Dealing With Isolation as a Startup CEO

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You’ve founded your company. You’re building your team, raising money and bringing your vision to life. Being a founder can be an exhilarating and deeply rewarding role. But it can also be a place of isolation.

startup founder isolation

Here’s what I’ve learned from clients over the years: being a founder CEO can leave you carrying the weight of the business all by yourself. There might not be anyone on your team that you can share your thoughts and worries with. Even with partners, there may be reasons why you’re not fully comfortable revealing the concerns you feel, exposing what you might not know, or just venting.

Without a safe place to explore and work through challenges, you can end up feeling ungrounded, unsupported and overstressed. The day-to-day of running your business brings its own pressures. But the isolation of your role compounds it.

So what is one of the most effective ways to address the seclusion that so often comes with running a company?

Build connections. Meet others like yourself. Find relationships outside of work that provide the safe space you need. Dedicate yourself to building your support network — whether it’s other CEOs, a mentor, a coach or a partner that you do trust.

As you find ways to connect with others, as you get validation and support from your network, you’ll find that you can put down some of the burden. You’ll feel calmer, supported, more focused, and more energized to concentrate on business issues. You’ll feel relieved.

Do you ever feel isolated in your role? What do you do to address it?

© Jennine Heller and J Heller Coaching. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jennine Heller and J Heller Coaching with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Photo by Rodolfo Clix from Pexels.

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