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Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

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Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#11

Post by Roritharr »

prox wrote: post #8
Roritharr wrote: post #4

"Learning to manage your focus, not your time" I'm a follower of this priority aswell. I can't tame the onslaught, but I can ensure that my focus is spent in the right places. I'd love to hear more about this topic as I often have issues communicating what I mean by that, as many other people in my environment want to see get things done "one after the other".

I had the pleasure of working with a brilliant owner of this media company, and what he did was this : he only gave me one task to focus on. Even if I asked if anything more was coming up I was told not to worry about it. He made sure everything worked out right, so truly a manager / leader in spirit. The great thing was it created a peaceful atmosphere in the company. Focus is great, and fully agree with the article…

How meta were those tasks?

This sounds really interesting but I have a hard time imagining the structure of command/task organization. Can you elaborate?

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#12

Post by cryptica »

cryptica wrote: post #6

I'm surprised when I hear that big CEOs have success coaches. How can people who became successful through the manipulation and exploitation of humans understand the dark side of human nature so poorly that they don't see these coaches for what they are?

BTW, I also wonder if even the coaches see themselves for what they are. In which case it's disturbing to think that that someone can spend years meditating in an ashram in India and come out still knowing so little about themselves that they don't understand their dark motives.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#13

Post by lukevdp »

cryptica wrote: post #6

I'm surprised when I hear that big CEOs have success coaches. How can people who became successful through the manipulation and exploitation of humans understand the dark side of human nature so poorly that they don't see these coaches for what they are?

Possibly because they have a more optimistic and less cynical view of the world than you.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#14

Post by thdrdt »

Roritharr wrote: post #4

"Learning to manage your focus, not your time" I'm a follower of this priority aswell. I can't tame the onslaught, but I can ensure that my focus is spent in the right places. I'd love to hear more about this topic as I often have issues communicating what I mean by that, as many other people in my environment want to see get things done "one after the other".

Lately I listened to some talks of Jordan Peterson.

There is a lot to say about his work but there is always a recurring theme: take time to think things through.

And I believe in this time of constant distraction it is very hard to do this.

But when you do you order your thoughts and it becomes much easier to communicate your thoughts.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#15

Post by kingludite »

cryptica wrote: post #10
kristianc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put another way, do you really feel there is nothing you could learn from someone who grew a SaaS business to 20M ARR?

I don't think so. The funny thing is that most people who grew companies to such level of success did so without a coach, but now that the hard part is decidedly over, a coach has become indispensable.

The person to have the idea is not the one ideally fit to execute it, the person to execute the idea is not one ideally fit to run the company. But one can learn. If one was good enough at the previous step there is some wiggle room.

I also hear that people who at one time used a coach of some kind are helped by doing it again.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#16

Post by draw_down »

Roritharr wrote: post #4

"Learning to manage your focus, not your time" I'm a follower of this priority aswell. I can't tame the onslaught, but I can ensure that my focus is spent in the right places. I'd love to hear more about this topic as I often have issues communicating what I mean by that, as many other people in my environment want to see get things done "one after the other".

I’m certainly far from an executive, but I figure the best I can do is to always be working on the most important thing.

There’s always too much to do, that’s just part of the background. People in my environment want to see certain things too, but again that’s just part of the background. You’ll go nuts trying to do what everyone wants, trying to get everything done. And I’ve noticed that there is not a particularly linear relationship between how much I work and how well it’s appreciated, so working more (beyond some threshold) isn’t even necessarily rational.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#17

Post by Pandabob »

prox wrote: post #8
Roritharr wrote: post #4

"Learning to manage your focus, not your time" I'm a follower of this priority aswell. I can't tame the onslaught, but I can ensure that my focus is spent in the right places. I'd love to hear more about this topic as I often have issues communicating what I mean by that, as many other people in my environment want to see get things done "one after the other".

I had the pleasure of working with a brilliant owner of this media company, and what he did was this : he only gave me one task to focus on. Even if I asked if anything more was coming up I was told not to worry about it. He made sure everything worked out right, so truly a manager / leader in spirit. The great thing was it created a peaceful atmosphere in the company. Focus is great, and fully agree with the article…

I remember Keith Rabois describing this to be key to Peter Thiels management philosophy at PayPal:

"So I am going to argue that you need to spend a lot of time focusing on people. This is something I learned from Peter Thiel actually. He used to insist at PayPal that every single person could only do exactly one thing. And we all rebelled, every single person in the company rebelled to this idea. Because it's so unnatural, it's so different than other companies where people wanted to do multiple things, especially as you get more senior, you definitely want to do more things and you feel insulted to be asked to do just one thing." [1]

[1]: https://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec14/

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#18

Post by comboy »

Roritharr wrote: post #4

"Learning to manage your focus, not your time" I'm a follower of this priority aswell. I can't tame the onslaught, but I can ensure that my focus is spent in the right places. I'd love to hear more about this topic as I often have issues communicating what I mean by that, as many other people in my environment want to see get things done "one after the other".

Think of your different pursuits and interests as games. Game of your relationship, of making great product or game of making money.

For each of those games you can think about what optimal move is right now. You may not know the truth but you can decide what you think it is.

Now the problem is that if these games are different, then inevitably, by definition you'll come to a point at which given move is great in your game A but sucks in your game B.

And that's The Game. I could write whole lot more about it because I've spend a long time thinking about it, but I think most HN readers can take it from there.

But that's how I see focus. You feel great when you focus on a single game. Then you don't have all those nasty conflicts (which are really the only problem you have in life - not a bad situation - a problem). It's rare though. There are games like social status etc. that you may not even know you're playing.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#19

Post by digitaltrees »

cryptica wrote: post #10
kristianc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put another way, do you really feel there is nothing you could learn from someone who grew a SaaS business to 20M ARR?

I don't think so. The funny thing is that most people who grew companies to such level of success did so without a coach, but now that the hard part is decidedly over, a coach has become indispensable.

I can’t comment on your last post because it was flagged but I wanted to at least reach out to you with this:

Some of the best coaching I received was from people that may have been deemed less successful, powerful or intelligent than I am but because they took the time to know me and saw my blind spots, they guided me to amazing insights. It was about a connection and relationship. I am forever thankful for their commitment to me. Many of these coaches are selflessly giving to others after having received coaching themselves, so my experience with coaching is different than you seem to imply.

Lastly, I hope you don’t harbor a belief that all success is based on the dark side of human nature; that all CEOs and leaders merely exploit others. That is clearly disproven from so many examples of amazing leaders. Honestly that sounds like a bitter, resentful existence that will make it hard to collaborate with others.

Re: Takeaways from coaching CEOs, founders and VCs

#20

Post by JacobAldridge »

You’re a much ‘purer’ coach than I am, in the sense that I provide a lot more business advice and fewer questions [1]. Even so, I wholeheartedly agree with your observation that it is the personal fears and self-work that is most impacting these leaders and their businesses.

I also acknowledge your reference to your own coach. It amazes me (and I’ve been doing this since 2006) how many other business coaches I meet who don’t see the value in having their own coach. That says a lot about a career (I wouldn’t call us a profession) that is loaded with unqualified shonks.

I look forward to re-reading this piece many times. Thanks.

[1] An artefact of my clients, who are generally $2-$20M ARR with limited prior business experience, and my own business model which engages leadership teams more and longer, more regular coaching sessions.

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