Startup CEOs need to make rigorous predictions about their cash flow and their budgets, despite the overwhelming uncertainty that makes it impossible for either of those predictions to be accurate. While you and your team simply have to accept market uncertainty as a part of startup life, you can mitigate it by maintaining a high degree of regularity in how your company operates. You do this by creating a company operating system: a regular set of behaviors and rhythms upon which your team can depend as they make that daily leap into the unknown.
Whatever uncertainty the day holds, the sun rises when it rises, sets when it sets – and the moon accordingly appears on a regular schedule of waxing and waning. The same holds for weeks, months, and years. None of us know what surprises a new year has waiting for us – but we know December 21 will be the shortest day of that year, like every other.
There's a way to bring the same regularity to the chaos of startup life. Is your latest product release going to ship on time? Is your new sales lead going to triple customer acquisition? Is your new marketing approach going to gain traction in the marketplace? Nobody knows – not you, not the head of product, not the head of sales, not the head of marketing. That said, there are some things every member of your team can depend on:
Keep these pieces of your operating system in good working order and your team can be alert and ready to deal with the challenges that really matter.
My Grandma Hazel used a Yiddish saying to describe me from time to time: Oder gor oder gornisht, which means “all or nothing.” My dad sometimes uses a Greek saying to describe me: meden agan – μηδὲν ἄγαν to the real sticklers – which means “everything in moderation.” These two approaches to life seem diametrically opposed. Which one is right? The answer is both. If you've read Ben Horowitz's wonderful book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, this is what he refers to as the Wartime CEO versus Peacetime CEO.
Being a successful entrepreneur requires both approaches, each at different times. More importantly, it requires the ability to shift gears between the two and to be clear about the shift to yourself and to others.
There are periods of time when you need to be in “all‐or‐nothing mode.” Push extremes. Demand more from your team. Drop lots of the items from your to‐do list and focus on the One Big Thing. Don't go for a light jog – train for a marathon.
Then there are periods of time when you're in execution mode. The path has been defined. Things are working. Put the “life” back in your “work‐life” balance. A marathon? Are you nuts? Just run three miles a day and stay in shape.
It's hard enough to manage yourself through extremes like that. You're also responsible for making sure your entire organization is able to shift gears between the two modes. An organization that never goes through extreme periods is in grave danger of stagnating. No one in an exciting company ever has “business as usual” emblazoned on their to‐do list 365 days a year. Organizations tend to take their biggest leaps forward when there's an extreme situation, an all‐hands on deck, a crisis.
An organization that only knows how to exist in crisis mode can be miserable. Trust me, I've worked in one before. There's a shiny new object every week that everyone has to drop everything to pursue. Everything gets started; nothing gets finished. People are frustrated. They burn out. There is yelling. Sometimes tears.
Companies and people have to go through periods of time where they thrive on the routine and celebrate their everyday achievements. The trick to getting this duality right is to make sure you are clear to yourself – and, when necessary, to others – about when you're shifting gears. For yourself: when you go into gor oder gornisht mode, clear that calendar and set aside the time to do the job right. For others: don't make them guess where you're coming from. If you're hitting an extreme patch, let them know by meeting or email. Make sure you're fair to them as well. If you're forcing people in the organization to focus on the One Big Thing, make sure you recognize the changes in their goals, their deliverables, and their external commitments. Give them the flexibility they need to succeed. Going back into meden agan mode is easier but still requires a note of closure to your team, celebrating the success of the big push and probably giving everyone a day off.