by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
Below are the boxes from the book that summarize each topic.
The top priority of any manager is the well-being and success of her people.
To build rapport and better relationships among team members, start team meetings with trip reports, or other types of more personal, non-business topics.
Have a structure for 1:1s, and take the time to prepare for them, as they are the best way to help people be more effective and to grow.
This is critical for company integration and cohesiveness.
The manager’s job is to run a decision-making process that ensures all perspectives get heard and considered, and, if necessary, to break ties and make the decision.
Define the “first principles” for the situation, the immutable truths that are the foundation for the company or product, and help guide the decision from those principles.
Aberrant geniuses – high-performing but difficult team members – should be tolerated and even protected, as long as their behavior isn’t unethical or abusive and their value outweighs the toll their behavior takes on management, colleagues, and teams.
Compensating people well demonstrates love and respect and ties them strongly to the goals of the company.
The purpose of a company is to bring a product vision to life. All the other components are in service to product.
If you have to let people go, be generous, treat them well. and celebrate their accomplishments.
It’s the CEO’s job to manage boards, not the other way around.
The traits that make a person coachable include honesty and humility, the willingness to persevere and work hard, and a constant openness to learning.
Listen to people with your full and undivided attention – don’t think ahead to what you’re going to say next – and ask questions to get to the real issue.
Be relentlessly honest and candid, couple negative feedback with caring, give feedback as soon as possible, and if the feedback is negative, deliver it privately.
Don’t tell people what to do; offer stories and help guide them to the best decisions for them.
Believe in people more than they believe in themselves, and push them to be more courageous.
People are most effective when they can be completely themselves and bring their full identity to work.
When faced with a problem or opportunity, the first step is to ensure the right team is in place and working on it.
The top characteristics to look for are smarts and hearts: the ability to learn fast, a willingness to work hard, integrity, grit, empathy, and a team-first attitude.
Peer relationships are critical and often overlooked, so seek opportunities to pair people up on projects or decisions.
For the past 12 months, to what extent do you agree/disagree that each person:
For the past 12 months, to what extent do you agree/ disagree that each person demonstrated exemplary leadership in the following areas:
Winning depends on having the best team, and the best teams have more women.
Identify the biggest problem, the “elephant in the room”, bring it front and center, and tackle it first.
Air all the negative issues, but don’t dwell on them. Move on as fast as possible.
Strive to win, but always win right, with commitment, teamwork, and integrity.
When things are going bad, teams are looking for even more loyalty, commitment, and decisiveness from their leaders.
Listen, observe, and fill the communication and understanding gaps between people.
Leading teams becomes a lot more joyful, and the teams more effective, when you know and care about the people.
To care about people you have to care about people: ask about their lives outside of work, understand their families, and when things get rough, show up.
Cheer demonstrably for people and their successes.
Build communities inside and outside of work. A place is much stronger when people are connected.
Be generous with your time, connections, and other resources.
Hold a special reverence for – and protect – the people with the most vision and passion for the company.
Loving colleagues in the workplace may be challenging, so practice it until it becomes more natural.