Member Dan Peterson Speaks: When Picking a Team, Put Values First
The Challenge:
The case at hand was brought to a recent Alliance meeting by an Alliance CEO whose early stage startup company was about to close a B round of financing. The CEO was preparing to build the executive team with some key hires.
If you were in this situation, what would you do?
If I were in your shoes, I would have 100% certainty that "my" top team fit the creative, fast-moving, take-no-prisoners type of company I wanted to build.
Congratulations on the new funding! It is a great opportunity to build exactly the team you want. I also know you have previous experience hiring key people as a CEO, which good, too. However, I must encourage you to be absolutely positive that your first key hires have the right attitude for the challenges your company will face.
I realize you know how to hire key execs in a large corporate environment. But in world of entrepreneurship, hiring a top team takes a ground-up approach. It's like the difference between tending the farm and planting the seeds.
For a startup company, values and culture are incredibly important. If I were in your shoes, I would focus on the culture I wanted to create and have 100% certainty that "my" top team fit the creative, fast-moving, take-no-prisoners type of company I wanted to build. I would also make sure "my" key hires met everyone in the organization, and I would use assessment tools to help me understand just who I am hiring.
Years ago, when I was running my own startup, I developed a mantra: "˜Every organization is aligned perfectly to get the results it gets.' Culture and values lie at the very heart of that. People roll their eyes at me when I talk about values, because I sound like a broken record. But I feel it so deeply, and so should you.
About
The Alliance of Chief Executives is an active community of business leaders that focuses on deep strategic exchanges, challenging existing assumptions and generating fresh ideas.
Contact Us
Alliance of Chief Executives, LLC
2185 N. California Blvd.,
Suite 590
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
- 925-942-2400 Office
- 925-956-4424 Fax
- Email: info@allianceofCEOs.com
Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Alliance news!
About
The Alliance of Chief Executives is an active community of business leaders that focuses on deep strategic exchanges, challenging existing assumptions and generating fresh ideas.
Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Alliance news!
Member Resources
Contact Us
2185 N. California Blvd., Suite 590
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
925-942-2400 Office
925-956-4424 Fax
Email: info@allianceofCEOs.com
2021 © Alliance of Chief Executives, LLC
