Leadership

It’s comforting to be around somebody who KNOWS something, who is skilled at their craft in life. When someone is confident it is nice to be around that energy because we can lean on it. Leaders build this in themselves and in others. Below is a collection of thoughts on leading.

Aim for a deadline that can be achieved with a 50% probability.

Viking Laws are timeless:

Be brave and aggressive.
Be prepared.
Be a good merchant.
Keep camp in order.

vector sum of the organization, how big and in what direction is everyone pointing? achieve this by having ONE METRIC

the CEO is trapped in an information bubble: the CEO has access to more lines of communication than anyone else in the company, but they are all compromised in the accuracy of the signal so build up a listening infrastructure to get straight info, thank them for bad news,

authenticity: I want to share with you my three values that seem important to me, I want to tell you the stories about how these became important to me, and how they show up in my leadership day to day so you know what to expect from me

“that was the most wonderful disappointing answer I have ever received”

any use of someone is an investment, use the punchcard system for taking things on. how many punches do I have left because they go away (each punch has a timeframe)

design charrette—the concept is borrowed from the field of product design—a large problem is divided into subproblems, each of which is assigned to a group; the groups then present their work to the whole team, receive feedback, regroup, and revise, in a cycle that loops until a decision has been made. Charrettes are useful not just because they break up the work but because they force groups with different priorities and sensibilities—coders and designers, architects and real-estate developers—to interact, broadening the range of available viewpoints.

aim for a deadline that can be achieved with a 50% probability

constantly address the limiting factor

this state of hypnosis where everyone is locked in, almost like a movie where you know the actor but it’s experiencing real stuff

build reusable primitives

most inefficient/‘slow’ teams are actually misaligned teams

the cadence of the way I speak is seductive and powerful. control time

A good leader coaches people, connects people, teaches people methodical problem solving, explains values, creates direct links between supply and demand (instead of a middle man)

silicon valley mistakes clear vision with short distance

mentorship is shockingly under-discussed considering how life-changing its impact is — both immediate and long-term — can be

mentorship can change basically everything about your life: your life plans, your self-image, your career, your circle of friends, your financial situation, your marriage prospects, which country you live in. These are not trivial matters. And these great metamorphoses take place in these extremely under-regulated, low-orderliness spaces
Good mentors initially show excellent tact and humor

Management by values. What that means is you find people that want the same things you want, and then just get the hell out of their way. People who want to go to the same place as you.

defend the henhouse from the foxes, that is my job!

They hire people to tell them what to do. We hired people to tell us what to do. We figured we’re paying them all this money, their job is to figure out what to do and tell us.

goals have an intent, a baseline, and progress measurement mechanism (measurement have rhythm)

create a list of words we don’t say that do not align with my intent or conflict with the user’s mental model of how things work

sales is just the art of being able to interact with people such that they will do what you want, predictably and repeatedly, as long as you are making sense and offering them something they should want

vision = stubbornness, do things my way as long as it works and is exciting people will follow

this is no different than a mule

It’s not ‘let me do my thing’ I’m not giving you room to let you work, I am in the room with you doing the work and we are not radiating out, we are all going one direction and we are flowing that general direction

What is even mean to set the vision? I don’t dream up something and then tell them what to do? I set the vision every single day and I need to be on the journey as well.
How do you know if the executive is doing a good job if you don’t skip level?

what we want from leaders is courage, the courage to make decisions beneficial in the long term

“this will be the story I will one day tell”… the harder it is, the bigger the dragon, the more epic the story of what you make happen

Apple doesn’t let villains use iPhones in movies. An easy way to protect idols

write the press release before I launch the product: how do I want people to think, feel, interact with the product

maps are amazing tools: how someone chooses to depict the world can tell you quite a lot about their point of view (use this as an exercise to know someone’s goals)

the best founders know how to be extraordinarily stubborn and extraordinarily flexible

It is easier for a team to do a hard thing that really matters than to do an easy thing that doesn’t really matter; audacious ideas motivate people.

Incentives are superpowers; set them carefully.

reduce problems the lowest common denominator: one cup of coffee, one customer, one store… all it took was 11 customers per store per day for starbucks to turn it around in 2008

good hire

someone I’d want to share my life with
considerate
personal accountability
do the difficult, right thing
generous nature
ego aside to assess themselves candidly
values, abilities, skills in that order

“this is how we’ve always done it” great way to normalize non-traditional processes

we overvalue growth rates and undervalue durability… durability dominates the value equation (last mover advantage)

The most important thing to hire for is deeply giving a fuck, and no amount of money will get someone who doesn’t care to care. This means you should pay people enough that it’s easy for them to say yes, but not enough that it’s hard for them to say no.

the best sushi chefs have the following attributes:

Take their work very seriously
Aspire to improve their skills
Cleanliness
Impatience (better leaders than collaborators)
Passion

there is no communication in this world that works except among equals

whatever discipline is imposed on an endeavor, people notice this and they will choose to devote their attention

hire for slope not y-intercept (look at what they’ve built recently and not where I went to school)

whatever you do in your darkest hour, that is your culture (not the yoga and free food etc)

don’t push decision making down (leads to fragmentation and departments) pull decision making in like a closer solar system to be a collective conscious totally integrated

fall into micro optimizations because big creative leaps take the entire company

right now, go do the thing that will establish the platform for resilience later in your life and do this thing first - this could be wealth - and usually this requires taking big risks so go establish yourself

“The man who’s going to be a fine and good guardian of the city for us will in his nature be philosophic, spirited, swift, and strong.” - The Republic

reduce the use of the first-person pronoun

tolerate ambiguity

never assume the motives of others are less noble than mine are to me

say nothing behind another’s back you’d be unwilling to say in exactly the same tone to his face

If you sit within 25 feet of a high performer, your own performance increases by 15%. If you sit within 25 feet of a low performer, your performance decreases by 30% (58,000 people over 11 companies). Negative emotions are more contagious.

be defined by our ambition, not our limitations

my company will not be a democracy, it will be a dictatorship with transparent values

a commander can be forgiven for being defeated but not forgiven for being surprised

no titles: if you create titles, people start coveting them, and this ends up creating competitive politics inside the company that undermines internal unity. Better to just give everyone the same title and make them go focus on the goal instead

what’s the best idea I should do and what’s the stupidest thing I’m doing right now?

great teams have high trust and high mission focus, and you can only evaluate this when adversity hits. great teams have to take on something that is hard

You can’t beat a man who’s found his niche

team members should feel indignation of the highest order—one simultaneously informed by pride of heritage and a sense of professional duty

learn the lesson, leave the event

understand the difference between loyalty and devotion. When people are loyal, they speak the truth. When people are devoted, they tell you what you want to hear. Great cultures need the truth

phased maintenance to develop our people

train the way you fight and you’ll be surprised at what stress inoculation and muscle memory can do

care for others and here is how I will do this: from the moment an individual comes into this organization, they will be a part of my family AND put them before myself

underwrite mistakes as professional development

two-way communication - horizontally and vertically

my leadership style is both aggressive, it’s very open, and it’s through the lens of being a friend and husband

good officers better be good humans first

what are my strengths? how do I perform? what are my values?

what does the situation require? given my strengths, my way of performing, and my values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done? and finally, what results have to be achieved to make a difference?

lessons from somewhere I can’t remember but sounds like sam altman:

we are on offense all the time
perfect results count, perfect processes don’t
assume nothing
make sure people keep their promises
live off the land
dangers: bureaucracy energy takers, too many things on the platter
if we do the right things we’ll make money near automatically

make my life so I just do a set of tasks everyday, it doesn’t matter how long or productive it is

one way I learn is with compressed information that I can query through pictures and words and abstractions and dimensionalities

not an enforcer, not a protector: fuel their own ambition to be a high performer

nerves/butterflies means you are doing something important, the increased blood flow will help you

say “when you’re leaders in your field” every class

I’m trying to make you the coach in your head

make big asks at the appropriate time

leaven passion with compassion

beware of midpoints, where there is always a trough

thick organizations share collective rituals, distinct culture, sacred origin story, strong moral ecology, serve something higher