Earlier this month, Cowboy Ventures’ Ted Wang joined us at TechCrunch Early Stage: Marketing and Fundraising, where he spoke about executive coaching and why he encourages founders in his portfolio to have a CEO coach. Wang, who has an executive coach himself, sees coaching as a key way to drive sustained personal growth, a factor that he believes separates the middling CEOs from the best ones.
Why CEOs need coaching
Just like professional athletes at the top of their game still need coaching, executives can need external validation and comment on where they are and aren’t delivering, Wang says. These insights can be tough for executives to catch on their own and might require a level of honesty that can be challenging for a CEO to expect from anyone involved with their company.
Roger Federer — the famous tennis player who has won 20 Grand Slam events — he has a coach, but he doesn’t just have a coach, he has a coach for tennis. I’m pretty sure Roger knows the rules of the game and all the different strokes he needs to hit, so why would he have a coach? The answer is really that it’s about having a second set of eyes; when you’re in the moment … it’s hard to be able to see yourself and assess yourself. (Timestamp: 4:52)
Coaches can help entrepreneurs reflect and reframe the things being communicated with them.
A good example — you might be at a board meeting and one of your board members is being critical of your VP of marketing, and one way to think of that is “Oh, OK, here are some things we need to solve for this person,” but another point of view that a coach might open your eyes to, is actually maybe this person thinks you’re not hiring the right people. (Timestamp: 8:59)
While advisers can help startups navigate tactical situations, therapists may be more focused on helping clients navigate emotional states and improve themselves. Coaching exists in a very nebulous gray area between startup advisers and licensed therapists, Wang says, but coaching is more focused on improving yourself as a business leader rather than solving a particularly vexing startup issue.
An adviser is really someone that can help you … with these very tactical things because they’ve done it before. It’s like, here’s how you approach a fundraise, here’s how you fire someone who’s difficult, here’s how you resolve the conflict between your VP of product and your VP of engineering. (Timestamp: 6:18)
While advisers are often people who have been in your exact shoes before, executive coaches may not have the same experiences, but if they do their jobs well, that won’t matter, Wang says.
Coaches are really more about how you’re doing — they’re really more about understanding your personality, how you relate to people and the things that trigger you to be defensive, the things that make you open and curious. … I don’t think you need to limit advice from people who are “been there, done that.” I think it is really important to get input from those people, but in terms of personal development, I think you want insight from people who understand how human beings listen and learn and grow. (Timestamp: 18:29)
Another thing that executive coaches can be particularly helpful with is aiding CEOs in prioritizing their time and ensuring that they’re putting their attention where it’s best spent or where it best highlights their expertise or interests. This kind of coaching can help executives shift from measuring their progress in terms of how a company is executing on its key performance indicators (KPIs) to how their own KPIs are progressing.
You’re fighting fires all day long, and a coach can come and look and be like, “Well, you told me the three most important things for the company are A, B and C. How are the things you’re doing this week related to A, B and C?” (Timestamp: 10:22)
How to find a coach
In addition to navigating why an executive might want a coach in the first place, Wang’s presentation also digs into the challenges of actually finding one and some of his guidelines for locking down a solid coach. Prospective clients should have a pretty good idea of where they’re looking to get assistance before they start a search, Wang says, because this can help them zero in a coach with more specific expertise.
Some resources you might consider, there’s a company called Prismaticco that I really like that helps you identify and match coaches. It’s not that expensive, and they go through a process where they source you with a bunch of coaches and they help you think through what you want, so I really like that group. Word-of-mouth is obviously another critical way that you can get them. I find if you ask people who their coaches are and whether [they] could recommend someone, I find that that’s really useful. If you’re moving forward, I’d really suggest that you interview this person because part of this is that there are some quality things and some stylistic things, and you want a real style fit. (Timestamp: 13:23)
Users can turn to specific services that match CEOs with coaches or rely more on word-of-mouth recommendations, but either way, they should check references and be sure they’re thoughtful about gauging how the relationship is developing early on.
When you’re talking to this person, you want to be excited to pick up the phone and tell them “Hey, I just did this great thing!” or “Hey, I’m really worried about something and I want to talk something through.” If you don’t feel that way, that’s probably a problem. (Timestamp: 14:21)
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