Dora Nagy

‘How can I scale myself?’ is one of the most pressing questions I hear from CEOs. Spoiler alert: hiring more people is not the (real) answer. The more people you hire, the more people you have to manage, the more complexity you get as the org grows, and with all the misunderstandings, miscommunication, and lost information, well, it just becomes counter-productive. And you are still: Working 14+ hours a day Spending most of your time in reactive mode The main decision-mak

Do I have the right people in the right seat? Right people = they share your values Right seat = they perform at their best and deliver the results you need Do I have clarity on what is the One Thing that I need to nail this year? (and ask this every Jan) 1 BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) is better than 5 Same is true for your OKRs How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want? (credit to Tim Ferriss for this one) An underperforming employee => you man

"Do what only you can do." Sounds straightforward, right? But here is the catch: If a Founder continues doing only what they can do, they continue being an excellent Founder. But not necessarily an excellent CEO. There is a big difference: Founder: builds a kick*ss product ⇒ CEO: builds a kick*ss team that builds the product. Founder: builds the tech ⇒ CEO: builds the business Founder: works IN the business ⇒ CEO: works ON the business Founder: “I just do it myself” ⇒

Way too often, leaders act as if they had only read Darwin’s most known book, often summarized as “the survival of the fittest”. It was a great theory, but then discovered a fundamental flaw. And so he went on to research “the survival of the kindest”. He found that this theory explains more correctly which species climb the evolutionary ladder. He found that cooperation was more important than competition. Now, being kind as a leader doesn’t mean being “nice”. Nice is of

Telling an overwhelmed CEO to ‘just delegate more’ is like telling someone with anxiety to ‘just chill out’. For any CEO (or leader) to be able to delegate more and so to scale themselves, some conditions need to exist: A clear set of priorities that are aligned with the overall strategy A strategy to begin with (which is not pretty slides with some big words and numbers on them) A competent exec team fit for the job at the current stage of the company (A-team rather than

As a CEO, when you pick your right-hand person (whether that’s your Chief of Staff, COO, or GM) there are really only 2 options: Pick someone to complement you: in order to balance out your skills, interests and leadership style in order to fill the gaps in the business. Pick someone to amplify you: in order to boost what you are already doing and the way you are doing it a.k.a. your leadership style (=> you hire a ‘mini me’). How do you know which one you need? It start

Chiefs of Staff can be one of the best catalysts behind driving better performance in an organization. But even the best ones cannot make up for the lack of: High-performing CEO High-performing leadership team (A-team vs a bunch of A-players) Thought-through strategy Clear execution plan incl product roadmap and GTM strategy Laser-focus on priorities both at the CEO and team/org level Accountability culture driven by the CEO Feedback culture that builds trust and trans

1.No or unclear expectations: Instead of asking: “All is clear? / Are we good?” Ask this: “Can you please recap what we’ve agreed on?” Only when you hear it in their words will you know whether they got it or not. 2.No commitment “Best effort basis” or “A for effort” doesn’t get your business far. If your expectations are unrealistic to the person, i.e. they cannot commit to it, you need to know that upfront. Stretch goals therefore can be really problematic. 3. No fee

Early in my career I learned how to play the feedback game. But first, I naively thought feedback was for my advancement. So I can do better. Become stronger. And learn important skills. But some of the feedback I was given just didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t have the opportunity to explain my thinking. To ask clarifying questions. To choose whether I wanted to take on that feedback or not. Sometimes it felt like I had no other option but to accept the feedback..