Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

by Tony Fadell

If you’re a manager or leader or CEO, then your job is to be a manager or leader or CEO. You need to let go of taking pride in your individual daily accomplishments and start taking pride in the accrued wins of your team. Kwon Oh-hyun, the former CEO of Samsung Semiconductor and an incredible partner, big brother, and sometimes mentor to me as we worked together closely on the iPod, once put it this way: “Most managers are afraid that the people who work for them are going to be better than them. But you need to think of being a manager more like being a mentor or a parent. What loving parent wants their child NOT to succeed? You want your kids to be more successful than you, right?” Of course there’s a natural anxiety about getting shown up. The thought usually goes: “Wait, how can I manage Jane if Jane is better than me? If she excels at this and I don’t, then everyone will think she should be doing my job.” And I’m here to break it to you—that might be true. And that’s a good thing. Because if someone under you does something spectacular, that just shows the company that you’ve built a great team. And that you should be rewarded for it. There should always be at least one or two people on your team who are natural successors to you. Those are the people you have more 1:1s with, who you pull into leadership meetings, who everyone will begin to notice.