Last month I spent five days on a coaching course, developing my skills in that side of my work. Self-reflection is a big part of any coach’s journey.
The skills to be able to step outside yourself and observe objectively is one worth honing.
Which got me thinking about founders and self-reflection.
I thought about the questions I discuss with founders regularly in my work.
And the founders I’ve worked with will be super familiar with versions of these 10 questions:
- What’s the single sentence that describes your strategy and why it’s differentiated?
- What problem/s are you solving in our work and who are you solving them for?
- How are you shaping the culture of the company you need to build?
- Can everyone in the business tell me their own goals, how they relate to the company’s goals and how they’re doing against their goals?
- What are the five simple metrics that you and your leadership team look at regularly?
- As founder, are you playing on the pitch or managing/coaching from the sidelines?
- How systemised is your approach to selling and how predictable are the results that approach delivers?
- What’s your established pattern of leadership team meetings and 1-to-1s that give the business strategic and tactical cadence?
- Are all roles in the company clearly defined with the right people in the right seats for this stage?
- Are you hiring for today or tomorrow?
Taking a few minutes out to reflect on these questions pays back. Every time. The answers point to the next problem to solve for founders.