Many times in the early days of running our first company, I lost my temper with an employee. I criticized and I complained. If things weren’t done exactly as I wanted them or if someone had not lived up to my impossibly high expectations, I was pretty vocal in my displeasure. I didn’t go on rampages, and I didn’t scream at the top of my lungs. But I would be too candid, too firm, too upset, too frank, too unpleasant about whatever the disappointment was.Here’s how I learned to contain my emotions at work.
Vision, Values & Culture
How I lost My Ability to Do Deep Work
I only have a few entrepreneurial regrets, and losing my ability to do deep work is one of them. As we grew, I wasn’t doing the deep work myself anymore, I was supervising the people who did the deep work…I blame myself and the choices I made that let me slip into this distraction-filled, adrenaline-fueled existence. A company needs its leaders to do deep work, so this was definitely a shortcoming of mine. I was allowing the shallow, urgent work take all of my attention, and lulling myself into thinking that was my job. Here’s how I am fixing it.
Managing a Successful Work From Home Policy Takes Some Trial and Error
I was a very late adopter to adopting a work from home culture in my last company. Here’s how I came around, and a few guidelines that worked well for us as we fully embraced a remote workforce.
A Really Simple Approach to Giving Employee Feedback
I’ve given feedback that landed perfectly and was received well. But I’ve also botched the delivery more times than I care to think about.
Feedback is important. How it’s delivered, how it’s received, how it’s acted on and how it’s followed up on all matters. It’s a key skill of a great leader.There are three questions I ask myself that help me get it right.
Video: A Really Simple Approach to Giving Employee Feedback
Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? A manager’s framework for providing feedback the right way.
In Your Entrepreneurial Stress Getting in the Way of Running a Great Company?
If you are an entrepreneur running a bootstrapped business, there are periods of time you will be stressed. Very stressed. Like, the word “stressed” doesn’t do the actual feeling justice.
You might be unimaginably, incomprehensibly, unsustainably stressed 110% of the time, actually.
Run Your Company for Good Glassdoor Reviews. And Also Don’t.
The first time I heard about Glassdoor was at one of our company happy hours, probably in 2012. Our Boston team was in town, and we took the entire company, then about 40-ish people in total, out for a private happy hour at a local bar. Looking back, this moment marked a loss of innocence for me.
My Backstory as a Bootstrapped SaaS CEO
Beacon9 is the blogging and consulting vehicle for my co-founder (and wife) Anna Talerico and myself. It was born immediately after our acquisition.
