• Author: Julie Zhuo
  • Full Title: The Making of a Manager
  • Tags: #Inbox #books

Highlights

  • they share a common purpose: helping a group of people achieve a common goal. (Location 205)
  • new managers thrown into the deep end, overwhelmed managers wondering how to best help their reports, managers dealing with fast-growing teams, or those simply curious about management. I was one of them not so long ago. (Location 207)
  • I hope this book helps you understand the whys of management, because only when you’ve bought into the whys can you truly be effective in the hows. Why do managers even exist? Why should you have one-on-one meetings with your reports? Why should you hire Candidate A over Candidate B? Why do so many managers make the same mistakes? (Location 215)
  • A MANAGER’S JOB IS TO . . . build a team that works well together, support members in reaching their career goals, and create processes to get work done smoothly and efficiently. (Location 253)
  • THE ONE-LINE DEFINITION OF A MANAGER’S JOB (Location 264)
  • The management aspect has nothing to do with employment status and everything to do with the fact that you are no longer trying to get something done by yourself. (Location 276)
  • This is the crux of management: It is the belief that a team of people can achieve more than a single person going it alone. It is the realization that you don’t have to do everything yourself, be the best at everything yourself, or even know how to do everything yourself. Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together. (Location 284)
  • If the job is defined as getting better outcomes from a group of people working together, then a great manager’s team will consistently achieve great outcomes. (Location 294)
  • Andy Grove, founder and CEO of Intel and a legendary manager of his time, wrote that when it comes to evaluations, one should look at “the output of the work unit and not simply the activity involved. Obviously, you measure a salesman by the orders he gets (output), not by the calls he makes (activity).” (Location 301)
  • He smiled and said, “My framework is quite simple.” Half of what he looked at was my team’s results—did we achieve our aspirations in creating valuable, easy-to-use, and well-crafted design work? The other half was based on the strength and satisfaction of my team—did I do a good job hiring and developing individuals, and was my team happy and working well together? The first criterion looks at our team’s present outcomes; the second criterion asks whether we’re set up for great outcomes in the future. (Location 312)
  • THE THREE THINGS MANAGERS THINK ABOUT ALL DAY (Location 318)
  • “Research consistently shows that teams underperform, despite all the extra resources they have,” he says. “That’s because problems with coordination and motivation typically chip away at the benefits of collaboration.” (Location 323)
  • Hackman’s research describes five conditions that increase a team’s odds of success: having a real team (one with clear boundaries and stable membership), a compelling direction, an enabling structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert coaching. (Location 325)
  • My own observations are similar, and I’ve come to think of the multitude of tasks that fill up a manager’s day as sorting neatly into three buckets: purpose, people, and process. (Location 328)
  • Everyone on the team should have a similar picture of why does our work matter? (Location 332)
  • The first big part of your job as a manager is to ensure that your team knows what success looks like and cares about achieving it. (Location 339)
  • The next important bucket that managers think about is people, otherwise known as the who. Are the members of your team set up to succeed? Do they have the right skills? Are they motivated to do great work? (Location 343)
  • Finally, the last bucket is process, which describes how your team works together. You might have a superbly talented team with a very clear understanding of what the end goal is, but if it’s not apparent how everyone’s supposed to work together or what the team’s values are, then even simple tasks can get enormously complicated. Who should do what by when? What principles should govern decision-making? (Location 350)
  • For managers, important processes to master include running effective meetings, future proofing against past mistakes, planning for tomorrow, and nurturing a healthy culture. (Location 362)
  • As the team grows in size, it matters (Location 365)
  • less and less how good she is personally at doing the work herself. What matters more is how much of a multiplier effect she has on her team. So how does this work in practice? (Location 365)
  • If I spend all my time personally selling lemonade, then I’m contributing an additive amount to my business, not a multiplicative one. My performance as a manager would be considered poor because I’m actually operating as an individual contributor. (Location 380)
  • Your role as a manager is not to do the work yourself, even if you are the best at it, because that will only take you so far. Your role is to improve the purpose, people, and process of your team to get as high a multiplier effect on your collective outcome as you can. (Location 386)
  • MANAGING IN SURVIVAL MODE (Location 388)
  • When you are in survival mode, you do what it takes to survive. When you’re beyond survival in your team’s hierarchy of needs, then you can plan for the future and think about what you can do today that will help you achieve more in the months and years ahead. (Location 407)
  • At her core, she was a maker; she wanted long periods of uninterrupted time to go deep on a problem and create something tangible with her hands. (Location 420)
  • If you are wondering whether you can be a great manager, ask yourself these three questions. (Location 426)
  • As a manager, you are judged on your team’s outcomes, so your job is to do whatever most helps them succeed. (Location 428)
  • This is why adaptability is a key trait of great managers. (Location 431)
  • Do I Like Talking with People? (Location 438)
  • the role isn’t likely to suit you if what you aspire for in a workday is long, uninterrupted blocks of quiet focus. (Location 445)
  • Can I Provide Stability for an Emotionally Challenging Situation? (Location 447)
  • who can be counted on to defuse rather than escalate tensions, then you’ll be better equipped to deal with the range of emotionally charged scenarios that meet any manager’s path. (Location 454)
  • That was when I realized the root problem: None of the designers were truly sold on my idea. They didn’t think it was going to succeed. And because of that, the work trudged along, lacking heart and soul. I learned then one of my first lessons of management—the best outcomes come from inspiring people to action, not telling them what to do. (Location 486)
  • THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT (Location 499)
  • measured. Leadership, on the other hand, is the particular skill of being able to guide and influence other people. (Location 503)
  • In your early days as a manager, what matters most is transitioning gracefully into the role and nailing the essentials of leading a small team. Only when you have built trust with your reports will you have the credibility to help them achieve more together. (Location 521)
  • Chapter Two Your First Three Months (Location 524)
  • Unfortunately, the mistake that I made—and that I see virtually every apprentice manager make—is continuing to do individual contributor work past the point at which it is sustainable. (Location 598)
  • The quality of my work suffered, my peers got frustrated, and the balls I was desperately trying to juggle plopped to the ground. (Location 602)
  • at the point in which your team becomes four or five people, you should have a plan for how to scale back your individual contributor responsibilities so that you can be the best manager for your people. (Location 605)
  • THE PIONEER (Location 607)
  • As a pioneer, you continually find yourself alone in new, unfamiliar terrain. But that doesn’t mean you can’t seek out help. (Location 626)
  • It’s tricky to balance your IC work with management. See description from “The Apprentice,” this page (Location 637)
  • In your first few one-on-one meetings, ask your reports the following questions to understand what their “dream manager” looks like. What did you and your past manager discuss that was most helpful to you? What are the ways in which you’d like to be supported? How do you like to be recognized for great work? What kind of feedback is most useful for you? Imagine that you and I had an amazing relationship. What would that look like? (Location 666)
  • New managers often ask me, “How long will it take to feel like I know what I’m doing?” I reply quite honestly, “It took me about three years.” (Location 726)
  • Chapter Three Leading a Small Team (Location 732)
  • Managing a small team is about mastering a few basic fundamentals: developing a healthy manager–report relationship and creating an environment of support. (Location 754)
  • EVERYTHING ALWAYS GOES BACK TO PEOPLE (Location 756)
  • With a small team, maintaining a shared sense of purpose is straightforward. You don’t get many crossed wires when your team can still fit around one table. That leaves people and process to focus on. Of those two, people are by far the most important. (Location 758)
  • What gets in the way of good work? There are only two possibilities. The first is that people don’t know how to do good work. The second is that they know how, but they aren’t motivated. (Location 761)
  • TRUST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT (Location 776)
  • My reports regularly bring their biggest challenges to my attention. (Location 793)
  • If she asks her report how things are going and the answer for multiple weeks is “Everything is fine,” she takes it as a sign to prod further. It’s much more likely that the report is shy about getting into the gory details than that everything is consistently rainbows and butterflies. (Location 797)
  • My report and I regularly give each other critical feedback and it isn’t taken personally. If (Location 799)
  • My friend Mark Rabkin shared a tip with me that I love: strive for all your one-on-one meetings to feel a little awkward. (Location 801)
  • My reports would gladly work for me again. (Location 812)
  • Respect and Care about Your Report (Location 835)
  • “If you take nothing else away from today,” he told us, “remember this: managing is caring.” (Location 837)
  • As it turns out, supporting and caring for someone doesn’t mean always agreeing with them or making excuses for their mistakes. (Location 843)
  • often also the ones who most readily tell me why they think I’m wrong. (Location 845)
  • What caring does mean, however, is doing your best to help your report be successful and fulfilled in her work. (Location 847)
  • It means taking the time to learn what she cares about. It means understanding that we are not separate people at work and at home—sometimes the personal blends into the professional, and that’s okay. (Location 848)
  • Another nuance of respect is that it must be unconditional because it’s about the person as a whole rather than what she does for you. (Location 849)
  • It’s easy to like and have a great relationship with someone who is kicking ass. The harder test is, what happens when she struggles? (Location 851)
  • Invest Time to Help Your Report (Location 856)
  • The ideal 1:1 leaves your report feeling that it was useful for her. (Location 864)
  • How can you achieve stellar 1:1s? The answer is preparation. It’s (Location 866)
  • Discuss top priorities: What are the one, two, or three most critical outcomes for your report and how can you help her tackle these challenges? Calibrate what “great” looks like: Do you have a shared vision of what you’re working toward? Are you in sync about goals or expectations? Share feedback: What feedback can you give that will help your report, and what can your report tell you that will make you more effective as a manager? Reflect on how things are going: Once in a while, it’s useful to zoom out and talk about your report’s general state of mind—how is he feeling on the whole? What’s making him satisfied or dissatisfied? Have any of his goals changed? What has he learned recently and what does he want to learn going forward? (Location 869)
  • Your job as a manager isn’t to dole out advice or “save the day”—it’s to empower your report to find the answer herself. (Location 880)
  • Here are some of my favorite questions to get the conversation moving: Identify: These questions focus on what really matters for your report and what topics are worth spending more time on. What’s top of mind for you right now? What priorities are you thinking about this week? What’s the best use of our time today? Understand: Once you’ve identified a topic to discuss, these next questions get at the root of the problem and what can be done about it. What does your ideal outcome look like? (Location 882)
  • Be Honest and Transparent about Your Report’s Performance (Location 897)
  • Admit Your Own Mistakes and Growth Areas (Location 905)
  • Instead, apologize. Admit that you screwed up, and take meaningful action to do better in the future. (Location 908)
  • People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel, goes the popular saying. I’ve forgotten the specifics of that email, but I still remember the difference that apology made. When we are going (Location 912)
  • “I don’t know the answer. What do you think?” “I want to come clean and apologize for what I did/said the other day. . . .” “One of my personal growth areas this half is . . .” “I’m afraid I don’t know enough to help you with that problem. Here’s someone you should talk to instead. . . .” (Location 920)
  • HELP PEOPLE PLAY TO THEIR STRENGTHS (Location 925)
  • Whenever I’m talking with my reports, it’s easy to spend all our time on the things that need improvement. And yet, all of us likely remember moments when a kind word about our unique strengths made us swell with pride and gave us more fuel to achieve our goals. Recognition for hard work, valuable skills, helpful advice, or good values can be hugely motivating if it feels genuine and specific. (Location 943)
  • “There is one quality that sets truly great managers apart from the rest: they discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it,” (Location 951)
  • “The job of a manager . . . is to turn one person’s particular talent into performance.” (Location 953)
  • THE ONE THING YOU SHOULDN’T TOLERATE ON YOUR TEAM (Location 967)
  • MAKE PEOPLE MOVES QUICKLY (Location 1015)
  • inevitably, a manager is forced to let them go. “What I think is brutal and ‘false kindness’ is keeping people around who aren’t going to grow and prosper. There’s no cruelty like waiting and telling people late in their careers that they don’t belong.” (Location 1042)
  • A good question to ask is: If this person were not already at the organization, would I recommend that another team hire him or her knowing what I know? (Location 1050)
  • Chapter Four The Art of Feedback (Location 1064)
  • For a leader, giving feedback—both when things are going well and when they aren’t—is one of the most fundamental aspects of the job. (Location 1085)
  • Mastering this skill means that you can knock down two of the biggest barriers preventing your reports from doing great work—unclear expectations and inadequate skills—so (Location 1086)
  • WHAT DOES GREAT FEEDBACK LOOK LIKE? (Location 1088)
  • feedback inspired you to change your behavior, which resulted in your life getting better. (Location 1090)
  • For one, feedback doesn’t have to be critical. Praise is often more motivating than criticism. And for another, you don’t always have to start with a problem. (Location 1095)
  • Set Clear Expectations at the Beginning (Location 1097)
  • the feedback process should begin before any work does. At that point, you should agree on what success looks like—whether for a given project or for a given time period—get ahead of any expected issues, and lay the foundation for productive feedback sessions in the future. (Location 1101)
  • Give Task-Specific Feedback as Frequently as You Can (Location 1112)
  • Share Behavioral Feedback Thoughtfully and Regularly (Location 1126)
  • When you zoom out and look at many examples of task-specific feedback for a report, what themes emerge? (Location 1127)
  • decisions quickly or slowly? Is he a process wizard or an unconventional thinker? Does he gravitate toward pragmatic or idealistic solutions? Asking this (Location 1127)
  • Collect 360-Degree Feedback for Maximum Objectivity (Location 1143)
  • EVERY MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT IS A FAILURE TO SET EXPECTATIONS (Location 1159)
  • You’ve Just Assigned a Challenging New Project to Your Report (Location 1185)
  • Here, setting expectations helps with both problems. (Location 1189)
  • Whenever you find yourself deeply disappointed, or disappointing someone else, ask yourself: Where did I miss out on setting clear expectations, and how might I do better in the future? (Location 1205)
  • I might feel accomplished in pointing out the problem, but that’s not the point if it doesn’t actually help him. The mark of a great coach is that others improve under your guidance. (Location 1217)
  • Does my feedback lead to the change I’m hoping for? (Location 1219)
  • Am I Giving Feedback Often Enough? (Location 1221)
  • Every time you see one of your reports in action—delivering a project, interacting with a customer, negotiating a sale, speaking up in a meeting—see if there’s something useful you can tell her. Strive for at least 50 percent positive feedback so she knows what she’s doing well—“You (Location 1225)
  • At the same time, watch out for only ever giving task-specific feedback. The second most common ask from reports is: “Give me more feedback related to my skills and my career trajectory.” (Location 1229)
  • If you find that your frequency of feedback is low, one tactic I’ve found helpful is to devote a single 1:1 every month to just discussing behavioral feedback and career goals. (Location 1235)
  • One simple way to do this is to state your point directly and then follow up with, “Does this feedback resonate with you? Why or why not?” (Location 1263)
  • “Okay, let’s make sure we’re on the same page—what are your takeaways and next steps?” (Location 1267)
  • Does My Feedback Lead to Positive Action? (Location 1275)
    1. Make your feedback as specific as possible. (Location 1278)
    1. Clarify what success looks and feels like. (Location 1287)
    1. Suggest next steps. (Location 1294)
  • DELIVERING CRITICAL FEEDBACK OR BAD NEWS (Location 1303)
  • At best, framing your worries as questions feels disingenuous, and at worst, your report will miss that you’re actually concerned, which means nothing will change. (Location 1324)
  • When I [heard/observed/reflected on] your [action/behavior/output], I felt concerned because . (Location 1330)
  • If you are delivering bad news about a decision—you decided to pick someone else for a coveted position, you’re pulling your report off the project, you no longer have a role for this person on your team, etc.—the decision should be the first thing out of your mouth when you both sit down. I’ve decided to go with somebody else to lead this initiative (Location 1342)
  • When you give feedback or make a decision, your report may not agree with it. That’s okay. Keep in mind that some decisions are yours to make. You are the person ultimately held accountable for the output of your team, and you may have more information or a different perspective on the right path forward. (Location 1352)
  • Acknowledge the disagreement respectfully, then move on. “I recognize that you may not agree with my decision, but I’m asking for your cooperation in moving forward.” (Location 1356)
  • At Facebook, we have a saying immortalized in posters all over campus: “Feedback is a gift.” It costs time and effort to share, but when we have it, we’re better off. So let’s give it generously. (Location 1367)
  • Chapter Five Managing Yourself (Location 1370)
  • We talked about the future—the way, way future—where she asked me to picture myself at eighty, sitting on a beach and looking back on my life. What did I want to remember? Then she asked me if I would be okay with her interviewing several people who I worked closely with. (Location 1388)
  • No matter what obstacles you face, you first need to get deep with knowing you—your strengths, your values, your comfort zones, your blind spots, and your biases. When you fully understand yourself, you’ll know where your true north lies. (Location 1404)
  • EVERYBODY FEELS LIKE AN IMPOSTER SOMETIMES (Location 1406)
  • Imposter syndrome is what makes you feel as though you’re the only one with nothing worthwhile to say when you walk into a room full of people you admire. (Location 1415)
  • to. It felt too big for any one person to handle.” (Location 1422)
  • GET TO BRUTAL HONESTY WITH YOURSELF (Location 1438)
  • strengths and weaknesses directly affect how I manage. (Location 1442)
  • The first part in understanding how you lead is to know your strengths—the things you’re talented at and love to do. (Location 1452)
  • great management typically comes from playing to your strengths rather than from fixing your weaknesses. (Location 1453)
  • The second part of getting to an honest reckoning with yourself is knowing your weaknesses and triggers. (Location 1465)
  • Whenever my worst inner critic sits on my shoulder, what does she yell at me for? (Location 1467)
  • If a magical fairy were to come and bestow on me three gifts I don’t yet have, what would they be? (Location 1469)
  • What are three things that trigger me? (A trigger is a situation that gets me more worked up than it should.) (Location 1471)
  • What are the top three most common pieces of feedback from my manager or peers on how I could be more effective? (Location 1473)
  • the next part is calibration, which is making sure that the view we have of ourselves matches reality. (Location 1477)
  • Ask your manager to help you calibrate yourself through the following two questions: What opportunities do you see for me to do more of what I do well? What do you think are the biggest things holding me back from having greater impact? What skills do you think a hypothetical perfect person in my role would have? For each skill, how would you rate me against that ideal on a scale of one to five? (Location 1489)
  • Ask for task-specific feedback to calibrate yourself on specific skills. For example, if you’re not sure how good of a public speaker you are, follow up with a few people after you give a presentation and say, “I’m hoping to improve my speaking skills. What do you think went well with my presentation? What would have made it twice as good?” (Location 1504)
  • Because I constantly worried that I wasn’t good enough, I shied away from doing anything that might confirm that view. (Location 1509)
  • If I saw every challenge as a test of my worthiness, then I’d constantly worry about where I stood rather than how I could improve. (Location 1512)
  • With a fixed mindset, your actions are governed by fear—fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of being found out as an imposter. (Location 1546)
  • UNDERSTAND YOURSELF AT YOUR BEST AND WORST (Location 1549)
  • the next part of understanding yourself is knowing which environments help you to do your best work and which situations trigger a negative reaction. (Location 1549)
  • Over the years, here’s what I’ve learned about what enables me to be my best: I’ve received at least eight hours of sleep the night before. I’ve done something productive early in the day, which motivates me to keep the momentum going. I know what my desired outcome looks like before I start. I have trust and camaraderie with the people I work with. (Location 1551)
  • I’m able to process information alone (and through writing) before big discussions or decisions. I feel like I’m learning and growing. (Location 1555)
  • Which six-month period of my life did I feel the most energetic and productive? What gave me that energy? In the past month, what moments stand out as highlights? What conditions enabled those moments to happen, and are they re-creatable? In the past week, when was I in a state of deep focus? How did I get there? (Location 1572)
  • your temper flares when a team member takes days to respond to your messages. (Location 1590)
  • To figure out what your triggers are, ask yourself the following questions: When (Location 1592)
  • was the last time someone said something that annoyed me more than it did others around me? Why did I feel so strongly about it? What would my closest friends say my pet peeves are? Who have I met that I’ve immediately been wary of? What made me feel that way? What’s an example of a time when I’ve overreacted and later regretted it? What made me so worked up in that moment? (Location 1593)
  • FINDING YOUR CONFIDENCE WHEN YOU’RE IN THE PIT (Location 1599)
  • some days you will feel the imposter syndrome so strongly that you might as well be stuck at the bottom of a dark, deep pit. (Location 1600)
  • Don’t Beat Yourself Up for Feeling Bad (Location 1612)
  • admit that you’re feeling bad. I’ll take out a Post-it note and write, “I am super stressed out about X.” That little act shifts my mindset from worrying about my worries to simply declaring them. Once I do that, I can start to make progress on addressing the root cause. (Location 1619)
  • Repeat After Me: “The Story I Have in My Head Is Probably Irrational” (Location 1621)
  • Close Your Eyes and Visualize (Location 1640)
  • Ask for Help from People You Can Be Real With (Location 1672)
  • Celebrate the Little Wins (Location 1687)
  • so every day I felt the pressure of being the bottleneck. (Location 1691)
  • LEARNING TO BE TWICE AS GOOD (Location 1710)
  • The nature of this individual path means that most of your learning will happen on the job. Whether you need to improve your communication, get better at execution, become more strategic, or work better with others, set a lofty goal for yourself: How can I be twice as good? Then maximize your learning through the following. (Location 1727)
  • Ask for Feedback (Location 1729)
  • Remember to ask for both task-specific and behavioral feedback. The more concrete you are about what you want to know, the better. If you lead with, “Hey, how do you think my presentation went?” you’ll probably hear responses like “I think it went well,” which aren’t particularly helpful. Instead, probe at the specifics and make it easy for someone to tell you something actionable. “I’m working on making sure my point is clear in the first three minutes. Did that come across? How can I make it clearer next time?” (Location 1733)
  • Treat Your Manager as a Coach Given what we’ve discussed about the role of managers, your own boss should be one of your best sources of learning. But this might not naturally be the case. (Location 1739)
  • Instead, engage your manager for feedback. Ask, “What skills do you think I should work on in order to have more impact?” (Location 1753)
  • Tell him your hard problems so he can help you work through them: “I’m making a hiring call between two candidates with different strengths. Can I walk you through my thinking and get your advice?” (Location 1756)
  • Even when I’m not grappling with a problem, asking open-ended questions like, “How do you decide which meetings to attend?” or “How do you approach selling a candidate?” takes advantage of my manager’s know-how and teaches me something new. (Location 1758)
  • That’s what a mentor is—someone who shares her expertise to help you improve. (Location 1762)
  • Nobody wants to be asked, “Will you be my mentor?” because it sounds needy and time-consuming. But ask for specific advice instead, and you’ll find tons of people willing to help. (Location 1763)
  • Reflection doesn’t have to be some kind of heavy process. At the end of the day, you’re doing it for your own benefit, so find what works best for you. Personally, I like to schedule an hour on my calendar at the end of every week to think about what I accomplished, what I’m satisfied or dissatisfied with, and what I’m taking away for next week. I then jot down some notes in an email to my team, as an easy way to keep up the habit. (Location 1782)
  • I also set personal goals and do bigger look-backs every six months, which gives me a longer time frame to tackle ambitious projects and learn new skills. Here are examples of what my one-week and six-month notes look like: (Location 1785)
  • When you think about formal training, the question to ask isn’t Is this worth doing right now given all the other things on my plate (or all the other things I could spend money on), but rather One year from now, will I be happy I did this? When framed that way, the choice tends to be clearer. (Location 1820)
  • Learning how to be a great leader means learning about your superpowers and flaws, learning how to navigate the obstacles in your head, and learning how to learn. With these tools comes the confidence that you’re meant to be here just as you are—no masks or pretenses needed—and that you’re ready for whatever challenges lie ahead. (Location 1828)
  • Chapter Six Amazing Meetings (Location 1832)
  • WHAT IS A GREAT OUTCOME FOR YOUR MEETING? (Location 1866)
  • If I had, I would have realized that what I really wanted was for the members of the team to feel closer to each other and collaborate more effectively. Clearly, if people were tuning out, I wasn’t succeeding. (Location 1869)
  • Making a Decision In a decision meeting, you’re framing the different options on the table and asking a decision-maker to make a call. (Location 1872)
  • A great decision-making meeting does the following: Gets a decision made (obviously) Includes the people most directly affected by the decision as well as a clearly designated decision-maker (Location 1895)
  • Presents all credible options objectively and with relevant background information, and includes the team’s recommendation if there is one Gives equal airtime to dissenting opinions and makes people feel that they were heard (Location 1896)
  • Done well, however, there are a few big benefits of informational meetings over other channels like bulletin boards, mailing lists, or group posts. The first is that they allow for more interactivity. So, for example, if you want everyone to know about a potentially controversial policy change, sharing that news in person allows the group to ask questions or express their reactions. (Location 1908)
  • The second benefit is that a well-prepared informational meeting is usually a lot more interesting than a bunch of words on a page. (Location 1911)
  • A great informational meeting accomplishes the following: Enables the group to feel like they learned something valuable Conveys key messages clearly and memorably Keeps the audience’s attention (through dynamic speakers, rich storytelling, skilled pacing, interactivity) Evokes an intended emotion—whether inspiration, trust, pride, courage, empathy, etc. (Location 1914)
  • Providing Feedback Often known as a “review,” the purpose of a feedback meeting is for stakeholders to understand and give input on work in progress. (Location 1918)
  • Preparation and good facilitation is key. A great generative meeting does the following: Produces many diverse, nonobvious solutions through ensuring each participant has quiet alone time to think of ideas and write them down (either before or during the meeting) Considers the totality of ideas from everyone, not just the loudest voices Helps ideas evolve and build off each other through meaningful discussion Ends with clear next steps for how to turn ideas into action (Location 1936)
  • A great team-bonding meeting isn’t about the number of hours spent together or the lavishness of the event. Instead, it enables the following: Creates better understanding and trust between participants Encourages people to be open and authentic Makes people feel cared for (Location 1945)
  • Be Explicit about the Norms You Want to Set If you want everyone to participate in your meeting, sometimes the easiest tactic is just to say that directly. (Location 2015)
  • Change Up Your Meeting Format to Favor Participation An unstructured group discussion means that participants choose if and when they speak. If you have an introverted set of people, you might struggle with getting them to voice their thoughts. If you have extroverts, they might dominate the conversation. Differences in seniority, tenure, or familiarity also play a role in people’s comfort in speaking up. You can combat natural group dynamics by suggesting more structured approaches. One example is going around the room. If there is a decision to make among three options, you might ask every person which one he or she favors and why. This guarantees that no perspectives are left unsaid. Another tactic I like is the “Post-it note” opening. Before launching into a discussion about a complex topic (for example, what our marketing goals should be or what success looks like three years from now), give everyone a pad of Post-it notes and ask them to write down their thoughts on the topic. Then, have the room work in quiet concentration for about ten to fifteen minutes. Afterward, each participant puts his or her notes up on the board and talks through their thinking. Similar ideas are clumped together, and after the very last note has been added, the room discusses the various “clumps.” By encouraging people to get their own thoughts down on paper before sharing them, the barrier to participation is lowered. (Location 2025)
  • Be on the lookout for interruptions. If someone starts making a point but another loud voice cuts her off, provide cover by saying, “Hang on, Ann wasn’t finished.” As an added bonus, I’ve found that doing this also bolsters your own credibility. (Location 2037)
  • Particularly perceptive managers might even try directed questions: “Susan, you look puzzled—what do you think we should do?” or “Rick, (Location 2042)
  • For the overtalkers, be clear but polite in letting them know that it’s time for someone else to get a turn: “Ian, it’s clear you have more you want to say, but let’s first make sure other people get a chance to weigh in” or “Laura, I’m hearing that you feel very strongly we should do X—before we wrap, does anyone have another opinion? I want to make sure all points of view are heard.” (Location 2043)
  • we haven’t heard from you yet. What’s your opinion?” (Location 2043)
  • Remember that the key to getting great feedback is being specific about what you want to know and making it safe for the person to tell you her honest opinion. (Location 2050)
  • With my failed status meeting, I could have asked: “How useful do you think my weekly status meeting is? My goal is to give everyone context on who’s doing what so there’s better collaboration and support across the team. But I wonder if it’s too bogged down in the details right now. What do you think?” (Location 2052)
  • SOME MEETINGS DON’T NEED YOU AND SOME DON’T NEED TO EXIST AT ALL (Location 2058)
  • They found that 65 percent said meetings prevented them from completing their own work, 71 percent found their meetings unproductive and inefficient, and 64 percent said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking. (Location 2068)
  • As a manager, your time is precious and finite, so guard it like a dragon guards its treasure stash. If you trust that the right outcomes will happen without you, then you don’t need to be there. (Location 2072)
  • Be on the lookout as well for meetings that don’t seem valuable for anyone. They should be canceled or revamped. Research (Location 2074)
  • Chapter Seven Hiring Well (Location 2088)
  • The most important thing to remember about hiring is this: hiring is not a problem to be solved but an opportunity to build the future of your organization. (Location 2113)
  • And yet, hiring isn’t just about filling holes. If you approach it that way, you’re not going to bring in the best people. It’s about figuring out how to make your team and your own life much, much better. (Location 2117)
  • Looking back now, I can’t think of anything more satisfying than meeting someone for the first time, realizing how awesome they are, and working with them for years to come on meaningful problems. (Location 2119)
  • The solution to both a healthier diet and a better team is to plan ahead. (Location 2126)
  • One exercise I do every January is to map out where I hope my team will be by the end of the year. I create a future org chart, analyze gaps in skills, strengths, or experiences, and make a list of open roles to hire for. You can do something similar by asking yourself the following questions: (Location 2128)
  • How many new people will I add to our team this year (based on company growth, expected attrition, budget, priorities, etc.)? For each new hire, what level of experience am I looking for? Which specific skills or strengths do we need in our team (for example, creative thinking, operational excellence, expertise in XYZ, etc.)? Which skills and strengths does our team already have that new hires can stand to be weaker in? (Location 2130)
  • A great hiring manager brings her understanding of the role—what it needs and why it’s exciting—as well as her time to personally connect with candidates. (Location 2149)
  • Develop a Sourcing Strategy Once you have a good sense of the kind of person you want, it’s helpful to sit down with the recruiter and brainstorm where to look for your ideal candidate. You might come up with specific titles or organizations to search for on LinkedIn, people whom you can ping for recommendations, conferences to attend, or ads you’d like to place. (Location 2159)
  • After I deliver an offer, I try to check in with the candidate every other day to let her know that I am thinking about her and that I’m excited to welcome her to my team. I ask if she’d like to talk through any questions, and sometimes we’ll do lunch or dinner to discuss the role in more detail. (Location 2182)
  • Ask candidates if they can show you the applications they’ve developed, the articles they’ve written, the pitches they’ve given, etc., so you can assess the quality of their output. If what’s presented is a team effort, ask for clarification on which pieces the individual was responsible for. (Location 2213)
  • Whenever we open up a new role, the first thing I do is make sure my entire team knows we’re hiring. “If you could wave a magic wand, who’s your dream candidate for this position?” I’ll ask them. (Location 2218)
  • When evaluating references, keep in mind two things. The first is that people typically improve their skills over time, so discount negative feedback that isn’t recent. If your friend tells you that five years ago Jack wasn’t great at closing deals, it’s possible he’s since gotten much better. (Location 2228)
  • Since every hire is already a gamble, reject any weak hires. While they’re not likely to bomb, they’re also not likely to add much. (Location 2246)
  • But if you’re looking for a starting point on what to ask, these are my favorite all-purpose questions: What kinds of challenges are interesting to you and why? Can you describe a favorite project? This tells me what a candidate is passionate about. What do you consider your greatest strengths? What would your peers agree are your areas of growth? This question gets both at a candidate’s self-awareness and what his actual strengths and weaknesses might be. (Location 2262)
  • Imagine yourself in three years. What do you hope will be different about you then compared to now? This lets me understand the candidate’s ambitions as well as how goal oriented and self-reflective she is. What was the hardest conflict you’ve had in the past year? How did it end, and what did you learn from the experience? This gives me a sense of how the candidate works with other people and how he approaches conflict. What’s something that’s inspired you in your work recently? This sheds light on what the candidate thinks is interesting or valuable. (Location 2266)
  • Remember how assholes are the one thing you shouldn’t tolerate on your team? Be on the lookout for warning signs in interviews: bad-mouthing past employers (“My last manager was terrible”); blaming failures they were associated with on others (“The reason my last project didn’t succeed was because of internal (Location 2272)
  • team were bozos”); asking what the company can do for them instead of the reverse (“This feels like a step up for my career”); and coming across with high arrogance or low self-awareness (“I was attracted to this position because it seems like you need someone really senior”). (Location 2275)
  • As a manager, one of the smartest ways to multiply your team’s impact is to hire the best people and empower them to do more and more until you stretch the limits of their capabilities. (Location 2310)
  • HIRING WHEN YOU NEED FIVE, TEN, OR HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE (Location 2324)
  • It’s wise not to rush into leadership hires, and instead make sure you know what an ideal applicant looks like. The easiest way to do that is to talk with as many prospective candidates as you can, including those who may not want the job but know the role well. (Location 2360)
  • When you make a great leadership hire, the impact on your team is enormous for years to come. Don’t approach it willy-nilly—it pays to do your research. (Location 2370)
  • If you were to hike some distant mountains or sunbathe on a remote island for a few months, how much would your own manager need to step in to ensure that everything ran smoothly? (Location 2391)
  • If the answer is “not much,” then congratulations! You’ve got a great bench. If the answer is, “Hmm, my manager would need to do a lot,” then that’s a sign your next layer of leadership could use some shoring up. (Location 2393)
  • It means you are not the single point of failure—fires won’t ignite, chaos won’t erupt, and work won’t grind to a halt if you’re not there. Having a great bench is one of the strongest signs of stellar leadership because it means the team you’ve built can steer the ship and thrive, even if you are not at the helm. (Location 2395)
  • “That sounds nice in theory, but if your team can be successful without you, doesn’t that mean you’re not actually valuable?” (Location 2398)
  • Excellent question. But ask yourself: Can even the best leaders be coached to even better performance? The answer is absolutely yes, so you should still see your job as being a multiplier for your people. (Location 2399)
  • What is the next big problem that your team can take on, and how can you help make it happen? (Location 2405)
  • On the other hand, you have the chance to establish a culture that outlasts you and carries forth your values at a broader scale. (Location 2414)
  • Chapter Eight Making Things Happen (Location 2425)
  • How can you establish effective processes for your team? This chapter discusses some of the fundamentals of making things happen. (Location 2448)
  • I tell my team that I’ll know they did a good job describing their vision if I randomly ask five people who’ve heard it to repeat it to me and they all say the exact same thing. (Location 2472)
  • As a manager, it’s important to define and share a concrete vision for your team that describes what you’re collectively trying to achieve. (Location 2473)
  • Assume you have a magic wand that makes everything your team does go perfectly. What do you hope will be different in two to three years compared to now? How would you want someone who works on an adjacent team to describe what your team does? (Location 2478)
  • do you hope will be your team’s reputation in a few years? How far off is that from where things are today? What unique superpower(s) does your team have? When you’re at your best, how are you creating value? What would it look like for your team to be twice as good? Five times as good? If you had to create a quick litmus test that anyone could use to assess whether your team was doing a poor job, a mediocre job, or a kick-ass job, what would that litmus test be? (Location 2479)
  • “Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.” (Location 2514)
  • The best way to practice prioritization is to order any list you make by importance. Make sure that the things at the top are taken care of before you venture further down the list. For example, if you’ve got five tasks on your to-do list for today, rank them by priority and do number one before number (Location 2519)
  • Define Who Is Responsible for What (Location 2541)
  • In retrospect, here’s how I should have clarified expectations up front: “Dan, I’d like you to take the lead on framing the options; Sarah, can you own defining the visual language?” or “Each of you should take a stab at how you’d design this. For the areas where you have differing opinions, let’s have the three of us get together and I’ll make a call.” (Location 2557)
  • Break Down a Big Goal into Smaller Pieces (Location 2560)
  • Periodic reviews can also be a good way to sustain momentum. I know a team who uses this technique expertly, sometimes even hosting two meetings a week to review progress and discuss urgent priorities. (Location 2583)
  • As it turns out, there are many corollaries to Parkinson’s law. My favorite is Mark Horstman’s: “Work contracts to fit the time we give it.” (Location 2586)
  • PERFECT EXECUTION OVER PERFECT STRATEGY (Location 2590)
  • The best plans don’t matter if you can’t achieve them accurately or quickly enough to make a difference. (Location 2593)
  • Throughout your career, you will make countless mistakes. The most frustrating will be the ones where you don’t learn anything because it’s not clear whether the issue is with strategy or execution. (Location 2605)
  • Executing well means that you pick a reasonable direction, move quickly to learn what works and what doesn’t, and make adjustments to get to your desired outcome. (Location 2608)
  • Here are some ways to tell if your team is executing well: Lists of projects or tasks are prioritized from most to least important, with the higher-up items receiving more time and attention. There is an efficient process for decision-making that everyone understands and trusts. The team moves quickly, especially with reversible decisions. As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says, “Most (Location 2611)
  • After a decision is made, everyone commits (even those who disagree) and moves speedily to make it happen. Without new information, there is no second-guessing the decision, no pocket vetoing, and no foot dragging. When important new information surfaces, there is an expedient process to examine if and how current plans should change as a result. Every task has a who and a by when. Owners set and reliably deliver on commitments. The team is resilient and constantly seeking to learn. Every failure makes the team stronger because they don’t make the same mistake twice. (Location 2615)
  • Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Outcomes (Location 2620)
  • THE RISK OF THINKING TOO SHORT TERM: You’ll make do with Band-Aid solutions like micromanaging your report or jumping in to work on aspects of the project yourself, neither of which are sustainable. (Location 2645)
  • One of the top questions I get from managers is: “How can I carve out time to focus on long-term work when there’s so much to do right now to keep the trains running?” (Location 2672)
  • Just as no financial advisor would recommend putting all your money into one kind of asset, neither should you tackle projects with one kind of time horizon. (Location 2676)
  • My colleague makes sure that a third of her team works on projects that can be completed on the order of weeks, another third works on medium-term projects that may take months, and finally, the last third works (Location 2677)
  • When people don’t understand what ultimately matters and why, that’s when conflicts arise. (Location 2689)
    • Note: This isso trur aout gatsby in 2020
  • “Without a sense of higher purpose, this was the start-up dream come true. It tore our company apart. After one tense argument, an advisor told me if I didn’t agree to sell, I would regret the decision for the rest of my life.” (Location 2693)
  • beware of conflating your purpose with the proxies that you use to measure your progress. (Location 2697)
  • don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s an approximation of what you really care about, which is providing the best customer service. (Location 2701)
  • speed of resolution goes up but quality of service goes down, then you’re not really getting closer to your vision. (Location 2703)
  • At the end of the day, a resilient organization isn’t one that never makes mistakes but rather one whose mistakes make it stronger over time. (Location 2724)
  • As a manager, part of your job will be the cultivation of such playbooks: how to run a team meeting, how to close a new hire, how to complete a project on time and on budget. If you find yourself doing a similar thing over and over again, chances are good that it can be codified into an instruction manual or checklist that can make the task go smoother in the future. Another bonus of doing this: you can then pass the playbook to others to learn and execute. (Location 2731)
  • Chapter Nine Leading a Growing Team (Location 2758)
  • Over time, I came to understand that this was the job. As the number of projects I was responsible for doubled, tripled, and quadrupled, my ability to context switch also needed to keep pace. I discovered a few techniques to make this easier: scanning through my calendar every morning and preparing for each meeting, developing a robust note-taking and task-management (Location 2827)
  • system, finding pockets for reflection at the end of every week. Some days I’m still distracted. But I’ve come to accept that there will always be a dozen different issues to work through at any given time—some big, some small, and some unexpected—and as the manager of a large team, you learn to roll with it. (Location 2830)
  • You can’t do everything, so you must prioritize. What are the most important topics for you to pay attention to, and where are you going to draw the line? (Location 2839)
  • It took me a long time to get comfortable operating in a world where I had to pick and choose what mattered the most, and not let the sheer number of possibilities overwhelm me. (Location 2840)
  • But on the flip side, the hardest part has been learning how to effectively delegate, which I define as “the art of knowing when to dive in yourself and when to step back and entrust others.” Like crossing a tightrope while blindfolded, the balance is difficult to sustain. (Location 2853)
  • GIVING PEOPLE BIG PROBLEMS IS A SIGN OF TRUST (Location 2876)
  • When I was just starting out, I thought that a manager could only be effective if she knew everything that was going on. (Location 2902)
  • “We control the world basically because we are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in very large numbers,” (Location 2910)
  • Once these top priorities are covered, ask yourself the second question: Are we aligned in how we think about people, purpose, and process? (Location 2916)
  • As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has been attributed as saying, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” (Location 2924)
  • This week’s tasks, meetings, and emails will be little blips lost in the sands of time. What is the greater purpose behind them? Why do you get out of bed every morning and come to work? What will be different about the world if your team achieves its goals? Constantly talking about the purpose with your reports makes it more vivid in everyone’s minds. When the vision is clear, the right actions tend to follow. (Location 2926)
  • Maybe she can put out fires but she’s not helping the team become more fireproof. (Location 2939)
  • Change is hard, but trust your instincts. Would you hire this person again if the role were open? If the answer is no, make the move. (Location 2961)
  • AIM TO PUT YOURSELF OUT OF A JOB (Location 2962)
  • A friend of mine states it as a simple rule of thumb: “Try to double your leadership capacity every year.” (Location 2965)
  • This sounds nice in theory but is harder to do in practice because we have a tendency to get attached to what we’re doing. (Location 2966)
  • The rule of thumb for delegation goes like this: spend your time and energy on the intersection of 1) what’s most important to the organization and 2) what you’re uniquely able to do better than anyone else. (Location 2978)
  • Identifying and communicating what matters. (Location 3002)
  • Hiring top talent. (Location 3009)
  • Resolving conflicts within my group. (Location 3014)
  • Chapter Ten Nurturing Culture (Location 3030)
  • But now I realize that isn’t enough. Because it’s not just about my relationship to the team. It’s also about their relationships with each other, and with the group as a whole.” (Location 3052)
  • When you have an hour or so, grab a pen and jot down your answers to the following questions: UNDERSTANDING YOUR CURRENT TEAM What are the first three adjectives that come to mind when describing the personality of your team? What moments made you feel most proud to be a part of your team? Why? What does your team do better than the majority of other teams out there? If you picked five random members of your team and individually asked each person, “What does our team value?” what would you hear? How similar is your team’s culture to the broader organization’s culture? Imagine a journalist scrutinizing your team. What would she say your team does well or not well? (Location 3061)
  • When people complain about how things work, what are the top three things that they bring up? UNDERSTANDING YOUR ASPIRATIONS Describe the top five adjectives you’d want an external observer to use to describe your team’s culture. Why those? Now imagine those five adjectives sitting on a double-edged sword. What do you imagine are the pitfalls that come from ruthless adherence to those qualities? Are those acceptable to you? Make a list of the aspects of culture that you admire about other teams or organizations. Why do you admire them? What downsides does that team tolerate as a result? Make a list of the aspects of culture that you wouldn’t want to emulate from other teams or companies. Why not? UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE (Location 3067)
  • NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT’S IMPORTANT (Location 3087)
  • People watch their bosses closely to understand the team’s values and norms. (Location 3109)
  • Our radars are fine-tuned to spot instances where someone in a position of authority says one thing and does another. (Location 3109)
  • CREATE THE RIGHT INCENTIVES (Location 3129)
  • INVENT TRADITIONS THAT CELEBRATE YOUR VALUES (Location 3177)
  • Personal prompts (like “Favorite childhood movie” or “Best gift you ever received at Christmas”) at the start of a meeting so people can get to know their teammates better (Location 3192)
  • There are countless instances where I look back and wince, remembering how I handled things, remembering that ever-present taste in my mouth of inexperience and expectation, confusion and ambition. (Location 3218)