Angel Investor-Entrepreneur Conflict:  Turning Confrontation into Creativity

Investor-Entrepreneur Conflict can be a risk to the success of any business if differences of opinion, approach and future aims cannot be creatively reconciled. 

Any innovative business idea will be a response to a difficulty that has not so far been creatively responded to. As such, entrepreneurs are like the rest of us who are able to respond to a difficult situation creatively in some areas of our lives but not in others.

Mediation and Conflict Coaching from London-based CAOS Conflict Management can enable those involved in difficult investor-entrepreneur relationships or communication breakdowns to use conflict as an opportunity to create constructive change in the business relationship so that teamwork, effectiveness and productivity can be optimised. 

Where personal conflict gets in the way of 'task' conflict and priorities for how a business will move forward and develop differ between the investor and the entrepreneur, a business can come to a halt in various ways:

• Decisions are not made because different opinions and expectations are not resolved.
• Funding may be withheld over the intended purpose for its use. 
• Targets and priorities may differ and if not aligned then effort is dissipated in different, possibly opposing directions. 
• Meetings become unproductive and difficult on a personal level, leading to communication breakdown. 

If you are reading this you probably already know some of the causes and consequences of unresolved investor-entrepreneur conflict but here's just one article of many that discuss the topic. 

Please call us on 020 3371 7507 or contact us via email if you are experiencing a difficulty in your business and would like to use Mediation or other support, such as Conflict Coaching from CAOS Conflict Management to resolve it. 

Supporting a More Effective Investor-Entrepreneur Business Relationship

As Mediation and Conflict Coaching Practitioners we are experienced in helping people to creatively resolve conflict so that the way forward is more productive and inspiring than the present difficult situation they find themselves in. 

Alan Sharland, Director of CAOS Conflict Management has over 20 years experience of working with people in situations that feel 'stuck' and irresolvable, but through the use of mediation or other conflict management support they are able to re-create a broken work-relationship and align expectations and priorities so that shared decisions about future actions can be created. 

Mediation is a process that can be used by those with a difficulty to create an outcome that works for them.

In situations where personal relationships have broken down and participants want to improve the relationship, mediation can support that being possible In situations where the personal relationship is less important but the working, creative interaction between participants has become ineffective, mediation can help that to be realigned. Sometimes both aspects can be addressed. As a participant-led process the outcomes are decided on and created by the participants and the mediator role is to support that happening where presently it is not. 

The cost benefits of resolving investor-entrepreneur conflict are clear, whether measured solely in terms of money or additionally in terms of effectiveness, creativity and innovation in the business.

Unresolved conflict in start-up businesses can sometimes mean the business itself goes under when a more effective investor-entrepreneur relationship would have avoided that outcome. 

Please call us on 020 3371 7507 or contact us via email if you are experiencing a difficulty in your business and would like to use Mediation or other support, such as Conflict Coaching from CAOS Conflict Management to resolve it.