Every entrepreneur needs to ask herself or himself this question?
It is extremely important for entrepreneurs and founding team members to have coaches. Good coaches watch you closely, point your errors, provide tips to improve your performance, fine-tune your practices, and above all remain interested in your success.
If you ask ‘why do i need this?’ or ‘why do i need a coach?’ – stop reading this blog right now! Come back when you feel the need.
For those who agree that having a coach matters, or even better yearn for a good coach, read on.
The world is filled with more coaches than practitioners. The truth is highly visible in the arena of entrepreneurship. You come across many who claim to be entrepreneurship coaches. Unfortunately, many of them do not have any influence on entrepreneurs, and most toot their own horns. But, as Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle beautifully capture in this wonderful book — effective coaches are probably the team’s best kept secret.
The story of Bill Campbell and why he was called “Silicon Valley’s Best Kept Secret” details in many ways who makes a good coach. The first and most critical aspect being Campbell’s willingness to be kept a secret. Despite being the coach to most of Silicon Valley’s greats, he virtually remained a non-celebrity. His relationship with Steve Jobs is not widely spoken about. Many wonder if a personality like Steve Jobs would care to have a coach. You will be surprised when you read this book. The list of who Bill Campbell coached has the who’s who of the entrepreneurship world, especially in Silicon Valley. Yet, the man remained virtually unknown.
There are many wonderful lessons that coaches and entrepreneurial leaders can take away — focus on people, treat them lovingly and compassionately, build teams, choose the best ideas, protect aberrant geniuses, listen carefully, give generously, etc. One aspect that stood out well, especially for coaches is — coach only the coachable. Who are these coachables — individuals who are honest and humble; willing to persevere and work hard; and remain open to learning.
But, in this story, also lies a subtle lesson for most people who claim to be or wish to be good coaches. The focus of coaching should be on the performance of the player, not the coach. For this, you have to develop the ability to avoid attention, avoid constant display of abilities, choose to remain quiet, develop compassion, be loving, and focus on developing oneself to help the other. These qualities border on what one claims to be philosophical, probably explaining why most so-called coaches don’t get far. Bill’s story explains how Earthly coaches work. His influence can be seen in the foundations and phenomenal success of trillion dollar organizations such as Apple, Google, and Intuit.
For entrepreneurs, the central message is – choose your coaches and mentors wisely. Be careful to choose someone who truly: values player performance; commits to your journey; remains available especially in difficult times; someone who shuns attention. Apart from this central message, there are several interesting tidbits of wisdom all over the book. Many stories about how entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and hundreds of others. Soak it up and use it, until you find your own coach.
For scholars of entrepreneurship, similar lessons apply. While you may strive to find a good coach or mentor like Bill Campbell from the scholarly world, you may also explore research questions such as: what kind of entrepreneurs search for coaches; how does the coach-player connection come about; who makes a good coach; can coaches be trained/educated; should educators develop coaching skills, behaviors and attitudes; are these skills, behaviors and attitudes, values dependent? And so many more…
For those of you who may be interested in reading this book, here is the reference information: Schmidt, E., Rosenberg, R., and Eagle, A. (2019). Trillion dollar coach: The leadership handbook of silicon valley’s Bill Campbell. John Murray.
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