The Exchanges

Q When you put the system in place, what types of outcomes is the system driving towards?

A Determined by the individual And or the team. We often engage executive teams or even offices, but it's determined by them. It's certainly not something that I come in or my team comes in and said, this would be a really meaningful outcome for you. We can give background or context. We've had thousands of coaching sessions, hundreds and hundreds of game plans. These are some of the things that people aim for, but it's really driven by them. The outcomes can be somebody wants to Advance to the next level. Somebody wants to raise a certain size fund. Somebody wants to launch a new type of initiative. Somebody wants to open up an office. Somebody wants to acquire a sports team. They can be lofty goals, and we complement that with things that are going on in their life. So it could be in their family, could be at home or out of the office. That's a really important focus of ours. Recognizing that they're not robots. We can't just show up and compartmentalize all the Other facets or pieces of our life, we do have them set goals for non-work related outcomes.

AI assessment note: “The outcomes can be somebody wants to Advance to the next level.”

Q Most of the time, when we think about giving feedback to someone on the team, we do think about improvements. This is feedback so they can get better. That frame of, I'm going to show you all the positive things, feels like it might leave out the critical things that someone's getting wrong. What are the best ways of addressing challenging situations?

A So this is one of the leadership principles which I take more of the coaching approach. So people don't misinterpret that. Coaching is not directing. It's not prescribing. Doctors prescribe. Advisors advise. Consultants tell you what to do. Coaches actually Engage you in a conversation and ask you questions like, what were you thinking about there? What was happening there? How did you prepare? How might you think about it differently next time? The answers that you're going to get is you would probably tell me, I probably put a little bit too much pressure on myself, or I could have spent a little bit more time Sunday night. But if you ask open-ended questions, try to avoid the why. Why put somebody on the defensive? Ask how or what questions. How are you thinking about that? What happened there? How do you think it landed on the room? What might you do differently next time? What have you done in the past that's worked really well for you? How can we replicate that here? You'll probably get at some of that stuff that didn't work, and then you can really dig into it. But the other person is realizing it, like, ah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

AI assessment note: “I take more of the coaching approach... ask open-ended questions, try to avoid the why.”

Q What two people have had the biggest impact on your professional life?

A So I mentioned my coach, Peter Hazelrig, earlier, and he gave me the permission to actually think about doing things that maybe I shouldn't do, but that I could do. Something that I talk a lot about now, sort of the should versus could. It was a little bit of this, I should go to this school, I should get this grade, I should get this analyst job, and I should do this, and I should work at this company. And to some extent, that's healthy, these are all positive things, but looking within and asking myself, what could I do? What is the path that I want to walk down? He gave me the permission by just a very simple statement, One day he said to me, and it's so simple, but for me, it really was profound. And I guess the natural follow on to that, which absolutely is my wife, Sharon. I met Sharon at a business school. We've been married almost 21 years. And yes, she's my wife and the mother of our two boys. She's also my partner and there's been nobody more behind me. In my career, going back 20 plus years ago to be, okay, I know we were going to live together in New York City, and you were working at a record label, and now you have this opportunity in Los Angeles. You need to do that, because that's really what you want to do at this time. Let's just figure out a way to see each other. Two, okay, you're not going to be working. You're going to go back to school, and you're going t…

AI assessment note: “my coach, Peter Hazelrig... which absolutely is my wife, Sharon.”

Q What's changed in what you've seen about what's made for effective coaching or ways that you've been able to help organizations that might be different from what it was a couple of years ago?

A Two things. One, the initial six month engagements, the way I started the business model about 10 years ago, has turned into six year, seven year, eight year, nine year Relationships. Something very powerful happens when you go from an executive coaching partner to this leadership advisor where there's a tremendous amount of trust, and there's also a bunch of institutional knowledge that person could pick up, you know, on something that we had spoken about two years ago and doesn't have to kind of reinvent something. The second is this starting with a founder or two founders. It could be that six month engagement. They find real value in it. And then a bit of a light bulb goes off and say, I really would want my other people to experience this across the organization. In particular, that creating of the game plan or that document that they create, they're like, it'd be really great if our entire leadership team did one of these and the individual leaders had one of those. So that landing and expanding Over the years has happened where start working with one or two people and then it goes to five and then it goes to eight. And what's really awesome in some of the best sessions that I have, when we sit around a table and we have nine people discussing, checking in on their group game plan, the executive leadership team game plan or the London game plan. And people are talking abo…

AI assessment note: “Two things. One, the initial six month engagements, the way I started the business model”

Q What are some of the most important aspects of that 90 days?

A There's an inherent tension between they've hired me to take on a leadership role, so the massive expectations of me in our world that we work in, it's on a very short time horizon. And at the same time, there's a lot that I don't know. I need to learn. So listening tour, making sure we sit down, talk to everybody to gather vital information, but also ensure that the body accepts the organ. That initial process can be very scripted and structured, and it should be, There should be intentionality with the questions that are asked, who you see, when, do you see them in person, do you see them over the phone, all of that. Building bridges, gathering information, being accepted by the organization is often overlooked or is given short shrift.

AI assessment note: “listening tour, making sure we sit down, talk to everybody to gather vital information”

Q One thing you touched on earlier was working with the LP community. How does that look different than your work in the GP community?

A There are lots of similarities and there are lots of differences. I got a call from an LP. He was super excited. He said, Matt, the person that you've been working with, they got this offer to go to another endowment. It was a bigger opportunity. It was an advancement. And this person was excited about that. That promotion, developing people, yes, for your organization, of course, but also seeing the people who are on your team grow to such a point where they're hired away. To a bigger opportunity. That's like a badge of honor versus on the GP side viewed as a scarlet letter. There are many reasons why people leave, but not something that somebody would be calling me up and boasting about. That's a major, major difference.

AI assessment note: “That's like a badge of honor versus on the GP side viewed as a scarlet letter.”

Q So you go through this training, and you start a practice. So how do you describe what you do today?

A This is one of those questions where I wrestle with in terms of what do I call myself. I think executive coach is too limiting. I also think people misinterpret what the word coach is. They believe it's very directive and back elbow up or keep your eye on the ball. Don't say that in a meeting. There's elements of that, but coaching is a little bit more reflective than it is directive. So I'm more of a performance partner. There is an integrated performance partner element of it where it's not only we are creating this partnership, it's an empowerment model. And you are going to kick ass in your life, both in the office and out of the office. And the additional trainings that I took, you know, it's not only executive and organizational coaching, but also I'm a board certified health and wellness coach as well. Studied nutrition science at Stanford. It's the holistic nature of, I want to create a partnership that empowers you to kick ass in your life in all the different facets or pieces that drive how you're feeling on a day to day basis. There are several ways that we sort of get into that, but one of the ways is we don't coach from a position of weakness, so let's find out what Ted doesn't do well, and let's take out the sandpaper and sort of smooth that out. Let's identify what you do really well. What are your strengths? What are your signature traits that you derive a ton o…

AI assessment note: “So I'm more of a performance partner.”

Q When you do this work one-on-one and you're deriving out of it a set of goals for each individual, I'm curious when you work with an organization, what happens in the situations where the goals aren't aligned with the goals of say the organization as you work through different levels of the firm?

A That almost never happens because one of the things that I strongly advise Is to have the, from the top of the house involved in the executive coaching program. So if we're sort of sticking with the private equity world, the managing partners, and when the managing partner or the co-founders, whatever, when they are developing their goals, Those, in essence, are the organization's goals, and part of the process is the sharing component. When people have their laminated game plans, we do set up a sharing session, where if there are multiple people participating in the executive coaching program, they will actually go through their goals, not to look at each other's goals and say, oh, Ted, that's a really good goal, or that's not a good goal. It's more, we identify the interdependencies of, oh, that's what you want to Achieve and accomplish. I think I could help you here, or I could introduce you to this person here. It's, so what happens is, When the managing partners set what their goals are, there is a cascading effect. If we're going to generate these types of returns, we're going to expand in a different country, or if we're going to raise a certain size fund by a certain timeframe or whatever the case may be, that's pretty well known. And now part of this process, it's certainly well known. And I use the verb co-create the game plan. When I'm sitting with somebody and co-cr…

AI assessment note: “That almost never happens because one of the things that I strongly advise”

Q So I want to dive into your whole coaching philosophy and practice. Before we do that, I'm really curious to ask you about that moment or that period of change and inflection. You have a career path and It's going well, you have a family, and you think about a student body left to do something that you hadn't done. What was that like?

A Oh my goodness. So people looked at me with even more quizzically than they normally look at me, you know, like that's a little off. I was 44 years old at the time, and I had lots of conversations with Sharon about this is what I want to do, why, this is what I think it could look like, and She's like, hey, if you sort of sketch out the business plan over dinner, we could talk about that. And so I began to do that with her and it was really risky. And I also wanted to do it the right way. There were three legs of that table for me to launch a successful practice as an executive coach. I felt like my 20 years of work experience helped sort of foster additional understanding and empathy and also experience that people can sort of ask me about. Second is how I'm constantly as a person. What energizes me and seeing other people thrive and develop and grow is my fuel. And the third is training. There really is training, and there's a science behind coaching and the arc of the coaching conversation. I want to do it, and I didn't have that, and I want to do it the right way, and anybody can call him or herself a coach. It can be a really squishy industry, and that was not the way I wanted to launch. So, okay, shoot. I'm 44. We have two boys.

AI assessment note: “I was 44 years old at the time, and I had lots of conversations with Sharon”

Q So I have to ask for people, let's say investors in these funds. When you have these conversations, you clearly learn a lot about how the firm's operating good and bad. If you're on the outside looking in, are there two or three questions you would think of asking the manager that might reveal some of those subtleties of how they work?

A How do they think about What they need from a human capital perspective for capacity. So in order to deploy capital or make investment decisions, you need people to kind of do the research and ultimately the due diligence and develop a thesis and all that stuff. How are they thinking about the number of people they have, the amount of hours that they're working and what their expansion strategy is for adding people or not adding people and what types of people. So that would be a line of questioning. I also would ask them From my work and just general psychology, I know that providing feedback and to be heard, to be valued, to grow and develop, those are what people are seeking in general, but also very much in the workplace. What are you doing in and around the human capital area where your employees feel beyond compensation, beyond carry, beyond returns? Because that definitely is important. The day to day sort of performance of somebody is, hey, do I enjoy the people I work with? Am I really valued? Am I trusted? Do I have an opportunity to grow and develop? Do I have an opportunity to recharge my batteries every once in a while? So I would ask the firm, what are you doing in terms of tactics, strategies, programs, initiatives around your employees?

AI assessment note: “How do they think about What they need from a human capital perspective for capacity.”

Q And what did you do when you started hearing those bells?

A It was a little bit of confusion in the sense of how can I manifest this? So on a daily basis, this becomes the focus. There was this period of time that I began to research and talk to chief human resources officers. Is that something that I could do that gets me closer where it's the direct impact on others, as opposed to almost by proxy, if I'm the head of sales or chief marketing officer or whatever the job title was, By proxy working with the team and getting the best out of them for themselves. Can I do it more directly? I kind of found that being that chief people officer or CHRO, there were a lot of other elements that were involved there, which was benefits and lawsuits and litigate, like all that stuff, which was that sort of energy drain versus energy source.

AI assessment note: “I began to research and talk to chief human resources officers.”

Q I'd love to close with where we started and hear a little bit about The why and the vision that you have for Inflection Point for the next 10 years?

A Let me start with the why. I get up every morning and I'm really clear that I want to ignite careers and energize lives. If there's a fist pump in my client or a team or an organization that can be expressed, that's what I'm aiming for. I'm hungry for that, to ignite careers and energize lives. The form that it takes is still going through what this inflection point looks like in five years is still in the larvae stage. We have offsites, and there's revenue numbers that we're aiming for, and a certain number of clients and engagements that we're aiming for. But the why, what drives me, and hopefully what drives the people who are the coaches on my team, is to really work in service of others. And selfishly, that's my fuel. The letters we see of, hey, man, that was really helpful, or Matt, that was one of the most helpful meetings that we had, or we're able to close that fund, or I attribute some of my success to getting promoted. We don't do it for that. But it certainly feels good. That's igniting that person's career, energizing that person's life, and whatever version of a fist pump that that person has, that's what gets me out of bed in the morning. It'd be interesting to see where it goes. The last nine months have been heavily on the AI front. We have so much information, 5500 coaching sessions, 603 60 degree review interviews that I've conducted and gathering information…

AI assessment note: “Let me start with the why. I get up every morning and I'm really clear”

Q How about some of the maybe non-obvious similarities of working with an LP organization compared to GP?

A Failures in communication, dropping the ball in communication is universal. GP, LP, and at every other organization as well. Ambitious leaders take on too much in their plate. They don't delegate as much as they should. They're not communicating the vision as often as they should. They're not meeting with their people as often as they should. These are commonalities that we See, both on the GP or LP side. That notion of delegation, that's one of the hardest things. One of our principles is let go to lead. While they principally were the ones who were doing the work as they were elevating, now they're doing the work through other people, and that's a commonality on both sides, and that's one of the hardest things for them to let go of. Mahatma Gandhi said, there go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader. We're not Gandhi, and the folks that we work with are not Gandhi. What is it about that statement? What is he saying there? And I need to lead through these people who I've spent a lot of time hiring and training and developing, and I have to believe in them, and I trust them, and I need to lead from behind as hard as that is. That is a universal challenge that I see.

AI assessment note: “Failures in communication, dropping the ball in communication is universal. GP, LP”

Q When that why is apparent to the individual who's leading, how does that then translate to building an organization or working with an organization to achieve some common goal that may be specific to that individual?

A Because that is specific to that particular person doesn't mean that's what drives other people. What really needs to happen from there is great leaders set the course. I believe that to be the core purpose. And Jim Collins, who wrote Good to Great and Built to Last, wrote this really great HBR piece about defining your company's vision. And he talks about what do you get up out of bed to go do every single day, and that's your core purpose. And that could be the company's core purpose as well. But that needs to translate it to some kind of vision. What is it that we want to do? We want to maybe raise a certain fund size by a certain time frame. Something that we're going to bring about. So that's setting the course, and leaders need to set the course. Leaders need to tell the folks on their team and across the organization, here's where we're going. Yes, they can get input from their leadership team, and they can do little listening corners, but they need to set the course. Exceptional leaders in their conversations, interactions with people can kind of get at, what is it about that outcome that drives them? What drives them every morning when they get out of bed? The people on their team who are running deals, they're going to experience hiccups along the way, and it's going to be a different why for that individual and for all individuals than it is for him or her who's lead…

AI assessment note: “great leaders set the course. I believe that to be the core purpose.”

Q Some of the key roles you hear about in that activation starts with that hiring process. What have you found are some of the ways that you help these organizations with their hiring practices?

A What I have found is the hiring process seems to work pretty well. There are a lot of terrific executive search firms that are out there, and there's tremendous amount of time, energy, and financial resources spent on that hire. Where companies drop the ball is they could do a much better job of assessment of During the interview process, going into data and looking back on past successes of, let's say, hiring a CEO for a portfolio company, what has worked, and layering on those successes into the hiring process. I've noted that not all of the firms are actually doing that, and there are several executive coaching firms who offer assessment work. Here's where they really dropped the ball. You hire, you spend months, time, money, and you extend an offer, negotiate, lawyers are involved, etc. Ok, start date. The first 90 days, hundred days are the most important and acutely vulnerable time in an executive's tenure. The companies view it as it's a done deal. Okay, we hired, they're going to start, and let's get them their passwords, their computer, and all that, and there's the bathroom, and you're off and running. You actually got them to the 20 yard line. Now you're in the red zone. Now there has to be a fully built out, structured, first 90 or a hundred day process that they have to activate in order to give that person the chance that he or she is going to succeed.

AI assessment note: “Where companies drop the ball is they could do a much better job of assessment”

Q You mentioned the why, and then you also alluded to yellow and red flags, and I'm curious if you put those two together, what are some of those yellow and particular red flags that you might see in those situations?

A Despite the economic upside for many of these roles, I do think burnout can be a real issue. I think, especially having gone through the pandemic, Working in isolation took a real toll on people, and I don't think we fully understand the emotional toll that the last year and a half or so has taken on people, and I do think the environment in which we work is really important. Again, I go back to what I shared earlier, which I'm really deriving from what I think is one of the most influential business books I've ever read, which is called First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, Where he identified essentially 12 questions that if employees can answer yes to, it's an engaged employee in a workforce that's probably producing really, really well. And those questions get at, basically, do I feel valued? Do I have the opportunity to do what I do well on a daily basis? Do I have the resources to succeed? Does somebody care about me and my future? Do I have a friend at work or multiple friends at work? And those are some of the softer things, but those are the elements that do drive Engagement, and those are the elements that can combat some of this burnout that is a potential canary in a coal mine.

AI assessment note: “those are the elements that can combat some of this burnout that is a potential canary”

Q Through your career, you started in financial services, you worked in what's called operating businesses. Where have you found effectively your client base most benefiting from your coaching?

A It's those people who have really lofty aspirations and realize that they can benefit from, and they recognize the power of partnership. And in many instances, a lot of the folks were, maybe they were athletes who worked on a team, or they, and they didn't have to work on a team and work with a team. They set really high goals and standards for themselves, and they were like, really hard work is what Would bring it about for them. And that's where I get the most resonance from people when I'm talking about this model where there's this volition inside that says, you know what? I could really benefit from having people around me where there's a coach and maybe other nutritionists and maybe another type of expert in my life because I do want to accomplish these really meaningful things. I'm often asked a very similar question, which is, Matt, when have you seen the coaching partnerships go awry? And I said, well, when it's thrust upon them in an organization, and they haven't raised their hand for it. One of my clients was an athlete for much of his life, and he said to me, you know, I've had a coach since I was 15 years old. I don't know why more executives and CEOs don't have coaches. They've always managed to bring out the best in me. And that's where I get the most Receptivity to this approach and ultimately like, wow, yes, this not only will articulate what is really meaning…

AI assessment note: “It's those people who have really lofty aspirations and realize that they can benefit from”

Q So you go to business school thinking that that wasn't going to be your path. How did you figure out what you wanted to do as you came out?

A It wasn't going back to the fixed income trading floor. I had resigned that and said, I'm not ready to sign on the dotted line for that for the next seven to 10 years. I really arrived on campus in 1997 with this sort of wide open aperture of looking at the world around me and, and really going within. So I was much more introspective than I had ever been. And I was able to have really these meaningful conversations with people. There was one day very early on when I was preparing for the next day, I was reading a case and I had the TV on in the background. It was sort of muted. But I could tell what was going on, and I saw this was, I think, a 62nd commercial where I saw Billy Joel in a crowded stadium playing, and there was something on the screen that said something about Piano Man. He was singing in the iconic song Piano Man, and I could tell that the 18,000 people in that enclosed stadium were also singing it. That was very apparent from the visual. And it really struck me hard for whatever reason. I think I was in that moment where I was thinking about a lot of things. I had three thoughts. The first thought I had was, wow, it'd be awesome to be in that stadium. Like, almost be like a religious experience of 18,000 people singing anything. It'd be really awesome. Where is he playing? I may want to go. The second thought I had was, what if Billy Joel had chosen not to go i…

AI assessment note: “I really arrived on campus in 1997 with this sort of wide open aperture”