Despite the CEOs claims of “it being a wonderful place to work”, I disagree. Don’t get me wrong, most of the employees at Limelight are honest, hardworking human beings and this company have potential. However, it’s limited by the CEOs lack of professional experience and narrow business skill set. He is not a bad person and at one time was probably the right guy for the job; however, the current demands of the business far exceed his leadership and management competencies. To his credit, he’s an adept fundraiser/business promoter; but, raising money/sitting on industry panel discussions and actually leading/managing an experienced team that consistently generates results requires very different skills. General insecurities and lack of trust (for himself and those around him) prevent him from seeing things objectively and those with differing opinions are generally dismissed. Maybe this explains the high turn over in the past 2+ years, especially in the last 12-months. To further complicate an almost non-existent culture, he freely admits to being a subpar communicator and this weakness permeates the organization in many dysfunctional ways. Poor expectation setting, often making and then breaking commitments without warning or discussion (with employees & customers!), giving directives to employees without conferring or notifying their immediate manager (causing confusion/conflict between manager and employee), telling very different versions of a story (depending on his audience), blaming others for his mistakes or miscommunication, leading with passive-aggressive behavior because he’s unskilled at giving direct feedback and dealing with any type of conflict. To sum it up; The Peter Principle applies here. Until he is replaced (or steps down) with a skilled/competent CEO, seek work somewhere else. There are many great start-ups and tech companies in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area, many former Limelighters are now thriving at these organizations.
