Evaluating CEOs from the perspective of a VC

24 Jan

Posted by mcooch as Managing

I thought the recent post on CEO Reviews from VC Seth Levine was pretty eye-opening.

Being a CEO is great, but the job comes with a lot of responsibility and pressure. Just look at the suggested format for CEO reviews:

________________________________________________________

Rate performance on a 1-5 scale, 1 being least favorable and 5 being most favorable; provide support for your rating in the space provided:

Vision: Creates vision and strategy. Communicates vision and strategy both internally and externally.

Leadership: Ensures the support and execution of the vision and strategy by:

Establishment and communication of priorities;
Driving change for improvement throughout the organization;
Team-building; and
Creation of high performance environment.

Operating Management: Develops and executes sound long-term and annual business plans in support of approved strategy. Manages operations and resources efficiently and effectively.

Values and Integrity: Maintains consistent values and exemplary conduct. Promotes positive corporate culture to reflect corporate mission statement.

Shareholder/Investor/Financial Community: Serves as chief spokesperson, communicating effectively with shareholders and stakeholders. Is well regarded and respected by investment and financial community.

Strategic Partners: Maintains personal rapport with strategic partners through open, ongoing communications

Human Resources: Ensures the development of effective employee recruitment, training, and plans and programs to provide and motivate the human resources necessary to achieve objectives.

Public Relations: Ensures that the company and its operating units contribute appropriately to the well being of their communities and industries. Represents the company in community and industry affairs.

Board Relations: Works effectively with the Board of Directors to keep them fully informed on all important aspects of the status and development of the Company. Facilitates the Board’s governance, compositions, and committee structure. Implements Board policies and recommends policies for Board consideration. Supports a relationship characterized by trust, mutual respect, open communication and responsiveness to feedback. Uses Board meetings effectively.

Financial Results: Financial Results – Establishes appropriate annual and long-term financial objectives and manages to consistently achieve these goals; ensures that appropriate systems are maintained to protect assets and maintain effective control of operations.

_________________________________________________________

That’s quite a lot to be responsible for! But if you want growth and big results, these are all of the areas that require attention.

This is a nice model for young CEOs like myself to use to do regular self-evaluation.

Email This Post

Spread the Word:

del.icio.us Digg Bloglines Facebook Google Socializer StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo!

2 Responses

seth

January 26th, 2008 at 7:56 am
1

mike - your point about self evaluation is right on. i’d extend that to include regular ‘check-ins’ with people around you that you trust. the point is not after the fact evaluation of performance, but a model and context for a conversation about ongoing improvement.

we actually did a similar review of the foundry partners. in our case we had our portfolio ceo’s, other board members, our co-investors and our staff (not to mention each other) evaluate us. the results were really interesting and extremely helpful.
mcooch

January 27th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
2

Thank you, Seth - that’s great advice. I think many entrepreneurs/CEOs operate in a vacuum if they don’t have outside funding, but it shouldn’t be that way if they hope to develop themselves and their business at a competitive pace.