In a start-up we often get a diligent board and a passionate CEO. A less common situation is a passionate board and a diligent CEO. In both cases in start-ups the vision of the company is driven, necessarily, by people with blinders on. They essentially have tossed away any disbelief in their approach to their vision.
My question is in about how to amend such a vision when the team of a start-up realizes the board and CEO are barking up the wrong tree?
Whether you are the head of engineering or the head of sales or any other such team member -- if you begin to see that the direction of the start-up has not been set correctly how can you alert leadership and help them course correct without getting fired or being considered a drag on the business?
I've seen several attempts at this and the ability of the wheel house of the company to hear the sounds coming from the engine room is often lacking.
So how does a QA Director or a VP of Sales or such a team member open the ear of the board? In a team of ten or so people one would think this would never be an issue and yet I see time and time again the engine room conversation is never heard? Is this a structural defect in start-ups that can't afford to hear about their own potential flaws? Is it a necessary evil of the hard charging all steam ahead nature of a start-up? When is a course correction too late? Or is it never too late?
These are the kinds of questions I think teams in start-ups often face. Questions that usually don't or can't get answered.
1 comment:
I blogged a similar post you may be interested in reading: http://eniveld.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B350308F1212018E!138.entry. This is more about how to prevent the problem from happening in the first place. Once you're in it, there is no general solution to your problem, each situation is unique.
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