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Seung Lim

Founder & CEO at Realizing Empathy

Seung Chan Lim, also known as Slim, is the Founder and CEO of Realizing Empathy, based in Chicago, Illinois.1 He has extensive experience in coaching and empathy-focused work:

Professional Background

Founder & CEO of Realizing Empathy: Lim has been leading Realizing Empathy since February 2013, focusing on improving communication, interpersonal relationships, and organizational dynamics.1 His work aims to:

  • Enhance communication impact and influence
  • Reduce interpersonal conflicts
  • Improve team alignment, culture, and trust
  • Decrease turnover caused by communication challenges

Executive Team Coach: Since October 2012, Lim has been coaching co-founders to navigate conflicts while maintaining their values.1 His coaching often results in:

  • Greater clarity on conflict contributions
  • Improved awareness of emotional and psychological barriers
  • Enhanced team alignment and communication
  • Amicable resolutions, including departures when necessary

Other Roles and Achievements

  • Author and Anthropological Researcher: Lim conducted research at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, exploring how individual artists innovate differently from companies.1
  • Book Author: His book "Realizing Empathy" has won awards, including the Communication Arts Typography Annual Award.1
  • SAP Champion and Mentor: He served as a SAP Mentor on empathy and innovation from 2015 to 2019, and later as a SAP Champion.1
  • Coach for Accelerator Programs: Lim has coached founders in programs by Google for Startups, Techstars, and Singularity University.1

Background in Tech

Before focusing on empathy and coaching, Lim had a career in tech:

  • Assistant Director of Engineering and Senior Software Design Engineer at MAYA Design from 1999 to 2008.1
  • Designed award-winning high-tech products and services, including a CES Innovation award winner.1

Lim's work consistently focuses on empathy, leadership development, and improving interpersonal and organizational dynamics in various contexts.

Highlights

Sep 6 · linkedin

You probably missed this key point from Paul Graham’s Founder Mode.

The essay is hitting nerves because many Founders feel validated, even vindicated, by the essay. The arguments coming out the essay (i.e. Is micro-management good or bad? Should we have managers or not?) are much less important than one may think.

I’d say 100% of the Founder-CEOs I’ve coached had received advice from experts or professionals (i.e. a VC, a Founder with 3 exists, Harvard MBAs, etc) that just did not resonate.

Worse yet, they had HIRED experts or professionals who made changes to their organization that did more HARM than good.

To be clear, I’m willing to believe that every one of these experts or professionals gave their advice or made the organizational changes out of COMPASSION.

Here’s an analogy.

From 1971 to 1977, ALL of the projects Italian NGOs ran to help Africa FAILED. What American, British, or the French NGOs did weren’t much better, either. [1]

But they were NGOs, so clearly they had a lot of COMPASSION!

Except, what they did out of compassion was TEACH the locals how to live their lives.

They did not show up as EQUALS, willing to CO-CREATE something that neither of them would have been able to create alone, which better fits the context of the locals.

There is a fine line between “helping” and being an imperialist or a colonialist.

That fine line has much to do with respect.

There is a lot of talk on how important it is for Founders to respect their employees. Rightfully so!!

But there is almost NO talk about how important it is for employees to also respect the Founders.

For organizations and businesses to develop, respect must go BOTH ways.

And we also need to reflect on the original meaning of the word, “TO RESPECT,” so we don’t confuse it with TOLERATING or ACCMMODATING.[2]


[1] For more, read Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo on how USD 2 trillion of aid money did more harm than good.

[2] I’m attaching an excerpt from a talk I gave in 2014 on this topic. You can watch it in full here: https://lnkd.in/gBqiKKWh

Aug 1 · linkedin

Here is something I’ve noticed in my coaching practice.

Follow Seung Chan Lim (Slim) for more observations made while coaching visionary Founder-CEOs.

#leadership #personaldevelopment #entrepreneurship

Related Questions

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Seung Lim
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Experience

Founder & CEO at Realizing Empathy (February 2014 - Present)
CEO Coach to Founders at Google (Various Periods), CEO Coach to Founders at Techstars (Various Periods), Assistant Director of Engineering at MAYA Design (January 2006 - August 2008)

Education

BS in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (1995 - 1999); MFA, Rhode Island School of Design (2008 - 2011); MBA in International Business, Point Park University (2000 - 2002)

Location

Chicago, Illinois, United States