A number of the most compelling founders/CEOs I've met invested time understanding themselves so they can do their best work. Indeed, I was talking to a founder recently who said the breakthrough in his business came when he figured out what parts of the job gave him energy versus took away energy. For the latter, he was involved but was able to hire complementary teammates. This gave him a renewed sense of drive. For me, the tool that helped me figure this our was Enneagram. And I was skeptical as hell at first. I got Enneagram-pilled at one of the first meetings for the CEO group I joined in 2009 (YPO). People kept using the term and it sounded straight out of a cult playbook. Enneagram? Do we have to enter the 7th level of the candy cane forest before we get the Enneagram? And when the facilitator explained the concept, I had an infinite number of annoying questions. "So you're telling me there is one number from 1-9 that defines me? And it doesn't change much over my life? And it came from childhood? Where is the double blind study? What's the p-value?" You can tell that I'm a riot at parties. The patient moderator politely listened to my "freshman-in-philosophy" questions and proceeded with the exercise. I got "typed" as a mix of 3 (Achiever) and 4 (Individualist). As kid who was raised to view success as one's source of value (3) and who had no friends but tons of curiosity growing up (4) it kinda' tracked. Over the years, the 30 minute exercise helped me a lot. I learned the the creative and strategic parts of the job (4) filled my bucket and I leaned into them. And I noticed when my (3) was causing me to care more about short-term comparisons for our company versus long-term success. We even used it as a leadership team. Like all companies, we had healthy friction between execs. Once folks learned more about what made each other tick, they were more understanding and collaborative. Enneagram is just one type of approach. MBTI and many others all have the same underlying theory. And heck - you can get to this level of self-knowledge without any framework too! I realize that for some founders and leaders, they don't need any of this introspective stuff. More power to them. I admire their ability to operate at 100% without any need for reflection or deep thought. They were, I guess, born to be entrepreneurial ubermensches. I'm surmising they had infinite energy for all activities and were good at everything. I'm only speculating of course as I can't see into their brains. The Problem of Other Minds, as they say. There I go introspecting again! 😂 I was never wired that way, so tools like these helped me.