Coaching for Founder Performance
The startup is modern capitalism’s artform. Over the last decade, startup company-building has become recognized as an elite sport. Like all elite sports:
The challenge is to all levels of an athlete’s being— mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and familial.
The most talented, passionate competitors are intentional about working with performance coaches to help amplify their effectiveness.
However, the importance or need for performance coaching isn’t always clear to startup founders. Often, founders stumble upon it thanks to having a curious, open mind. Other times, their co-founders and investors force it upon them as a form of ‘good medicine.’ In this post, I provide perspective on:
What founder coaching is and isn’t— and why this isn’t always clear, especially when it comes to startup company building.
The core benefits of any form of performance coaching so you know what to look for when you are looking.
1: WHAT IS PERFORMANCE COACHING REALLY?
Performance coaching in the professional context was only formalized in the 1970s by Sir John Whitmore—the field is still growing and developing, especially in its application. Over 50 years later, it is finding and consolidating its feet within the startup company-building context. However, ask a random sample of startup founders about executive coaching and you will discover a variety of answers:
“It’s like therapy… or couple’s counseling for founding teams …”
“They are an accountability partner…”
“They’ve built companies before so they advise me on things I have no experience about…”
“Strategic sounding board to help clarify my thinking…”
“It’s like having the board member everyone wishes for, but struggles to find...”
None of the above answers are incorrect because every coach has their unique style— it is more important to know what style matches your needs at a particular point in time, and whether it is effective in producing results.
Typically, performance coaching styles fall along a spectrum of behaviors which can be illustrated by the 2 x 2 below. In my opinion, the art-form of coaching for founder performance is about identifying which part of the 2X2 one should operate from (and when) to be most effective with the client. More importantly, having the behavioral flexibility to shift amongst the quadrants as needed to be of greatest service to the client.
Let’s unpack the matrix and the sliding scale:
X-Axis: Tactical on one end of the spectrum— Facilitative on the other end of the spectrum.
Tactical Advice helps you solve immediate short-term pressing needs so you get a shot at continuing to grow your startup. Sometimes, you don’t have the luxury or resources to approach key priorities with a bottoms-up, learn-by-doing, iterative approach. Some examples include: fundraising when you are running out of cash, managing during a banking crisis, or responding to a global epidemic like COVID. For these matters you need someone who can show you the playbook and run you through it in real-time. The downside: you don’t necessarily unlock the inherent potential of the individual(s) involved— it’s more like show and tell. A good example of this are subject matter experts and advisors such as fractional CFOs and go-to-market agencies.
Facilitation is about asking questions, remaining curious, and intentionally refraining from providing clients the answer— it is designed to help the client think for themselves. This is more about teaching someone how to fish. This approach is more generative and pays larger and larger dividends over time as it helps the client build the internal strength needed to navigate startup company-building. The GROW model by Sir John Whitmore and Timothy Gallwey is a perfect example. Gallwey was a professional tennis coach who noticed that he could often see what players were doing incorrectly but that simply telling them what they should be doing did not bring about lasting change.
Y-Axis: Extrinsic Accountability on one end of the spectrum— Intrinsic Accountability on the other end of the spectrum.
Extrinsic Accountability is where the coach will check in on a specific set of agreed-upon actions to determine 1) If they were completed, 2) If they weren’t completed and why, and 3) Re-committing to the actions or committing to a new set of actions. More commonly referred to as accountability coaching— this approach helps clients by maintaining close and constant contact to ensure they're fulfilling short-term action plans on the route to long-term goals. Regular check-ins help clients feel motivated to stay on track.
This approach also helps track measurable outcomes against execution (or lack of execution) — promoting an appreciation for tangible consequences of taking (or not taking) a specific agreed-upon action. Using an extrinsic accountability frame also allows the client to quantify the tangible benefit of coaching which is often difficult to quantify. Simple example, negotiating a 500,000/year annual contract versus settling for a month-to-month retainer of 2,000/month— the results are tangible!
Extrinsic accountability also works when founders feel uninspired or exhausted— sometimes it helps having someone in your corner say “One more time…” or “Just a little bit more…”
While very effective and helpful when it comes to helping clients do what is necessary versus what is liked— extrinsic accountability requires a certain dependency on the coach. However, what happens when the coach is not available for a few sessions? That’s where intrinsic accountability plays an important role.Intrinsic Accountability has mechanisms similar to extrinsic accountability such as determining what actions need to be done and why. However, the intention is fundamentally different— this focusing on fixing it up so the individual is driven to fulfill the actions by their internal values and criteria rather than relying on the coach to “keep them on track” so to speak. This approach is helpful in making key actions feel more ‘natural’ to the client rather than forced. For example, if a client strongly values maintaining their physical fitness and well-being— one can leverage this criteria to link it to a high business priority such as hiring key executives to lessen their work burden. When the client sees how challenging business problems can be opportunities to fulfill their highest criteria— there is little need for an extrinsic motivating force.
2: WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING
Performance coaching is not limited to addressing poor performance— it is just as valuable in reinforcing existing strengths and accelerating an individual’s path of continual growth and development. Regardless of performance coaching styles, in our experience, the foundations of effective performance coaching can be distilled into the following 4 core components. We believe these core components are also what you should vet for when evaluating an executive coach for both competence and compatibility.
1: PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY & RAPPORT (HARD TO DELIVER HARD NEWS WITHOUT SAFETY)
Founders are often the source of safety for their investors and employees— not the other way around. However, everyone needs a safe-haven (secure base even) from which they can share, unpack, and dissolve any irrational fears that may be limiting their personal effectiveness. Often, these fears are not in their conscious awareness— an effective founder coach can provide a space and attention to surface them.
There are many dimensions to psychological safety and rapport— people who have experience successfully working through their own fears typically provide greater psychological safety to others. More importantly, they are less likely to judge someone for their fears, knowing that they often come from a well-intended place. We cannot stress how important it is to have a coach who provides a lot of psychological safety since it is the foundation for delivering hard news to the founder in a way that they recognize as good medicine.
When meeting a potential performance coaching candidate, ask yourself this question: How safe do I feel with this person?
2: MENTAL MANAGEMENT
Founders and early-stage CEO's have impressive supercomputer-like brains— even then they need to mentally defragment. Cognitive psychologist George A. Miller published a paper, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information”, proposes that human beings are able to hold approximately 7 (plus or minus 2) chunks of information in short-term memory at any given time. Private sessions that aren't limited by "Chinese Walls" can help you quickly organize disparate data-points, offload mental chunks, embrace new information, and develop your ideas.
When meeting a potential performance coaching candidate, ask yourself: How much more unburdened do I feel after this interaction?
3: EXPAND YOUR WORLDVIEW
Top founders see things that others don’t— even then they still have blindspots. Nobody has a 360-degree view of reality— breakthrough opportunities and approach lay beyond your peripheral vision. Effective performance coaching can help challenge your existing train of thought and offer new frames/perspectives which can lead to more effective sets of actions and behaviors.
When meeting a potential performance coaching candidate, ask yourself this question: Do their questions stimulate new thought, and/or challenge my existing way of thinking?
IN SUMMARY
Performance coaching for startup founders is a dynamic partnership which requires a combination of both tactical support, facilitation, and accountability. Just like startups must be nimble and respond to changes in an external environment— performance coaches must be nimble in order to assess and provide the style of coaching that the startup founder needs at a particular point in time.
At Polaris Alpha, we have codified a flexible organizing frame (the GOAT framework) that allows our coaching clients to:
G: Set and clarify meaningful goals.
O: Define obstacles and deconstruct them into their fundamental units.
A: Identify advantages (strengths and resources) to leverage.
T: Set meaningful tasks with consideration to the systemic impact it will have on their company.
Within each section, we can draw on numerous other sub-frames and influences to guide clients through their company-building journey— these frames cover the spectrum of tactics, facilitation, and accountability.