I’ve met thousands of founders, I’ve spoken intimately with hundreds and had coaching relationships with many. Sanctus, my mental health in the workplace brand, delivered tens of thousands of coaching sessions where I employed 50 coaches and interviewed hundreds more.
So, with all this context, I’ve come to a conclusion.
Most founders don’t need a coach.
They need something else.
Founders are like professional athletes
Here’s the problem. Founders are always doing something hard, unique and uncertain. Most people just don’t get it.
Founders are like professional athletes. A professional tennis player wouldn’t work with a PT, they’d work with a tennis coach or a strength and conditioning coach specific to tennis.
Founders can benefit from working with typical coaches like exec coaches, life coaches or transformative coaches. They can also benefit from therapy. Yet in my experience it doesn’t always give the founder the support they need.
Sometimes, working with these coaches might even have the opposite effect. Taking the founder down a road of confusion about who they are and what they are here for.
Founders need coaching about being founders
Founders don’t only need coaching on being a better person or a better job function.
They need something that is more relatable to the dramatic nature of being a founder.
Being a founder is a job itself and it is a function you can become good at.
It is an identity too.
Too often founders try and quickly become “something else”. They try and grow up too fast and become a professional CEO.
Mostly themselves and their businesses would benefit from them being founders for longer.
Founder coaching is a mix of coaching, advising and mentoring
In my experience founders need a mix of coaching, advising and mentoring.
All 3, all at once, all at the same in the space of 5 minutes on a call.
They need to be speaking with someone who has been a founder before.
Most coaches would disagree with this.
They would rightly say that a good coach can relate and empathise with anyone and does not need to understand the content.
My argument here is that the field of practice for a founder is so important, so engrained into who they are and what they do - that if a coach doesn’t understand the nature of their work as a founder then the coaching fails to achieve its impact and the coach fails to build trust with the client which is fundamental to an impactful coaching relationships
Most founders don’t need a life coach, executive coach or transformational coach
Most founders don’t need a life coach.
Most founders don’t need an executive coach.
Most founders don’t need a transformational coach.
Most founders need a founder coach.
Someone who has been a founder and who can move freely between coach, mentor and advisor.
Founder coaching vs life coaching and therapy
If you are a founder and you want a better life, a better relationship or better mental health, then life coaching or therapy is suited for you.
But let’s be clear: there is no guarantee this will improve you as a “founder”.
It just may improve you as a person, which is great.
Founder coaching vs executive coaching
If you are a founder and you want to be a better CEO/Leader then executive coaching may be for you.
But let’s be clear: this isn’t guaranteed to make you a better founder, because most exec coaches know something about leadership, not the act of founding or creating something from nothing.
They will work on leadership models and KPIs and management techniques - they won’t whisper to you about how to be more creative.
What do most founders actually want?
Most founders want to be a better founder.
They want to grow their business and grow their life all at the same time.
They want a bit of everything.
They want to be a good person and they want a good business.
They want to grow as a person and grow their business.
Their identity, health and happiness is directly linked to the growth of their business - this is something to watch out for but it’s also something to totally accept as a vital strength in the early years.
What kind of founder needs a founder coach?
The specific nature of the founder I’m talking about is the one who is still figuring it out.
The one who isn’t in the rinse and repeat stage yet.
If you are in the rinse and repeat stage of your business, work with an exec coach about the scaling model you need to grow.
This isn’t about revenue milestones.
It’s about maturity.
If you are in the build phase, the phase where you are still figuring stuff out that only you can figure out - then I am talking to you.
You are the type of founder who would benefit from working with a founder coach beyond anyone else.
