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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Julie Zhuo
Read between
June 4 - June 17, 2019
Good design at its core is about understanding people and their needs in order to create the best possible tools for them.
Great managers are made, not born.
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.
Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together.
how he evaluates the job of a manager. He
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.
Through thick or thin, in spite of the hundreds of things calling for your attention every day, never forget what you’re ultimately here to do: help your team achieve great outcomes.
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),3 a compelling direction, an enabling structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert coaching.
purpose, people, and process.
The purpose is the outcome your team is trying to accomplish, otherwise known as the why.
Everyone on the team should have a similar picture of why does our work matter? If this purpose is missing or unclear, then you may experience conflicts or mismatched expectations.
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.
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?
To manage people well, you must develop trusting relationships with them, understand their strengths and weaknesses (as well as your own), make good decisions about who should do what (including hiring and firing when necessary), and coach individuals to do their best.
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, t...
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Purpose, people, process. The why, the who, and the how.
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.
you are wondering whether you can be a great manager, ask yourself these three questions.
Do I Find It More Motivating to Achieve a Particular Outcome or to Play a Specific Role?
What they have in common is that their number one priority is making their team successful, and they are willing to adapt to become the leaders that their organizations need.
Do I Like Talking with People?
A major part of your responsibility is ensuring that the individuals you support are able to thrive.
Can I Provide Stability for an Emotionally Challenging Situation?
the best outcomes come from inspiring people to action, not telling them what to do.
Leadership, on the other hand, is the particular skill of being able to guide and influence other people.
to be a great manager, one must certainly be a leader.
Leadership is a quality rather than a job.
leadership is not something that can be bestowed. It must be earned. People must want to follow you.
What gets in the way of good work? There are only two possibilities.1 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.
People’s dissatisfaction will fester beneath the surface until one day they surprise you with their resignation. And most of the time when that happens, they’re not just quitting your company, they are also quitting you.
“The job of a manager … is to turn one person’s particular talent into performance.”
Good CEOs know that they should double down on the projects that are working and put more people, resources, and attention on those rather than get every single project to the point of “not failing.”
What I later realized is that the team actually becomes better off when brilliant assholes leave.
Collaboration becomes more honest and productive, so the work of the team as a whole improves.
the main reasons why someone might not be doing great work: they aren’t aware of what “great” looks like, their aspirations aren’t a fit with what the role needs, they don’t feel appreciated, they lack the skills, or they bring others down.
“Perhaps it’s you who shouldn’t be his manager, not the other way around.” Perhaps you made the call to hire him when his skills weren’t what the team needed. Or perhaps you put him on projects that weren’t a good match. Caring about people means owning that your relationship is a two-way street.
Set Clear Expectations at the Beginning
Give Task-Specific Feedback as Frequently as You Can
As the name “task-specific” implies, you provide this kind of feedback about something that someone did after the fact.
Share Behavioral Feedback Thoughtfully and Regularly
Behavioral feedback is useful because it provides a level of personalization and depth that is missing from task-specific feedback.
Behavioral feedback helps people understand the reality of how others see them, which may be different than how they see themselves.
Collect 360-Degree Feedback for Maximum Objectivity
How do you ensure that your feedback can be acted upon?
1. Make your feedback as specific as possible.
2. Clarify what success looks and feels like.
3. Suggest next steps.
Be clear about whether you’re setting an expectation or merely offering a suggestion.
The best advice for prevention? Don’t engage when you are upset. We regret the things we say in anger, and while bridges take months or years to build, they can be burned in an instant.
