“They want me to lead. So I have to learn to get comfortable with that.”
Being a startup CEO is difficult and new for everyone. A regular routine for learning builds capability over time. I asked some Main Sequence CEOs what they do and received some incredibly valuable and generous responses that they have agreed I can share.
Nick Hazell — CEO of v2food
v2food is Asia Pacific’s leading plant-based meat company. Nick took on his first CEO position to found the company after a long career as an R&D director for companies like Mars and PepsiCo.
Being a new inexperienced CEO is also a superpower. We don’t have a playbook that is how it’s done so we have to make it up for ourselves. And that means we can do things differently.
#1 — Be deliberate about culture
Our motto is that we are deliberate about the culture and the ways of working
The greatest danger is we sleepwalk into a culture from a previous life that we never liked and is not appropriate for the new business.
#2 — Make time to reflect
Biggest thing for me is to have lots of reflection because the learnings only happen during reflection.
#3 — Talk about the experience with people you trust
I have a coach who is the same coach for our whole leadership team.
And another who is also my shrink who helps me with patterns that are unhelpful for me and my relationships.
And I have a chairman (thanks Phil) who endures coaching conversations with me every week or more often.
#4 — Stay curious and inquisitive
We started the business with lots of random conversations. I am trying to resist the temptation to get so organised.
Then there is no more room for interesting conversations. Without that injection we won’t find surprising breakthroughs or opportunities like we did in the beginning.
I try to have lunch with someone at least once a week. A customer. A peer. A collaborator or just someone I would like to talk to. Always a good conversation.
#5 — Find your “off button”
I sing to switch off for a few hours once a week. That’s my forced down time when I can’t think about the business.
#6 — Know the questions which guide your decisions
I am always asking myself can we go faster and are we still holding it together. The answer to one question informs the other!
#7 — Be human
We have a rule to deal with the consequences of the stress we put ourselves under. It’s written more nicely in our culture and values documents as “be kind” but it started off as a simple “don’t be a dick” which is about the same as being kind but actually feels better advice to me.
#8 — In the end, you must lead
And my job is to create and own the vision. I did try to delegate this a bit and run a process. And it was good to do that, but at the end of the day it is the CEO who must own it.
My team want me to do that.
They want me to lead. So I have to learn to get comfortable with that.
—
If this was helpful, please:
📣 Re-share, expand or disagree in this thread
⇢ Follow me on Twitter — https://twitter.com/philmorle
✉️ Get Main Sequence Newsletter — https://www.mseq.vc/newsletter
This post was created with Typeshare