Visionary Evangelists have an unusually strong need for independence and autonomy and are overflowing with restless energy. This is precisely the spirit that is driving the present generation of young entrepreneurs, many of whom have the profile of the Visionary Evangelist.
These people are very bright, and they get bored easily by routine. They tend to get distracted by new, shiny objects. They are better starters than they are finishers. They want to move on before they’ve really nailed down the results. This is why they are not very interested in systems and processes, as Managers of Execution are. They see such things as restrictive and even boring. But this can cause problems, if they have not partnered with people who thrive on building processes and systems.
Kim Scott, author and executive coach, says that “while organizational design and management are probably not Elon Musk's chief interests," if he “could only put a fraction of the creativity and energy that he puts into building great products into thinking through his organizational design, he would find that his job as CEO and building cars is a lot less hellish." .
Both men and women with this personality profile have a lot of drive. Their energy and constantly bubbling creativity make them feel the need to be busy and on the move. When they are young, their refusal to sit still and submit to the routines of classroom education, and their tendency to challenge authority, often lands them in the principal’s office. Others, who are more socially skilled, press the limits but get away with it because of their personal charm. They are bored with routine and seek out activities that require original thinking and creative expression. They are always building, tinkering and taking things apart. Even as children, their minds are open to multiple possibilities, beyond things as they are.
As they enter the workforce, these people have a hard time working for others – especially when there are a lot of rules to follow, or innovation is not highly prized. They are, says Prof. Gary A. Davis, author of Creativity is Forever, “naturally independent, unconventional, and bored by trivialities. Because rigid enforcement of rules will alienate creative people and squelch their creativeness, flexibility and rule-bending are necessary on occasion.” They will always see a better way to do it, and feel confident that they can do a better job. Often, they are right. That’s why the ranks of entrepreneurs around the world are filled with Visionary Evangelists.
More than just independent-minded, they are nonconformists who question the beliefs, rules, and practices of the organizations in which they work. In the words of the poet William Blake, "I must create my own system, or be enslaved by another man's.” But if they are given enough freedom and not restricted in their creative expression, they love their jobs.
They are comfortable being alone and working alone. But they are usually quite willing to seek advice from others when they run into something they can’t understand or manage on their own.
Despite their independence, VE’s like being around people and they handle their relationships with confidence. They are skillful at guiding conversations to influence and persuade others, though it is not beyond them to use their persuasive skills in ways that might be viewed as manipulation.
In one sentence, Visionary Evangelists “see” something that excites them, and they love to pursue their vision with passion and bring it to life.
The Secrets of Their Success
1 - Creative Visionary In our research, the skill most correlated with the cluster of skills we have labeled the Visionary Evangelist is, not surprisingly, “Creating a Vision”. At their worst, they can be impractical dreamers who drift from one wild idea to another, living in their heads, rarely if ever bringing any of their ideas to fruition. At their best, they are the visionary geniuses who set new directions for organizations and for society as a whole. Metal birds that fly through the sky, self-propelled vehicles that make the horse unnecessary, a computer on every desk, an organization of nations dedicated to peace and global problem-solving – their innovative conceptions are without number.
One factor that fuels their creativity is an innate curiosity – think of Elon Musk reading for 10 hours a day and memorizing the encyclopedia – a desire to learn and to understand this complex world we live in. The mind of a Visionary Evangelist is a busy place. Innovative ideas bubble up at any time of the day or night. Some will be discarded, but many will lead to action. “Anyone vaguely familiar with Elon Musk,” said a recent article about him, “knows that he’s usually juggling tons of ideas at the same time.” And this is common for Visionary Evangelists.
Here are some typical quotes from our 360 assessments of executives who may not be as well known as Jobs and Musk but who inspire their colleagues with their creativity and ideas: “At times it seems that more good ideas are coming from Suzanne than from the rest of the management team put together, She is not afraid to step out of the box and try a new angle. She understands the power of creativity and provides all of us with the time to consider new ideas, thought patterns, and solutions.”
VE’s love work that requires original thinking and are always seeking new ways to look at things. Creativity researcher Davis notes that a creative person “looks at one thing, and sees modifications, new combinations, or new applications,” and “makes connections between one situation and another.”
Intellectually curious, Visionary Evangelists love exploring and learning about new ideas. They love to experiment. They take the time to study and reflect. Although they don’t have strong needs for companionship and most of them enjoy periods of solitude, their creativity is fueled by lively discussions and philosophical debates with friends and coworkers. They are not afraid to surround themselves with people who have different beliefs, political views, and backgrounds, and who come from different cultures. They like nothing better than stretching their minds. But because they tend to think they’re smarter than other people, they’re more likely to talk than to listen. This of course curtails their ability to learn.
2 – Translates the Vision into Strategy
Visionary Evangelists have a gift for making their ideas vivid and tangible, which draws support from others. Visionary Evangelists are strategic thinkers. Once they have conceived a vision, they find it natural to translate the vision into a strategy for the organization. Long-range plans need to be developed, and resources mustered to carry out the plans that will turn the vision into a reality. Not content just to dream, they may also excel at creating the plan which makes it happen.
While a lot of VE’s do have the capacity for strategic thinking, one of their weaknesses is that it often stays in their head: they don’t translate it enough into specific objectives. It’s very broad-brush, and when you poke at it a little, you find that it’s like a movie set: it looks good from the street, it enables them to pitch the venture capitalists and get funding, but the people within their companies almost invariably say that it’s not sufficiently meaty or detailed in translating the broad vision into priorities and actionable goals.
Early-stage entrepreneurs, especially, tend to be more visionary than strategic. Those visionaries who succeed in growing their companies larger have figured out that they need to get it out of their heads and define it for others. However, although they love putting together the master plan, they are relatively uninterested in the nitty gritty details of executing the plan. What’s important to them is the Big Picture. Once the design is in place, they are ready to move on to the next grand idea.
3 – Sells the Vision
When the vision and strategy are in place, the time has come to rally followers and supporters. The dictionary defines an evangelist as “a person who crusades for, and builds support for a cause, and whose behavior is marked by evangelical enthusiasm.” When it comes to influencing others and finding just the right words to persuade and paint a powerful and inspirational picture, VE’s are the masters.
Their superpower is their ability to sell their vision and influence people, and this differentiates the ones who get funded from those who don’t, because they have to be able to pitch skeptical venture capitalists who routinely listen to hundreds of pitches before they decide to fund just one.
Many shy or reserved individuals have a creative vision but lack persuasive skills to enlist the support of followers. They don’t know how to sell the thing they’ve created. Having a creative idea is only part of the equation. On fire with the compelling nature of their vision, leaders must also be able to paint it in glowing strokes and promote it like a preacher selling salvation.
This ability to pitch and influence people is one of the social skills that entrepreneurs possess, but you can’t say they have broad social skills, because they often do not read people or group dynamics well, and they tend to be insensitive. They are effective at what amounts to sales, but they need to develop better relationship skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) before they will be truly effective leaders. Often, they have high IQ and low EQ. Bringing a vision to life involves not only the ability to inspire peers and employees to work hard together to make it a reality. The entrepreneur also – and crucially – has to persuade potential investors to get involved. They need to communicate their vision with a level of emotion, excitement, and passion that captures people’s hearts. VE’s bubble over with ideas, and they radiate enthusiasm. Unemotional, overcontrolled executives who only have access to their logical, rational side will have trouble generating excitement and inspiration.
Because they are so natural and so effective representing ideas, products, programs, or services that have meaning to them, as their companies evolve, they often take on the job of spokesperson. Poised and polished in front of groups, they make effective, high-impact presentations. Dynamic and socially confident, VE’s know how to make a strong and positive first impression. Many pay attention to cultivating their public image. They like to be the center of attention, with the spotlight on themselves.
Every Visionary Evangelist begins with a dream. The most successful have the ability to communicate the dream with a passion and power that attracts followers whose combined strength transforms the vision into a reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was not a business leader, yet he is a perfect example of a Visionary Evangelist. A genius in his own right (he graduated high school at 15 and college at 19 before going on to his Ph.D. and Doctor of Divinity degrees) King was a passionate advocate not only for civil rights but for human rights for all. His vision of justice and equality drove him to campaign relentlessly, putting his life on the line day after day. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, he traveled over 6 million miles and spoke more than 2500 times. His famous “I have a dream” speech to 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is known throughout the world. At 35, he was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
4. Takes Initiative
When it comes to taking initiative and getting things moving, VE’s don’t have to be asked to take charge. If an opportunity presents itself, they feel impelled to take advantage of it. If they have a dream or an insight, they feel they must act on it. Conceiving the idea isn’t enough. They must turn it into something concrete. In fact, their vision consumes them and often takes over their lives, filling every waking and sleeping moment until it becomes a reality. They can’t help but take the lead.
The initiative of visionary leaders is recognized and appreciated by their peers and reports. “Hiroshi looks for things that need to be done, and takes action,” one person on his team said. “He is quick to take a leadership role. His initiative to grow the organization is an inspiration to the rest of us. Hiroshi leads by example.” Another person commented, “Ray is always the leader. He identifies problems, then attacks them. He has a solution for us most of the time before we even know it is a problem.” And another, in just a few words: “Very action oriented. Afraid of nothing.”
Their strong action orientation can be a double-edged sword. Yes, it gets things done, but as a result of their tendency to jump in and try to make something happen immediately, they often get involved in micromanaging. It doesn’t occur to them that they might delegate it, or who it should be delegated to. They tend to go around their managers and reports and go directly to employees. This is potentially undermining to the authority and decision-making independence of their directs.
5. Creates Meaning – Shows Employees Why They Matter

Effective leaders make their followers feel that they are close to the source of something great. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens, people feel inspired because their work has meaning. One of the greatest sources of trouble in organizations today is the lack of connection employees feel to the company’s mission, vision and goals. Quarterly earnings, market share, and enhancing shareholder value, of vital concern to founders, investors, and upper management, don’t motivate many employees. The leader must touch their hearts as well as appeal to their intellects and pocketbooks.
Why? People have a deep need for meaning and purpose in their lives. Without meaning, work can easily become a chore, something you have to do rather than something you look forward to. This is fertile ground for apathy, lackadaisical performance and reduced productivity, as well as a discontented workforce.
The need for meaning and for a sense that what they do matters, seems to be especially crucial to members of the Millennial generation who have a strong desire to, in the words of Apple founder Steve Jobs, “make a dent in the universe.” Visionary Evangelists are an effective antidote to this problem. Through their eloquence and passion, they help employees connect their jobs, and their lives, to the organization’s vision and strategy. They achieve employee buy-in and ratchet up motivation by showing people how to relate their day-to-day activities to a higher meaning and broader strategic priorities.
Although “creating meaning” is not generally recognized on the 360-degree evaluations as having great importance, our research and consulting experience show that it is one of the vital components in promoting employee loyalty and building a strong corporate culture.
6. Optimism
One employee said of her boss, “Bill never lacks for enthusiasm and optimism. He always looks for strategies to manage through tough times rather than hang his head.” Another put it slightly differently, “She works so hard despite the lagging numbers of the division, and always has a positive outlook on the future. It makes you want to work hard for her.” This is what Visionary Evangelists do for the people around them. They always assume that no matter how difficult things may appear to be, it will all work out just fine in the end. They tend to look on the bright side, seeing the glass as half full, and do not worry much about the future.
Napoleon Bonaparte suggested that, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Followers need leaders who give them hope and reassure them that they will succeed. One employee paid tribute to her boss’s optimism this way: “The positive morale in the department is directly and almost solely attributable to his leadership, mentorship, optimism, energy and enthusiasm.” Visionary Evangelists not only exude a confidence that things will work out – many of them also have an inherent trust in the good heartedness of people; they believe people can be trusted. This uplifts followers and inspires them to create a successful outcome.

7. Self-Confidence
If you met a Visionary Evangelist for the first time, you would almost certainly recognize their high level of self-confidence. They are sure of their capabilities, values, and judgments, believe in themselves and in their gift for leadership. Many of them truly feel that they were “born to be a leader.” They know they can almost always count on their ability to make a good impression on others. They are frequently “silver tongued devils” who have the self-assurance and persuasive power to win over the skeptical and ultimately get their way. A subordinate described his boss by saying, “Elaine has the power of persuasion through suggestion. Her confidence makes us want to follow her wherever she leads.”
Visionary Evangelists set high goals, often difficult to reach, and never question whether they can achieve them. They seem to be untroubled by self-doubt. They genuinely believe they are more talented than others, and their coworkers often agree with this self-assessment.
They can also freely admit their shortcomings, if someone is willing to hold up a mirror and show them. They’re willing to acknowledge their mistakes and are ready to work to overcome them and to learn from them. However, it isn’t easy to convince them that they are wrong.
Steve Jobs describes his growth of confidence in the following quote: “My father was a machinist by trade. He had a workbench in his garage, and when I was five or six years old, he sectioned off a little piece of it and said, ‘Steve, this is your workbench now.’ He spent a lot of time with me, teaching me how to build things, how to take things apart and put things back together. Inspired by a neighbor who worked at Hewlett Packard, I used to buy Heathkits to build radios and other electronic equipment. These kits came with detailed manuals and color-coded parts. Putting a piece of equipment together gave one the sense that one could build the things that one saw around oneself in the universe. These things were not mysteries any more…they were the results of human creation, not magical things that just appeared in the environment. It gave a tremendous sense of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things.”

8. Risk Taker and Agent of Change One of the problems with VE’s is that they can be overly confident, overly optimistic risk-takers. As a result, they will not validate their conclusions and insights with facts. And they can be impulsive. Being a change agent is different. Being an agent of change is about challenging the status quo and coming up with new ideas. That is highly correlated with VEs. But risk-taking is a double-edged sword. Being a risk-taker and not grounded in seasoned judgment is foolhardy.
“I witnessed Karen coming in and ripping apart a process that was outdated, inefficient, and meaningless. It was a beautiful thing.” Visionary Evangelists can’t help but be agents of change. Their willingness to try something new, coupled with their creativity and vision, makes them fearless in trying out new approaches and challenging the status quo. “Leaders,” said Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the first permanently implantable artificial heart, “are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept at all of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen.”
This is not always a walk in the park. “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things,” said Niccolo Machiavelli. Yet they are willing – even eager – to challenge the system in order to make things better. “Bruce challenges departments to constantly re-evaluate the processes and priorities they set.” They are simply not satisfied with tradition or “the way we have always done it” if it doesn’t move the organization forward.
Independent thinkers, Visionary Evangelists are not susceptible to social pressure. If they believe in something, they are willing to take an unpopular position. Says one coworker, “Aimee will confidently and readily buck the status quo if she believes it impedes getting results. She is tenacious and sticks to her guns if she feels very strongly about an issue.”
Visionary Evangelists like Steve Jobs are not plagued by fear and appear to worry less than others. They are not foolhardy, but they are willing to take a risk on an idea or a venture if they believe it might pay off. When they really want something – when the potential reward or return is great enough – they are willing to go out on a limb. In fact, they seem to enjoy taking chances.
Jeff Bezos has combined his skills as a Visionary Evangelist with his ability to be a Manager of Execution and has become the richest man in the world. He was also a classic risk taker who challenged the status quo. Long before the Internet became the center of commerce that it is today, Jeff Bezos saw the future and decided to play a role in making it happen. In 1994, he told a reporter, “I came across a startling statistic, that web usage was going up at 2,300% a year. I decided I would make a business plan in the context of that growth.” So, he quit a good job at a Wall Street hedge fund and started a small company, selling college textbooks online.
Of course, that company, Amazon, has become one of the world’s largest mega-corporations, “a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online,” according to the Amazon mission statement, and Bezos became the world’s wealthiest man.
In 1997, when he took Amazon public, Bezos said, “We’re at the Kitty Hawk stage of ecommerce, “referring to the small town in North Carolina where the Wright brothers flew the world’s very first airplanes in 1903.
9. Achievement Driven and Socially Competitive
Competitiveness is one of the most highly regarded and highly rewarded qualities in the American character. From Little League to the Olympics and the Super Bowl, and in virtually all educational institutions, we are trained to compete and rewarded for coming out on top. The drive to be the best leads to high achievements as well as personal gratification. In the business world, most people would agree that the best thing that ever happened to Detroit – and for the driving public – was competition from Japanese automakers. The competitive spirit has contributed greatly to America’s strength at home and abroad.
Visionary Evangelists are highly motivated individuals whose drive to succeed is legendary. The literature of successful entrepreneurs, from Thomas Edison to Bill Gates, is full of stories of men who hardly slept, ate, or changed their clothes while working to achieve their goals. These days, Tesla employees report that when production gets behind schedule, CEO Elon Musk stays at the plant and sleeps a few hours on a narrow couch right on the factory floor. These people feel, from an early age, that they are destined to accomplish great things in their lives, and they are willing to work hard to do so and to make a difference
However, it is important to distinguish between the need or drive for achievement, and competitiveness. Competitiveness can be destructive if it’s a matter of winning and being right, no matter what. Sales reps, for example, are very competitive with their peers, but they are poor team players and don’t make good sales managers. Competition with other people, characteristic of many entrepreneurs, works against collaborating and being good team players.
Achievement drive is different; it’s a desire to attain goals. Competitiveness is a desire to be better than others, to be Number One, to dominate. This drive for dominance is a double-edged sword. On a personal level, an obsession with success at all costs often results in neglected marriages and children, poor health and heart attacks. It poisons the marketplace by turning competitors – who, after all, are also legitimate business enterprises – into symbols of evil. At its worst – especially if the entrepreneur’s path is blocked and the achievement of their vision is threatened – it breeds a kind of self-centered callousness toward “the enemy” that can bring out ruthless behavior, where the end justifies any means no matter how illegal or unethical.
Many VE’s are notorious for the fierceness of their competitive nature. A Web biography of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has a strong Visionary Evangelist profile, tells us that his family upbringing taught him competitiveness from an early age. “His great-grandfather had been a state legislator and mayor, his grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a prominent lawyer. Early on in life, it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence, and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions.” Combative and hard-driving, Gates has been called “a brilliant and ruthless businessman who single-mindedly pursues not only his own success but also the annihilation of his foes.”
Their Dark Side
Like all of us mortals, Visionary Evangelists also have their weaknesses and challenges. “Exasperated parents, teachers, colleagues, and supervisors are all familiar with some negative traits of creative people,” says creativity expert Gary Davis. “They can be stubborn, uncooperative, indifferent to conventions and courtesies…careless and disorganized, especially with matters they consider trivial.”
As in our discussion of competitiveness above, many of these “weaknesses” can best be understood either as the “shadow” or dark side of one of their strengths, or as less developed or immature aspects of essentially positive qualities:
Their rebelliousness is the other side of their willingness to challenge the status quo.
Their indomitable optimism, so inspirational to others, easily leads to a kind of cavalier attitude about deadlines and commitments – “It’s okay, it’ll all work out.”
The self-confidence and love of being center stage that make them such charismatic presenters has an element of narcissism and can lead them to believe they are “special” and are therefore entitled to special privileges and exemptions from rules everyone else has to follow.
1. Self-Centered and Egocentric
Many leaders are self-centered. But the Visionary Evangelists are more narcissistic than others. This is one of their biggest Achilles’ heels. It prevents them from being the kind of outstanding leader who puts the needs of the organization ahead of themselves. It prevents them from thinking they could be wrong, and from listening to input, whether critical or intended to be helpful. They think they are always right and are the center of the universe.
Visionary Evangelists are well aware that they are highly intelligent, creative, charismatic, charming and natural leaders. All too often, this breeds arrogance. As one manager’s colleague put it on his 360-degree assessment, “He displays a negative form of confidence that sends the message, ‘I am smarter and better than you.’ His self-importance and huge ego comes at other’s expense.” For most Visionary Evangelists, humility is not their strong suit.
Sure that they will achieve their vision, VE’s often see only opportunities and possibilities and fail to consider that they might fail. This is an outgrowth of their ego and can be dangerous to their organizations. “I think Justin’s confidence in the team’s ability to make miracles happen is unrealistic and more than a little arrogant. We cannot blindly assume that ‘if we can think it, we can do it.’”
They would much rather talk and expound their own ideas than hear what others have to say. They become so wrapped up in their own ideas that they don’t leave much room for other’s opinions. On personality self-assessments, VE’s tend to see themselves as tolerant and open. Very often, they are not.
They are also not very sensitive to the needs and concerns of others. This is another blind spot. They frequently describe themselves as affectionate and aware of others’ feelings, but in fact they tend to be self-absorbed and insensitive.
As we have seen, Visionary Evangelists are independent non-conformists. Because by nature they question beliefs, rules, and practices that others take for granted, they are often able to see a new and better way. But their need for autonomy and their tendency toward non-conformity can create friction when they have to work in a group. They are not natural team players. They don’t want to be bound by confining rules or the necessity for compromise. In fact, they don’t like restrictions of any kind. They want to do it the way they want to do it.
This may seem fine when the Visionary Evangelist is an entrepreneur, running his or her own company. But as the company grows larger, in order to function efficiently it must develop rules, policies, and procedures, which the entrepreneurs often violate, resisting these curbs on their freedom. They can actually do the organization harm at this point, and indeed, sometimes have to step down for the good of the organization they helped to create.

2. Managerially Challenged
Visionary Evangelists are great at starting projects, not so great at following through and driving to completion. They need to have Managers of Execution around them, to translate their vision into strategy and ultimately into the tactics and operational disciplines that are going to make the company successful.
A successful entrepreneurial startup has to figure out how to become a culture of discipline. That means systems and processes, and it means disciplined approaches to solving problems, making decisions, analyses of unsuccessful initiatives, and the management of things that the Visionary thinks are boring and routine. Every organization needs processes, policies, playbooks, procedures that help people be efficient and maintain quality.
Put simply, VEs are bored with such things. With their minds on their Grand Vision, they just can’t be bothered with such mundane matters, and they badly need Managers of Execution to partner with them. The problem is that most often they are loners and not good partners, so even if they do bring in some expert MEs, they don’t listen to them.
What they need is sufficient awareness of their weaknesses and shortcomings so that they will bring people in to complement them and shore up their weaknesses. If they are too narcissistic they don’t recognize this need.
Skillful managers are organized, good at planning, and disciplined in carrying out the plan. Visionary Evangelists are often undisciplined, undependable, and uninterested in bothering with the nuts and bolts of execution.
On their own, it may not matter much that they are not organized or disciplined but as leader of an organization, it is fatal to the culture. Why? Because they are good starters but not good finishers, because they fail to follow through and meet commitments, they are poor role models for others in the organization. Then they find that the organization doesn’t have discipline and others don’t show up for meetings on time, or take product deadlines seriously, and so on, because the leader doesn’t.
Why would leaders who are so driven to achieve their vision and so action-oriented fail to follow through and meet their commitments? Because they are seers of vast unbounded possibilities, dreamers and creators of what might be brought to life; they are enamored of the big picture and simply bored with the details. Furthermore, they hate to be restricted by boundaries such as deadlines, budgets and systematic processes.
Their native optimism also works against them. People who are not so certain “it will all work out” tend to see the value in tactical planning and disciplined project management. The optimistic Visionary Evangelists don’t sweat the details; as a result, they may miss deadlines and fail to deliver on their commitments. The result is that their grand vision goes unfulfilled.
Our research has shown that being a visionary is negatively correlated with orderliness and thoroughness, and our observations of leaders’ behavior bear this out. As leaders, Visionaries don’t tend to establish the structures, systems and processes that are needed to implement their vision.
Although they may set broad goals for themselves, when it comes to managing their own teams, they may fail to clarify objectives, roles, and priorities. They understand the vision and are confident that they can work their way toward achieving it, and they assume that other people will know what to do – that others will be able to act independently, too. Once the design phase is complete, they often lose interest and leave subordinates to figure out what to do next.
3. Poor Team Players Who Don’t Empower Others
Leadership is about leverage. Unless you empower other people, you put yourself in a situation where you are making too many decisions. That doesn’t scale. Hub and spoke management and leader-centric organizations have trouble scaling efficiently.
When there are eight people outside your door waiting for a decision, and you are working longer and longer hours, these are signs that you haven’t pushed decision making down. You have to empower people, based of course on their capabilities and their track record of having good judgment and making good decisions. But if you don’t empower people, the company will stall and you will burn out. You can’t do it all.
As entrepreneurs, the Visionary Evangelists’ independence, creativity and habit of taking decisive action work in their favor. But when it comes to building teams and working through others, these identical qualities can become an obstacle.
An effective leader must learn to leverage the input and efforts of followers. This is one of the key factors that enables them to grow their organizations and multiply themselves. Headquartered in Silicon Valley for nearly 40 years, I have seen numerous Visionary Evangelist entrepreneurs hit the wall when they don’t figure out how to fully utilize the capabilities of their team.
So, what prevents them from benefiting from the diverse experience and skills of those who work for them? First of all, they don’t delegate well and don’t empower others. They are fundamentally loners who are accustomed to succeeding by individual initiative and action. They are also certain that they are smarter than the people around them, and don’t really value the input of others. They prefer to maintain control and make the calls. Consequently, they fail to harvest the full potential of their team.
In addition, Visionary Evangelists don’t want to give up their special status and the ego gratification that comes from being center stage. After a lifetime of following their dreams, getting their own way and flying solo, they don’t play well with others. Team play requires you to subordinate your own individual agenda for the good of the team. This isn’t easy for Visionary Evangelists. 4. Unreflective Over-confidence
What is the difference between a high degree of confidence and sense of self-worth that allows leaders (and really, anyone) to undertake difficult challenges with the belief that they can overcome any and all obstacles and achieve their goals successfully – and the kind of blind over-confidence that ignores weaknesses and potential problems and may lead to disastrous results? Where is the line between confident boldness, and foolhardiness?
Visionary Evangelists are very confident individuals. And they are not self-reflective. They are so confident that they don’t think about what could go wrong. When this combines with their native optimism, they will oversimplify. They tend to be afflicted with what is called “confirmation bias” – they only listen to evidence that supports their ideas. They don’t think they need critical input! They don’t take the time to think that they might be wrong. They’re just sure they are right. This faulty thinking easily leads to bad judgment and mistakes.
For example, entrepreneurs are often so self-confident that they don’t pay enough attention to their business competition. They think their stuff, whatever it is, whether product or service, is the best, and they may not even have done their homework to discover whether they do have significant competition or whether somebody else, some other company, may have gotten there first. Obviously, this is a formula for disaster.
This “overconfidence effect” is a well-known phenomenon, in which a person’s sense of confidence in their judgments is higher than is merited by the actual accuracy of those judgements. As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman said, “Overconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion.”
It is a bit tricky to sort out, as some of the greatest leaders, such as Steve Jobs, had this kind of self-confidence and self-assurance and was often proved correct by the results.
Conclusion Creativity, and the ability to inspire and to motivate people with a compelling vision, are not skills that are easily learned. Indeed, our research indicates that Visionary Evangelists are a rare breed – even though there are a lot of them heading up fledgling companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, there appear to be significantly fewer of them walking the planet than there are Relationship Builders and Managers of Execution.
It would not be overwhelmingly difficult for Visionary Evangelists to warm up their people skills or to add some of the disciplined behavior characteristic of effective executors. Doing so would surely add balance and completeness to their leadership. Learning to be a better listener, making an effort to reply to emails and requests and to get to meetings on time, to honor deadlines that they themselves set or agree to meet – doing a few of these things will add to their effectiveness and elicit greater support and buy-in from others.
But our primary advice to Visionary Evangelists is: Leverage your God-given assets! Don’t try to become something you are not. Your gifts are relatively rare and are vital for the success of any enterprise. Use them with energy and passion. At the same time, admit that you are not perfect and can’t do it all. Some aspects of your personality are less-well developed, so you’ll need to find effective managers and relationship builders to complement your strengths and fill out your team.
Development, for you, is more about facing yourself honestly and dealing with the natural weaknesses that go with this leadership style. Observe your attitudes and your behavior – not just once but consistently! – and be alert for signs of arrogance, self-importance, failure to empower others, manipulativeness, and the other “negative” characteristics mentioned above.

How to Improve Your Team’s Decision Making

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 23:28:00 GMT

A Disciplined Approach to Better Efficiency, Judgment and Results

Letting the Facts Win

The most powerful method for improving the quality of your decisions is to follow a disciplined decision-making process. Decisions are often contaminated by biases, a tendency to jump to conclusions, emotional reactivity and by pressure to act quickly. In this blog we will review both the benefits of following a disciplined decision process as well as how to implement this this process to improve the quality of the outcomes. When making decisions with a team, the conscious or unconscious influence of the leader can sabotage the entire discussion. The principles and practical suggestions in this article will be useful for both individual and group/team decision making, and for both professional and personal decisions that you need to make. The goal is to make objective decisions and let the facts win. Accomplishing this is a challenge for every leader.

The surprising key to effective decision making

Just as with individuals, there are principles and dynamics that can promote wise and effective team decisions. You might be surprised to learn that an even more crucial factor than gathering reliable data is having in place a disciplined process for involving the whole team in the making of important decisions.

Amazing and Relevant Research

Research by behavioral economists Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony looked at 1,048 business decisions over five years tracked both the way the decisions were made, and the outcomes in terms of revenue, profits, and market share. Their focus was to understand the impact of bias on corporate strategy and the decisions that guided it. Most of the teams they studied had conducted rigorous analyses before making the decision, compiling financial models and assessing how investors might react to their plan. These were not decisions about what color chairs to buy for the conference room, but major decisions such as whether to launch a new product or service, change the structure of the company, enter a new country, or acquire another firm. They also looked at the results, the outcomes of these decision on revenue, profit, market share and return on investment.

Lovallo and Sibony also asked the teams to describe their decision-making process: how they went about making the decision. For example:

Did the decision-makers consider multiple points of view
Did they recognize what they didn’t know and what was uncertain
Did they include participation from a range of people with differing views on the desired outcome and how to get there?
Did they search for evidence that contradicted their beliefs?
Did they include in their discussion points of view that contradicted the senior executive’s perspective?
Did they elicit participation from a range of people who had different views?

What they found was that the decision-making process that the teams utilized was far more important than analysis and having the right data – astonishingly, by a factor of six! Having the right data clearly matters, but it’s not enough. In other words, good analysis in the hands of smart people won’t always lead to good decisions. Even though detailed analysis is important, the decision-making process itself was six times more crucial to successful outcomes. When the decision-making process was improved there was a statistically significant improvement in financial results.

Why should this be? They concluded, "An unbiased decision-making process will do a lot is ferret out poor analysis. The reverse is not true; superb analysis is useless unless the decision process gives it a fair hearing…”. So, how can the leader ensure that a fair hearing is given to all the facts, relevant factors, and alternatives? How can we attain that level of objectivity and fairness required to minimize biases, challenge assumptions, and as much as possible neutralize all the other ways we tend to blind ourselves, distort our perspective and sabotage?

One way to overcome bias and a tendency to jump to conclusions, is to explore multiple options to avoid focusing on conclusions that are too narrow, biased or reactive. A single individual may have trouble doing this effectively. Utilizing outside input from experts or using your team in a brainstorming session can usually generate numerous possible approaches. This can also help you avoid recency bias. Recency bias occurs when a leader or team puts too much emphasis on recent events and give less weight to those that have happened in the past. It skews perception toward short-term thinking.

Another way to sidestep bias is to invite team members to challenge each other’s assumptions and ask disconfirming questions, such as:

What could go wrong if we do this?
What is the biggest potential obstacle you can see in the solution we have proposed?
If you follow my proposed approach, what might happen that we haven’t thought about?
What haven’t we considered, what are we missing by taking this approach?
If we follow this plan, what problems might arise?

How many leaders – especially if they have an idea of where they want to go on a specific initiative – are willing to ask themselves such questions and subject themselves to input that might cast doubt on their decisions? Yet questions like these, if taken up by the group, can yield insights that might avoid hidden danger and difficulty. Leaders often deceive themselves by thinking that they are gathering information when they are actually fishing for support their idea and trying to be right rather than trying to uncover the facts.

If you want to get to the best answer rather than seeking confirmation of your viewpoint, invite the perspectives of people who have diverse backgrounds and experience in different domains and different companies. Don’t be afraid to spark constructive disagreement. In fact, encourage it. Ultimately you will create a more effective decision-making environment if you use your team, and this is particularly important around strategic decisions.

The value of active participation in a disciplined group process

Not all decisions require involvement of your team. Some decisions you may need to make by yourself. Some require you to consult with others who have a useful perspective and unique insight into the problem you are trying to solve. Some are best delegated to others who have demonstrated good judgment and capability. However, when you have the time, need alignment, buy-in and support for your decision, need to generate multiple creative alternatives, and functional or domain knowledge, involving your team may produce a better decision. Of course, this requires good team communication, effective collaboration and means you must actively facilitate a disciplined process. But the synergy of effective team problem-solving and lively discussion can bring exciting results and higher levels of acceptance of the ultimate decision. If you are going to lead the problem-solving or team decision process, here is a brief description of an effective decision process:

Step by Step To Better Decisions

Clearly identify what the problem is that you’re trying to solve and what you are trying to accomplish
Define what success looks like and your criteria for evaluating the optimal outcome
Collect the facts that are relevant to the problem or decision
Actively encourage the participation of all team members
Separate the facts from opinions and speculation about the facts
Generate multiple alternatives for solving the problem
Evaluate alternatives against your success criteria
Consider the pros and cons, obstacles and potential consequences of the best alternatives
Select the best option or multiple options
Develop a plan of action and how it will be implemented (who does what, when etc.)
Communicate your decision to those who will be affected

This process doesn’t just happen. The leader needs to be sure a systematic, disciplined process is followed. The leader can help the facts win, or he/she can bias it, skewing the outcome. If you follow a well-defined, systematic and disciplined process, and the team gets used to following that process, the quality of decisions that are made by the team will be much higher. You may not always feel that you have the time to do this, but if the decision has important consequences, or is complex or has triggered strong conflicting points of view, it might be the best approach.

Hagberg Consulting Group/Accenture Research on Cultures that Get Financial Results

The many benefits of including your team in decision-making were borne out by data collected by both Hagberg Consulting Group and Accenture. In a study that looked at the corporate culture of over 300 companies, we found that financial results and retention of top performers were strongly influenced by team participation. Here are some of the key findings:

The higher the level of team member participation in decision making, the more ideas were generated, and innovation and risk taking increased
A higher level of participation by team members leads to greater alignment and a sense of ownership on strategic decisions
A higher level of participation by team members means that they have an opportunity to openly share their views, reducing the chances of political maneuvering behind the scenes
The higher the level of participation by team members, the greater the spirit of collaboration, communication, and coordination that is created on the team
The higher the level of participation by team members, the more adaptable the organization
The higher the level collaboration between team members, departments, and groups, the better the financial results
The more team members were willing or able to challenge outdated assumptions and ineffective practices, the better the results
The higher the level of cooperation and team spirit, the easier it was to retain top talent
The more the organization’s leaders demonstrated trust in team members, the more likely the organization was to retain top talent
The more conflicts were addressed directly and not swept under the rug, the more likely it was to retain top talent

When team members have active input in decision making, they take pride in the decision, and feel more engaged with the company. When they are directly involved in the creation of strategy, for example, they have a deeper understanding of what the strategy is, and are more aligned, inspired, and motivated to work toward achieving whatever the plan is. Employee loyalty increases. When the players are more aligned, the team and the organization as a whole becomes more agile, able to adapt more quickly and move more coherently. Not surprisingly, financial results improve.

Team participation in making important and critical decisions stimulates useful dialogue. The input from team members with different domain knowledge can lead to exploration of creative alternatives. This will take more time than a decision handed down from above but will likely yield higher quality solutions and produce greater buy-in and support for the ultimate decision.

This collaborative problem solving/decision making process requires the leader to facilitate effective communication and skillfully guide the team to systematically work through the problem. But the leader must also be willing to share power and give up some degree of control.

The dynamics of group decision making

Brainstorming : The decision-making process moves naturally through predicable phases. It begins with some version of brainstorming, in which ideas are generated and put on the table (or the whiteboard, or a digital equivalent) for consideration. In this stage, the goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible, not to censor some ideas as “unworkable” but rather, to encourage the ideas to flow. It is a process of divergent thinking, aiming at an expansion of possible options.
Getting closure : Brainstorming alternative solutions inevitably leads to the need to bring all the ideas to closure. Your task as leader is to help the team hold an in-depth discussion of the alternatives, and to provide some structure for selecting the best of them. The purpose of the discussion, of course, is to reach some sort of consensus, to narrow down the options in order to go forward toward a solution and then a plan of action.
Exploring differences : In the conversation, those who favor an approach or a solution have a chance to advocate for it. The job of the others is to listen respectfully and consider the idea with as little bias or prejudgment as possible. Typically, many ideas are put forward, without a clear solution emerging.
Getting bogged down : At this point, the team may struggle to comprehend the wide range of ideas that have been generated and reach consensus or at least a workable conclusion. This can be difficult and often leads to arguments and stalemate. The team may become bogged down in competing viewpoints. No way forward seems clear and obvious. Frustration mounts. There may be irritation or anger.

Why does the team get stuck?

Group members have different agendas, needs, biases and frames of reference.
Often the discussion reveals that people don’t really understand one another.
Some members push their own agenda aggressively.
Some interrupt while others go on and on repeating their point of view.
Some dismiss the ideas of other members.
Some members attack, while others get defensive and withdraw.
Some lose patience with the whole process, which can lead to frustration, and dysfunctional conflict or the adoption of suboptimal solutions that are a compromise, false consensus, or groupthink.
If the trust level of the team is low and there are conflicts and tensions between team members, it is common for members to misinterpret or misrepresent each other’s ideas.

Overcome the conflicts or stalemate :

In order to break through the logjam, the team leader may need to switch styles and help the team engage in convergent thinking, in order to move together toward a decision. Convergent thinking is applying logic to evaluate options and narrow down to the best answer or alternatives. The leader needs to help the group develop a common understanding, generate alternative solutions, sustain motivation to work through the issues. and then integrating divergent into a mutually acceptable solution. The process of working toward a solution can be greatly aided by a leader or outside facilitator who is skilled in facilitating group discussions. This is an art that requires both learning and practice. As the leader, you may choose to find and hire such a person as a consultant when difficult or crucial strategic decisions need to be made. Or you may take it upon yourself to play that role. If you do, keep in mind the following basic guidelines:

Don’t panic: Recognize that you or your team is stuck, and that it is a necessary stage in the transition from divergence (throwing out a multitude of ideas) to convergence (choosing the most viable solutions and formulating a plan).
Encourage full participation: Get everyone involved in the dialogue. Foster an atmosphere of safety and respect. Draw people out. Ask team members to speak in order to be understood rather than to win an argument.
Promote mutual understanding: This begins with listening. Encourage people to try to walk in each other’s shoes, to really understand what others are saying rather than looking for weaknesses or holes in their argument. Ask people to define their terms and explain their thinking and their conclusions.
Work toward an inclusive solution: Avoid “my way or the highway” thinking and look for ways to incorporate everyone’s interests in a workable plan.

With those basic principles in mind, consider doing some of the following:

Confirmation and Sunflower Bias : Be aware that these biases are real problems in creating an atmosphere of open discussion of alternatives and reaching conclusions about what to do. As the team leader, be careful not to unduly influence the group or manipulate them into supporting your biases. Relinquish the desire to control the solutions and instead, allow all ideas to get a fair hearing, so that the facts can win. It’s often wise to speak last.
Psychological Safety : Throughout the discussion, remember the importance of creating an environment of psychological safety for open dialogue to really be effective. People need to feel comfortable and safe enough to freely express their views. Be alert to the fact that not all team members may be putting their cards on the table. Despite your effort to encourage psychological safety, not everyone feels safe in expressing what they really think, want or fear. They may feel it is too risky, so they hold back. Try to draw out team members’ concerns in open discussion but also consider having each member anonymously write down anything they haven’t said on a slip of paper.
Encouraging Participation: Try to listen to all points of view by drawing out team members, summarizing or paraphrasing their points. Each team member has a unique set of interests and concerns and needs to have the time and to feel safe to express them. Watch out for team members withdrawing or shutting down
Digging Deepe r: Do your best to help team members develop a deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives. Encourage them to ask questions to clarify their understanding when other members’ ideas are confusing or complex. Remind team members that their goal in this phase is to understand one another, not to win arguments or points.
Actively facilitate communication : This means you may need to play communication traffic cop or referee to make sure members are listening and really understanding other’s points of view. Sometimes this means providing some structure for the discussion such as setting a time limit for each team member to express their point of view, and/or encouraging other team members to ask the speaker to clarify what they mean or to give further explanation of key points. Then, ask any members who have asked questions if they now understand the speaker’s point. Look for patterns or ways to categorize the options or ideas that are generated that can help bring coherence to the discussion
Clarify differences : When there is a misunderstanding – and there will be – try to clarify differences and see if there is a common ground. At this point your goal is to promote accurate understanding, not to resolve conflicts between members.
Surface different assumptions, motivations and definitions : Be alert to team members having different assumptions about the problem, the meaning of various terms, the risks, the importance of different issues, and so on. Members may assume, rightly or wrongly, that other members have hidden or unexpressed motives for proposing a solution. Part of your job is to help members explain the real meaning of statements they make to one another so unspoken assumptions are really understood.
Call out disruptive or non-collaborative behavior : When team members interrupt or are overly aggressive, dismissive or confrontational, the leader must firmly call out these behaviors.
Separate facts from opinions : It is important in discussing the details of a problem or solution to separate the facts from people’s opinions, interpretations or speculations about the meaning of the facts. Before trying to explore the viability of different solutions, it is wise to list facts and opinions separately to help the team distinguish one from the other.
Don’t allow false consensus: Once the team has begun to narrow down their options, ask each member to express their concerns about each proposal. In an effort to try and get the decision made, it is easy for the leader to assume agreement with a solution. This may result in hidden concerns masquerading for consensus. False consensus often sabotages real alignment and creates fertile ground for later problems in implementation. Resistance often has its roots in fears about how the implementation of a proposal may impact the individual team members or their teams. This is related to group think.
Apparent tangents or wild ideas can be gold mines : Be alert to the fact that some members’ ideas or proposals may initially feel like they were off topic or represent a distracting tangent, when they actually might represent a subtle or new issue that others have not seen. If you explore these topics the team might develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding or better solution.
Revisit original goal or decision criteria : Once you have narrowed down possible alternatives to a reasonable number, consider going back to your original problem definition and goal, and evaluating each alternative against your decision criteria. Ask the team to consider what are the most important elements of an ideal solution. It might be cost, ease or speed of implementation, fit with your strategic objectives, consistency with your core values or any other thing the team considers crucial for the proposal to be successful.

How Leader Bias Can Result in Business Failure

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 22:35:00 GMT

When trusting your gut is dangerous

Your Decisions Create Your Future

There is an old saying, “Leaders are paid to make decisions.” Whether in business or any other field, making decisions is one of the most critical things leaders do. Look at any company’s performance, and you can immediately see the results of its decision making. It is not an exaggeration that the success of your team or your organization depends on whether your decisions enhance your chances of success or set you up for failure. You are creating your future, one decision at a time. The results you get reflect the effectiveness of your decision-making.

Take a quick look at your own past decisions, both personal and professional, and you will have to concede that your track record is far from perfect. Sure you will see smart, timely, effective decisions that got you where you are today. But if you look objectively, you’ll see over the long term the impact of decisions you made that were impulsive, where you trusted your gut, or you made decisions in the heat of emotion, or you had strong beliefs that got in the way of the facts, and you shaped the analysis to fit the mental model that you already had in your head.

Improving your capabilities as a decision maker involves understanding and making use of what research has discovered about the decision making process, as well as understanding your own tendencies and the things in your behavior and your problem-solving process that can lead you astray. The fate of companies rises or falls based on the wisdom and efficacy of the decisions that are made. And so do the careers and destinies of the deciders.

The Pressure to Make Important Decisions---Fast

As all leaders know, the pressure of decision making is great, and gets greater the higher up you go. The torrent of problems requiring solutions and decisions is relentless. “This is the terror of being a founder / CEO,” said Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz. “It is all your fault. Every decision, every person you hire, every dumb thing you buy or do — ultimately you’re at the end.” The list below shows just a fraction of the key decisions that entrepreneurs, for example, have to make:

• Should I raise more capital to fuel growth but reduce equity?

• Do I have the right people on the bus?

• Do I have the right people in the right seats on the bus?

• Should I change my role or my job?

• Is it time to lay people off?

• Is it time to give up and throw in the towel on this project?

• Is it time to sell the company or should I go for an IPO?

• How should I deal with this new competitive threat?

• Should I pursue this merger opportunity?

• Is it time to expand or should we stick with what we know?

• Is it time to raise funds?

• Should we make this huge capital investment?

• Should we go all out or conserve cash?

• Should I accept a term sheet now or hold out?

“If There Is Time To Reflect, Slowing Down Is Likely To Be A Good Idea" Daniel Kahneman

How do you make decisions of this importance? Do you take enough time to gather data and carefully weigh all the options, the pros and cons? Do you seek input and feedback from your team and/or your peers and mentors? Do you go with your gut?

According to futurist Stowe Boyd, “There is an enormous lie underlying business, the lie that decisions are made rationally, applying logic and expertise, sifting evidence, and carefully weighing alternatives.” The reality, he says, is quite different. “The science is clear: in general, we don’t really make decisions that way.” [Source: “How to Untell the Lie at the Heart of Business”, quoted in “Don't Fail At Decision Making Like 98% Of Managers Do,” Eric Larson, Forbes, May 18, 2017]

Most people are not totally rational when they make decisions. Far from it. According to Daniel Kahneman, the Israeli-American economist awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his work on the psychology of decision making and behavioral economics, “irrationality often trumps rationality in the human decision-making process.” Kahneman’s findings on the prevalence and influence of cognitive biases challenged the assumption that human rationality was the key factor in decision making. His book, Thinking Fast and Slow (2011) was an international best-seller.

Most people are not totally rational when they make decisions

Because of cognitive biases, impulsiveness exacerbated by time pressure, failure to do due diligence and get all the relevant facts, and overconfidence regarding our brilliant decision-making ability, a disturbingly large number of our decisions turn out to be faulty. Most people are not totally rational when they make decisions. And because we are unaware of what we don’t know, key information may be lacking. Yet in order to make effective decisions, we need all the information relevant to the problem, viable alternative viewpoints, and we also need a process that minimizes the impact of our biases and blind spots.

Ninety-five percent of our decisions use irrational mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that cloud our judgment and impair our decision-making. “The brain,” Kahneman wrote, “is a machine for jumping to conclusions”.

Entrepreneurs are Wired to Move too Fast

Hagberg research (and others) shows that leaders are often optimistic and self-confident risk-takers, who have strong opinions and a bias for action. These are valuable qualities in leaders, but they are a two-edged sword: This confidence, along with a forceful personality, action orientation and clear points of view can lead to a failure to consider what might go wrong, and that they themselves might be wrong. They over-trust their intuition and jump to conclusions, and are therefore more vulnerable to making bad decisions.

The Impact of Biases on Judgment--200 Ways to Make Your Company Fail

Cognitive biases are systematic mental shortcuts in thinking or judgment, mental models or rules of thumb that influence how we evaluate our experiences and make decisions. They can be helpful, in that they make our thinking and decision making faster and more efficient. But they can also lead to faulty judgment, illogical interpretations and irrational choices.

Close to 200 cognitive biases have been identified and explained, many of them by the American-Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Over 40 years of research, Kahneman found that 95% of our decisions use irrational mental shortcuts that cloud our judgment and impair our decision making. As a leader, it is vital for you to be aware of these biases, which color not only the attitudes and behavior of team members, but also influence your own. But Kahneman’s later research suggested that this is very difficult and almost impossible for most leaders.

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

– H.L. Mencken, American journalist and social critic

Kahneman’s research makes it crystal clear that if we want to make better decisions, we need to develop preemptive “workaround” strategies that enable us to make decisions that are more rational. One of the best strategies for this is group decision making, where all members of the team weigh in with their insights and perspectives.

As you learn about cognitive biases, you will be able to spot team members falling prey to them in meetings. And if you have built an environment of trust, in which your people can speak freely without fear of retribution, you can use the collective intelligence of your team to help you uncover your own faulty thinking and thereby enable better decisions.

Common Biases That Derail Entrepreneurial Leaders

Sunflower Bias : People lean in the direction in which the leader is leaning, as sunflowers pivot to face the Sun. Groups tend to align themselves with the views of their leaders, whether overtly expressed or assumed. If a team knows your position on a decision, or believes they know it, the team is likely to be an echo chamber. As Kahneman said, the decision-making process becomes contaminated when people believe they know the leader’s preference.

Confirmation Bias : Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and remember information that affirms our prior beliefs or hypotheses. (Remember this bias the next time you do a Google search. Are you looking for info that supports your position or your hunch, or are you truly looking to learn?) In the same way, people often discredit information that does not support their views.

Overconfidence Bias occurs when a person's subjective confidence in his or her judgments is greater than the objective accuracy of those judgements, i.e., you think you’re smarter or more savvy than you really are, or you’re certain that your plan will bring great results when you really don’t have the data to back up your belief. In tests comparing confidence to actual ability, research data regularly show that confidence often exceeds accuracy, that is, people are more sure that they are correct than is warranted.

Optimism Bias is at play when we overestimate our likelihood of experiencing positive outcomes and events and underestimate our likelihood of experiencing negative events. People with this bias are sometimes quite unrealistic about what might go wrong when making a business decision. When a leader’s subjective confidence in their own judgments is regularly greater than the facts would suggest, disaster could be right around the corner.

Action-Bias : This is the pressure or tendency to take action NOW, without doing adequate research and/or taking time for analysis and reflection. “Let’s just get the deal done.” Thus we don’t consider all the possible ramifications of our action. When you have this bias, you will tend to overestimate your odds of a successful outcome, and minimize or discount the chances of failure. Bernard Baruch, American financier and advisor to several 20th century presidents said, “Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought.”

Other Common Biases That Can Damage Your Judgment

Affinity Bias : The tendency to be biased toward people like ourselves, with similar backgrounds, interests, skills, and affinities. This is a common temptation in hiring but may not result in building the strongest team.

Blind Spot Bias : This happens when you are able to recognize biased thinking by others, while failing to see the impact of biases on your own judgment and decision-making. This is extremely common: In one study of 600 Americans, more than 85% believed they were less biased than the average person.

Status Quo Bias : Directly opposite the action-oriented bias, status quo bias is an emotional or unconscious preference for maintaining the current state of affairs. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This is not based on analysis that shows the current state to be objectively better, but is simply an attachment to the way things are and have been. Sticking to what worked or works now is fine if a rational decision-making process shows it to be the best alternative, but status quo bias can interfere with openness to new ideas, new technologies, and to progress in general.

Effective team leaders need to be willing to change as the company scales. They often hold on to practices that worked when the company was small and flexible and everybody was in one room, but all of a sudden they have 4,000 employees and holding on to what worked for a dozen or twenty just won’t work.

Anchoring bias : This describes the tendency to base a decision on the first piece of information we receive; it makes a strong enough impression that we become “anchored” to it This happens consistently when making budgetary predictions and financial plans. When considering a decision or course of action, the decision maker gives undue weight to the initial input or information received. These initial impressions, estimates, or data anchor subsequent judgment or analysis.

Self-serving bias : We believe our failures are due to external factors, that it is “their fault” when things go wrong, but we believe we are responsible for our successes.

Framing : Frames, according to cognitive scientists, are the different perspectives through which we look at the world. They are mental models that simplify and guide how we make sense out of a complex reality. They limit the effectiveness of our decision-making. This happens when making decisions with a multi-functional or multi-cultural team who have a variety of perspectives based on their background. Marketing, finance, engineering, product, sales, human resources, operations and so on have very different perspectives on many other issues. They look at different factors, and see different risks, opportunities, and potential outcomes, and are driven by different values and interests, all of which frame their decision making. They may have competing perspectives and concerns. Team members from different countries and cultures see the world differently due to their differing values.

“Mental models are deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. Very often, we are not consciously aware of our mental models or the effects they have on our behavior.”

- Peter Senge

Trusting Your Gut or Systematic, Reasoned Judgment

In his book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman distinguishes between two broad categories of decision making. Fast decision making is essentially intuition-based, and involves feelings, beliefs, hunches that come readily to mind, require little effort or gathering of information, and result in on-the-spot decisions. Slow decision making, on the other hand, is based on reasoned judgment, and involves decisions that take time and effort to make, require careful information gathering, generation of alternatives, and evaluation of the alternatives. “If there Is time to reflect,” says Kahneman, “slowing down is likely to be a good idea."

Rapid decision making can be based on too-little data and too-little time to analyze it, increasing the odds of making miscalculations and mistakes that can have company and career threatening consequences. The antidote would seem to be to slow down, yet business and technology today are moving at warp speed, and leaders of fast-scaling companies must make multiple decisions every day. Not only that, but even the best-reasoned decisions come face to face with randomness and unpredictability. The challenge is to balance speed with the best possible judgment.

Hiring Mistakes Caused by Trusting Your Gut

A prime example of how biases can interfere with wise decision making is in the hiring process. An interviewer who makes snap judgments and lets his or her first impression cloud the interview can make critical hiring mistakes. You think you don’t do this? Guess again: A study from the University of Toledo found that the outcome of an interview could be predicted by judgments made within the first 10 seconds of dialogue! Interviewers then subconsciously spend the rest of the time seeking new information to confirm their first impression, rather than objectively assessing the person in front of them.

What this means is that your initial or gut reaction isn’t always a product of hidden wisdom! It may be a result of unacknowledged biases that can lead you to overlook strong candidates or choose those who are less qualified.

Example: Giving more credence to the fact that the candidate graduated from the interviewer's alma mater than to the applicant's knowledge, skills, or abilities.

Studies and surveys over the last 50 years have shown that 80% or more of the hiring decisions from traditional interviews are based on rapport and likeability and often miss competency, accomplishments, ability, and potential. In short: We like to hire people who are like us, who share our interests, values and style. But they are not always best for the job.

Hiring mistakes can be very costly. A common rule of thumb is that a hiring mistake ends up costing about 15 times the employee’s core salary, including both hard costs and lost productivity as you bring the new hire up to speed. That means a hiring mistake with a $100,000/year employee can cost you $1.5 million, or more. Another thought provoking statistic is that the success rate for hiring at senior levels is estimated to be about 50% - half of all executive hires do not pan out. According to Marc Bennioff, CEO of Salesforce, “Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was – and still is – the most important thing we do.”

We Are All Blind to Our Biases and Mental Models

You have probably recognized many of the biases and mental mind-sets described above, and no doubt you can see how they can and do interfere with clear thinking and thus to making the best decisions. However, it is not enough merely to understand the nature of various biases. Kahneman and other decision-making researchers have concluded that it is extremely difficult to eliminate your cognitive biases by yourself. They are too subtle and wired in. It’s like asking a fish to describe water. In addition, awareness of the effects of biases has done little to improve the quality of business decisions at both the individual and the organizational level. To combat the negative effects of bias on team performance, active steps need to be taken.

Catalyzed by the research of Daniel Kahneman and many others, we now know vastly more about how the decision-making process operates, why it so often leads us astray, and what we can do to become a more effective decision maker. I will summarize some of that research in this and follow-up blog posts, with a special angle: much of the existing research concerns how individuals decide. In today’s corporate universe, an enormous number of decisions every day are made in a group setting by teams of various kinds, a far less studied field that I will look at in addition to discussing individual decision making.

Evaluating Your Decisions

Ask yourself :

• Did you do enough analysis?

• Did you follow a disciplined process to get all the right facts and views on the table?

• Did you avoid letting your strong viewpoint influence your team and narrow the options that were considered?

• Were you overconfident?

• Did you make assumptions that were wrong?

• Did you miss options that might have improved the results?

• Did you miss the big picture?

• Did you focus too much on short-term rather than long-term implications?

• Did you let pressure and stress influence your choice and end up compromising your standards or violating your values?

• Did you act impulsively without validating your intuition?

Psychological Safety and Creating Open Dialogue

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 20:34:00 GMT

Psychological Safety and Creating Open Dialogue

Good communication is vital for effective functioning of any team. However, if you have ever been on a team where the team leader openly criticizes team members, aggressively interrogates them to pick holes in their ideas, dismisses member’s contributions or plays one off against the other, you have witnessed how a leader can stifle open communication and create an atmosphere where people feel unsafe to say what they really think. A leader can destroy trust and openness by reducing the level of psychological safety and in turn, weakening the overall performance of the team. In the absence of psychological safety, people learn to keep quiet and avoid disagreeing with the leader and are reluctant to be honest and direct about their views, concerns and mistakes. We know from decision-making research that decisions are enhanced when all the facts and all the views of team members are given a fair hearing. However, when the leader has strong views and is unwilling to listen to alternative perspectives, the leader’s biases will go unchallenged and decisions will be less objective and often flawed. Confirmation bias, overconfidence bias, optimism bias, status quo bias and many others have been identified by researchers as the sources of bad decisions that can lead to fatal organizational errors. Team leaders need to learn to be open to and supportive of new ideas, to listen carefully, invite challenges and let the facts win. They need to ask questions to “disconfirm” their own views, opinions and mental models. They need to build the team’s willingness to share information, focus on the facts and engage in open and honest dialogue rather than suppressing open dialogue. Team members need to feel safe, comfortable and encouraged to bring up their concerns, address difficult issues and problems and challenge how the leader, the team or the organization does things.

The importance of psychological safety.

“Psychological safety” is a term created by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson in the late 1990s. Essentially, it is “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.” Edmondson found, to her surprise, that teams that admitted to making many mistakes were more effective than those claiming few mistakes. The reason, she discovered, was that the teams that appeared to be making more mistakes were more likely to admit where they had gone wrong, and were then able to discuss it, fix it, and avoid similar errors in future. But in order to admit and discuss mistakes, conflicts and problems, team members needed to feel safe.

Google’s large-scale study of teamwork in the mid-2010s, code-named “Project Aristotle,” corroborated Edmonson’s work. It found that of five critical factors behind effective teamwork, psychological safety was #1. “Psychological safety refers to an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking, in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive.”

When there is psychological safety on a team, teammates feel it is okay to admit they’ve made a mistake, or don’t understand something and need it clarified. Team members feel that they can bring up a topic and feel comfortable that they can share their concerns or mistakes without fear of humiliation or retribution. They feel confident that they will not be judged, punished, or embarrassed. A sense of psychological safety sets people free to take risks, to speak their minds and offer their ideas, so it forms a solid basis for open participation and collaboration. It fosters creativity, confidence, and open-mindedness. ‘‘It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect,” Edmondson wrote, “in which people are comfortable being themselves.’’

Call out negative behavior .

On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that “anything goes.” When members exhibit behavior that isn’t collaborative, or in some way is not conducive to a safe, supportive team environment, it is the leader’s responsibility to let the member know that this behavior is unacceptable. Leaders must create an atmosphere where everyone gives candid feedback. This may mean challenging inappropriate comments or aggressive, competitive behavior, either in the group or individually. It is also important to call out behaviors that reflect a “silo mentality,” where members focus on their own self-interest or their group or team’s agenda, rather than the interests of the entire team. Do this as soon as possible after the incident occurs. But be careful and don’t just focus on pointing out the holes in the logic of team members’ suggestions or ideas. In your effort to get to the truth, you may be intimidating a valued team member. Calling out negative behavior is important, but it is equally vital for the team leader to reinforce, recognize, and acknowledge behavior that is supportive and collaborative. “I really liked the way that you did …x.” Team members see and appreciate it when the leader does this.

“In his position it is absolutely critical to build strength and camaraderie among team members. Louis does this VERY well. Not only through his words, but, more importantly, through his actions. When asking for team support, he is first to volunteer his time and effort, and rewards those who help with praise and genuine accolades.”

Treat team members with respect.

It is important that when team members speak, they need to feel that their ideas or views are valued and will be given consideration. Dismissive comments from the leader or other team members shows disrespect. The leader needs to model respect but also be willing to confront members who show disrespect. When team members make a mistake, it is important to avoid judgmentalness or blame and focus on helping them improve or learn. From your side as the leader, show your respect by:

Valuing the competence and contributions of all team members and functions, and building trust in members’ skills and their ability to do the job assigned to them
Willingness to give credit to others for their contributions and accomplishments
Being supportive of calculated risks, and viewing mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning
Never criticize individuals in team meetings or in other public forums.
Never be dismissive of the ideas, comments, and contributions of team members
Never attack team members or allow yourself to engage in frequent outbursts of anger
Never use language that members may find offensive or insensitive

As the leader, look for ways to foster empathy between team members. This is essential for building bonds of trust and gives people insight into what other team members are thinking and feeling and why they are reacting the way they are. Empathy helps team members relate thoughtfully and compassionately to one another. It is the ability to identify and understand another's situation, thoughts, feelings, concerns and motives. It is the capacity to recognize the concerns other people have, no matter how different from your concerns. It means putting yourself in the other person's shoes or seeing things through someone else's eyes. Sharing information, telling the truth, admitting mistakes, giving and receiving honest feedback, and maintaining confidentiality all contribute to an atmosphere of openness and trust.

Following are key points for establishing and maintaining good communication and open dialogue among team members.

Team discussions need to be open. Everyone must say what they think and mean what they say. Good ideas and honest sharing of views are the basis for decisions that help the organization get results. Effective dialogue is interactive and requires that all members actively participate.
Members must be willing to disagree with each other and with the leader, but in a constructive manner. Trust is crucial: members must feel safe to express opinions without fear of attack, humiliation or retribution.
When both the leader and team members feel free to give each other honest feedback, this helps everyone understand how their strengths and weaknesses are impacting their performance and shows where they might need to adjust their behavior to be more effective.
Be careful of people’s feelings. Encourage everyone to listen to each other and seek to understand before judging and being understood. Discourage social competitiveness and trying to win debates. By your example, show people how to build on each other’s ideas.
As the leader, when you express your own ideas and opinions, pay attention to everyone’s reactions to make sure you are not intimidating team members. You need to show them that openly sharing their ideas, perspectives and opinions is both encouraged and respected. Putting a variety of ideas on the table is a vital step in problem solving and decision making. So be sure to invite everyone’s participation in brainstorming sessions, and encourage them to bring up all ideas, even half-formed, intuitive hunches.
One of the rules of brainstorming is to withhold judgment and criticism until everyone’s ideas have been heard and considered. Brainstorming is about generating as many ideas as possible and creating an atmosphere of unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion. Evaluation of ideas comes later. Obviously, some ideas will be better than others, but the leader must get members to think about possibilities rather than constraints, problems or difficulties in implementation. The goal is divergent thinking. Later, convergent thinking will narrow the focus and consider problems, constraints, and practicality.

Developing Trust on Your Team

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 18:26:00 GMT

A Lack of Trust Can Destroy Your Team

What You Can Do To Develop an Atmosphere of Trust on Your Team

Trust is a central component of all healthy relationships. Teams are no exception. “There’s no team without trust,” said Paul Santagata, Head of Industry for Retail/Tech/Telecom at Google. “In Google’s fast-paced, highly demanding environment, our success hinges on the ability to take risks and be vulnerable in front of peers.” [“High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create it” by Laura Delizonna, Harvard Business Review August 24, 2017]

The leader must facilitate trust and be a model of trust. This means creating a team environment characterized by open, candid relationships and a climate of psychological safety.

“As a company grows, communication becomes its biggest challenge. If the employees fundamentally trust the CEO, then communication will be vastly more efficient than if they don’t. . . A CEO’s ability to build this trust over time is often the difference between companies that execute well and companies that are chaotic.” – Ben Horowitz (quoted in https://www.zenefits.com/workest/ben-horowitz-culture-leadership-succeeding/)

It is a sad fact of my long experience working with entrepreneurs that many of them do not trust people easily, and this sets the tone for the way they manage their teams and how team members, in turn, manage their teams. When you don’t trust someone, if you feel they lack competence, skill, or experience or you question their good will and good intentions, you are more likely to try to control or micromanage them. This can severely damage a team’s effectiveness.

A lack of trust and a climate of fear on the team is the opposite of psychological safety. It is toxic and can result not merely in an uncomfortable workplace and a lack of openness, but also in finger-pointing and conflicts between team members, politics, false consensus leading to bad decisions, and ultimately in turnover. It will curtail collaboration, weaken problem solving, hamper individual and group performance and diminish results.

The more interdependent the team – the more team members are dependent on each other to get their work done – the more trust matters. This can be particularly relevant for startups where the number of people involved is small and collaboration is especially vital. For example, Engineers can’t build anything unless the Product team defines what customers want, what features they care about, and Product can’t really do that without coordination with the Marketing team. All these relationships rely on trust: that information is being openly shared, that people are telling the truth, giving honest feedback, working through differences and collaborating and working together to meet commitments.

When there is good will and psychological safety on a team, members will be willing to be vulnerable and openly discuss their problems, opinions, and concerns. In addition, trust also increases the commitment and loyalty between team members, which reduces unwanted turnover, and increases a sense of common identity.

How Trust Grows

Trust builds slowly, over time. It is built in very small moments but can be destroyed in an instant. If team members have shared important experiences and been successful working together, or have endured difficult times and made it through to the other side, trust will naturally increase.

Trust grows when there is openness, information sharing, honesty, and the ability to voice differences and work together through conflict. As Google’s Project Aristotle on effective teamwork has found, members must feel free enough to share their opinions without fear of recrimination or attack. As a New York Times article said, “ We must be able to talk about what is messy or sad, to have hard conversations with colleagues who are driving us crazy. We can’t be focused just on efficiency.”

Growth of trust also requires regular interaction between members, listening and respecting each other’s ideas. This too takes time, and it means that you, as the leader, need to look for opportunities to increase the level of interaction and collaboration between members of the team. If team members operate in silos or have more frequent communication with the leader than with each other, the team will be less effective.

This can be especially challenging with remote team members. Videoconferences between team members in another country or city, or just in another building or domain, have become commonplace and the leader must pay close attention to bringing team members together in person whenever possible. Where that is not an option, the leader needs to be very deliberate about insuring active participation from all team members rather than allowing in-person members to dominate the discussion.

Does Your Team Trust You?

Leaders are often unaware of how much – or how little – team members are on board with the leader’s strategy, goals, and plans. Even worse, they often assume they have the team’s trust, when that is not always the case. Here are some ways to tell if your team trusts you:

Team members sometimes take a different view from yours, and express it freely.
Team members keep you informed of their progress. They are comfortable coming to you for help or suggestions if they get stuck.
Team members appear comfortable admitting mistakes, and are willing to discuss their problems rather than hiding or minimizing them, or concealing them in fancy PowerPoints.
Team members approach you when they have a non-work problem, to request time off or support.
Team members are not obviously defensive or over-critical about statements you make.
Team meetings are relatively open and there is wide participation, with everyone making a contribution.
Team members speak up – often privately – if they have a problem with one of your decisions or your behavior and are prepared to discuss their concerns.
There does not appear to be excessive gossip in the team.

These are all signs that you have done a good job in creating an atmosphere of safety and trust.

What Happens When Trust Is Strong?

A recent meta-analysis of 112 research studies confirmed that trust between team members is highly correlated with the achievement of team goals. When trust is present, problem solving tends to be creative and productive. Discussions are livelier and out-of-the-box solutions get put on the table when fear of self-expression is absent. Members willingly take greater risks and say what is on their minds directly rather than behind others’ backs.

Trust has a similarly powerful impact on decision-making. The best decisions are made when the best thinking and all the facts are put on the table. When team members feel safe and expect that others will behave in a supportive and positive manner, they will be more willing to be vulnerable and open. They will work more collaboratively and stay more focused on team goals.

What Happens When Trust Is Weak?

When trust is not strong, people are unwilling to share their real opinions and concerns. In that case, you are not getting the best thinking out of them. Often this lack of trust is due to the leader, who may have created an intimidating environment or failed to police bad behavior among members, such as personal attacks. In that environment, people are unwilling to share intuitive insights or half-formed ideas.

Problem solving tends to degenerate and become ineffective. Interpersonal relationships among team members interfere with and distort perception of the problem. That’s because, in the absence of trust, people’s energy and creativity are more focused on self-protection than on finding creative solutions. They feel the need to protect themselves from attack, humiliation, or retribution, rather than apply their energy and attention to problem solving and may withhold half-formed ideas that may contain the seed of a solution.

In the absence of trust, team members are more suspicious of others’ motivations, and become defensive. Openness is reduced, and people don’t say what they really think. Team members lose sight of team goals and focus on personal self-interest.

How to Build Team Trust

Be honest with team members. Don’t spin things. If you distort the truth or outright lie, team members won’t trust you. Tell them the truth rather than what you think they want to hear. A leader must establish and maintain high standards of personal integrity.
Show team members that you care about them as people rather than merely as units of production. Organizations and teams are not machines. Results are important but excessive focus on hitting goals and deadlines or improving performance and quality can give the message that you only see team members as means to an end. Create opportunities to socialize with them in informal settings such as team dinners and avoid too much focus on business issues at that time.
Be proactive in building relationships. Listen to individual team members and get to know them and their concerns. Check in with them regularly to find out how things are going in their world and how they are feeling about events, projects, problems etc. It is easy for a busy team leader to become isolated and insulated from the problems and concerns of employees. If you are too distant from team members and don’t invest in getting to know them and what is important to them, they will be less likely to trust you. Leaders who show interest in the needs and challenges of the employees they manage set a positive tone on the team. Employees who feel valued and supported are more likely to be motivated to get results.
Occasionally survey the team to take its temperature, particularly around trust levels and morale. Then discuss any barriers to teamwork that are surfaced by the results.
Don’t withhold information. Leaders often worry that openly sharing sensitive information about financial results, decisions, or developments could cause problems. Whenever possible, eliminate secrets. Provide team members with both information they need, and information they want. Many leaders justify withholding information by saying, “I provide information on a need-to-know basis.” This reflects a lack of trust and need for control. Obviously, not all information can be shared. But ask team members what information they are not getting that they want and need. When possible, let them know about plans, developments, opportunities, challenges, and priorities. Sharing information makes people feel more like partners, and in the absence of information, rumors and speculation about worst-case scenarios proliferate.
Explain the rationale behind your decisions. Give team members the context they need to understand why you made a decision and use it as an opportunity to teach and explain your thought process and the factors that they need to consider in making similar decisions. This is an opportunity to develop new leaders. Don’t be too quick to take responsibility for “important” problems. Let other team members own the analysis, the plan, and as much of the action as possible. Learn to empower team members as they demonstrate competence and good judgment. This demonstrates trust.
Don’t micromanage. It suggests that you don’t believe that people will get things done without close monitoring and control, and that you don’t trust their judgment or capabilities. If you want to develop the trust of others, you must demonstrate trust in them.
Put the good of the team and the organization ahead of your own self-interest. Leaders who are fixated on their reputation, financial rewards, and personal recognition are quickly distrusted by their team.
Keep your commitments to team members and the team as a whole. If you don’t follow through on your promises, they will question if you will really do what you say you will do. If you don’t meet your commitments, you will send a message that others don’t need to meet theirs. Lack of consistency and dependability will destroy trust.
Avoid blaming team members for mistakes, particularly in front of others. Create a norm around learning from mistakes. Effective team leaders take a little more than their share of the blame and go out of their way to give others the credit for achievements.
Be human. Be open about your own mistakes and weaknesses and you will create space for others to be open about their shortcomings and problems. Don’t communicate in a formal, overly business-like manner that hides your humanity and accessibility. Be genuine and real.
Monitor your own behavior and pay attention to the impact of your words and actions. Leaders who fail to treat team members with respect, consideration and sensitivity can destroy trust quickly. Trust takes a long time to develop but can be broken quickly.
Don’t play favorites. When you reward your friends and fail to confront their substandard performance, it undermines trust and increases politics. Treat all team members fairly and consistently.
Walk your talk. Be vigilant that your behavior is consistent with your stated beliefs and values. When the leader doesn’t behave in accord with the organization’s values and the team’s rules of the road, trust and credibility will be destroyed.

Getting The Right People On The Bus

info@whidbeyweb.com (Richard Fagan) — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:24:00 GMT

Factors That Distinguish Effective Team Members

Building the senior team is critical to the organization’s success and an important part of the leader’s job. But often, the criteria for selecting team members and the process for recruiting, interviewing, selecting, and onboarding are flawed or haphazard. Hiring decisions that are made with too great a sense of urgency can lead to disaster.

Today, the competition for top talent is intense. Chances are that you will have to balance the need to put someone in place with your desire to hire the best. Until the organization has a reputation/brand, and financial resources, it may be difficult to attract top talent. The competitive hiring market also doesn’t allow you to have “A” players in every position, although that may be desirable. However, there are certain things to look for that will give you a better chance at hiring successful team members.

Having too narrow a model of the kind of person you prefer, whether that be academic pedigree, experience at a well-known successful company, or a particular type of intellectual or interpersonal style, can be a trap. Some companies lean toward hiring people who are highly intelligent, while others have a preference for people with good interpersonal skills. One of my corporate clients over-indexed for hiring people who made a good first impression and had good interpersonal skills. They ended up hiring talent whose need to be liked was greater than their ability to execute and get results, and who also wanted to avoid conflict! Personally, I had to learn that people I resonated with on the level of ideas were not always the right fit for a job that demanded attention to details and execution.

So, what should you look for when choosing talent and/or constructing your own executive team? Through extensive research (explained in their book, When Teams Work Best) Frank LaFasto and Carl Larson identified six factors that distinguish effective from ineffective team members. They are:

1. Experience : Practical knowledge of the area or function, grasp of technical capabilities and needs, breadth and depth of experience and a record of success that is relevant to the organization’s major objectives.

2. Problem solving ability : One of the functions of a team is to solve problems, so an effective team member must have the ability to identify and clarify issues, understanding the relevant facts and their implications. He or she must be able to stay focused, make decisions, and proactively solve problems.

3. Openness: To get the most out of your team as a problem-solving group, you need people who are willing and able to say what’s on their minds and openly express their point of view, including having the courage to disagree with the leader and bring up issues that need to be resolved.As the leader, you need the courage to listen to, and honestly consider, ideas and strategies that differ from your own. This will create an environment conducive to an open exchange of ideas.

4. Personal Style: The most effective team members inspire others with their positive energy and attitude. They have an infectious enthusiasm about the work and a likeable, friendly, cooperative style which makes everyone feel motivated and comfortable. People who are negative, combative, critical, and pessimistic do not help team morale. Some people who have strong technical and analytical skills can be intellectually aggressive, highly skeptical and critical of others without having awareness of the negative impact of these tendencies on their relationships.

5. Supportiveness: A team needs people who have the motivation, and the capacity, to put the good of the team above their own individual ambitions. On an effective, high-achieving team, people are supportive of each other. They share a desire and willingness to help each other succeed, and express this through mutual encouragement, a willingness to pitch in and help other team members overcome obstacles, and by putting the team’s goals above any individual agenda. Put simply, they know how to be there for each other. They are sensitive, considerate, and easy to work with.

Some people have a hard time being supportive team players. They are self-centered, focused on their own needs, agenda, and career. Some are socially competitive and need to win and be right. Some are simply determined to get their way and will use intimidation to get it. Many people are so personally ambitious and focused on their own narcissistic agenda that they are unable to be helpful and supportive of others.

6. Action orientation: It’s important that team members have a bias for action. People who talk about things but don’t do anything much are not the ones you need on your team. You want members on your team who are willing to take initiative, and who get things done, individuals who have a desire to set and achieve goals. By their example and speech, they encourage others to take action. In the interest of getting results, they are quite willing to experiment and try a different approach. This is important on all teams, but perhaps especially in a small company where the fuse is burning, you’ve got too much to do, and the money always seems to be running out.

Good To Great: Getting The Right People On The Bus

Leaders are ultimately responsible for getting the right people on the bus. An important perspective on team building comes from Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, Built to Last and other influential books. In an example that has since become famous, he compares a company to a bus, and the leader to the bus driver.

You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it’s your job to get it going. You have to decide where you're going, how you're going to get there, and who's going with you. Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going—by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision. On the contrary, Collins' research showed that leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

One of the most important factors in creating a highly successful team is to have the right people. “Put ‘who’ ahead of strategy, ‘who’ ahead of tactics, ‘who’ ahead of technology, ‘who’ ahead of business ideas – ‘who’ ahead of everything!”

And as discussed above in the context of the LaFasto and Larson research, the people you want to gather around you, to put on your bus, are those who are both capable and inclined to put the good of the organization ahead of their personal goals, people who are not self-centered individualists who put their own career ahead of the good of the organization.

According to Collins’ research, “Level 5 leaders,” his highest rank of best leaders, “channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious–but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.” In other words, “We found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves.” .

How do I stop dysfunctional behavior in team meetings?

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 20:16:00 GMT

Getting the Team to Decide How It Wants to Work Together

It would be great if you could put together a group of individuals, call it a “team,” and have it function in a cohesive and productive manner. This actually happens occasionally, but much more often, the different backgrounds, work styles, and variations in social competence lead to less happy results.

Almost always, team members have different histories and different types of business backgrounds ranging from long experience at one company, to no experience at all. Often, they’ve come from several different companies, which gives them diverse models of what is the best way to do things. These result in differing expectations and can lead to friction and conflict. If you don’t consciously and intentionally establish norms of behavior, what evolves will unfold unconsciously, and team behavior may turn into an out-of-control weed rather than a beautiful bonsai tree!

Establish rules of the road.

Often what’s lacking is a set of rules of engagement – a clear agreement among team members about what is acceptable behavior. These are agreements about how they want to communicate with each other and work together to boost efficiency and team effectiveness.

Rules of engagement may include: how to conduct meetings (setting agendas, arriving on time etc.), who should attend, how the team makes decisions, being fully present and attentive, coordinating hand-offs, reviewing work products, resolving conflicts, sharing information, honoring confidential conversations, having open and honest dialogue, following up on commitments and so on. Without clear parameters to serve as a framework, what generally happens is that meetings may or may not start on time and end on time, and are undisciplined, with some people dominating, lots of interrupting, unproductive arguments and some members withdrawing and not participating. If participants don’t take meeting protocol and meeting times seriously, do they also have a loose attitude about deadlines and launch dates? This is why it is important for the leader to strive to develop a culture of discipline.

Let the team decide .

To accomplish this, it’s very useful to have the team discuss and clarify how they want to work together and reach agreement on the behaviors that will guide how they interact and how they will make decisions. Defining a team’s norms, rules of engagement and core values should not be the sole product of the entrepreneur or a few co-founders, which is then mandated to the team, but rather it should be a team process.

Here are some suggestions to kickstart that discussion.

The following guidelines refer to communication in general, but apply particularly to meetings:

Create a specific agenda for the meeting and distribute it to everyone involved.
Reduce the potential for distractions – agree to shut off cell phones, etc.
Work collaboratively to solve problems. Actively support and cooperate with all team members. Share what you know. Be available for teammates when they need help, and if you see someone needs help, offer support without being asked. When you need support, a listening ear to run ideas by, or help with a problem you’re struggling with, ask for it.
Seek to understand before being understood.
Don’t dominate meetings just because you can. Actively seek out the views and ideas of all team members.
Provide timely feedback and accept all feedback as valid for consideration.
Try to be aware of the needs, motivations, feelings and skills of other team members.
Your team members have a wealth of experience, expertise, and insight. That’s why you recruited them. Listen carefully and be open to their ideas.. Avoid interrupting. Let one person speak at a time. Share the airtime equably. Discourage side conversations.
Encourage team members to speak up when the conversation gets off-track or goes in circles; otherwise the leader should bring the discussion back to the topic at hand.
Separate issues from people and focus on problems and solutions rather than personalities.
Speak honestly and openly.
Give your teammates positive reinforcement. Express appreciation for what people have accomplished. Celebrate achievements and milestones.
Make critical decisions by following a disciplined and systematic process to reduce bias and reactivity. Make the environment safe enough that hidden assumptions can be surfaced and challenged, and biases uncovered.
Everyone has permission to call out violations of these rules.

Team members have a responsibility to hold each other accountable. For example, establish deadlines and timeframes for actions or deliverables – and stick to them. Visionary Evangelists like to talk about ideas; Relationship Builders want us to be nice to each other and share our feelings. Managers of Execution excel at allocating tasks and responsibilities. They will push for closure on deadlines and deliverables.

The “Ideal Team” Exercise

This is a helpful and enjoyable exercise. It not only helps teams operate more effectively, but it also helps team members get to know each other better, and thus builds bonds and strengthens group coherence.

Ask each team member to bring to mind the best team they’ve ever been on and make a list of the characteristics that made that team special.
Then have each person report to the group their #1 point – for example that the people on the team genuinely cared about each other, listened to what everyone had to say, or trusted each other and describe what it meant to them personally, telling a brief anecdote illustrating how that showed up.
When everyone has had a chance to present their top point, continue sharing the other characteristics of their ideal team. Soon you will begin to see repeats, and this will be an indication that it’s time to finalize the list.
At this point, you can compile a master list of positive characteristics that would comprise an ideal team. (Most teams generate between 12 and 20 characteristics.)
Then ask them to rate their current team on those characteristics. The gap between the ideal and the actual immediately makes it clear where the team is not functioning well, and what needs to be changed. That leads naturally to a discussion about how the team members want to behave together.
This can help your team waste less time, have better meetings, and be more effective.
We worked through this process many years ago at Hagberg Consulting Group, drew up a list of principles, and created a large chart that we posted on the wall of our conference room. Members of the team were empowered to call out – live, during meetings – anyone who was not living up to one of the guidelines.

By going through this process of defining the ideal team characteristics and using this discussion to develop a list of rules of engagement, the team can police itself and members will feel empowered to point out when ineffective or sub-optimal behaviors are getting in the way of their performance, communication, problem solving, or decision making.

In other words, an effective team must monitor both its rational process and its interpersonal process in order to work most effectively together. The rational process involves, in a systematic and disciplined manner, defining problems, setting objectives, surfacing relevant facts, generating alternatives, and selecting the most viable actions. However, the interpersonal process, when team members don’t listen, interrupt each other, don’t support each other, get distracted by outside interruptions, etc., can offset the benefits of a clear rational process and have a damaging effect on team and meeting effectiveness. Establishing rules of engagement is simply a way of reducing the negative impact of some of the pitfalls and involving the entire team in working to improve its own performance. Discovering and defining the team’s norms can have a lasting positive impact on team culture and ultimately on results.

Reducing Silo-Mentality and Getting Teams to Collaborate

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 22:47:00 GMT

Develop A Collaborative Environment

The team leader plays a key role in creating a team culture or climate. If you want to work with a team where there’s an expectation that people will collaborate, and where team members actively look for ways to support one another, it is up to you to consciously build that team.

When assembling a team, whether new hires or from within the organization, look for people who are team players. That means that their competitive spirit is aimed at achieving goals and winning for the team, rather than on raising their own status or trying to one-up their colleagues. Some people view the world as a zero-sum game, where there are limited resources and they must compete to get their fair share. This is the opposite of an attitude of abundance that assumes that we can all win if we work together and there is enough for everyone. Competitiveness is fine when it comes to the organization’s external competitors but has a decidedly negative impact when it is social competitiveness and winning at the expense of other team members.

Our own research at Hagberg Consulting Group makes this abundantly clear. Social competitiveness – people who feel the need to compete with their co-workers – is negatively correlated with openness to input, listening, building partnerships, building relationships, information sharing, and forthrightness. Not the profile of an effective team member!

Stack ranking is a procedure, popularized in the 1980s by GE’s CEO Jack Welch, of ranking employees according to a bell curve. In that system, the top 10% are designated as top performers, while the bottom 10%, seen as a drag on the organization’s effectiveness, are routinely let go. Stack ranking fosters internal competition of employee vs. employee as they strive for high marks, and it stifles innovation. “In a hyper-competitive workplace,” wrote Max Nilson in Business Insider, “where management is essentially asking employees to outperform the people sitting next to them, employees don't have an incentive to share ideas or collaborate.” People focus on their own performance, “rather than working together toward broader goals. And at its most extreme, employees may focus on preventing others from excelling.” After all, you might not want to help a fellow team member because you may be the one who gets fired if he does better than you. [“Why Stack Ranking Is A Terrible Way To Motivate Employees,” Max Nilson, Business Insider Nov. 15, 2013] No wonder people experienced it as a morale killer.

On the other hand, here are some suggestions for building a collaborative, cooperative environment:

Strengthen relationships. It is important for the leader to continually look for ways to build cohesion and strengthen relationships and bonds between members. Whether it is a meeting whose primary focus is helping team members get to know each other in more depth, a team dinner once a month, or a planning off-site that includes activities that help members get together just for fun and socializing, can go a long way toward increasing team coherence. Also, beware of having such a rigorous and rigid agenda-focus in your meetings that you don’t leave any time for informal discussion and personal sharing. This may not always be possible or desirable, but should be built in whenever feasible.
Encourage communication between team members. The team leader also needs to encourage communication between team members and avoid relying on the “hub and spoke” style, where communication is primarily one-on-one between the leader and individuals. That style is familiar and comfortable for independent-minded entrepreneurs, but it is not helpful for building teams or evolving solutions to complex problems that require communication and collaboration among various specialties. Encourage team members to develop deeper connections amongst themselves, so that decisions do not always revolve around you. (Why? Because if you are not available at crunch time, how will decisions be made?)
Beware of silos. In rapidly growing organizations there is always a threat that organizational silos will develop, and teams will focus narrowly on their own agendas and priorities, even to the point of resenting or stereotyping “those people over in sales,” and so on. To counteract this tendency, you need to foster communication between teams, and organize regular meetings between them to coordinate efforts, develop mutual understanding, and learn to collaborate.
Promote cross-functional teamwork. When silos do develop and people think primarily about their own team or functional agenda, they lose track of what others need and the challenges they may be facing. This mind-set can lead to a reluctance to communicate, coordinate, or cooperate, even to share information or resources with other individuals, departments or teams. As the leader, if you see this happening, let everyone know that you want every team member to be aware of, and sensitive to, not only the projects others are working on, but what they need in order to be most effective. When teams and team members are called upon to cooperate with other teams to work on certain problems and projects, you can make this collaboration more fruitful if you discuss with everyone involved areas where the teams need to work together, what each needs from the other team, and how they can partner most effectively.
Organize cross-functional meetings . Interdependent teams should meet regularly to clarify mutual goals and roles, sort out ongoing issues and problems, create plans and solutions together, and support each other. Product and Engineering, for example, could meet once a month or even more often, to share what they are working on, what their priorities are, what problems they are facing, and coordinate their efforts. As the leader, help everyone understand what each team needs from the other(s), their problems and priorities, and encourage them to develop empathy rather than looking at the other group as “them”. Be careful to discourage any “us versus them” thinking or negative stereotyping of the other group.
Encourage active participation in meetings. Encourage team members to participate and openly share their ideas and perspectives. Do your best to get people involved. Facilitate dialogue between team members. Draw them out. “Maria, we haven’t heard from you on this new initiative. What do you think about it?” Or, “That’s a good idea. How can we build on it?”
Reduce the fear factor. Be sure your attitude and demeanor in meetings does not intimidate others, but makes them feel that their presence and their ideas are welcome and appreciated. On the other hand, some people may need to be motivated by the awareness that there will be consequences if they don’t deliver. So this is another area where a balance of leadership styles and approaches may be needed.
Build a team culture of collaboration. Starting with your own example, encourage team members to make a strong personal commitment to the success of other members, and not be focused entirely on their own achievements. This requires a spirit and expectation of collaboration and cooperation between team members and fostering a strong common identity, rather than an “us versus them” mentality.
“How can I help with that?” As team leader, a major part of your job is to find out what people need, where they are stuck, where they might need more resources, and facilitate the solution. Team members can follow your example, talk to each other about what they are working on, and ask, “How could I help you with that?” Often there is a way to contribute directly to someone else’s part of a project because of the diversity of backgrounds and expertise, but even if there is not, just letting others know you have their back and are available if they need you promotes a spirit of collegiality and mutual support. And don’t forget: on a team, each person’s achievements and successes are not just for the individual, but contribute to the success of the whole.
Don’t avoid problems. Effective problem-solving and decision-making involves surfacing troublesome issues and bringing up differing views for consideration. When there are problems between the groups, don’t let them fester. Discuss what is and isn’t working and how the communication and collaboration can be improved. The leader needs to actively guide this process, to bring out the best ideas and insights.
Re-assess your role . Learn to see yourself not so much as “the boss” or “the decider” but rather as a facilitator of effective problem-solving and communication.
Model collaborative behavior. Getting to the core of an issue and making the right decision also requires the leader to model collaborative behavior, not an easy task for those who have largely been individual contributors, but an essential role to learn to play.

So, what’s our team supposed to do and why do we exist?

Sat, 15 Aug 2020 20:53:00 GMT

The Leader Must Help the Team Define its Mission and Long-Term Direction and Translate This into Actionable Goals and Priorities

First ask your team to decide: “Why does this team exist and what is its purpose and mission”

Just as the organization as a whole needs a clearly defined mission and direction, the senior team – and subsequently every other team that evolves as the organization grows – also needs clear direction and a compelling sense of team purpose. This will provide focus, motivation and discipline to all team members. Everyone on the team needs to understand why the team exists, how it is supposed to add value and how its work fits into the broader mission and strategy of the organization.

Too often, a team’s time and attention are eaten up by crisis management and today’s pressing problems. Teams can become overly reactive rather than proactive. This leaves little or no time for strategic thinking. So, it is very important, when a team is being formed, to define a meaningful mission and clarify the purpose of the team, basically to ask: Why are we here? What does the team do? Why is it important? The executive team should revisit that theme regularly and not spend all its time fighting fires.

Having a well-defined and shared purpose or a compelling sense of mission unites people around a cause, such as curing a major illness or creating a new technology that will revolutionize the world. High performing teams need this kind of focus and motivation and a set of performance challenges that give meaning to their efforts. Having clear, focused, and challenging goals helps you and your team members decide what’s in and what’s out, what’s important or not important, what helps you achieve the mission and what isn’t helpful.

A clearly defined purpose creates a foundation for important decisions about the team itself. What is necessary and critical in order for us to achieve our purpose? What are the criteria for team membership that will help us achieve this? What skills, knowledge, and experience are needed by team members? What sort of things should we be working on in pursuit of our goals? How often do we need to meet to assess our progress?

Here are some questions for the team to consider:

What is our role as a team?
What work have we been brought together to focus on?
What do we want to achieve as a team?
Where do we add value to the organization?
How will working together help us deliver more value than working as individuals?
What does success look like and how will we measure it?
What long-term team goals should we be focused on?
What should be our team priorities?
What should we be accountable for?
Where should we spend our time doing together?
What kind of decisions should we make as a team?
What is the scope of our authority?
Should we emphasize operational problem solving, generating ideas and solutions, information exchange, making strategic decisions, or overseeing tactical execution?
How do we decide who should be members of the team?
What format should we follow for our meetings, setting the agenda, and following-up?
How often should we meet and for how long?
What challenges will we face as a team?
How can we support one another more effectively to achieve team purpose?
What other teams or organization do we need to engage, coordinate and collaborate in order to be successful?

Suggestion: When teams are forming and team members hardly know each other, spend some time together outside the company, having dinners together, getting to know each other personally and learning each other’s background and strengths. “In spite of efforts to improve performance, most organizations struggle to provide what people really need most to be successful – an emotional connection to the team and work,” says Curt Coffman, author of Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch.

Defining the Team’s Broader Objectives and Goals: What Should We Actually Be Doing?

Once the central focus of the team is clear – and as much as possible this should be determined by the members of the team, not floated down from on high – the next step is to set specific, challenging, consequential goals that support the primary purpose and define what is to be accomplished.

The leader plays a critical role in translating broad vision, mission, and strategic direction into specific and measurable performance goals for the team. These goals need to be specific enough to get the team to focus on the critical actions needed to hit its targets and get results. They will be different from the broader organizational goals, and from individual goals, but all should be aligned. The overall organizational mission translates into strategic objectives, and cascades down to functional goals, team goals, and individual goals. It is important that the team’s objectives are created together to gain commitment from its members.

What should be our team and individual performance objectives for the next year?
How do our team’s objectives align with the company strategy and priorities?
What specific deliverables should we be held accountable for?
What should be our critical priorities for the next month, quarter, year?
How should we measure our performance and track progress on our team goals?
How should we report on our progress toward individual and team goals?
What interdependencies are important and require collaboration, coordination and regular communication?
What actions need to be taken to achieve each of our individual and team goals?
How should we celebrate progress and wins?

Decide together . Work closely with the team to determine what results, deliverables and work products the team should focus on. What does the team need to make happen? Be sure each team member understands what part he or she has to play toward achieving the team’s goals. As the leader, it’s your job to help build commitment, mutual support, and alignment of all team members around the team’s objectives and goals. Here are some guidelines:

Discuss goals and priorities regularly and push for clarity and specificity. When the conversation wanders off target, bring the team back to focus on the essentials – the goals and priorities and how to accomplish them.
Write the goals down, being sure to get input and involvement from team members, and re-think and rewrite together with the team until they are in a form that is clear, simple, specific, and measurable.
It is important to get all team members to agree upon the goals and their importance, as well as on what metrics or milestones will be indicators of their achievement.
Formulating the goals together gives a feeling of shared accountability. This process will make it easier for the team to maintain focus on what is critical, as well as to track progress and hold itself accountable.

If, instead of a team process, generating strategic objectives and goals is always decreed from above and doesn’t allow a collaborative process to develop, the level of member buy-in will be reduced, because they had no ownership role in creating the goals they’re expected to live by. Shared objectives and goals are more powerful than those dictated by the leader. A micro-managing, high-control, autocratic leader will tell people what the goals ought to be; an effective team leader facilitates a discussion among team members to formulate the objectives together. This is especially true for members of the Millennial generation, and knowledge workers who expect to be consulted and to work together in formulating priorities.

Goals should be challenging but attainable. The great artist and architect Michelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” Team as well as individual goals should stretch people and challenge them, but still be realistic enough to be achievable. Google employs two types of goals, “committed” and “aspirational”. People are expected to achieve committed, absolute goals 100%. For aspirational goals (otherwise referred to as “moonshots” and “BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)” achieving 70% is considered quite okay.

Measure progress with milestones. It is important to create milestones that will allow for small wins along the way, so people have a tangible way to feel they are progressing.

Leader Attitudes and Behaviors That Promote Effective Teamwork

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Effective Teamwork: The Leader Sets The Tone

Leader Attitudes and Behaviors That Promote Effective Teamwork

Belief in the efficacy of teamwork. First and foremost, the leader has to genuinely believe that the synergy of teamwork is powerful and real – that there’s going to be leverage gained, and better quality decisions made, as a result of getting the team to work together on problems and challenges in a unified, collaborative way. This means trusting that by putting together a powerful team of smart people with deep domain expertise and helping them work together more effectively, you can get more good decisions, stronger commitment and productive output than any individual can accomplish alone. Outstanding leaders have recognized that they need the support and input of other people, so they surround themselves with competent team members whom they work through and utilize effectively.

For tech entrepreneurs, many of whom are introverted loners accustomed to doing things on their own, this will require a huge attitude shift. They trust themselves – with good reason, as they are capable and smart – and they enjoy working on their own. But at some point as their company grows in scope and complexity, it dawns on them that they cannot possibly know everything they need to know or do everything that needs to be done, and that having a team of people to work with who have experience and expertise, in areas where they do not, can produce better results.

Choose team members carefully. Inexperienced leaders often surround themselves with people who previously were their co-workers at a previous company, or people they knew in college, who are very bright but have little or no experience as managers and leaders. Most early stage companies don’t usually start out by bringing in a team of experienced, knowledgeable team members. If the entrepreneur has done it before, he or she might be able to raise enough capital to bring in seasoned talent, but more often the team consists of people who are doing the job for the first time and are learning on the job.

Willingness to challenge old ways of thinking and doing. Becoming an effective leader requires not only an attitude shift, but also letting go of old habits and behaviors and embracing new ones. Your old familiar ways, as well as your beliefs about how you lead and manage, will need to change as the company grows. This includes many factors: your role, how you communicate with others, how you add value, how you make decisions, how you work through others, how you use your time, how you view systems, processes, and policies, how you set direction and plan, what is the optimal organizational culture, how much you control, and so on.

Many early stage companies develop values, norms, or take philosophical positions that later come back to bite them. Several of my clients have taken strong positions they later needed to change. One well-known company had committed to consensus decision making when they were 20 people. When they grew to 600 people, they realized that this was naïve and unworkable because they had to call huge group meetings to make too many decisions. Another committed to avoiding hierarchy and status differentials by having an almost completely flat organization, only to find that this was not workable and that some layering was necessary when the company grew.

The two co-founders of another of my clients had a very top-down management style and took a strong stance against having meetings. Needless to say, this was not workable – all decisions had to go through them, and they became a massive decision-making bottleneck.

To lead an effective team you’ve got to challenge your assumptions, and recognize that how you operated at one stage of the organization’s growth may become an impediment to what it needs from you at a subsequent stage. In the early days of the organization’s development, for example, you may have been central to the organization’s decision making and communicated with your direct reports one-on-one. This can lead to hub-and-spoke management and a decision bottleneck at a later stage.

I have worked with CEOs who secretly believed that people can’t be trusted and will not perform at their best unless they are motivated by fear and coercion. As one direct report wrote of her boss on a 360 evaluation, “It was a revelation to him that he did not have to be a tough and demanding tyrant to get people to cooperate.” Does this apply to you? Or – maybe you need to be tougher, more demanding and less laissez-faire? This is often a problem for leaders who are strong relationship builders. Chances are pretty good that whatever your natural or current leadership style is, it will require adjustment as the organization scales. Examine your habits and beliefs and look for ways that might serve you better.

Commitment to communication and open dialogue among team members . With your team, you will make thousands of decisions. You will naturally strive to have an abundance of accurate and relevant data to base your decisions on. But research we will discuss in a future blog post has shown that as important as facts and data are, having an effective, disciplined decision-making process is even more crucial. As part of that process, ask yourself the following:

Have you defined the problem, and the goal you are trying to accomplish?
Have you clarified what success looks like?
Have you established criteria for what the optimal solution to the problem would be?
Have you collected all of the relevant data?
Have you generated all possible solutions?
Do you listen to each other’s viewpoints and build on each other’s ideas?
Have you objectively evaluated the alternative courses of action?
Can you embrace the role of a facilitator of dialogue, in pursuit of the best answer?
Have you considered what might go wrong?
Have you established who owns each action and set up timelines?

Delegation and empowerment. In today’s business world, leaders may still have to make unilateral decisions at times, but more frequently than in the past, they must be willing to push decision making down, and empower subordinates to make independent decisions. If you do this skillfully, it will ultimately lead to smarter decisions and more motivated team members.

Many leaders, and particularly founders and entrepreneurs, tend to be strong-willed and driven to be in control of everything. Again, as the organization grows, it becomes impossible to be everywhere and on top of everything. If the leader is stuck in the weeds and mired in the details of things that should have been delegated to others, then things like strategic planning and facilitating teamwork and building an organizational culture are probably not receiving enough attention. It’s vital to learn to delegate and empower others.

This means going beyond delegating just tasks. You must also delegate responsibility, ownership, and decision-making authority. With your team, reach agreement on the results you expect and give your direct reports the freedom to decide how it should be done. This requires having trust in the commitment, motivation, and capability of subordinates, rather than trying to maintain tight control over every detail and dominating the decision-making process. (Otherwise known as micromanagement.)

If all decisions need to go through you and require your attention, you can become a roadblock rather than a force for progress. Effective leaders grant autonomy to those who have demonstrated good judgment and shown that they can get results. They focus on the best and highest use of their time, and gain leverage by delegating and empowering their direct reports.

Invest in building personal connections with team members. Effective facilitators of teamwork take the time to build a personal connection with team members. Get to know your people, through one-on-ones that go beyond task updates and problem solving, and focus on team members as people, whether through informal, unstructured discussions, dinners together, or team events. Find out what they care about, what they are working on, what excites them, what frustrates them, what they are interested in doing or learning in the future, where they want to go with their career. Where do they come from? Let them know that you are there for them when they need help or assistance. Create an atmosphere in which people feel a bond of personal connection, not only with you but with each other. This has to start with you, setting the tone.

Show empathy and readiness to get involved with subordinates’ problems . Put yourself in the other person’s shoes before you make judgments or demands. Try to understand where they are coming from – their problems and concerns, their difficulties and frustrations. Be aware that not everyone is going to be happy with some of the decisions you make. Listen to their resistance and try to understand their perspective and genuine concerns. You will not get the most out of your people unless they feel that you care about them. Loyalty is built by your behavior towards them. In our research, this was very highly correlated with being an outstanding facilitator of teamwork.

To be a more empathetic leader:
Show a genuine interest in the lives of the people in your organization.
Listen with real attention and be slow to understand. Be fully present. Don’t interrupt. Listen for both content and feelings that might be under the surface. Think of ways to be supportive. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Don’t be too impatient and quick to judge. Pay more attention to the messages their body language is communicating.

Remember, your team members are human beings and they are emotional as well as rational people. If you understand the emotions that your team members are feeling, you will be a much better communicator and team builder. Take the time to develop rapport and trust, and not be focused exclusively on task accomplishment and results.

Be willing to listen, and adjust to subordinates’ needs, concerns and preferences. This is particularly important when you meet resistance. Try to understand why they are resisting, and if their resistance represents a concern that is important for you to consider. Maybe they have an insight or see a problem that you need to know about. Don’t just go into persuading or selling mode, but, as Stephen Covey said, “Seek to understand before being understood.” And don’t just rely on position power to get them to do what you want. Listen. Learn to influence people without using your formal authority or position power. Making unreasonable demands, micromanaging and intimidating may get people to conform and perhaps get the result you want, but you won’t get their best effort, and it won’t gain buy-in for your plans and initiatives.

Balance concern for the individual with the needs of the organization. Yes, it is important to pay attention to the needs and concerns of employees and team members. But as the leader, you also need to be cognizant of the needs of the organization. This is sometimes a very hard balancing act.

“Arjun takes deep interest in understanding the strengths of his team and fosters cooperation, communication, trust and a very supportive work environment.”

“How can I help?” - Commit to providing coaching and support. New leaders frequently find themselves leading an executive team with too little experience and no frameworks or road maps for how to be successful in leading their team or function. Ultimately you will have to find people who have deep domain expertise, and a base of experience and insight to lead their function capably.

However, at the beginning you may not have the brand, money, or track record to attract highly experienced people. There is a real “war for talent” going on. Experienced “A” players are difficult to find and attract, and hard to retain unless given the autonomy they expect. The lack of availability of top talent often requires you to help “C” players become “B” players through coaching and mentoring, whether it is from you or outside partners. They need feedback, advice, coaching, training, and support in order to grow. But you may not always have the time to wait for them to develop. Don’t let your loyalty blind you to the fact that one of your direct reports is over their head.

No matter how carefully you build your team, the truth is that everybody you have around you will have some weaknesses. Throwing people into the deep end of the pool and watching to see if they sink or swim is not an effective management development strategy! So one of your jobs is to continually ask the question, “How can I help?” and follow that up by providing the feedback, coaching, and support that people need, as well as any management and other training classes that might help them become more successful.

There may come a time when you, too, feel the need for help. If you are new to a leadership role, it’s likely that you will sometimes feel over your head and overwhelmed. If you are wrestling with a specific problem that you can’t seem to solve, try to find someone who has faced it and solved it. Or find a competent coach to help you navigate the rapids and get you through.

Set an example of transparency and forthrightness. One of the characteristics of high-functioning teams is openness. Team members need to feel safe and willing to share their opinions, concerns, problems, and their questions and mistakes with you as the leader, as well as with their peers. It’s important for the leader to create an atmosphere where people are helping and supporting each other, being honest and open about what they think, what their views are, and what their problems are. If the leader is intimidating, overly critical or harsh, or treats people disrespectfully, people will not open up or feel safe. If the leader doesn’t share information and create an atmosphere of openness, you can’t expect team members to do so. When it comes to openness and transparency, the leader’s behavior sets the tone.

Give credit to the team for achievements. If the leader wants to take credit for all achievements and doesn’t recognize or acknowledge the successes of the team, team members don’t feel their efforts are appreciated and may even feel violated – that leadership has taken advantage of them. So, give individuals and the team credit for their achievements, and take responsibility upon yourself for mistakes and failures; do not blame the team.

On 360-degree evaluations, I would sometimes see remarks by subordinate raters that ran something like this: “When there is a review of his team, he tries to hide material he has received from others in order to take credit for their work.” Or, more succinctly, ‘He takes credit for others’ ideas and suggestions.” This is exactly how not to be a loved, respected, and successful leader!

Is it time to upgrade your team?

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 23:15:00 GMT

Building on each other’s experience and expertise, teams can rise higher than a single individual can.

Surround Yourself with Knowledgeable and Experienced People

Effective leaders surround themselves with people who have technical and functional expertise. Like the cabinet of a president or prime minister or the military’s top level “joint chiefs of staff,” the best leaders create a powerhouse team of experts to advise and support their leadership. This doesn’t happen overnight; it requires you to continuously upgrade your team. Unfortunately, some of the early founding team members may not have the necessary skill and expertise to remain in their original role.

“The hardest thing to get right in every company isn’t the products but the people,” said John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco. So, it’s vital that the leader hire and empower a senior team that has expertise in key domains and then learn to value and listen to their views and utilize their insights.

Effective leaders need to augment their leadership style with people who complement their strengths and offset their weaknesses. To do this right, leaders must be honest and objective in assessing their limitations and stylistic tendencies.

“Lisa is a wonderful team-builder. We're lucky to have someone so adept at seeing each team member's skills, putting them to good use, and helping the team understand how best to work with each other.”

So it is critical to hire and empower people you can trust, who have experience and expertise you can learn from. Choose people with expertise in many different domains and let them lead those teams and functions. Select team members based on their technical, functional, problem-solving and interpersonal skills or on their potential for growth. They may come from varied backgrounds and have different styles but share a common set of values that make them fit in and enrich the culture of the team and the evolving organization.

TIP: Avoid hiring people you can control who will not challenge your point of view and may confirm your bias. Rather than thinking short-term and filling key slots with junior people who will be over their heads in a short time, hire people who are smarter and more experienced than you are and who can scale with the company. “The best leaders know that their employees know more than they do.” – Simon Sinek

It’s also best not to overdo hiring people just because they have degrees from prestigious schools and you assume, they have a high level of intelligence and lots of motivation. They may also have little experience and functional or domain knowledge. Without experience they may not have the framework to understand problems and won’t recognize patterns and errors that lead to serious mistakes and poor judgment. Experienced executives have models and pattern recognition to help them quickly spot problems and solutions rather than having to reinvent the wheel. Furthermore, don’t confuse personal ambition with achievement drive. Overly ambitious people are often poor team players.

One of my clients was growing rapidly and having great difficulty recruiting top technical talent. The recruiting organization had grown substantially but was not getting results and was having numerous internal and external problems. The CEO decided that his current VP of People (Human Resources) didn’t have the necessary skills to systematically manage and grow the recruiting team. He decided to move one of his executives from an operational position to head up the human resource organization because she was an outstanding project manager, a tough and disciplined taskmaster, and he hoped she would bring the structure, rigor and discipline that was necessary. The problem was that she had no HR experience and had poor people skills. It did not work out well, and within six months she was replaced by a seasoned HR executive. I’ve seen this story repeated many times.

Value the Contributions of all team members

To have a true “team” rather than just a collection of individuals, members need to value each other’s unique skills and contributions and appreciate the importance of each member’s role. As the leader, it is up to you to model this team spirit in your behavior and promote a team culture that exemplifies it.

How do you do this? When you show interest in a member’s activities and initiatives, openly express appreciation for the person’s efforts and achievements, it is obvious to everyone that the leader values that member’s contribution. Everyone is watching.

Many leaders tend to directly or indirectly show a preference for certain functions, teams, employee groups or areas of expertise. For example, in technical companies, the CEO often clearly values Engineering or Product over other functions. This results in the leader paying more attention to the views and recommendations of certain team members and listening more to their input in meetings. Whatever your background, personal preferences and predilections, try to be even-handed toward all functions and teams. In meetings, particularly those that involve strategic decision-making, it is important for the leader to include a wide variety of people, and actively draw out their ideas and opinions.

Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

Roles define individual responsibilities for successful operation of the team. Lack of role clarity is one of the causes of conflicts, confusion, and inefficiency on teams. Ideally, you want the team to function as an interdependent, coordinated unit whose members interact creatively and harmoniously.

Clearly defined roles promote efficiency. When the leader doesn’t make roles and responsibilities clear or designate who is responsible for and has ownership of specific projects and decisions, then power struggles and border skirmishes result. So if you are the leader, it’s important to define people’s roles or there will be battles over turf and authority, and chances are good that you will ultimately be called on to adjudicate!

Clear boundaries and assigned areas of authority are the key. For the team to function at maximum capacity, members need to understand not only their own, but also each team member’s roles and responsibilities. Consider creating an enhanced org chart that everyone can refer to, that defines the roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and decision authority of each team member. And be sure to update the chart as the organization grows and roles and responsibilities expand and shift.

In every company and team, there are both formal and informal roles. Formal roles involve designating who is responsible for doing what, sometimes accompanied by a title or a job description. On the other hand, informal roles are roles that people spontaneously take on, based on their personality, skills and style, and what problems need to be resolved.

For example, the question may arise, Who is going to be the person we go to when we have execution issues? Often there is someone on the team who is super organized and knows how to get things done, so this person becomes the go-to person for execution questions. Or there may be a person who has deep customer insights or knowledge of current technology trends or has their finger on the pulse of the morale of the engineering team. Often these informal roles can play a valuable part in improving the quality of understanding of problems or critical decisions.

Give High Powered Team Members Independence

Give team members autonomy – when they have earned it. Be sure to give team members the autonomy they want and need, particularly those who have demonstrated that they have good judgment and know what they are doing. “Barry does a great job of granting autonomy and at the same time making people feel like they are really part of a team, not just a worker”.

But be careful: some confident individuals may expect to have freedom and independent decision-making authority before they are actually ready and have demonstrated competence and good judgment. Their exaggerated self-confidence and personal ambition may cause them to overestimate their capabilities. They may not know what they don’t know. As the saying goes, “He was not always right but he was never in doubt.”

Discourage dependence. Other team members, who may be less experienced or less confident, will often overly rely on the leader to tell them what to do. This second type can become dependent, looking to management and leadership for guidance and direction even in small matters, and will have difficulty making the transition to independent decision making as the company grows. Discourage this kind of co-dependent relationship; it will eat up your time and will prevent followers from operating as true partners and leaders in their own right.

Over-controlling, narcissistic leaders don’t develop other powerful leaders, whom the organization needs in order to scale effectively. As much as possible, once people have demonstrated good judgment and their ability to get results, give them more independence and more decision-making authority. They need to know what is expected of them, but once they prove themselves, let talent find their own way to get results. Their mistakes can be learning opportunities and if you coach them properly, these need not be fatal mistakes. Micromanagement leads to decision bottlenecks, frustration, poor morale, and ultimately to executive turnover.

The Leader’s Evolving Role in Working Through Others

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 19:44:00 GMT

There are no leaders without followers. It's about leverage

The Leader’s Evolving Role in Working Through Others

In the beginning, during the organization’s early stage of growth, the leader may play many roles. It’s quite natural to wear many hats and attempt to take on a wide range of responsibilities, and for a while that may work. It may be both expedient and cost effective in the short run, but not in the long run!

You can’t do everything. As the organization grows, you will come to the realization that you can’t be an expert in all the areas essential to the growth and effectiveness of the company. You can’t take charge of engineering, sales, finance, product, marketing, and so on. It’s neither effective, nor, as the organization grows, possible. Entrepreneurs must get beyond the belief that they can and should have their hand into every part of the company. You need to bring in people who have expertise in different domains and let them lead those teams and functions.

Grow from working in the company to working on the company. In sports terms, players sometimes go from being a player, to a player-coach, and finally to being the coach. You may start out writing code, continue to lead product development, but also facilitate teamwork, build a company culture, begin to give people direction and devise and implement a strategic plan, negotiate additional funding with venture capitalists for the destiny of the organization: you are working ON the company rather than IN the company.

This is a huge transition for most people, and it is not easy. Many young tech entrepreneurs, accustomed to working creatively on their own, have never had the experience of working on a successful team or working with an effective leader. Many derive their sense of self-worth from being a “doer” and accomplishing something tangible every day. This could make it difficult to let go of details and tasks that make you feel you have done something concrete and useful. This feeling can make you reluctant to let go and “just lead”. So, to shift from being the one who is focused on task accomplishment, who solves tangible problems and makes all the decisions to seeing yourself as the one who facilitates change and works primarily or even completely through others is a major step. As leader you must accept that you are no longer just a doer but instead, someone whose role is motivating, focusing and involving, getting input and buy-in and working indirectly to get things done.

“Roberto needs to move from a position of chief doer to a position where he guides and facilitates teams and groups to proactively drive the business using team member’s own expertise and giving them a high degree of autonomy.”

In short, as the organization evolves, the leader’s role also needs to evolve. The leader continues to play an important role but his or her individual contribution is increasingly replaced by team building skills and facilitating the collective contributions of the team.

I remember well a coaching session with a very young, inexperienced CEO who started a company that had only 11 people when I began our engagement, but who saw his company growing dramatically. He opened our conversation by saying, “I’m depressed because I don’t know what I should be doing. I don’t feel I’m adding value anymore. I used to write code and get involved in managing projects but now my team has grown and I’m spending my time doing things that I don’t see as having tangible value.” I pointed out to him that his role was now to be the leader, the direction setter, the motivator, the communicator, the facilitator of teamwork and the builder of culture. I said, “It’s not the same mountain, but a different mountain to climb, and a whole new challenge in learning to play a new role.”

His self-esteem had come from being a doer, and he had no concept of what it meant to be a leader and a CEO. It was a whole new ballgame now. But he learned well: The company, that he started with college roommates, now has 400 employees and is highly successful. They’ve had seven rounds of funding that brought in over 200 million dollars. (it’s now seven years later.)

Evolution of Your Role as Leader. In their book, Leading at the Speed of Growth, Katherine Catlin and Jana Matthews delineate four main stages in the growth of an organization:

Startup
Initial Growth
Rapid Growth
Continuous Growth

At each stage, the role of the leader shifts. In the Startup phase, you are an active Doer and primary Decision Maker. But as the fledgling organization starts to take off in its Initial Growth phase, hires more people and expands, you need to cut back on some of your “doing” activities in order to become the chief Delegator as well as the Direction Setter. In the third stage, as the company scales due to Rapid Growth, your role must shift to being a Team Builder, Coach, Planner, and Communicator (both internally and to the public). Finally, in the phase of Continuous Growth, the leader becomes Change Catalyst, Strategic Innovator, Chief of Culture, and overall Organization Builder.

These roles are qualitatively quite different. To maintain effective leadership as the organization progresses from one stage to the next, you’ll need to change with it, being willing to leave behind attitudes and behaviors that worked quite well at one stage but are no longer optimum as the organization scales.

Become a facilitator of collaboration and success. Use your team for collaborative, synergistic problem-solving. Stop trying to control every decision. The leader sets the tone on an executive team. As the leader, you must help the team work together effectively, resolve conflicts, support one another, solve problems, and make decisions efficiently as a group. For this, team members need to trust each other and communicate openly. As the leader it’s your role to make this happen.

If the leader has surrounded him/herself with team members who have complementary skills, strengths, experience, and perspectives, great things can begin to happen. A key role of the leader is to guide, support, and facilitate effective team processes and interactions to get the most out of the synergy from the team. The leader needs to be sure the team is focused and aligned.

Get everyone aligned around a common sense of purpose. It is also vital to foster a common sense of purpose and identity around the mission and create a safe, supportive, open environment where differences are resolved, and problems and decisions are worked through effectively. It’s the leader’s role to get everyone working together and not let competition, ego battles and silo mentality destroy teamwork and hamper the organization’s ability to grow and thrive.

Challenge people to be and do their best. Along with fostering a supportive work environment, the leader needs to challenge individuals and teams to raise the bar, not to settle for mediocre or “okay” but to be the best they can be. He or she has to walk the line between being supportive and encouraging on one hand, and challenging people to be accountable for outcomes. Not everybody is going to produce top-quality results. Some people are lazy and want to just "get by," but as the leader that has to be unacceptable to you. Ultimately, you will be held accountable for what the team accomplishes or does not accomplish. So sometimes you may need to put on a taskmaster’s hat, express the expectation that your people will put forth their best effort, and be as demanding of results as the situation requires. The best leaders I have worked with over the years have been a blend or combination of demanding and supportive.

Respond to the need of the time. The best leaders are also attuned to the ever-changing business climate, as well as the social, macro-economic, and political trends, any or all of which could influence the direction and success of the business. Different times and conditions call for different styles of leadership.

For example, in recent years, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and CEO Ben Horowitz drew a useful contrast between what he called a Wartime CEO and a Peacetime CEO. In Peacetime (by which he means when the company has a strong competitive edge and its market is growing) leadership can afford to deploy the company’s strengths to expand in creative directions. When Google found itself with a near-monopoly in the search market, they asked employees to spend 20% of their time on creative ideas to grow the company in new directions. Peacetime leadership can comfortably allocate time to nurturing team cohesion and individual creative expression. These are times when “delegation,” “don’t micromanage,” and so on can be emphasized by the leader.

In Wartime, however, when the company is under pressure to become profitable, or it is facing severe competitive threat and its very survival may be at stake, the entire focus has to be on alignment behind the organization’s mission. Horowitz cites the example of Steve Jobs’ return to a struggling Apple, which was literally a few weeks away from bankruptcy. Jobs “needed everyone to move with precision and follow his exact plan; there was no room for individual creativity outside of the core mission.” Wartime conditions can come even to well-established, strong companies, but for startups and their leaders, it’s Wartime 24/7.

However, Horowitz’s advice for the Wartime phase can be quite extreme. Clearly, leaders need to act decisively, and especially with start-ups, they often need to decide quickly and sometimes unilaterally, especially if there has not been enough opportunity to gather a team of seasoned professionals, as I will discuss in the next chapter. But Horowitz implies that you need to stay in Wartime mode until you do have a strong competitive edge. That gives permission, and even encourages leaders to behave in a controlling and autocratic way, exercising top-down leadership rather than seeking buy-in and consensus.

This is problematic in the long run. As you begin to bring in more senior people, who expect and deserve to have a level of autonomy and a voice in decision making, if you stay in Wartime mode too long and are too controlling, you will fail to leverage the synergy of your team. You won’t be able to benefit from hearing voices and opinions that prevent you from falling into sunflower bias or confirmation bias. After all, the benefit of involving a group in decision making is to gather diverse and creative perspectives on how to deal with problems and questions.

In situations that require fast, decisive action, it may occasionally be necessary for a leader to either make a decision without input or to seek input but not have the time to reach consensus when it comes to choosing a course of action. This would be a case of, “Thank you very much for your input, I’ll let you know what I decide.Be careful not to operate in Wartime mode as a default, but only when it is truly necessary. Be adaptable. Adjust the amount of participation you allow and input you ask for, based upon the maturity and expertise of the team around you.