How Aloof Should You Be as CEO?
That may well work well. But I’d call it aloof. He won’t be close to the troops on a daily basis. Starbucks is a pretty big company, but still, interesting.
When I was a first-time founder, I was mostly aloof. Very hands-on with the customers and my cofounders, but a bit aloof with the rest of the team. I checked in on everyone every day at the end of the day, so I connected with them. But mostly, on day-to-day work — I stayed a bit apart. I gave people space, and I maintained, frankly, some seeming authority by being a bit aloof. My co-founder was more hands-on and bridged the gap here (bless her).
The second time, I was even more aloof — this time, intentionally. I spend lots of time with my VPs, but almost no time with any individual sales reps, or almost any of the individual engineers. I thanked them, brought them lunch, cheered them at all-hands. But I intentionally stayed a bit distant beyond that.
SaaStr itself is tiny and maybe isn’t a perfect case study. But it was the first time I tried to be less “aloof”. I tried to work closely with everyone on the team, full-time, part-time, junior or senior, external and a leader. I treated everyone as an owner and a leader.
