Joe Zakutney

I spent ten years as an operator at Uber, Snap, and DoorDash. I worked on good projects with people I liked, but what always got my attention was how people managed the stress of the job. The demands at these companies are high enough that the line between who you are outside of work and who you are at work gets blurry.

When that line gets blurry, the weight of feedback becomes personal. I know this firsthand. I watched some people glide through the bumps in the road while others were paralyzed, stuck on a betrayal their company had committed against them, real or perceived.

Eventually I was more interested in how people were responding to the challenges of building a business than in solving the problems themselves. That led me to coaching and therapy. Against the advice of people close to me, I left tech and got licensed as a therapist.

Now I work with leaders on what they actually value and what happens to their judgment when the stakes rise, so a hard quarter stops landing as a verdict on who they are.

Read what I believe about leadership →