Emotional Release is Good Leadership Hygiene
The most important thing I’ve ever done for a CEO was to listen.
Founders are on an island. If you haven’t been there before, it’s hard to understand. You can share bits of what is going on with a few people, large chunks with fewer yet, and all of it with only yourself. That burden is a hard one to carry. As COO you can help alleviate this burden by creating a safe space for emotional release.
I’ve been part of at least one fundraising round every year of my career. Regardless of company situation fundraising is filled with ups and downs, exhaustion and elation. More than once we’ve prepared the “break in case of emergency plan” along with the status quo fundraising plan.
During a particularly challenges fundraising period, the CEO looked deflated. He had just gotten a rejection from a fund that we’d spent a ton of time with. We’d got to know their team, exposed them to our leadership, prepared memos and presentations to answer questions -- all to be left with a decline at the end. It was a lot. You could see it. Our CEO needed a pick-me-up. Here’s the simple model for doing that:
Show up. There’s a big difference between being available and showing up. One is a text saying I’m here for you. The other is knocking on the door with a meal. In challenging times you need to show up. It’s your part of the bargain.
Normalize. Your job here is to place the challenge in context. Every company has unique struggles on the path to greatness, but analogs abound. If possible normalize the situation through prior personal experience, if not, normalize it by examples and situations from your peer group. It’s important to make it known that the island that the founder is on is one that is well-traveled. Talk about how it took your friend’s company 200 conversations to raise their Series A.
Create hope. Once normalized you need to help create the path forward. That path needs a clear line of sight towards the next actions and hopeful outcomes. Talk about how it took your friend’s Series A was ultimately successful, but only after they followed a rigorous and strenuous process. Make the process part of the solution.
The hardest part of being a CEO is managing your own psychology, but with a great COO that part can be a bit easier.