Patrick Schmitt and Jenny Xia Spradling talk about running a company as co-CEOs. They cover how they make decisions together, what works about shared leadership, and the specific challenges that come with splitting the top job.
It's such a joy. And sometimes I wonder how people do it alone. I mean, I think that leadership can be quite lonely. And having a co CEO has been the best. It started out, a lot of people end up co CEOs because they can't figure it out the beginning and that's usually a mistake. We actually didn't start as co CEO. So originally I'd come to Jenny with the idea. I ended up being CEO. Jenny was, among other things, chief product officer, cfo, all these other things. And about, gosh, eight months in we looked up and said it's not really reflecting how the company's actually running. We're really splitting things down the middle. We make a lot of decisions together. Jenny owns a whole big portion of the company, Patrick owns a whole big portion of the company from a decision making standpoint. And also I think we both are invested in the idea of having more female CEOs in the world. But really it was more the case that this was just how we were operating and it was worth recognizing that. Now what you can end up is people ask dad something and dad says no. So they go ask mom. Right. What it benefited from historically and continue to do so is just hyper clarity of decision making and roles. Right. So we're co CEOs, we do not have the same role. Right. Jenny oversees a whole bunch of finance and tech and our people team. I oversee a whole bunch of our sales and marketing, our partner success and some other things. And there aren't decisions where either one can make it. And then when we're going to decision together, the first question is always, okay, whose decision is this? Before we get into negotiating it or talking about it and because what you don't want to do is sort of like split the baby and end up with a compromise that's not really good. But it's sort of between what you think saying, okay, well this one's Jenny's decision means I can say, okay, here are all the things I know and I trust that you're a brilliant person who is kind and thoughtful and believes in free will and you'll make the best decision. And so you end up with like shared sort of shared discovery as opposed to negotiation and we end up in much better outcomes. Jenny, what do we miss?
Yeah, I mean, I think Patrick mentioned this a bit, but being a CEO is really lonely, you know, and having someone just to celebrate the highs with, but also to go through the lows with. I mean, I remember in the early days the California Bar association reached out and was like we are going to shut you down. And Patrick and I are still students at this point. Were like, oh, my gosh, this is never going to work. We are like, you know, dead in the water month three. And just to be able to take a step back and really brainstorm together, what are we going to do about this? And not have, you know, egos or titles or things kind of in the way. I think that that was. That was really helpful.
O processo de reconhecer limites, mesmo quando a vida parece exigir sempre mais.
Depois de tantas histórias, aprendizados e pausas necessárias, o @interior_iza está de volta
