gregskloot

Thanks for the feedback -- definitely a fair point. I think the piece can be beneficial in different ways for different people. In the first section I noted that CEOs/Founders might use it as a template for their management structure, while department heads (i.e. Directors and VPs) may not care as much about the culture aspects, but the Objectives and Process sections may be most relevant for them.

Totally agreed! If you put in the time to define it upfront, it makes so many other tactical things (like hiring, goal setting etc) much easier down the road.

Good catch! I'll work on fixing this, thanks for pointing it out.

I said the same thing to myself when I wrote it... I was thinking back a few companies ago and wishing I understood this stuff. Glad you liked it!

Thank you! Just fixed it.

Fair point. Coming from the perspective of an early stage team (i.e. a startup), often the founder is the leader, and by necessity, he/she needs to manage the early team. That means working to develop some of the traits needed to manage AND lead effectively. Ideally, that founder will grow and be able to continue to lead/manage the team as it grows.

At most organizations I've been in, we'd struggle if the person in charge of a team (whether the CEO or a functional leader of say Marketing) was unable to both navigate and facilitate.

The ground rules idea is awesome. In the article I refer to something similar as "team customs"... I like your name better!

Thanks!

That's a very fair point. My leadership experience is in the U.S. so totally makes sense that it came out from that angle.

For assuming leadership of an existing team, I think it depends on the state of the team. Often the teams I have inherited needed a lot of work. There wasn't a defined culture or great communication processes, so I found a lot of it still applied.

In my last business, I needed to help re-build / re-calibrate several functional teams (including our leadership team), and a lot of this stuff definitely applied.

Got it, glad you overall liked the information and thanks for the UI feedback!

Glad to hear it!

Thanks for sharing! I wrote this and would definitely appreciate everyone's feedback.

Well said - I completely agree. Anytime I am speaking to a web development customer that wants to accept payments online, I give them the usual rant about the dangers of PayPal. It seems cheap and simple, but what's the different if they can freeze your account and leave your funds unavailable for your business? There's a cool start-up at Duke University that is developing a new way to make payments without cash that could evolve into a powerful payment system: https://www.facebook.com/NoochMoney

Blake, this list is fantastic! It is good to see that they drive home the point of mixing the tech side and business side in order to build a great company. I sit somewhere in the middle (more towards business/hustler) while my partner is more of the hacker... having that synergy between us allows us to get multiple points of view and ultimately make more effective decisions.