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Relationship Blind Spots Limiting Your Startup Potential

Author

Ginny Herron
July 07, 2024

Hey, I hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend! After a break for fireworks, friends, and tacos in NYC, I’m working on a new experiment focused on founder relationships. Here’s a thought-provoking quiz that could help you find some blind spots:

 🫣 Find Relationship Blind Spots Limiting Your Startup Potential

For each statement below, rate how often it applies to you on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1: Never

  • 2: Rarely

  • 3: Sometimes

  • 4: Often

  • 5: Always

  1. I feel overwhelmed or burnt out often.

  2. I find it hard to trust others.

  3. I find it difficult to articulate my thoughts clearly to others. I feel misunderstood often.

  4. I often escape unpleasant feelings through numbing distractions—drinking, drugs, video games, TV shows, etc.

  5. I tend to suppress my feelings.

  6. I feel awkward or embarrassed in social situations often.

  7. I know little about my biases or blind spots.

  8. I have trouble remembering what people say during conversations.

  9. I struggle to put myself in someone else’s shoes.

  10. I am less receptive to feedback, criticism, or suggestions.

  11. I feel I need to prove myself to others.

  12. I get caught in drama often.

  13. I enjoy bragging and one-upping others.

  14. I tend to avoid conflict.

  15. I enjoy escalating conflict or getting revenge.

  16. I take issues with others personally.

  17. I lie often.

  18. I often feel alone in rooms full of people.

I know you have great intentions with your impact-driven mission, and I hate to see these things get in the way :(

I’ve dealt with many of these obstacles myself and have spent years studying them. If you have a high number, I’d love to talk through a plan to help out, and we can do it in 15 minutes. I’m working on a new experiment surrounding these barriers.

Feel free to chat with me for 15 minutes—click here for my Calendly.

☎️ Free Zoom Event: WeStand Impact-Driven Founder "Friend Dating" & People Skills for Startup Success with Nashville's Top Executive Coach and ESG Professor, Leonora Williamson

  • Professor Williamson’s LinkedIn and Bio:

    I spend every day fulfilling my purpose of facilitating learning for other people. As a mother, a college professor and an executive coach, I strive to bring out the best in others. My career includes leadership roles at J.P. Morgan, Boston Consulting Group, and Estée Lauder. No stranger to change, I've lived in 8 countries, speak 5 languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Russian), and carries 2 passports. A founding partner of women’s angel investment group The JumpFund, I also sit on the boards of family company Sabre Yachts and Nashville-based educational non-profit Learning Matters. Some of the topics on which I coach speak and teach:

    - Family business

    - Leadership

    - Negotiation

    - ESG

    - Mindfulness / meditation

    - Navigating transition

Looking forward to talking soon,
Ginny
Founder, WeStand
LinkedIn 
[email protected] 

P.S. What is WeStand?

WeStand helps impact-driven founders feel less stressed and lonely by improving their relationship skills to achieve greater startup success. I’m building impact-driven founder call groups focused on building and making time for the core 4 relationships we choose—significant others, friends, teammates, and mentors. The long-term vision is to build an AI tool for founders to shortcut the process of training out relationship weaknesses.

Why relationship skills?

  • After 170+ interviews and 11 conferences focused on learning from founders, I found that relationship skills were one of the biggest determinants of startup success. How founders handled conflicts, breakups, and growing apart from people made all the difference, and those with the strongest relationships were also the happiest. I want to help people build those relationships. 

Am I an impact-driven founder?

  • If your startup contributes to social, health, environmental, educational, and cultural breakthroughs, then yes! As long as you have a strong mission for the greater good in one of these 5 areas 🌎