Your Job Is Not To Make Them Happy

Alisa Cohn works with founders who desperately want to be loved.

'They're trying to be the leader who everyone loves, but what really needs to happen very often is, we need to drive towards results. This employee continuing to not really do a great job at their job, you don't want to push them because you don't want to upset them. You don't want to give them difficult feedback, so you're just going to keep hoping it works out.'

Sound familiar?

You don't want your kid to be sad. So you skip the boundary. You give in on bedtime. You avoid the vegetable fight. You keep hoping it works out.

'Ultimately, that leads to the demise of your company.'

Or in parenting terms: a child who can't handle disappointment, who doesn't understand limits, who expects the world to bend.

Your job isn't to make them happy right now. It's to create the conditions for them to succeed later.

Sometimes those conditions involve uncomfortable moments today.