Tech Executives Tell Me What They Tell No One Else, and I Think ‘The Audacity’ Got Silicon Valley Mostly Right.

Detailed summary

An executive coach who hears what tech leaders say behind closed doors weighs in on how "The Audacity" gets Silicon Valley right.

“More than physical pain, I fear humiliation.” That’s the first line of The Audacity, spoken by tech CEO Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen) to his therapist. I’ve coached tech leaders for more than a decade, including people who reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Steve Huffman, and I can’t recall a client ever saying the word “humiliation” to me. They say “insecure” and “imposter syndrome” instead. The show names a real fear in its opening seconds, using a word I rarely hear.

The series aired on AMC this spring and landed on Netflix in August, where it’s finding a second audience.

Most of the reviews came from TV critics, but I watched it as the person executives say these things to. They tell me things they keep from their boards, their teams and their partners.

With that in mind, I wanted to share what the show gets right about the people leading the tech industry and what was stretched to make good TV.

In episode seven, Duncan says the fear of humiliation is behind every little lie. His therapist, Dr. JoAnne Felder (Sarah Goldberg), puts it another way: Everyone spins, even to themselves. That’s the most accurate line in the series.

Executives spin to me, too. It usually sounds like catastrophizing what a boss might say or fixating on the worst-case scenario of an important meeting or presentation. When I hear it, I ask them to pause and take a breath. Then we get clear on what they value and what they want. Then they pick one small step forward. It’s simple, and that’s why it works.

The pause does most of the work. Once a leader slows down, the spin falls apart on its own.

In the first episode, Duncan screams at his housekeeper for failing to catch a tungsten cube he throws to her. One recap called his outbursts one of the funniest elements of the premiere. I call it reality. I’ve coached executives whose CEOs screamed at them and berated people in executive meetings — at companies that have been voted “best place to work.”

The show also gets right the fact…

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