Today we’re dropping the first episode of The Pivotal Leader, podcast edition!
This new mini series is designed to normalize pivots, and will feature six founders who have maneuvered pivots to find a meaningful path to growth.
I’m excited that Oscar AI founder and CEO Quratul-Ann (“Q”) Malik is my first guest, because she was the inspiration for my definition of pivotal leadership:
Pivotal leadership (n):
a form of guiding oneself and others to fulfill a purpose that is centered on truth.
I’m also continually impressed with how Q balances introspection and execution in how she leads.
She’s exactly the kind of founder I’d like to elevate through this series.
Watch our conversation above to learn how:
Q uses truth-seeking as a framework to find focus as a founder and CEO
Truth is an alignment of "the inner and the outer"
Sometimes a pull from the market may be your path to growth, rather than a push
Taking action allows your ideas to be privy to external forces that can allow them to flourish in ways you hadn't predicted
Founders who are afraid of pivoting because of the sunk cost can reframe the situation to focus on the possibility of the future
Strapped for time?
Check out below a few gems from the conversation, extracted from the full transcript and edited for clarity and readability.
Farah: One of the ways that you find focus as a founder and a CEO is to be truth-seeking. What does that mean in the context of your business?
Quratul-Ann: There are always a lot of inputs that are coming from outside, and even from inside yourself. Truth-seeking is a framework that helps me stay objective and grounded in reality. The intention and the effort of trying to be objective and intellectually honest with yourself is really what that's all about.
Farah: In what way did truth-seeking help you find this path to being a tech founder?
Quratul-Ann: For me, it was always a calling, a knowing. There were logical pieces to it, like I wanted to do something with impact. I had worked at the White House. I had seen a lot of mission-oriented people start companies and make a huge dent in the world - and do it in a very short period of time.
When we started talking about whether I should start a company, at that moment everything aligned. Logically, it made sense. Emotionally, it made sense. Personally, I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do.
Truth is one of those things where the inner and outer is aligned. You’ve thought through different ways of analyzing the problem. And if you're coming to the same conclusion? To me that's a pretty good sign that you're in line with the truth.
Farah: Can you take us through one of your pivots?
Quratul-Ann: We were doing employee engagement software for almost a year and a half. [But] people were talking to us about this much more painful issue they were having around understanding their data in a clearer, easier way. If we were being really clear- minded about it, would we just focus on this [other] problem? The answer was yes.
People say that in startups, oh, sometimes you're pushing the rock up the hill, and sometimes there's more of a pull. It felt like we were doing exactly the push, and then it really did feel like a pull. There's validation that happens after the fact. The tricky thing is that in-between phase. Can you think clearly enough and try not to let your fear, or even other preconceived notions you might have, get in the way?
Farah: What advice do you have for founders who are afraid to pivot?
Quratul-Ann: I think most of the fear around pivoting comes from fear of the sunk cost of time and money and energy. The questions I started to ask myself as a founder-CEO were: Do I feel like [the business is] getting stale or stagnant? That's question number one. Question number two is, “Do I have an inkling of where I think this could go? And if I didn't think about the sunk cost at all, and I just thought about the future, would I be able to make that jump more naturally?” Push your mindset away from the fear into what's possible.
Farah: Something I see with startups that I work with, and in my own business, is that you can only think and plan so much. The action is the answer. You won't know the answer until you've taken the step.
Quratul-Ann: Yeah. We were talking [earlier] about truth and how I use that as a framework. You have a sense of how the pieces will come together. But the reality is when you put something out there, it's now privy to the external forces – your customers, your audience. That will allow it to flourish and blossom in ways that maybe you hadn't predicted.
Are you a founder weighing a potential pivot? Reply to this email, or email info@coachingwithfarah.com, to chat with me. -Farah
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