For CEOs and VCs: Good pressure or bad pressure?
I've also realized that I'm not good at figuring stuff out when I put too much pressure on myself… Every time I feel myself getting tense, I now remind myself to loosen up and immediately feel my creative problem solving abilities return.
While self-induced pressure is common in startups, pressure can also be applied externally by the Board (or the CEO to the rest of the team). Most leaders don't realize how counterproductive this can be in a startup. It is OK to apply pressure for better execution of things that have been figured out, but it should be applied very sparingly when trying to encourage the team to figure out the remaining unknowns.