This is a transcript of podcast episode #211: an interview of executive coach Alisa Cohn by host Nishant about coaching startup founders. Core themes: common founder challenges (awareness of CEO role, rapid adaptation required in high-growth settings), tailoring leadership styles to different direct reports, using 360-degree feedback to surface blind spots, and improving conscious communication. Alisa emphasizes practical micro-practices for switching mindsets between personal and professional contexts (brief breath exercises, threshold rituals like noticing a door handle) and preparing for high-stakes conversations by leaving prior context behind and being present.
Chapters
Foreign. This is your host again, Nishant. And before we start this podcast episode, I would love to tell you that I am receiving podcast feedback survey and the intention of this podcast feedback survey is to know who are my active listeners personally so that I can create a magical heartfelt experience and touch your heart through my personal stories and guest personal stories and learnings. This feedback will really help me to see what you love the most about this podcast and where I can improve. And then I can double down on the activities you love the most and slowly adding new things from this category of new improvements. There are total six short questions which will only take five to seven minutes. And the link of this podcast feedback survey is in the description of this podcast. The first question is how would you feel if you could no longer listen to this podcast? In case if I stop publishing it, how would you feel? Somewhat disappointed. Very disappointed. Not disappointed at all. You don't care. And the second question is what is your favorite go to podcast platform, Apple podcasts, Spotify, could be others. And number three, what type of people do you think would benefit the most from this podcast? Question number four is what is the main benefit you receive from this podcast? Number five, how can I improve the podcast experience for you? And the last question is what can I do not to make this better, but to make you tell everyone about this podcast. Whoever you meet in your life, you tell about this podcast. Listen to Nishant Garp show. Listen to this show. What can I do differently that you tell everyone about this show? There are total six short cushions and this link and the form link is going to be in the podcast description so please check it out. I would really, really appreciate your feedback this form and thank you so much again. And now let's start the podcast. I would like to start with. You were named as a number one startup coach in the world at the Thinkers50 Marshall Goldsmith leading Coaches Awards in London.
Yes.
So I would like to ask you, how do you coach the founders and the co founders in the startup world?
Well, I think if I think about founders, they really have a few common elements. So first of all, they're not always aware that like they're the founders and they're the CEO and people are looking at them a certain way. They're just thinking hey I'm me. And they have to kind of get used to the fact that they show up as the boss. The second thing I would say is that they are constantly having to adapt their style. That's what a high growth environment is. It requires you to adapt your style. So they have to be constantly learning and accelerating their own growth to keep up with the needs of the growth of the startup.
You mentioned that they have to adapt to different styles of. Do we have different kinds of styles?
Yes, we definitely have different kinds of styles. In fact, leaders will often say to me, I am not a micromanager, this is my leadership style. But the truth is it's much more effective to figure out what is the situation here, read the room, figure out what's the situation requiring of me and adapt to that situation because everybody needs something different. I have a client I'm working with right now and he realized that one of his direct reports needs a lot of positive feedback and positive strokes. Another one just needs to know, what do you need me to do differently? Kind of like just the criticism, just the facts. And so he's got to adapt his style to each of these different direct reports to be effective with them, to get out of them what he needs. And that's the name of the game, getting out of people all they have to give.
I'm sure this is not easy. This is so difficult. How do you coach them to adapt to different styles? Being is different.
I know it is difficult. I mean, also each founder is different, so how I coach is different depending on the founder. What I try to do is I meet people where they are and we actually go over specific case studies really to find out what's actually going on in your environment and how do you need to adapt yourself. But it's also just highlighting the opportunity, the need for them and the opportunity for them to. To recognize that yesterday's playbook is not going to necessarily work today. And the last thing is that I do 360 feedback, and 360 feedback is when I talk to people all around the founder to find out what's working and what's not working about their style so they have an opportunity to make changes.
When you say what's not working, is it kind of a feedback?
Yeah, people give the founder or the CEO feedback. They give me the feedback so I can give it to the founder and about how they need to adapt their style. So for example, one of the clients I work with, the CEO of a really great company and he's fantastic. He just wasn't communicating enough and people didn't know what he was thinking. So that was not working about his style, by the way. It wasn't criticism. Also, it didn't mean he was a bad person. It just meant that he had to be more conscious of Communicating what was on his mind so that people would be able to follow him better.
Conscious communication is something that we all struggle with because sometimes when we are not having a great day in our personal life, we go with that mindset into our work. So how to juggle between personal and professional mindset? When we go to work, we have to switch some gears.
We have to switch. Not only that, but when inside of work, you have to switch to might be you're going communicating to an all hands and talking to everybody. You might then be having a difficult conversation with one of your executives. You might then be trying to sell and close a candidate, another executive. And then you might have to have a conversation with, with a sales prospect. You've got to be constantly sort of recognizing what's needed here and find tools to help you switch between mindsets from personal to professional and the different contexts in your professional life. So the first thing to do is to recognize I have to be able to do that and to leave time and space. You know, it could just take really one or two seconds to breathe in and breathe out and realize I am now in a different, I'm in a different situation to breathe in and breathe out. And the Buddha say with every breath I am a new person. And getting practice doing that and recognizing. You have to do that and leave the past, meeting, the past situation, the past, you know, sort of discussion in the past and go into this next situation with a different mindset. That is the, that is the trick that helps really, really make people powerful.
Do you specifically tell executives to breathe in or breathe out or do you use the term such as mindfulness?
I sometimes use the term of mindfulness and they don't always relate to that. So sometimes it's breathe in and breathe out. Sometimes it's put your hand on the door handle and when you feel your hand on the door handle of that conference room or that meeting that you're going to, when you open the door, realize that you're crossing over into a threshold of something different and switch gears. Then it's about. But it is about being present. It's about being present and realizing that I can be present and then switch gears and be present and then switch gears and be present.
It's kind of a transition between two activities when we are going from one activity to another activity. Do you recommend any other practice when we are in that high stake conversation or when we are going to any important meeting or what should we do before going to those high stake ventures?
Well, before you have a high stake conversation. It's actually really important to plan for it and to plan how you're going to be, what's going to happen. Like predict, inevitably they're going to upset you in some way. Inevitably you're going to get thrown off your game. How will you get back on your game when they throw you off your game? How will you recalibrate your equilibrium when you get sort of a little bit like, ruffled? And then also in predicting what they say, how do you then predict what you. What sort of. How will you plan to be more conscious of what you'll be able to say in response?
