The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

ONE-ON-ONE

ACCOUNTABILITY FOR…

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Less Tangible Does she think systematically or one-off? Would I want to work for her? Is she totally honest or is she bullshitty? Does she ask me spontaneous incisive questions or only pre-prepared ones? Can she handle diverse communication styles? Is she incredibly articulate? Has she done her homework on the company?

Now that we’d improved our competitive position, we went on the offensive. In my weekly staff meeting, I inserted an agenda item titled “What Are We Not Doing?” Ordinarily in a staff meeting, you spend lots of time reviewing, evaluating, and improving all of the things that you do: build products, sell products, support customers, hire employees, a

popular and sometimes effective technique for feedback beginners is something that experienced managers call the Shit Sandwich. The technique is marvelously described in the classic management text The One Minute Manager. The basic idea is that people open up to feedback far more if you start by complimenting them (slice of bread number one), then

In life, everybody faces choices between doing what’s popular, easy, and wrong versus doing what’s lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified a thousandfold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful. Life Excuse CEO Excuse Other smart pe

When measuring results against objectives, start by making sure the objectives are correct. CEOs who excel at board management can “succeed” by setting objectives artificially low. Great CEOs who fail to pay attention to board management can “fail” by setting objectives too high. Early in a company’s development, objectives can be particularly misl

the right kind of ambition is ambition for the company’s success with the executive’s own success only coming as a by-product of the company’s victory.

There has been a powerful shift toward the idea that statistical ways of thinking are going to drive the future.”