Avoiding conflict killed my startup.⁣ ⁣ I thought being "easygoing" made me a good leader. In reality, I was bottling up problems until they exploded.⁣ ⁣ One day I learned a team member called me "the worst manager he'd ever had."⁣ ⁣ I learned the hard way: don't self abandon.

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brutal but important lesson... avoiding hard conversations is just delaying the inevitable explosion... so many founders learn this the hard way... constructive conflict > toxic harmony... curious how you've changed your leadership style since then?

I highly recommend Patty McCord’s book on leadership. I still failed because I had spent a lifetime as the ‘people pleaser’ and the old habits were so ingrained however, now I know where my weaknesses are and what to do to mitigate them in the future.

So real. Avoiding tough conversations doesn’t keep the peace.. it just delays the blowup. Most of the time, what we avoid ends up owning us. Thanks for sharing this honestly @garrytan more founders need to hear it.

was a very good video. instant canon. don’t say it lightly

A leader knows what’s worth fixing, and when. He knows when to push, and when to let the brilliant employee cook and see what can be done with the stuff that emerges. Not always, but more often than average

Silence equals approval

Modern companies filter for agreeableness. They tend to agree with themselves off of the cliffs of collapse.

Pleasing others will only get you in trouble.

Avoiding conflict feels like keeping the peace—until it becomes a silent war.