Venture Capital

In this write up I am going to share three pertinent points on how a budding CEO can get the most of out of employees. In start ups, the reality is that CEO’s are conservative in their appreciation of other’s abilities and often are reticent and uncertain about their own, because the situation is plagued by the iffy state of the company and because sometimes they lack experience. A major consideration to imbibe is that CEO’s should try to avoid too much scenario planning with management as it can be extremely detrimental to the company’s ability to focus and build on a core team. Instead, start ups should focus on one strategy and stretch organizationally to encompass possibilities and have a robust outlook. As a CEO your judgements, however, are best made as close to the action as possible rather than on a theoretical basis and remember judgement is more tactical and scenario is strategy which gives distinctly different outcomes in terms of timelines but are intertwined. As a CEO you must have good judgement, else under pressure you could end up with inferior outcomes.

First, not only is it necessary organizationally to stretch others in your team, but it is also necessary that you should consider stretching yourself. The art of growing people lies a great deal in this stretching process. Everybody in a well run organization should feel as if they are under some pressure from day one of joining the company. Nothing is worse for a start up CEO that hires young blood and when the new staff starts work, particularly if they join a close knit team, they are made to spend time sitting around before they are trusted to do anything. It is an absolute waste of resource. Bear in mind that people’s self confidence grows when they achieve more, this is the reality of life. Each time your team achieve more, an even more ambitious or difficult target needs to be set. If you do not stretch people enough at work it is inevitable that they will do more outside interests at your expense.

What it boils down to is this that it is the responsibility of the leadership and management to give opportunities and put demands on staff which enables them to grow in their work environment. Many people have potential and ability that even the most demanding work environment cannot stop them achieving recognition and expertise in their chosen area. Even the largest degree of stretch that you can put on them still leaves plenty more capacity, provided it is applied gradually, like stretching elastic, and I believe this is a prime feature of an organization which utilizes the skills of its people effectively. Simplified, people build companies and the generated cash expands it.

Second, your organization as it grows needs headroom. The headroom that is available is partly a feature of the number of layers in your organization so your employees can progress, but also a feature of the tolerance and openness of the environment in which they operate, an element which a CEO needs to encourage. The point of headroom is that those above should act as a support rather than as a control. The control and supervision must be done discreetly and quietly and hopefully even without the awareness of those who are being supervised. It is essential in a well-run company that in addition to the feeling of plenty of headroom and space to create and carry out one’s job scope, there should be absolute confidence that those above will support and that the employee can always look to them as a resource. If the burden becomes too much and the responsibilities too great, your employee must always feel that he can turn to somebody who is more knowledgeable, or has broader shoulders and who will share the burden.

The burden should be shared but the burden should not be taken away. If it is taken away one will never grow. If it is shared then trust and confidence will grow within and between the team. Equally, support should come not only from one’s immediate boss, who should be seen as a resource, but also from the entire management team in the company.

Third, and perhaps the most difficult of all to achieve in an organization is openness of communication. In today’s internet endowed world with a young workforce, expect to have a relaxed and open atmosphere, minds thrive in such environments. Occasionally tempers could flare only because it is when people are discussing the right subjects that temper will arise. If people lose their tempers it is because they are emotionally involved in the problem, and are probably talking on a subject which needs to be aired. As CEO you should prefer this to taking on flattery or play acting at agreements in your team. In reality, encouraged sucking up may be more dangerous for you as politics rife in such situations and it could come back to bite you inexpertly.

Finally, on parting, as a CEO, you must have a far greater tolerance of difference and a far greater respect for differences of view. A constant opinion as in prior posting, you should not hire yes-men. Yes –men come cheap. There is no need to pay high salaries to people who will continually agree. What you should look for is what is called constructive no-men.