Be Coachable
Every successful founder I talk to extols the virtues, power and importance of good mentors. Elon Musk who, whatever your view of his personality or policies, is unarguably the world’s best entrepreneur has a rotating set of five mentors at all times. There is no question that well chosen mentors can help. But what about the mentees? What can you do to improve the value that the mentor brings. The answer is to be coachable. In my last two podcasts with multiple founders Bobbi Mahlab AM and Victoria Mellor (Crumby) both of whom have spent over 30 years founding and scaling businesses and mentoring other founders, when I asked them the question: What is the single most important asset for any founder to have? They both replied ‘to be coachable’I always say that when you’re a founder you cannot afford to have an ego. When you first start your business you must take your ego, put it in a suitcase and lock it in the attic and leave it there until you have exited. Being a founder and having an ego is like oil and water. Nowhere is this more important than in acknowledging your own shortcomings.
There are two types of skill shortages that you will need to consider. The first is easy to admit to and that’s the skill gaps you have in your founder team. The second type is much harder- the skill gaps that you have, which as a CEO and founder, you need to develop and be able to execute on.
The first is relatively easy to fix depending on how important it is. If it’s a finance or product gap then you need to bring on a cofounder who can specifically do that – it’s too important not to have in house as part of the core team. If it’s marketing or HR or basic accounting then you can either outsource, teach yourself or get some fractional help until you can afford to plug the gap properly. Either way it’s a relatively easy fix.
The second type is more challenging for a number of reasons. Firstly, most founders are not experienced CEOs. Even if they are then they were undoubtedly a CEO of an established business that wasn’t their own. The former are learning on the job and the latter are in the even more dangerous position of thinking they know what to do without realising that everything is now totally different. Whichever one it is, when you find yourself in a seemingly intractable problem without any solution, then the first step is admitting to yourself that you need some advice. The second step is realising that you might not like the advice you are about to get but that you need to take it on board anyway. The second step is crucial but is more challenging, as whatever the situation you are trying to resolve, the problem is usually you and how you are approaching it. No one likes to be told that they are the problem but recognising this is a critical part of the process.
As the CEO and founder/cofounder you are usually making it up as you go along and that can work for while and you can get so far. However there will come a point where that starts to hamper your ability to grow before, eventually, if you don’t act to resolve it then it completely stops your growth. The equation is simple – if you can admit to your lack of experience/ failing/ inability to resolve the situation and openly receive and act on the appropriate advice that you are given then you will continue to grow. If you can’t then you won’t. Harsh but fair.
So, if you’re willing to be coachable what else helps? The first thing is to identify the right mentors. Ideally people who’ve been through the fire themselves i.e. ex founders. I worked with one founder whose mentor was a corporate legend, ex CEO and board member of various billion dollar enterprises. While she was an industry legend her advice to a startup founder was hopelessly incorrect. She had no idea of the reality of running a startup and all her advice was based on her corporate experience and success. This is where VCs can be so dangerous. Having invested millions of dollars they then want to saddle you with the advice of various brilliant MBA graduates that they employ, who have done a module on being an entrepreneur or how to scale as part of their MBA. I have no doubt they are very intelligent but again buyer beware. Their lack of practical experience in running a startup often encourages incredibly poor advice. The best mentors are ex-founders. They have direct experience of your situation and through trial and error have found solutions that are proven.
In order to extract as much value as possible you need to be very specific about what you want. It’s no good just asking to catch up for a coffee. Explain the exact nature of the issue, the ramifications, what you’ve tried so far, what didn’t work and why you think it failed. The better armed they are the more value they can provide and the better tailored their advice will be. Let’s be clear if you’re going to eat humble pie and then act on someone else’s advice you want to do everything to ensure that it works.
So do your homework. Find some suitable ex founders who have direct hands on experience. Engage with them sensibly and most importantly understand that you need to work on yourself. Lose the ego. Be humble, be honest, be open and be coachable 😊
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