As an entrepreneur when you bring you members of your team with you (whether they are part of your management team or advisors), there is always a possibility that someone will say something that you disagree with. As far as I am concerned it’s perfectly fine to have some level of disagreement with a couple of provisos. First, how you handle the disagreement is important. If you try to quelch it in the meeting that’s a very bad sign. If instead you are willing to address it head on and explain the reason for having different opinions, you can turn this into an opportunity to show that you have in fact a well functioning management team. Second, the disagreement should not be on a fundamental premise of the business. So for instance, if you say “viral distribution is not part of our strategy” and your head of marketing (or worse yet, one of your angel investors) says that “viral distribution is at the heart of our strategy” then there is a bit of a problem. It will likely make the investors worry that there is a lack of communication and coherence in the team that nothing can get accomplished.
Albert Wenger
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