Rachel Lockett: belief

Transcript context

…Co-founders typically come to me either in this early phase where they want to intentionally build something great and they want to set it up for success. More often co-founders come when they're really frustrated with one another. They feel the tension is palpable. They can't stand it anymore, but they're still really deeply committed to the business so they don't see an out. And they knew that at some point they really loved this cofounder, so they see a possibility of recovering, and that's why they want to go get a coach. I'm going to give you an example of this PR duo running a fierce business scaling really fast. And at one point when they started, you had the visionary who was great at selling business. They were both incredible with PR, and the partner was incredible operationally. So as the business scaled, one took on a lot more business development and the other took on all the internal things, but was exhausted by all this people management and all of the elements of running a scaled team that she didn't expect to have to do. And when they came, I think both of them weren't sure, can we figure this out? Do we want to just sell this thing? Do we want to keep going? And I think someone said, "End it or send," was what one co-founder said to me. They're coming at this decision point. And what I saw them do is, one, they named current state really well. They were both able to share. We did use a 360. So they got feedback from their teams and then shared it with one another, but they were able to be open and vulnerable in what was working and what wasn't working. Not immediately, but over time. And they realized they used to love being partners in this work, but as they began to lead different teams, they grew very distant from one another. They were living on opposite sides of the country and actually just coming together and realizing what each other was missing and how lonely it is to lead this scaling company without each other's support and how they actually needed the counterbalance to their strengths and didn't have it was a important start to their healing. And over our coaching, they turned back towards each other and they created more of a rhythm of how they would get together without me involved. And they ended coaching after our arc feeling renewed and really recommitted. They made some changes on their leadership team to fill their gaps. They also started, I think, meeting once a week virtually, and they started a cadence of getting together in person quarterly. And I don't mean to say that just that time means you're going to heal, sometimes coming together and really grappling. I had one last week where we all came together, we had a great full day in-person discussion about how they were making this co-founder duo, how they were making decisions. ether and really grappling. I had one last week where we all came together, we had a great full day in-person discussion about how they were making this co-founder duo, how they were making decisions. And after that conversation, it was really clear that one of the co-founders was unhappy and didn't appreciate the other one and was not going to change and realized he was a big part of the problem and I think is going to leave the business. But that's still success because it's clarity. You're not muddling in the dark, frustrated, unconscious about the interpersonal dynamics you're in, you're making a choice based on your strengths and what the business needs and this relationship dynamic that you're in to either be in it or to lovingly step out of it. I love how similar this is to just the marriage, all this stuff. This is the same sort of thing you would do.…

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