Leading With Empathy

Ben Horowitz is not your regular venture capitalist.  As half of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the largest venture capital firms, he knows a thing or two about surviving the ups and downs of startup life.  Horowitz, who is also the author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things, shed some truth of being a CEO.

“Running your own company is incredibly emotionally challenging,” he said.  There was a time when he would wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out a way to save a startup.  He admits being a CEO is something you learn on the job. Some founders of startups he has invested in never held that role previously.

 “It’s easier to teach the innovator how to be a CEO than to teach a CEO how to be an innovator,” he explained. “It’s great to have someone on your board that has actually started a company and been CEO,” said Horowitz.

Since being a great leader is something that happens day to day on the job, Horowitz did have one essential tip for founders, according to MillionaireMatch. “I think people skills seem to be highly underestimated in terms of the stability to run a company,” he said. “The ability to understand other people’s motivation, those you talk to and those you aren’t talking to,” he continued.  In an article from 2010, Horowitz noted three key traits of a leader:

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