PERSPECTIVE LIFT | Turning Tunnel Vision Into Target Action

In today’s coaching session my client, founder of a startup that received its first seed investment told me: “I feel like I'm all over the map. Yet I can’t see what is left or right of me. Drives me crazy." What he was describing as a paradox making him wonder whether he was losing his mind, is a common case of tunnel vision. In my coaching practice I have seen many founders - new founders in particular - mentally enter a state of combat. It’s an almost inevitable default mode: the burning desire to make it work, incredibly high levels of uncertainty, daily bugs to fix and the ticking time clock surmount in a strong cocktail of emotions. To cope with the number of real and self-imposed OKR’s, tunnel vision becomes a startup founder's new normal: zooming in on the target, blocking out anything happening on the periphery and losing the ability to see beyond. Like in a real combat situation those surrounding details can prove to be valuable and, in worst case, fatal if not spotted early. Intense focus is a go-to-strategy for startup founders, yet a better way is hiding in plain sight.

Executive Coaching, EntrepreneurshipJasmin RahimNovember 7, 2022startuplife, Leadership, Performance

QUALITY SELECTION | Hiring successfully is a matter of your attitude

“I still struggle with the vibe check”, he said. In today’s coaching session my client, a serial founder of 17+ years currently hiring for his growing fin-tech company shared that he finds it difficult to spot a good hire."Hiring is hard. I don't like it.", he admitted. This is not about finding people with the right skill set and comparing resume-driven data. Having an attractive company seems like an ideal position to hire quality talent. In reality, it can make it harder.

Leading the casting call is challenging for the most experienced leader. Whilst delegating this historically less favored founder task seems like the time-saving, convenient solution, it is unlikely to play out well in the long-haul. Think about the first 10 people in your company – each hire is 10% of your company. It becomes obvious that composing a good team is foundational to your success, not just in numbers but also in how well you are going to fare when the unforeseeable happens.

Executive Coaching, EntrepreneurshipJasmin RahimOctober 6, 2022Leadership, Decision-Making, Hiring

CREATIVE POWER | Effective and joyous

What role does creativity play in your work? Do you consider yourself creative, or not at all? Creativity, for two years in a row made it on top of LinkedIn’s most valuable soft skill list. Connecting dots—that are seemingly unrelated—to generate original, useful and interesting solutions is an incredibly valuable skill in every business, regardless of what industry or country you’re doing business in. The challenge however is, to overcome old patterns and bias for safety as Creativity is coupled with uncertainty. The willingness to embrace the discomforting feeling is well worth it though - guaranteeing effectiveness, originality and joy in doing your work.

BLOG