I’m Co-President
One of the great recurring bits on The Office was Dwight consistently promoting himself to Assistant Regional Manager with others then correcting him that what he actually was was Assistant to the Regional Manager. It got me every time. And now I’m living it, but kind of in reverse.
See, a little more than a year ago, Brent promoted Mark and I to be Co-Presidents of Permanent Equity. And now when I get introduced to someone as the President of Permanent Equity, I correct them: Co-President, I point out.
That’s not to be a stickler, but rather because my experience is that it’s far better to be Co-President than it would be to be President, and I think it’s helpful for people to know that. I thought about this after our friend Michael asked for an update, one year in, on how the Co-President thing was working out.
I can’t speak for Mark, but my view is that it’s working out great. One selfish reason is that being President alone would require me to lead and make decisions in areas that I (1) am not good at and (2) don’t enjoy. For example, we had to think through, find, renovate, and fill new office space this past year and then figure out how people at the firm might best stay connected despite being in different locations. None of that is in my sweet spot, but it all had to be done, and done well, in order to facilitate the further growth of the firm. Mark and his team nailed it, and Permanent Equity is better off as a result.
The flip side of that is that being Co-President enables me to better lead and make decisions in areas where I am good and that I enjoy. For example, content. Thanks to Brent, Mark, Emily, Sarah, David, Taylor, and everyone else who contributed to everything we published last year, I think 2023 was one of our best content years ever in terms of quality, quantity, and regularity (and compliance). And I think I was helpful to that end (though Emily might be shaking her head).
One thing Michael also wanted to know was what Brent gets up to now that Mark and I are handling the President-y stuff. Well, he gave that update in his recent annual letter:
As CEO, my days are now primarily spent at the intersection of what I love to do and where I’ve been given talents. I get to serve our team and continue to build our culture, recruit new team members, sift potential investors and partners, architect deal structures, advise on impactful operating situations, occasionally rescue a deal, and figure out what comes next. I’ve never been more excited to go to work!
A lot of people know that I was hired into Permanent Equity as CFO. It was a role I was happy to fill in order to join the organization, but it came with a lot of responsibilities that weren’t in my sweet spot either (my sweet spot is not very big). I did my best to do them and do them well, but both I and the firm realized over time that we’d all be better off if those things were done by a person for whom they were in their sweet spot. And now we have Nikki.
Successful leadership is not about collecting titles or responsibilities, but instead about shedding them over time. I know Brent’s goal, for example, is to get to a place where he is always useful, but never necessary. To do that, one needs to be self-aware, willing to share, and able to recognize when you will hurt, not help.
We’re all works-in-progress in that regard, but one way Mark and I try to stay connected to that end is by going on a weekly walk where we run through everything that’s happening in our areas and try to get the other’s thoughts. What that ends up being (besides good exercise) is the two of us verbally processing challenges we have. What it never ends up being is one of us telling the other what to do. Most often those discussions end with something like, “I think you’re thinking about it the right way, and I trust that whatever you decide to do in your zone will be best.”
In other words, I hope I am always Co-President of Permanent Equity. Not only does that role let me lead and make decisions in the areas that are in my (small) sweet spot, but it also means that we have someone Brent and I trust implicitly leading and making decisions in the many areas that are not.
-Tim