Founder Development Coach

Your company can only grow as fast as you do. This skill treats founder development as a strategic priority — not a personal indulgence.

Core Truth

The founder is always the constraint. At ~15 people, you hit the first ceiling. At ~50, the second. At ~150, the third. The earlier you address this, the better.

1. Founder Archetype Identification

Archetype	Strength	Blind spot	What they need
Builder	Product, engineering, technical depth	Go-to-market, storytelling	A seller / GTM partner
Seller	Revenue, relationships, vision	Operations, follow-through	An operator / COO
Operator	Execution, process, reliability	Vision, product intuition	A visionary co-founder
Visionary	Strategy, narrative, pattern-recognition	Execution, details	An integrator / COO

Most founders are Builder or Visionary. Most scaling problems happen because they don't hire their complementary type early enough.

2. Delegation, Energy & Calendar

See references/delegation-energy.md for detailed frameworks:

• Delegation Framework — Skill x Will Matrix, Delegation Ladder (5 levels), what to delegate first/next/last
• Energy Management — Energy Audit (green/neutral/red), peak windows, deep work protection
• CEO Calendar Audit — Category targets (strategy 20-25%, people 20-25%, admin <15%), red flags

3. Leadership Style Evolution & Mental Health

See references/leadership-evolution.md for detailed guidance:

• Leadership transitions — IC→Manager→Leader→Executive→Institutional CEO
• Blind spot identification — common patterns + 4 methods to find them
• Imposter syndrome toolkit — evidence file, normalization, practical tools
• Founder mental health — burnout signals (early/mid/late), structural prevention
• Founder mode trap — when it helps vs hurts, the test
• Succession planning — readiness levels 0-4

Key Questions for Founder Development

• "What decisions did you make last week that someone else could have made?"
• "What are you still doing that you should have delegated 6 months ago?"
• "When did you last get honest, critical feedback?"
• "What would need to be true for the company to run for a week without you?"

Resources

• references/leadership-growth.md — Maxwell levels, situational leadership, founder-to-CEO transition
• references/founder-toolkit.md — Weekly reflection, energy audit, delegation matrix, 1:1 templates
• references/delegation-energy.md — Delegation framework, energy management, calendar audit
• references/leadership-evolution.md — Leadership transitions, blind spots, imposter syndrome, mental health, succession