Leadership
The Rise of the Human-Centric CEO
Authors note: I co-authored this post with Romeen Sheth, President of Metasys. It originally was published in TechCrunch. “Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO” by Ben Horowitz is one of the most commonly cited management think pieces of the last decade. And for good reason. Horowitz has surfaced a fundamental distinction in
An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Finding a Coach
I’m frequently asked by entrepreneurs, investors and friends how to find and select a coach. It turns out there aren’t a ton of useful resources out there. I figured this was a timely opportunity to create and publish a comprehensive guide to help those leaders committed to professional
A Weekend In The Woods With EVRYMAN
Several weeks ago, I ventured up to the Berkshires on a cold Friday morning to participate in a three day intensive retreat organized by a powerful organization called EVRYMAN. I‘ve been involved in nearly a dozen trainings and retreats over the past two years. This one stretched me and
I Got A 360° Review. Here Are My Results.
Earlier this year, my partners Ben and Brad pulled me aside and explained they were hiring a coach to assess their leadership effectiveness and help them identify areas for personal and professional growth. The coach used a tool called The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), a 360° assessment that measures and
How Shake Shack Taught Me To Be A Better VC
One of the internal areas I focus on at Primary is what we call the ‘founder journey.’ This is the end-to-end experience that a founder has with Primary. It includes everything from the initial intro email all the way through post investment support. As a startup, we strive to be
The Five Factors of Change
Why is it so hard for organizations to change? I ask myself this question frequently. Having helped build and invested in dozens of companies throughout my career, I’ve seen first hand how challenging it can be to drive real organizational transformation. Advising and coaching on organizational change can be
John Wooden on Success
John Wooden is arguably the greatest men’s basketball coach of all time. He led UCLA to ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year span. Within this period, his teams won a NCAA men's basketball record 88 consecutive games. Over the weekend, I was browsing YouTube and discovered his TED
Standards of Performance & Organizational Values
I recently finished reading the seminal leadership book, The Score Takes Care of Itself, by Bill Walsh, the legendary 49ers Head Coach. In 1979 when Walsh took over the 49ers, the franchise was the laughing stock of the NFL as it managed to win only two games that season. However,
What Jeff Bezos Thinks Is Cool
I just finished reading the book, The Everything Store, which chronicles the life of Jeff Bezos and the rise of Amazon. Towards the end of the book, the author, Brad Stone, tells a story about Bezos’s quest to understand how Amazon could be admired and not hated as the
What Startups Can Learn from Bill Belichick
“There is an old saying about the strength of the wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it’s the strength of the unit and how they all