Why 60% of CEOs Get Fired (and How to Avoid It) - Glenn Gow | 59

Glenn Gow has coached CEOs for decades and served as a venture-backed CEO for 25 years. In this conversation, we explore the hidden neural pathways that drive CEO behavior, why the habits that got you here won't get you there, and what it actually takes to scale yourself alongside your company.

Glenn shares how he helps leaders break through blind spots, reframe success, and build culture through storytelling. We also get into the investor-founder dynamic, AI's impact on coaching, and why the org chart of the future will have humans reporting to AI agents.

Glenn's website: glenngow.comThe Scaling CEO: youtube.com/@glenngow1015

0:00 – The blind spot every CEO has

1:10 – What are success patterns?

3:15 – Why 60% of venture-backed CEOs get fired

5:30 – Showing up with the wrong kit

6:00 – How Glenn unlocks self-awareness

7:00 – "It's always the CEO's fault"

8:30 – The Sheryl Sandberg "and that's on me" story

9:50 – Why personal change feels threatening

11:30 – 99% of what we do is hardwired

12:00 – Communication as the CEO's real job

14:10 – Reframing 97% as success, not failure

17:00 – Building culture through stories, not values posters

21:30 – Prioritization: the three things exercise

25:00 – Dopamine traps and the long arc

27:00 – AI as a threat to coaching

29:00 – Three areas every CEO should deploy AI

32:00 – Humans reporting to AI agents

35:00 – "ChatGPT is cheap. I'm expensive."

37:00 – Value vs. cost in executive coaching

39:30 – The investor-founder misalignment

42:00 – Glenn's non-negotiables for joining a board