Leadership - A discussion of traits, characteristics, and current news of leaders.

Thanks to Chris Fralic for sharing his thoughts on leadership in the following interview.

Chris is a Director at First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Chris is a thought leader in internet technology.  He was most recently VP of Business Development at del.icio.us and spent six years at eBay where in his last position he was in ad sales and business development. Chris also serves on the Board of Governors of the Leader to Leader Institute .

As a venture capitalist, what traits do you consider most important in the leaders of the companies where you invest?

"I’d say experience, decision making, team building, ability to listen, and ability to adapt are all important traits."  

How would you weight leadership in the mix of value that you see in an investment?

"The entrepreneur and management team are probably the single most important part of an investment decision."

Who currently is an example of leadership and why?

"I worked at eBay for 6 years, and think that Meg Whitman is an amazing leader – she helped grow the company from a few dozen to over 10,000 employees and maintain the values and culture and Community focus along the way."  

What is the purpose of "Leader to Leader" and has being involved in it influenced how you conduct business at First Round?

"The Leader to Leader Institute was founded as The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and the mission is to strengthen leadership in the social sector and help them build vibrant nonprofit organizations, and you can find out more at www.leadertoleader.org.  In working with current and prospective companies at First Round, I often think of Drucker’s famous 5 questions:  What is our mission?  Who is our customer?  What does the customer value?  What are our results?  What is our plan?"

What impact do you think blogging will have on business?

"It’s already changing everything, and I think it will eventually impact every business – whether they choose to blog themselves or have to react to what’s being said about them in the blogosphere.  Anyone or any business can do it - one of my favorite examples is with Tom Peters - he’s now a world class blogger at www.tompeters.com."