Finance & Operations

CEOs — Do You Communicate with “Sharp Elbows”?

January 5, 2012

sharp elbows

In a recent post for the OpenView Blog, Founder and Senior Managing Director Scott Maxwell presents two different types of CEOs when it comes to employee communication.

While some CEOs excel at listening and empathizing with their teams, others fall victim to the habit of always asking for too much, too soon. This overly pushy nature is referred to by some as communicating with “sharp elbows”, and as Scott points out, it often makes it harder for CEOs to achieve their goals.

“I always found those conversations to be discouraging as I like to exceed expectations and [the CEO’s] approach never left any room to exceed expectations,” he writes.  “I never really enjoyed the conversations and probably avoided the CEOs more than I should have, and clearly didn’t do my best work with them.”

As a company leader, it’s natural to want to constantly push employees, believing that the added pressure will motivate them to reach a whole new level of productivity. But as Scott points out, it doesn’t always work that way, and in many cases that type of communication can actually de-motivate the team.

So what should CEOs and company founders consider to improve their approach to employee communication? Check out the full post on the OpenView Blog site to find out.

Founder & Partner

As the founder of OpenView, Scott focuses on distinctive business models and products that uniquely address a meaningful market pain point. This includes a broad interest in application and infrastructure companies, and businesses that are addressing the next generation of technology, including SaaS, cloud computing, mobile platforms, storage, networking, IT tools, and development tools.