![]() Others have helped identify areas of blockage. Some administered strengths and personality tests, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. (He says he was just as shameless when he was an unemployed designer.) Those who know Chesky say he is relentlessly asking questions, taking notes, and trying to identify ways he can improve.Īirbnb’s cofounders brought in lots of professional outside leadership coaches along the way. ![]() While Chesky may be fortunate to be able to call upon such boldfaced names, he says no matter your level there are always sources and they are surprisingly willing to help you just have to ask. He approached the challenge by relentlessly and shamelessly seeking counsel from the top experts in fields he needed to learn about - a short-cutting process he calls “going to the source.” Over time, his sources grew to include the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, Jeff Weiner, Jony Ive, as well as some less obvious names, like George Tenet, the former head of the CIA. And yet as CEO, he’s the one who’s had to scale the most. When they first started the company, he didn’t know what angel investors or slide decks were. The learning curve was steepest for Chesky, the only one of the three who had zero business or entrepreneurial experience. Here’s what you can learn from their experience. With no time to learn about business and management the more conventional way (think the years of gradual grooming common at a large company, or an executive MBA), Chesky, Gebbia and Blecharczyk did what any self-respecting startup founders would do to fast-track learning how to lead: they hacked it. Now claiming a cumulative total of some 160 million trips taken on its platform, Airbnb’s business has doubled almost every year of its existence - growth that can be dizzying for all involved, especially its leaders, and especially when they had little formal preparation. ![]() ![]() One of the less-discussed aspects of the company’s path is the lack of traditional management experience its founders, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, had when they first cooked up the idea - and the speed with which they had to learn how to lead a large company. I chronicle this journey in my new book, The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions…and Created Plenty of Controversy. ![]()
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