
The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (2011) - 001sky
http://bhorowitz.com/2011/04/01/what%E2%80%99s-the-most-difficult-ceo-skill-managing-your-own-psychology/
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bane
I've been a co-founder a couple of times, but never a CEO. At one startup (not
a co-founder, but was around it before it started), we took on a new CEO (new
to us, first time CEO to him) to try and get the company directed the right
way. For a time we did. About a year after that we hit a snag and things
started going south.

Sometime during all of this the CEO took a pay cut, and then simply checked
out (BAD BAD BAD). We ended up in a crisis and with nobody at the helm to
guide us through it the crisis got worse. Executive decisions were made, but
without a corporate officer to direct liability to, things were very
"sketchy". Eventually it got so bad the investors decided to sell the company
off and recoup what they could, but needed the CEO to stay on for some legal
reasons -- they gave him no pay, he provided no interaction with anybody in
the company. It was beyond unpleasant.

Talking with him later on he admitted he was embarrassed things had gone the
way they did, but justified his behavior that half pay means half time and no
pay means no time. There was some realization that with a few simple decisions
early on (when it was just a snag) probably would have resulted in no pay cut
and full time, plus a graceful exit. But hindsight is 20/20 and it's an
experience that he and the management learned tremendously from.

TL;DR The real problem was that when times were good, he was the captain of a
proud, well run sailing ship at full sail. When we ended up in a storm, his
psychology told him to take cover, even as the ship sank into the abyss.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I'll relate a similar anecote; dot com exploding crisis in the board room,
frozen management. I reached out to Scott McNealy and asked how at Sun we had
hit rough times and it got painful but it never got stuck. His response
changed my whole take on things. He said,

"Chuck nobody knows what they are going to be when the chips are down, they
can think they will be a tiger but they sometimes they discover they are the
deer, and stare transfixed at the headlights. The best you can do is test
people early to get a sense of how they respond and move the ones who can't
act in a crisis into safer jobs."

I have found this to be very accurate advice. People who you wouldn't think
would freeze up can (and do) and people who you felt were meek and softspoken
can suddenly stand up and take charge. Its the fight-or-flight instinct and
its wired in the part of the brain you don't have a lot of control over. It
sounds like your CEO friend discovered he couldn't take the pressure and ran.
It can be a shameful place for a proud person, it has driven people to
suicide. Understanding that its not under your conscious control can help.

~~~
bane
A really excellent insight. It's amazing how people take on entirely new
mantles when things get tough, and you just simply can't predict that that
will look like.

It reminds me of the Mastermind Rational role variant in the Keirsey
Temperament Sorter [1]. A personality type that doesn't want to lead, but when
crisis hits and they feel leadership has let them down, will take charge and
get shit done. It's a good kind of reserve person to keep in the wings I
think.

I don't know of a corollary for the opposite though, who want to lead, but
shut down at the first sign of trouble -- even though it seems to be a
favorite archetype of writers.

[1] - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(role_variant)>

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mduerksen
As a side note, the picture at the end shows the last second of the great
fight between Diego Corrales and José Luis Castillo[1][2].

Round 10: After being knocked down twice and hardly beating the clock,
Corrales turns the match, traps his opponent against the ropes and causes the
referee to end the fight.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Corrales_vs._Jose_Luis_Ca...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Corrales_vs._Jose_Luis_Castillo)

[2] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imZaiGJgbsw>

~~~
gadders
And then poor old Corrales dies in a motorbike crash in Vegas :-(

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Grovara123
Amazing write up - quite informative - interesting how non-CEO's do not
understand and greatly underestimate the value a good CEO brings to the
equation.

It's easy to talk about the CEO when he is not listening or present... but
they can't imagine the work behind the scenes.

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bpatrianakos
Most difficult CEO skill? That's a life skill. Not to dismiss how hard it must
be to be a CEO because I couldn't imagine it but those lessons apply
everywhere. Replace the word CEO with the word life and you have an article
about how to manage the stress of everyday life.

Edit: I really really don't want to sound dismissive, that's really not the
intent.

~~~
sliverstorm
Just because something is a crucial life skill doesn't mean it can't also be a
critical CEO skill, or any other job-skill for that matter.

~~~
bpatrianakos
Like I said, I wasn't saying that. I wasn't being dismissive. I was just
observing that this is a skill that applies very broadly. I read it, got it,
liked it, then thought "hey, that actually applies everywhere". It's not a
knock against the author or the article. Just my reaction.

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ccollins
Previously discussed on HN 535 days ago, still a good article:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2396120>

~~~
001sky
Edited the title to (2011).

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rehack
"If you focus on the wall, you will drive right into it. If you focus on the
road, you will follow the road. Running a company is like that. " and “I
didn’t quit.”

I am going to engrave the above mentioned quotes in gold* and put it on my
wall.

* - Or just have my young kid write it with a pencil on a paper and put it on my wall.

~~~
kirse
Haha, it's a great life lesson no doubt. I learned this concept a few years
ago when I first started to ride a motorcycle, and they have a phrase for it -
target fixation:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_fixation>

What amazed me more was how the fundamentals of riding a motorcycle contained
many great life lessons. It's not just target fixation, but rider awareness,
maintaining margin, and all sorts of other little things.

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hasenj
As a developer I also find my psychology difficult to manage ..

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tomasien
Most difficult CEO skill? Raising money.

Seriously, have without a HUGE network or traction/lots of revenue it's almost
statistically a miracle to make it happen.

Great article though, just pointing out the obvious.

~~~
001sky
_Relevant_ : Author's job is handing out the money

<http://bhorowitz.com/about/>

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JimmaDaRustla
The author forgot to attach his sources.

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yeoldestuff
At first I thought this title said "The Most Difficult SEO Skill?"

I was thinking someone's conscience finally caught up with them. Only to
discover this is just more Internet VC gibberish. Oh well.

~~~
buu700
VC gibberish? I found this to be pretty insightful, and valuable life advice
in general.

~~~
yeoldestuff
You are getting valuable life advice from an internet venture capitalist? I
will say a prayer for you.

~~~
dasil003
The ad-hominem is unnecessary and unfounded. Ben Horowitz has a legit
entrepreneurial track record, and he generally says pretty smart and useful
stuff.

