Sell The Vision, Not the Progress
September 24, 2012
One of my favorite founders in Boston is Jason Jacobs of Runkeeper. Every time I see Jason, I mention to him how impressed I am with what I’m hearing about the progress of Runkeeper. Without fail, Jason graciously thanks me for the encouragement and then shares the many challenges they are facing how much work there is to do to achieve his vision.
When I was starting out as a first time venture-backed CEO, I was way more insecure than Jason. I was afraid to talk about the challenges with my team or board, for fear of seeming incompetent or dampening enthusiasm for the company. Instead I harbored the challenges internally and always talked about how well things were going, until someone would point out the inconsistency of how far behind plan we were. In reality, overselling the progress is what made me look incompetent. I really wasn’t effective as a leader until I started focusing with everyone around me on the problems, while using the vision to build enthusiasm for the company.
Now that I have a portfolio of terrific founders, I have consistently seen this as the operating mode of the very best ones and particularly of successful repeat entrepreneurs and great operational CEOs. Ask the typical entrepreneur how things are going and they feign a smile and say “terrific.” Most founders feel the need to constantly convince their investors and everyone in the ecosystem that the company is doing extremely well; that the operational plan is well within hand, and the company is consistently outpacing it’s own aspirations. This is not a characteristic of great entrepreneurs.
My best portfolio founders spend their board meetings telling the investors what is wrong with the business and how they are trying to solve those problems. They don’t feel that they need to oversell the progress, because the ambition of the vision is the reason that they are so passionate and the reason that all of their constituents are committed to the venture. The good news is either in the numbers or it isn’t in the numbers. Hand waiving undermines credibility. By putting the challenges on the table great leaders demonstrate how on top of the issues they are. Most board members hear the bad news and think that at least they have someone excellent who is completely on top of solving the problems.
I have way more confidence in those that spend their time unearthing and focusing on the problems than those who pretend they don’t exist. Sharing the challenging realities doesn’t demonstrate incompetence; instead it demonstrates the exact opposite. Keep everyone energized by the big vision, but don’t oversell the progress in achieving it.
Anything's Possible 
September 29, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Yes, you are correct. A good vision for the future is very important for the success of anything that requires a lot of time to become successful.
I feel that visions can motivate people in troubled times and give more hope to someday get their dreams realized.
September 30, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Great post Eric. I would, however, love to have you clarify one aspect: at the end of the post you talk about being very candid with your board. In the beginning of the post, you speak of avoiding overselling more generally (it seems). So, is the guidance that great founders/CEOs should be candid with their board/advisors/existing investors or that they should broaden that to include being candid about their challenges with the community (or, perhaps, those in the community that they know well). Thanks so much, in advance, for the clarification.
Ed
September 30, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Ed – Thanks for the comment. I think the key takeaway for me is that the great founders inspire with vision and then are really tough on the progress. They don’t oversell the implementation because that is the hard stuff and they are focused on the challenges every day. I think this is a mindset that gets reflected in the way those founders interact with their team, their investors and also the community. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be selling the big vision, which they should be doing aggressively to help everyone understand why what they are doing is so important.
September 30, 2012 at 7:12 pm
thanks for this post Eric. I see myself and other CEOs I know doing this exactly the wrong way as you suggest. this definitely changed my mind about what to do
October 6, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I call this “selling your vision”, which means you have to sell your plan, ideas, or goals to “them”. So you have to know what is in it for them.