The Tim Ferriss Show
#658: CEO Coach Matt Mochary — Live Coaching with Tim, Why Fear and Anger Give Bad Advice, How to Perform Personal Energy Audits, The Power of Accountability Partners, Delegation Tips, Strategies for Hiring the Right People, and More
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Separate decision-making from implementation for better decision-making and effective selling.
- Show empathy and support during the firing process to minimize the negative effects of termination.
- Evaluate candidates based on their past performance and gather feedback from former managers during the recruiting process.
- Trust initial impressions and prioritize energetic connections when making hiring decisions.
- Conduct an energy audit to identify energy-raising activities and eliminate energy-draining tasks.
Deep dives
Separate Decision from Implementation
The podcast episode discusses the importance of separating the decision-making process from its implementation. Often, people conflate the two, causing difficulty in making decisions. The podcast highlights the need to evaluate decisions based on past performance and the willingness to scare potential candidates away from the realities of the job. By doing so, recruiters can ensure better decision-making and effective selling to attract top candidates.
Firing Well
Firing well involves recognizing the trauma and major life impact that job loss can have on an individual. It is crucial to show empathy and support during this process. By assisting the individual in finding their passions and interests and helping with their job search, employers can minimize the negative effects of termination and build a strong reputation for being supportive and caring.
Recruiting Best Practices
Effective recruiting involves evaluating candidates based on their past performance and conducting reference interviews with former managers to gather relevant information. Anti-selling, or outlining the worst aspects of the job, can help disqualify candidates who are not genuinely interested in the role. Once a candidate is interested, effective selling involves getting to know the candidate and addressing any concerns or fears they may have, as well as involving their partners in the process. Speed is also important in the recruiting process to ensure top candidates are secured before other organizations can attract them.
Minimizing Time Spent with Lawyers
The speaker shares his belief in minimizing the time spent with lawyers during the hiring process. He explains that he conducts short interviews and relies heavily on his initial impressions to make hiring decisions. He discusses the importance of trusting his instincts and prioritizing energetic connections with candidates. The speaker acknowledges that using analytics and references to override initial impressions is a challenge he is working on. He emphasizes the need to trust immediate reads and prioritize intuition when making hiring decisions.
Learning from Past Managers
The speaker emphasizes the value of gathering feedback from past managers during the hiring process. He highlights the importance of asking former managers if they would hire the candidate again and listening to their reasoning. Despite concerns about legal implications limiting honest feedback, the speaker shares that he has had many revealing conversations with former managers that matched the candidate he hired. He emphasizes the significance of this feedback in making informed hiring decisions.
Conducting an Energy Audit
The speaker discusses the concept of an energy audit, as learned from Diana Chapman. He explains that individuals have limited energy, and the key to being more productive is to focus on energy-raising activities and minimize energy-reducing ones. By marking each hour of their schedule as energy-positive or energy-negative, individuals can identify trends and eliminate activities that drain their energy. The speaker provides examples, such as avoiding meetings that are not well-run and eliminating energy-neutral tasks, to illustrate the process of conducting an energy audit.
Running Effective and Efficient Meetings
The speaker presents three types of meetings and highlights the importance of efficient and productive meetings. He explains that most meetings are solely verbal and often inefficient, with limited participation from quieter individuals. However, by encouraging participants to pre-write their thoughts and opinions, meetings become more effective as everyone's contributions are thoroughly considered. He suggests making meetings even more efficient by requiring written agendas and pre-reading materials and balancing verbal and written communication for improved decision-making. The speaker also emphasizes the value of providing feedback and conducting in-person discussions when delivering constructive feedback.
The Power of Legitimate Jobs and Free World Organization
Legitimate employment can address the root cause of criminal behavior and eliminate the need for resorting to illegal activities. Free World, a growing organization, focuses on providing job opportunities and helping individuals break free from a life of crime.
Finding Fulfillment Through Coaching and Setting Boundaries
Coaching offers an outlet for meaningful contribution without the burden of starting new companies. By coaching others, individuals can be involved in important conversations and strategy without having to take on the full workload. Setting personal boundaries, such as working for free and avoiding equity investment, helps maintain the joy and purpose in coaching, while also preventing the potential for slipping back into old habits or getting trapped in operational roles.
Brought to you by Athletic Greens’s AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, Helix Sleep premium mattresses, and FreshBooks cloud-based small business accounting software.
Matt Mochary (@mattmochary) coaches the heads of top Silicon Valley tech investment firms and companies on how to be the best leaders and build the best organizations possible. His philosophy and method are captured in both the Mochary Coaching Methodology (which is available as a free Google Doc) and in his book The Great CEO Within, which is available on Amazon and online (also as a free Google Doc).
As a former founder, CEO, and investor, Matt knows firsthand the challenges of those roles as well as solutions to the most commonly encountered problems. His coaching is not questions-only; there is real guidance. Matt specializes in helping CEOs and their companies (or investment firms) transition from freewheeling startups to dominant enterprises.
Please enjoy!
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[05:36] Fear and anger give bad advice.
[10:23] Dispelling dating dread.
[17:19] The power of prediction.
[27:07] Next actions.
[30:56] Turning conversations into action items.
[33:36] Accountability for introverts and extroverts.
[38:20] What is Focusmate?
[40:23] Separating decision from implementation.
[44:43] Firing well.
[51:33] Effective and efficient recruiting.
[1:01:41] Getting honest feedback from past managers.
[1:04:10] The energy audit.
[1:10:36] Running effective and efficient meetings.
[1:18:56] Reducing and removing energy-depleting obligations from the calendar.
[1:34:01] Assistance with assistants.
[1:44:37] Why did Matt stop making documentaries?
[1:55:30] Why Matt's building a startup.
[1:59:52] Rules, guide rails, and exit protocols.
[2:03:26] Downregulating anger and feeling the pain.
[2:19:16] Parting thoughts.
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