Coach to the Contrary

I saw it hap­pen to me.

As a founder and co-founder of four com­pa­nies, I got in the way of my first two. I impeded their devel­op­ment to the extent that I was the per­son most respon­si­ble for not allow­ing these com­pa­nies to get to the next level. If it were not for either a board mem­ber or a men­tor, I would not have gone on to have the suc­cess that I did with them.

Exec­u­tive coach Mar­shall Gold­smith best summed up this per­va­sive human phe­nom­e­non in the title of his book, “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.”

Because the leader is so crit­i­cal to the long term suc­cess of a com­pany, I know that part of my agenda when coach­ing an entrepreneur/founder is have them learn and live this les­son: “what got you here won’t get you there.” To have a client apply this les­son, I must help them to see that the very strengths they bring to a com­pany can often under­mine its’ long term suc­cess. In time, most founders become their company’s own worst enemy.

In busi­ness, as in life, if you attempt to be some­thing you are not, you end up not bring­ing your best to your­self, your employ­ees, and your company.

I have observed three tell-tale paths founders take which even­tu­ally can lead to the demise of the very com­pany they worked so hard to build:

1. They adopt the fol­low­ing way of think­ing: “what is not right is obvi­ously wrong.”

When the founder buys into the lie that there is always a right strat­egy, your com­pany is in trou­ble. After the ini­tial start-up phase, many founders become unwill­ing to aggres­sively seek oppos­ing ideas and mul­ti­ple sce­nar­ios from key employ­ees or board members.

2. They spend too much time in one area to the exclu­sion of the other two.

There are three essen­tial areas a busi­ness has to con­tin­u­ally focus upon in order to develop: (1) prod­uct, (2) peo­ple, and (3) processes. A com­pany ini­tially gains trac­tion because the founder has an exclu­sive focus on either a prod­uct or ser­vice. In fact, that is what most founders bring to a com­pany — an idea, a pas­sion, and a focus on a prod­uct or ser­vice. While this serves them well in the begin­ning, this very focus can be there undo­ing. Why? Because you can­not develop a com­pany with­out also invest­ing in peo­ple and processes. Excel­lent peo­ple and lean, quality-oriented processes are key req­ui­sites to endur­ing success.

3. They rede­fine their role as being the Chief Reac­tor Offi­cer (CRO).

Face it — if you put your heart, your dol­lars, and count­less hours into a ven­ture, even­tu­ally you may believe that you have “earned the right” to react how­ever you like. The more you believe you own some­thing or some­one, the more enti­tled you feel to con­trol them. The more in con­trol you per­ceive you are, the greater the dan­ger that you will behave reac­tively ver­sus proactively.

When the founder becomes the CRO, she can­not help but spend most of her time look­ing only for what is wrong. And when all you can see are prob­lems, your “impa­tience quota” sky­rock­ets to the point that you are both your own worst enemy and well on your way to being the enemy of your employ­ees and the very com­pany you founded.

You’ve brought your com­pany this far. Don’t blow it by going down one of these three paths.

If you are an entre­pre­neur or founder, have you ever been guilty of exhibit­ing any of these three signs? Did you rec­og­nize them at the time, and if so, what did you do about it?

If you are not an entre­pre­neur or founder, have you ever worked for one who became the enemy of the com­pany? What happened?

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