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Lighten Up / Tighten Up

Written by: Brad Feld

Article Overview: As I was writing my previous post about The Constipation of Scale I got an email from a co-investor talking about a CEO / CTO conflict. It had an interesting phrase in it that I realized applies to many CEO / CTO relationships – “CEO needs to lighten up and CTO needs to tighten up.”

Lighten Up / Tighten Up

As I was writing my previous post about The Constipation of Scale I got an email from a co-investor talking about a CEO / CTO conflict. It had an interesting phrase in it that I realized applies to many CEO / CTO relationships – “CEO needs to lighten up and CTO needs to tighten up.”

While this isn’t always the order (sometimes the CEO needs to tighten up!), the source of conflict like this is pretty predictable. I’ve seen this over and over and over again – as an investor you see the natural (and healthy) tension between CEO and CTO. If the CEO and CTO don’t know how to play together (or are both experiencing their roles together for the first time) this healthy tension often continues to evolve until armageddon looms. One day you wake up and realize you’ve got an issue.

Ironically, it’s an easy one to address. Our friendly neighborhood CTO needs to tighten up and our CEO needs to lighten up. Now – I said it’s easy to address – not “to solve” as this behavior change often feels like a chinese finger trap – they harder you work at it, the more ensnared you get.

As I reflect on this, these situations spiral out of control more frequently when the CEO and CTO are not co-founders (e.g. one or the other is hired in after the company is founded.) As CTO’s are natural technical founders, this dynamic often appears when a CEO is hired – even very early (e.g. < 10 people in the company), especially if the CTO / founder never actively acknowledges the dynamics between a CEO and CTO (e.g. the CEO is the ultimate boss.)

The success cases are ones where the CEO and the CTO work hard on their relationship from the start, recognize that they are different people, have different styles, have different roles, and actively engage in figuring out an effective working relationship.

Like most things that are out of balance, you can get in balance quickly by shifting your behavior a little. This doesn’t just apply to CEO / CTO relationships – it applies to negotiations, political views, marriages, and even relationships with your dog. If you are naturally “tight”, try lightening up. If you are naturally “light”, try tightening up. In either case, it’s a lot easier than dealing with a meltdown.

Read this post in Brad's blog.

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Article Tags: armageddon, behavior change, boss, ceo, chinese finger trap, conflict, constipation, ctos, different styles, email, founders, investor, neighborhood, phrase, relationship, relationships, spiral, success cases, tension



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Home Office definition by the IRS - [quote:2k4jkkcd]If you have a business that can be run from home and have limited client traffic (the city or county can have issues with that), then definitely go for it[/quote:2k4jkkcd] The US government, in its never-ending attempts to squeeze as much money out of us workers as possible, has certain restrictions for home offices - if you want to deduct the room for tax purposes. (If you don't try to deduct it, it doesn't matter.) I'd advise anyone who does deduct for a home office to look into it very carefully. The entire room must be used as an office and nothing else, or it will be disallowed . (At least, that's what it was like a couple of years ago. Of course the IRS does have a tendency to change rules every year... but I doubt if they'd loosen up on the requirement. Tighten it, if anything. I've always worked from home - but never been able to go the "itemized deduction" route even if I'd wanted to. I speak only of what I know about the US. Inhabitants of other countries should of course consult their own tax codes.


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