In one sentence: Analyse a startup business back and front, top and bottom.
Benefits:
- Create clarity for the startup team regarding the business idea;
- Voice and address any hard realities and challenges; and
- Define best next steps.
This is the type of process I wish I had when I set up my first startup. We had a great idea, a solid team but there were a host of pitfalls and blind spots that we really weren’t willing to stare down. This process looks to split out the inevitable emotions coursing through the veins of any startup team from the facts and hard realities. Wishful thinking is an almost inevitable pitfall especially as team members are emotionally and financially invested in the business. It can be hard to be objective and address uncomfortable questions such as:
- Is the business model solid?
- Do we have the right team?
- Are we implementing the model in the best way?
- What are our blind spots?
So the invitation is to take the time to step off the treadmill and see what you might learn as you slow down and shift perspective.
Nurturing Curiosity – Daily Practice: This is part of the Nurturing Curiosity series of tools, insights and questions designed to help nurture curiosity as part of our daily practice. In point of fact, every interaction we have is an opportunity to question what we are observing and how we and others are seeing the world. Also remember that questions come in many forms throughout our day. Startups are unusual environments. In order to defy the odds, it is often necessary for the founders to defy reality and become somewhat fanatical about the business.
This makes perfect sense in those early days – they need to transmit belief because if they don’t believe in their baby, who will? And yet, this can become a real challenge when the business moves beyond the start-up stage and starts to scale. At this point a new mindset is required. In ways, founders need to continually ask themselves How might I be holding the business back? Who does the business need me to become? Am I the right person to make this journey?
About Tom O’Leary
Tom guides bold pioneers through inner transitions towards regenerative futures.
His primary offering – through a process he calls Ecological Coaching – is about working with leaders on the mindset, skillset and structural shifts that will power their organisation’s outer transition.
This means helping leaders thrive while creating ripples of positive change within their organisation and most importantly for the communities they serve and ultimately life on this planet.
It is thus not just about the leader as an “individual” but rather as part of an ecology of relationships. Within this ecology, he helps the leader feel heard, gain clarity, take action, build confidence and thrive all in service of something bigger.
How Might Tom Help?
- My first invitation is to take maximum advantage of the free content on this site.
As you are reading this, you are clearly on a fascinating journey. If you feel you would benefit from us doing some work together on some aspect of your journey, please explore this page: How Can I Serve?
- I also endeavour to answer every email so if you have any queries do reach out.
