Hello, My dears!
The latest trend that's creating waves on the internet is #FounderMode.
English-American computer scientist Paul Graham popularised this term when he published an essay on his website, the term refers to unconventional or lesser-known ways to run a larger company or to scale up a start-up.
Paul Graham has given examples from the lives of successful founders like Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Jensen Huang, Brian Chesky and Elon Musk, and also sheds light on case studies of Airbnb. He concludes that the key to growing a successful company is to be more involved in the company’s operations.
This typically goes against what is being taught in business schools around the world — the conventional managerial approach.
Well, in my style I'd like to refer to it as functionally managing a company with an "immense sense of belongingness" and "true involvement" in every aspect, to the best of your ability and still working with the mindset of a solopreneur, irrespective of the scale or availability of resources.
Right off the bat, I bring in my own explanation simply because today's conversation is going to be about how to apply this in real life in the simplest signature Coach's Style which I strive to ensure is easy and relatable.
In order to make you understand how to relate it to my sense of belongingness aspect, let me break down the Founder Mode for easier understanding:
Deep involvement: Founders have to stay actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, even as it grows into a large organisation.
Hands-on approach: Founders should handle various details personally to ensure their vision and standards are met.
Quick decisions: Founders need to make quick decisions and are also the right people to make fast decisions as they don't have to run it up the chain of command, hence, enabling them to adapt to strategies quickly based on real-time feedback.
Preserving culture: Founders need to help maintain the company’s original culture and values by staying engaged, one of the most important aspects of an organisation is its signature work culture.
Time-tested and inspired by success: This approach is inspired by successful founders like Steve Jobs, who remained hands-on with their companies and the results prove its effectiveness.
How and why I bring in the concepts of 'sense of belongingness' and solopreneur:
When I say sense of belongingness, it relates to the deep involvement component of Founder Mode and includes the following important aspects:
1. The true sense of ownership, considering it as your child and/or feeling that it is mine. This is one of the crucial factors referred to in Founder Mode as in most cases, the managing comes to the forefront, and delegation of responsibility takes precedence.
2. The sense of belongingness plays a vital role in ensuring that you make the right decisions as you don't want any harm/hurt to affect your baby, but also ensures that you are involved.
The best example is of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang who has 50 direct reports who keep him abreast of what's happening in his company. Google him to find out how this works for him.
3. When the sense of belongingness is high, it motivates us to constantly upskill ourselves enough to be able to handle any function and/or to facilitate the hands-on approach which is crucial.
I link this with the solopreneur to enhance efficiency and to utilise the sense of belongingness mode. This ensures that we're not only multi-talented but also enables us to handle almost all tasks efficiently.
Solopreneurs, like founders in Founder Mode, are compelled to stay deeply involved in almost all of their business operations. This involvement not only fosters a personal connection with their work, but keeps the 'sense of belongingness' working on auto-pilot which leads to sustained motivation and satisfaction.
Also, engaging in every aspect of their business enables solopreneurs to ensure, their vision is realised and the standards that they had visualised are met.
The Coach's blueprint to get into your own customised "Founder's Mode".
Keeping the sense of belongingness and solopreneur concepts in mind, here are a few tips that you can use to switch into your very own Founder's Mode:
Ruthless, no-compromise time management:
The most precious resource which needs to be expended with utmost diligence is your time. To ensure this, the best approach has to be ruthless prioritisation, which will only be possible when you learn to say "no".
Consciously remember that time is a limited resource and with only limited hours in the day and a plethora of demands, learning to prioritise effectively is essential.
Delegate only those mundane tasks!:
Though the Founder Mode discourages this, the context is key. I only encourage you to delegate when you're sure it's a mundane task that doesn't require your involvement and when you're sure that it can be executed by someone else.
To facilitate this, ensure that you prioritise your tasks using different colours, add voice notes and pictures or develop a system that is easier for you to track.
It has been proven that this helps you understand and recalibrate yourself in case you're spending more time than required on tasks that actually don't warrant it.
Critical thinking, be your own devil's advocate!
The one aspect that the modern business world has taught us is to be analytical and data-driven, to be our own critic and be ready to handle worst-case scenarios.
I definitely don't say that instincts and intuition aren't important, they definitely are...but data is usually what is an eye-opener which is why data-driven decisions yield consistent, scalable outcomes.
Founders need to be adept at interpreting data, turning insights into actionable plans and also be able to think critically to understand their pain areas.
The Plan A, Plan B, Plan C / Worst case scenario testing mindset is the best!:
It has worked wonders for me.
Test everything — marketing strategies, product features, pricing models, product mix planning, and so on. When you establish an ABC testing framework, it not only ensures that every major decision is backed by data rather than pure assumptions, but it'll also help you to understand the areas in which your intuition and instincts are working and those areas where it's not.
Also, this results in continuous learning and helps you strike the right balance between thinking from the heart and thinking from the mind.
Make TPP a part of your process
TPP refers to the Third Person Perspective, even when we have the required data and consciously try to analyse the best path forward, we're all only humans after all and our humane side often sucks us into biases.
It's not very easy, but isn't tough either...
Learn to take a step back, dissociate and look at it from the perspective of a complete stranger. This technique helps in numerous ways, mainly to break biases and to help understand from a Birds eye view.
Doing it alone isn't really possible!
I might sound like a hypocrite but I stress the fact that by thinking and acting like a solopreneur with the strongest sense of belongingness, you'll definitely need people and need to hire people. But the key lies in hiring the right people.
I recently read the importance of hiring "T Shaped Talent" and I'm sure it works wonders here. T Shaped talent refers to individuals or teams who possess deep expertise in one area, but are also flexible and versatile enough to contribute across functions in different roles. This adaptability is crucial in dictating success, especially for start-ups.
The more "me" the merrier!
Imagine if we had clones of ourselves who we could work with in tandem. Wow, that's the dream, right?
Well, here's where the sense of belongingness comes into the limelight.
It's not just about hiring T-shaped talent, if you can manage to build a culture where every team member feels like an owner, not just an employee, the results are astounding.
This means giving them autonomy, decision-making power, and a stake in the company’s success, whether through equity or other forms of recognition.
In short, make them intrapreneurs! You're not only creating owners rather than employees, but are also making them the key stakeholders which pushes them to go the extra mile by being self-motivated.
The one KEY aspect that I have to talk about: Mental Health!
Mental health plays a vital role in Founder Mode, especially in building resilience and also in achieving work-life balance. The intense grind can take a toll on your mental health and it's crucial to establish a system to manage stress and avoid burnout.
The best advice: Work with the natural you
The most common mistake I've seen many make is going against their natural rhythm.
I'm not at all an early bird, I am actually a midnight owl, I do my best work when the whole world is asleep. The more I tried to adjust my circadian rhythm, the more out of sync my life was actually going.
Remember that each and every one is unique, we have natural peaks and troughs in energy throughout the day and night. Understanding and optimising your work schedule around these cycles can dramatically improve productivity. The best part is you'll be naturally on an overdrive!
All work and no play...
Irrespective of how passionate you are about your work... too much is too bad, isn't it? To ensure that you reduce the risk of burnout, make it a point to have strict completely detached times in your day.
During this time, commit to activities that help you recharge, whether it's spending time with family, engaging in a hobby, working out, or simply relaxing. Treat this time as non-negotiable, just like an important meeting and absolutely no excuses!
To strive and thrive in Founder Mode requires a delicate balance between strategic vision and relentless execution. By adopting these advanced strategies, founders can optimise their time, build resilient teams, make data-driven decisions, and stay mentally healthy in the face of constant pressure.
Success in entrepreneurship comes not just from hard work, but from working smart and leveraging the tools, frameworks, and mindsets that allow you to navigate the challenges ahead.
As I sign off, I wish every entrepreneur out there the very best in their future endeavours and hope today's conversation helps you reach greater heights!
With Regards,
Adarsh Benakappa Basavaraj
Founder of Positivity, always!
