A coach explains Bill Campbell's approach: asking the right question at the right time so founders find their own answers and act on them. He works with founders scaling teams from a handful to around 200 people, and wants to advise Denmark's 25 largest company CEOs.
But what Bill was really good at, and what I think I'm really good at, is asking the right question at the right time. Because honestly, when I was thinking about doing this, I also thought, what would I want to do in 10 years from now? I was like, if I can be the advisor to like 5 C25, so the 25 largest companies in Denmark CEOs, that would be cool, right? Then I also realized, I don't know if I'm not going to swear on your podcast, but I don't know anything about running Ørsted, but I know a ton about running from 2 guys to 200 guys companies. So maybe I should focus on that segment.
I'm just seeing the— isn't the book called Trillion Dollar Coach? The guy— Bill Campbell. So he's essentially what I want to be. And I think one of the things when you read that book that comes to mind is just how much one guy affected so many great people. And it's a little bit like what you're talking about, because from that, like, 0 to 200 people, a lot of founders actually struggle. They've never been there before, and they feel lonely. And I really think that the whole Bill Campbell is just— it was just some tweaks that he did, but it just made those people feel that they had a place to go and talk about it and then come back and actually execute like they wanted to.
But what Bill was really good at and what I think I'm really good at is asking the right question at the right time. Because it's not about giving clients answers to what to do. Actually, most of the time it's about saying, here's a question, you come up with the answer that you already have inside, and I then get you to trust that answer and then go do that. The other part of it is to be that voice that doesn't have an agenda. I mean, if I worked with you, Mikkel, I would care about you and only you. I care about taking care of you. Yeah. So that you can be the best that you want to be. And I think the reason I've been so successful over the last 4 years doing this is because people understand that I'm there for them and that I've been there.
