As a developer I also find my psychology difficult to manage ..
The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#12Most difficult CEO skill? Raising money.
Seriously, have without a HUGE network or traction/lots of revenue it's almost statistically a miracle to make it happen.
Great article though, just pointing out the obvious.
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#13At first I thought this title said "The Most Difficult SEO Skill?"
I was thinking someone's conscience finally caught up with them. Only to discover this is just more Internet VC gibberish. Oh well.
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#14At first I thought this title said "The Most Difficult SEO Skill?" I was thinking someone's conscience finally caught up with them. Only to discover this is just more Internet VC gibberish. Oh well.
VC gibberish? I found this to be pretty insightful, and valuable life advice in general.
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#15I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things started going south. Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked out (BAD BAD BAD)…
I'll relate a similar anecote; dot com exploding crisis in the board room, frozen management. I reached out to Scott McNealy and asked how at Sun we had hit rough times and it got painful but it never got stuck. His response changed my whole take on things. He said,
"Chuck nobody knows what they are going to be when the chips are down, they can think they will be a tiger but they sometimes they discover they are the deer, and stare transfixed at the headlights. The best you can do is test people early to get a sense of how they respond and move the ones who can't act in a crisis into safer jobs."
I have found this to be very accurate advice. People who you wouldn't think would freeze up can (and do) and people who you felt were meek and softspoken can suddenly stand up and take charge. Its the fight-or-flight instinct and its wired in the part of the brain you don't have a lot of control over. It sounds like your CEO friend discovered he couldn't take the pressure and ran. It can be a shameful place for a proud person, it has driven people to suicide. Understanding that its not under your conscious control can help.
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#16I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things started going south. Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked out (BAD BAD BAD)…
I'll relate a similar anecote; dot com exploding crisis in the board room, frozen management. I reached out to Scott McNealy and asked how at Sun we had hit rough times and it got painful but it never got stuck. His response changed my whole take on things. He said, "Chuck nobody knows what they are going to be when the chips are down, they can think they will be a tiger but they sometimes they discover they are the…
A really excellent insight. It's amazing how people take on entirely new mantles when things get tough, and you just simply can't predict that that will look like.
It reminds me of the Mastermind Rational role variant in the Keirsey Temperament Sorter [1]. A personality type that doesn't want to lead, but when crisis hits and they feel leadership has let them down, will take charge and get shit done. It's a good kind of reserve person to keep in the wings I think.
I don't know of a corollary for the opposite though, who want to lead, but shut down at the first sign of trouble -- even though it seems to be a favorite archetype of writers.
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(role_variant)
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#17At first I thought this title said "The Most Difficult SEO Skill?" I was thinking someone's conscience finally caught up with them. Only to discover this is just more Internet VC gibberish. Oh well.
VC gibberish? I found this to be pretty insightful, and valuable life advice in general.
You are getting valuable life advice from an internet venture capitalist? I will say a prayer for you.
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#18Most difficult CEO skill? Raising money. Seriously, have without a HUGE network or traction/lots of revenue it's almost statistically a miracle to make it happen. Great article though, just pointing out the obvious.
Relevant: Author's job is handing out the money
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#19As a side note, the picture at the end shows the last second of the great fight between Diego Corrales and José Luis Castillo[1][2].
Round 10: After being knocked down twice and hardly beating the clock, Corrales turns the match, traps his opponent against the ropes and causes the referee to end the fight.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Corrales_vs._Jose_Luis_Ca...
Re: The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011)
#20I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things started going south. Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked out (BAD BAD BAD)…
>justified his behavior that half pay means half time and no pay means no time. Am I misguided to think that people who use this as an excuse would never work twice as hard / twice as long when given twice the pay?
How often do you hear of people getting a significant raise and then handing some back because they do not think work enough or hard enough to earn it?