Leadership in Adversity

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How does leadership evolve in the context of difficult times? There's a lot of teams, companies, organizations that are going through this right now. I think there's an opportunity to get back to focusing on what matters and rally the team behind what that organization is trying to do.

Our guest today is Don Faul, CEO of CrossFit.

Don has a fascinating background where he’s been able to find success in environments as different as a combat zone and a corporate board room. After spending 8 years as a platoon commander in the U.S. Marine Corps, Don had stints at some of the most vaunted companies in tech, including Google, Facebook and Pinterest, the latter of which he served as the Head of Operations. It’s a really unique set of leadership experiences spanning very different cultures.

In today’s conversation, he answers some burning questions like if micromanagement is always a bad thing, how to create a long-term company vision that genuinely gets people fired up about the future, and what folks tend to get wrong in their all-hands meetings.

We also discuss what it takes to lead in this current environment, and how leadership looks different when things feel like they’re going off the rails, which plenty of startup folks are feeling right now. Don unpacks his biggest lessons on how to embrace transparency when things aren’t going well, and candidly shares his own experience of having to wind down a company.

Read the article Don penned for First Round Review: The Pivotal Stories Every Startup Leader Should be Able to Tell.

You can follow Don on Twitter @donfaul

You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson