Stanford University

Welcome to Grit & Growth’s masterclass on coaching, featuring Laurie Fuller, a certified executive coach with Stanford Seed, who shares insights on the role of coaching in entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of reflection, delegation, and shifting from a “heroic leader” mindset to a collaborative approach.Entrepreneurs are almost always on a quest to improve. But improvement can be ridiculously hard to accomplish on your own. That’s when an experienced coach can step in to help you focus on what’s most important, strengthen your teams, and transform you as a leader. Laurie Fuller does all that and more, sharing her insights and tried-and-true techniques to help entrepreneurs tackle their most difficult challenges.Fuller believes that being a sounding board is a critical part of coaching, whether her clients are talking about strategy, management issues, strategic HR, or just being lonely at the top. “This time that I have with my client is a way to reflect, remove ourselves from the business, and try to see the forest from the trees. Often as a leader, we get pulled into the urgent, and we don’t have time for the important,” she says.More Masterclass TakeawaysTrack your time. Fuller finds that most business leaders overestimate the time they spend on critical things like high-level strategy and relationship-building.Don’t be a hero. While “heroic leaders” might sound like a good thing, more often a leader who feels they need to be the hero and “save the company” cannot delegate important decisions, doesn’t trust their management team, and micromanages.Beware of the evil letter I. Fuller often stops clients when they say “I” and asks: “Do you really mean ‘I’ or do you mean ‘we?’” By remembering that you are part of a team, it changes your mindset, behaviors, and actions.Don’t be a bottleneck. As your company scales, a business leader can no longer be involved in everything, including some of the things you think you’re best at.Stay out of the weeds. It’s easier and sometimes more satisfying to solve a stack of small problems, but it’s the significant issues that need your attention.Build your management team through relationships. The most important part of strengthening your management team is to “build the relationships and understand the interdependencies and synergies between functions,” starting at the human level.It always takes longer than you think. Fuller encourages her clients to reflect on the progress they’ve made, not the end goal. “It always takes longer than you think to make change,” she says.Listen to Fuller’s insights, advice, and exercises discovered through the coaching experience.