Four Habits Of Leading Venture Studio And Startup CEOs

There are 4 things that every great CEO does.

Alex Gorsky does them.

Sundar Pichai does them.

Richard Branson does them.

Now I'm telling you how you can do them too.

The Challenges Of Leadership

Becoming a CEO or manager is not without its challenges.

According to statistics cited by Inc and others, “the manager failure rate is around 50 percent during the first year.

The reason they fail is that they aren't aware of these overarching principles that the world's leading founders practice daily in their own ventures.

If you have a 50/50 chance of making it as a founder, let's talk about how you can stack more of the odds in your favor using the above.

Leading CEO practice #1: Becoming incredible listeners

The founders of some of the biggest ventures in the world spend more of their time doing active listening than they do dictating.

There is a big shift in mentality for active listening to work for you.

Instead of approaching every conversation as a transactional exchange and telling them what to do, you listen and ask only for context and suggestions.

This is because listening means good ideas can surface from anywhere within your team.

If you do all the talking, key opportunities can be missed or crises not averted.

Leading CEO practice #2: Being open to bad news

In company cultures where the founder or CEO is difficult to approach, you'll find that there are plenty of blind spots and problems and yet they won't be aware of them.

Why?

Because people don't want to come to them with problems.

As a founder, this is a dangerous place to be.

If people don't give you essential feedback on things as they happen, you'll lose out on multiple levels.

Give your team permission to come to you with bad news.

Let them know it's an us versus the problem approach rather than you versus me standoff.

Leading CEO practice #3: Acknowledge progress more than problems

It's a simple psychological fact: if you want people to stop performing, give them bad feedback alone.

In their minds, they've already disappointed you, and it shuts them off from trying again.

But if you focus on positive feedback and progress over time instead, you'll see people blossom as they do their best to meet your expectations.

Not out of fear, but out of dedication.

Leading CEO practice #4: Delegate but stay in touch

It's true that the bigger the company, the more a founder has to delegate.

There simply aren't enough hours in a day for a CEO to get to everything.

However, they also need to be aware of what every department in their company is working towards.

How do they balance both?

The answer is twofold.

1. They hire great project managers that keep projects on track.

2. They rely on reporting from these managers to understand progress.

It goes beyond project managers too.

No founder should ever refuse the chance to speak to their employees whether they're senior managers or brand-new interns.

You learn and grow with all of them.

TL: DR If you want to lead like Gorsky, Pichai, Branson and other business leaders steal these 4 techniques they use to lead every day - and follow @andrewamann on Twitter to read more.

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