Itโs taken me 15 years in this industry to figure out how to be any good at what I do. I donโt know how to write it all down yet, but Iโm going to give a piece of it away to you in the next 5 minutes.
It starts with an observation that is controversial to many folks, even though I think itโs like saying that water is wet:
Managing people is exceptionally hard to do well. People are complex, and organizations are justย fullย of them.
I have managed many people at a variety of scales, and worked with leaders of other organizations big and small. Iโve trained up new managers and watched them grow into strong leaders. Iโve sat with them through hirings, and firings, and watched them struggle with both. Iโve had members of my teams get married, get divorced, have kids, lose kids, attempt suicide and (mercifully) fail. I have had an employee die, and to this day the social network birthday reminders gut me. No one who takes management seriously, and does it well, finds this stuff easy. No one whoโs been at it for very long imagines that there are shortcuts.
But, as PT Barnumย probably didnโtย say:
Thereโs a sucker born everyย minute.
The infatuation with management shortcuts, particularly in startup culture, is rampant. The charitable explanation is that a lot of classic management practice feels slow, and founders are trying to unfetter their people. I think the harsher, truer explanation is that many founders are inexperienced managers, and donโt understand the trade-offs theyโre making at their employeesโ expense.
Letโs Try aย Quiz
Score 1 โMy management culture is messed upโ point for each of the following:
- We have anย unlimited vacation policy
- We donโt do regular 1:1s, but we have open office hours/are super available if anyone wants to chat
- We donโt have aย processย forย interviewing, we just hire awesome people when we meet them
- We super care about diversity, butย we donโt want to lower the barย so we just hire the best person for the job even if it means diversity suffers
- We donโt have defined levels and career paths for our employees, weโre a really flat org
- We donโt have formal managers for every staff member, everyone just gets their work done
- We donโt have, like,ย HRย HR, but our recruiter/office manager/only female employee is super good if youย want someone to talk to
- We donโt do performance improvement plans for employees that are struggling. We just have a super honest conversation about how they arenโt a good fit andย fire them
- We would have some hard explaining to do if our salary list accidentally became public
Iโll give you your first point for free. Iโll give you second one because itโs hard to run a business and thereโs always something you wish you could get to but havenโt yet. I understand that. And, if youโre on the bubble, Iโll give you one more if thereโs a thing on this list you are trying to change.
So howโd your company do? Fewer than 3 points? Iโm happy for you and your colleagues. 4? 5?ย More?
What aย Waste
Iโve talked to people who scoreย 7s and 8s. Sometimes theyโre proud of it.
What Iโve learned is that a high score on that silly little quiz tells me two not-silly things about you: youโre wasting time and youโre wasting your investorsโ money. And whatโs extra sad is that you thought you were doing the opposite.
You thought you were saving time by cutting needless process and especially needless meetings. Ugh,ย meetings, right? But a lot of these practices will increase turnover and lower productivity.
You know what costs a lot of time? When good people quit. You lose accumulated knowledge, you take a significant velocity hit, and you often have knock-on morale drag on the staff that stay. 1:1s take time, but they let people get things off their chest. They also feed motivation and team identity. Defined levels and career paths take work to develop. But theyโre a straightforward way to give people mastery goals and direction. A well designed PIP takes longer than summary dismissal, but it can turn a struggling employee around and lift an entire teamโs output.
Some of these policies doย seemย to save money. As the commenters point out, unlimited vacation can be a useful way toย avoid paying out accrued timewhen employees leave. And not hiring an HR person does save you their salary.
But a core value of good management is that your investment in your employees pays off as they grow in scope and impact. Well managed employees make your company better. They mentor new people, take on new skills, and take personal ownership in the quality of their teamโs work.
Ever look at some company getting it right and think,ย โHow did they hire all those amazing people?โย Iโll tell you how. They grew them. And they retained them. And that attracted more great people.ย People talk, and that flows both ways. Skimping on your people is a foolish (and gross) way to save money.
Donโt Take My Word Forย It
I try to manage well and thoughtfully, but there is certainly no shortage of disagreement out there on the right way to run things.
Valve softwareโsย culture docย is near-biblical for many folks, yet it garners a pretty high score on my test. They make more money than I do, and better games, too; maybe theyโre right? I donโt know. Former valve folk are not gentle with their description of a culture that โfelt like high schoolโ with implicit favour-based power structures operating behind the scenes. I donโt want to work in that kind of place. Maybe you do?
Remember when GitHub was soย proud of how they didnโt really bother with traditional management? Somehow, even with their unlimited PTO, itย didnโt go well.
I hear theyโre hiring more managers now, and Iโm hopeful for them. My hope is not that they feel beaten and subjugated and pay their manager tax. My hope is that they realize how harmful their hubris is to the employees that helped them build such a central piece of the technology landscape.
An Extremely Boring Manifesto
Look, management may be hard, but this test is pretty easy to pass. And it proceeds from the first rule of startup club:
The First Rule of Startup Club: if youโre not planning to be the best in the world at something other people already do well, then donโt mess around with implementing your own version of it, useย theirs.
We usually cite this in reference to databases, or unit test harnesses, or snack providers. But itโs just as true here.
I donโt need you to be the best in the world at management. But if youโre not planning to be, if youโre not going to be really studious and dedicated to it, then for godโs sake stop messing with it. I promise you canโt build a better management system in your spare time.
- Set up every employee with a clear direct manager, and expect them to hold regular 1:1s. Discuss their current work, but also their goals and development.
- Be clear about every role or, if you canโt manage that, at least every role with multiple people in it. Define the expectations of the role, and where itโs headed. Employees should know which level/role theyโre in.
- Set salaries according to role and calibrate against your market (your HR person can help here).
- Have aย basic process for sourcing and interviews. Eliminate bias where you can. Interview for well defined roles so that you know what your salary range is, and donโt get anchored off of savvy candidates manipulating the offer phase.
- Give people benefits and vacation that make them feel loved and help them be excellent, without exploding your burn rate. Make sure they take that vacation.
Itโs stupefying to me but if you do those things youโll be head and shoulders above many of your peers in industry. Youโll be able to attract and retain talent better. Your employees will grow and take on broader leadership roles. Word will get around that your company is run by grown ups.
Whatโs even more amazing to me is this:ย most people wonโt. Most people will still try to shortcut things, and then wonder aloud why they canโt find great people. Theyโll conclude that they need to pay higher salaries because their people keep fleeing. Theyโll miss targets, theyโll fail, and theyโll explain that startup is justย superย hard and maybe they were just too early. ?
Like most manifestos, this oneโs easier to read than it is to live. I understand that business is full of conflicting tensions and priorities. But if you canโt do these things, theseย table stakes things, then I need you to seriously consider the possibility that running an organization is not for you. Find a cofounder who understands this stuff. Hire and empower leaders to operate while you stick to the ideas and get out of their way.ย Something. These are peopleโs lives youโre dealing with. If I sound irate, thatโs why.
And to those of you out there who do understand this, who operate for a living and do it well:ย I see you. You are heroes who donโt get enough credit. And if youโre ever in Toronto, your first drink is on me.