The Board's job is to make sure the right team is at the helm, not to be at the helm themselves...A great Board manages itself and treats the CEO as a peer and gives the CEO's opinion great weight. But a great Board is not a rubber stamp.

—The Board Of Directors: Role and Responsibilities, AVC (Fred Wilson)

Last April, a dilemma hit our board: after 12 years of service, our general manager said he was quitting. He tendered his resignation and said he'd serve out a two month notice period.

I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, I'm fairly certain he was angling for a raise; he thought he'd get us over the barrel, and dictate his terms.

He gambled and lost; we went out and found a new manager. Not pleasant, but as Stringer Bell reminds us, "you gotta be fierce".

There are eight people on this board and I'm proud we handled it how we did; past boards took the easy way out, letting too much stuff like this slide. You can get away with that once in a while, but do it too often, and you'll have the employees running the shop, ignoring the customers and stealing from the owners.

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