CEOs: Teach Your Team The No Whining Rule

December 6, 2011

When OpenView Partners invests growth capital in an expansion stage software company we work closely in developing the CEOs and their management teams in order to help them execute their strategies and build great companies that achieve strategic exits for everyone.

As the CEO you should spend your time working with the management team setting the strategy, hiring and retaining the best people, making sure there is enough cash in the bank to run the company and building relationships with customers and potential strategic partners for business development. Anything you do other than that is a waste of your time.

That is why it is important to teach the management team the “No Whining Rule“. There is a great article in the Harvard Business Review that talks about what a CEO needs to do to change this behavior. It is about encouraging

  • Accountability
  • Positivity

Teaching your management team to come to you with forethought around impediments and solutions to them versus whining will result in a team that works together to create effective solutions to business challenges and eliminate unproductive patterns of behavior. More importantly, they will drive this lesson down to all levels of the organization, resulting in a more agile organization able to execute and win the day for your company.

You can read the article here.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.