Leadership and Management Wisdom

This is a guest post by John Foley, Co-Founder and CEO of Peloton.

Many Founders write code. I do not.

Many write product specs. I do not.

Many Founders are scientists with deep knowledge of super cool things. I have none.

I am part of a somewhat dying breed of entrepreneurs—a general manager with limited specific skills (who would give his left ear to be able to write code!). But since I am a general manager, and since (for better or worse) I have a ton of experience in general management and since Founders are often forced to transition (as their company grows) into general managers, I thought I would share a few pieces of wisdom I’ve collected over the last 25 years, from leaders in business and elsewhere, that continue to inspire me in both my work at Peloton, and in life.

Your company is your garden

“Every day, walk into your company as if it is a garden. In one hand you have a bag of fertilizer; in the other hand you have a pair of shears. Your job is to fertilize the flowers and snip the weeds.”

~ Paraphrased from Jack Welch

I have always loved this framework/metaphor—it forces you to think in a binary fashion. If the person is a flower (or a person you see becoming a flower), then give them the love, the appreciation, the support, the autonomy, and everything else that will make them happy to stay and blossom at your company. If they are not a flower, aggressively get them out of the company (of course in a humane and dignified way). Not sure if you have a weed on your hands? See next…

Would you hire this person again?

Ask yourself, “Would I hire this person again (if I were starting a new company)?” If the answer is “no,” then the next question is, “What is the plan to get them out of the company in the next 90 days?”

~ I believe this is from the Netflix Culture Deck

This framework/question also forces you to think in a binary fashion. If you ask yourself this every month (and act on it), and all of your leaders across the organization do the same, you will field a winning team.

Even the best are wrong 20-30% of the time

“Even the best managers make bad hiring decisions 20-30% of the time.”

~ Paraphrased from Jack Welch

You will make bad hiring decisions. Everyone does. That is not a problem. The problem is keeping bad hires. Force your managers to go back to the question, “Would you hire this person again?” and take the appropriate action if the answer is “no.”

Hire specialists, promote generalists

“Hire specialists, promote generalists.”

~ Not sure where I picked this up

This is very simple but very strong. It’s hard to interview and hire generalists—it’s too hard to figure out if they will be great. But specialists are easy to find and interview (and they can add value right away). Once someone is internal, it’s easy to figure out if they have stretch beyond their specific role. (As an aside, regarding generalists, I don’t hire or employ business development or strategy people. Who are these people and what do they do? In my opinion, it’s the senior team’s job to do strategy, and your senior team wants that anyway.)

Don’t take someone’s dignity

“You can take someone’s job, but you don’t have to take their dignity.”

~ Not sure who said this, but I heard it somewhere

This is critical on both the short-term, human level and the long-term company level. Your reputation matters. I am quick to help people find roles outside the company (aka: fire people). But, I believe almost all of the folks who didn’t work out still have some respect for me, and for the company, based on the way we handled these transitions:

“After the last 90 days, I think it’s clear that my expectations and your performance are not going to meet. You deserve to be at a company where you are set up to succeed and your work is appreciated. That company is not this company. I want you to take a few days and help me think about a transition plan and communication plan that allows you to exit the company on your own terms. You have given a lot to this company and I want this to be as smooth as possible for you.”

More than anything, being fired is scary because of the loss of control. Let the person have some control of the process and they will be very appreciative.

No a**holes

“What do you do about the “brilliant a**holes” in your company? You fire them.”

~ Netflix Culture Deck

This one has always been easy for me. I have no time for the “brilliant a**holes.” Some folks struggle with these decisions. I take a firm line. I care too much about teamwork, company culture and keeping my other A-players happy.

Thoughts on firing people

The one thing I force myself to do while getting comfortable with the decision to fire someone is to not think about that individual, but about the broader company and all of the A-players:

1. If you want your leaders to prune their gardens, you want to lead from the front and show that you aggressively prune your own garden (read: you only have A-players reporting to you).
2. A-players get frustrated when they are not surrounded by other A-players. Subsequently, if you don’t do your job by getting rid of B- and C-players, your A-players will not respect you and they will eventually leave.

Every week I force myself to look for weeds, make a list of how that weed is not meeting my expectations, then email them to schedule coffee for the next day.

Right people on the bus

“If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away. The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up: they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.”

~ Jim Collins, Good to Great

I have always found this quote to be a bit trite and obvious. But I bring it up here to point out one thing: I have never considered myself a good manager. I don’t like to manage. I like to do stuff and add value. As such, I like to hire self-managed folks, to Jim Collins’ point. If you have a team of A-players who are self-managed, you don’t need to be a good manager—only a good leader.

Thoughts on “leading from the front”

I would be surprised if we all don’t like to “lead from the front.” I certainly do. Hard work, in early, putting points on the board, coding, spec’ing products, sales meetings, etc.—it is important to set the tone for the organization. However, the one thing I have discovered is this: Leading from the front and executing (if you’re like me) is what you’re best at and subsequently what you do when you get to work in the morning. But, it is absolutely the #3 thing you need to be focused on at the helm of your company. It sits behind:

1. Making sure you have plenty of money. Fundraising is not fun, but it’s job #1 (as you know).
2. See “Fertilizing your flowers and snipping you weeds.” Especially on the weed front, it’s often more fun to ignore this framework and just come in every day and “lead from the front.” But I would posit that leading from the front should only happen once you have happy flowers and no weeds.

If #1 is done and #2 is done, then you get to execute and add value. Again, I think we would all agree that #3 is the fun part of being an entrepreneur…just don’t put it ahead of #1 and #2. 🙂

Jack Welch’s 8 Tenants of Good Leadership

1. Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach and build self-confidence.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision; they live and breath it.
3. Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency and credit.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action.
7. Leaders inspire risk-taking and learning by setting the example.
8. Leaders celebrate!

Letter from the Birmingham Jail

If you believe MLK to be one of the most impressive leaders of all time, you may also agree that this was his best piece of inspirational literature/motivation. I like to read it personally (once a year) and I find that others do as well, so I send it out annually on MLK day. It’s a bit gratuitous drafting off of one of the greats, but it’s inspiration to lead nonetheless.

A tiny excerpt: “When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year old-son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”

Clearly, this passage captures the intense emotion, injustice and hurt that racism causes, but to me this passage also highlights something else: I believe MLK could also have been great at anything he pursued because of his ability to communicate and connect with people. As entrepreneurs (and hopefully leaders), this ability to capture others’ attention and communicate a vision, a story, a message, a mission or what-have-you is often critical to our success. MLK was absolutely one of the best at this (at least in modern history). And while I doubt any of our pursuits are as important as his particular cause, it doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from him and apply his mastery of the written word (and spoken word) in our own efforts to communicate our own missions and to motivate the people around us.

A few final thoughts

Jack Welch’s “Winning” is my favorite book on pure leadership and management (and I have read hundreds). I had never listened to an audiobook in my life, but I did listen to this one. It’s Jack reading his own book in his thick Boston accent and with his true passion for every topic. It’s not-to-be-missed, if even just for the first chapter on candor.

I circulate the Netflix Culture Deck to my team every year. It’s progressive. It’s brilliant. It’s great for young companies. If you haven’t read it, do.