From Start-Up to Grown-Up

Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business

Alisa Cohn

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781398601383
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781398601390
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

WINNER: Independent Press Award 2022 - Business: Entrepreneurship & Small Business
WINNER: International Book Awards 2023 - Business: Entrepreneurship & Small Business
WINNER: American Book Fest Best Book Awards 2023 - Business: Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Every start-up founder feels overwhelmed and uncertain at various times. The key to managing the relentless turmoil of a start-up is learning to manage yourself.

From Start-Up to Grown-Up gives you, the founder and CEO of a great start-up, the knowledge and experience that executive coach Alisa Cohn has gained from helping companies such as Etsy, Foursquare, InVision and The Wirecutter become headline names. Growth of your company begins with growth within you. The book provides you with effective and practical ways of maximizing your strengths, defusing your triggers, controlling your self-doubt and building on your motivators. With these self-management tools, you can then turn your attention to managing your team by ensuring the flow of communication and finding the joy of delegation and the soul in meetings. Finally, you gain practical tools for managing the company and ensuring overall effectiveness of your team and strategy, using specific scripts you need to have delicate or difficult conversations.

Filled with stories drawn from the author's experience, From Start-Up to Grown-Up helps you build a company with a set of core values that everybody lives by and where everyone shares a vision of where the company is going and how to get there.

Index

Note: page numbers in italic indicate figures or tables

“3 Cs” 86

360-feedback, gathering 28–31

follow-up conversations 31

sample script 251–52

accountability, ensuring 71–75

debriefing 72–73

difficult conversations 73

expectations, setting 73–74, 75

objectives and key results (OKRs) 151, 169–70, 171

adapting, importance of 17

Airbnb 13, 92, 150

Alexander, Graham 144

alpha directors 191

“analysis paralysis” 45–46, 89–90

anxiety 39, 48

virtual working 222

Aristotle 52

Asana 171

authenticity 36–37

Batiz, Suzy 42, 65

Behance 174

Belsky, Scott 174

Berger, Brian 121, 166–67

Betterment 83, 97

BetterUp 46, 107

Bezos, Jeff 40

Bhusri, Aneel 107

bias 87

bifurcated culture 90

Blanchard, Ken 77

board, your 189–202

board dynamics, understanding 190–93

board meetings 195–98

director types 191–92

prickly directors, managing 198–99

relationship-building 194–95

triggers, your 199–200

bonding, employee 220–21

budgeting 163–64

Build-a-Bear Workshop 95

bullying 87, 89

by managers 138

by you as leader 32

burnout 48

career development 149–51

sample script 236–38

Charity: Water 21, 34

checked-out directors 191

Chesky, Brian 92

Clark, Maxine 95–96

Clearco 212

coaching

for employees 143–45

GROW model 144

as a leadership style 19

for you 58

cofounders, working with 203–18

communication, importance of 214–15

couples, as business partners 206–07

differing directions 205–06

goals and values, differing 210–13

growth, unequal 205, 215–17

personal conflict with 206

“prenup agreement” 207–09

recognition, unequal 206

roles, defining 205, 213...

Table of contents

• Praise for From Start-Up to Grown-Up
• From Start-Up to Grown-Up
• Contents
• Foreword
• NT Introduction
• Managing You
• 01 Your Start-Up Self
• 02 Be the Boss of You
• Managing Them
• 03 Why Should Anyone Follow You?
• 04 Cultural Conceptions (and Misconceptions)
• 05 Hiring and Firing
• Managing the Company
• 06 Growing and Growing Up
• 07 Smooth Operations
• 08 Managing the Board
• 09 Cofounder Care and Feeding
• 10 Your New Workplace
• Conclusion
• Sample Scripts for Delicate Situations
• About the author
• Acknowledgments
• Index