How much transformation can you handle?
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Hi Reader, I had a client ask me this question recently: “When entrepreneurs are going through massive personal transformation, how do they integrate that with the intensity of running a startup?” Here’s what I told him: If you can’t handle transformation on the inside, you won’t be able to handle it on the outside. Every external breakthrough in a company requires a nervous system strong enough to hold the chaos and change it creates. Without that foundation, you’ll unconsciously resist the very transformation your business needs. There have been several different occasions where I look at a company's culture and it tells me about the CEO’s consciousness. I was once doing a company offsite and working with the CEO, and I said to him “Your anxiety is going to destroy this company” in front of his entire team. They were doing paired exercises — but they stopped immediately and fell silent to listen to his response. “How did you know?” he said. I responded: “Because your entire team is anxious.” He said “Holy crap,” looked around the room, saw everyone’s faces and their concern, and then asked me: “How do I change that?” For the next couple months we worked together to regulate his nervous system so he wouldn’t be operating from anxiety. His business grew for the next two quarters, and his people were happier. Your nervous system is the keel of your companyThe most successful founders I’ve seen tend to their nervous systems. Bill Gates disappeared into the woods every quarter for a “Think Week” with nothing but books and notebooks. Steve Jobs practiced Zen meditation and took long, meandering walks. I do five-day silent retreats on a regular basis to clear my mind and return to myself. Why does this matter? Transformation goes beyond intellectual. It's physiological. When you train your body to stay open through inner upheaval, you become the kind of leader who can shepherd radical external change without collapsing under the weight of it. What I often see is this: Massive internal change → Massive external growth. Your nervous system capacity determines how you carry your vision, your team, and the future of your company. Tend to it, and it will allow you to transform at every scale. Big Love, Joe This newsletter is brought to you by The Council. |
Art of Accomplishment
Hi Reader, A few years ago, I worked with a leadership team at a Series C software company. On paper, they were perfectly aligned. Strategic plans were approved unanimously. Everyone nodded in meetings. Decisions passed without friction. And yet nothing moved. Projects stalled, timelines slipped, and initiatives that everyone had "agreed to" kept getting quietly deprioritized. The CEO was baffled. How could a team that agreed on everything execute on nothing? When we dug in, we found the...
Hi Reader, A few years ago, I worked with the CEO of a fast-growing company. He was deeply committed to his people: Generous with equity, flexible on hours, always available. But his company had a problem. They couldn't kill anything. Every initiative seemed to live forever. Their roadmap was cluttered with half-finished projects. Teams were stretched thin, saying yes to everything and finishing nothing. He kept trying to fix it with reorgs, new prioritization frameworks, or hiring new...
Hi Reader, In our last email, we explored the first pillar: We all want to be part of something exceptional. The desire to contribute, to win together, to be part of something meaningful are all already there in your people. The work is about unlocking that hunger. Let's dive in to the second pillar of fulling leadership: Pillar Two: Where it hurts is where you'll grow We point to this frequently in terms of self-discovery: Your triggers are a gift. They tell you where your unexamined...