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When evaluating a new team in a company, it is important to focus on inspecting the work rather than the people. By assessing the functionality and performance of the team's responsibilities, swift decisions can be made regarding who is performing well and who needs improvement. This approach allows for quick decision-making based on concrete evidence, avoiding the delay caused by waiting to know each person on a personal level. Prioritizing work evaluation over personal judgments ensures efficiency and effective management.
When parachuting into a new leadership position, it is crucial to assess the team dynamics and make necessary decisions swiftly. Spending excessive time observing and waiting for changes can lead to missed opportunities and wasted time. It is essential to operate with imperfect information, acknowledging the possibility of being wrong but maintaining the ability to course-correct swiftly. Being decisive in removing individuals who are not performing effectively is key, while also recognizing the importance of embracing and supporting team members who are excelling in their roles.
When assessing new hires, it is important to go beyond interviews and examine the candidate's track record and behaviors in previous roles. Gathering insights from individuals who have directly worked with the candidate provides a more accurate understanding of their potential as leaders or contributors. By gathering consistent views from a variety of perspectives, a high level of confidence can be established in evaluating a candidate's suitability for the role. While some hiring decisions may involve higher risk, relying on collective knowledge and transparent communication can aid in making informed choices.
Fostering a culture of trust and open communication is crucial in facilitating effective collaboration within an organization. Emphasizing lateral and networked communication pathways instead of strict hierarchies encourages shared influence and promotes accountability. Creating an environment where individuals feel comfortable questioning, debating, and raising the bar yields continuous improvement. Trust is earned through consistent and transparent actions, demonstrating that leadership is committed to the organization's well-being and has their employees' best interests at heart.
Narrowing focus and aiming for astounding products is vital for success. By continuously striving to exceed expectations and approaching product development with a mindset of reimagining the best possible version, organizations can avoid incrementalism and pursue disruptive innovation. Challenging the notion of 'good enough' and constantly raising the bar enables the creation of exceptional products. By imagining what could be achieved without constraints and drudgery, organizations can maintain momentum and inspire creative thinking. Applying this focus to customers also encourages solving their problems instead of relying on their proposed solutions, fostering trust and long-term partnerships.
My guest today is Frank Slootman, Chairman and CEO of cloud platform Snowflake. Frank has become one of the most revered CEOs in business. Over the past twenty years, he has three times taken over emerging enterprise software businesses – first Data Domain, then ServiceNow, and most recently Snowflake - and led them across the chasm into large, billion-dollar businesses. Please enjoy this great discussion with Frank Slootman.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the new digital hub for market intelligence. The Tegus platform empowers Investors and Corporate Development teams to invest smarter by pairing best in class technology with the highest quality user-generated content and data. Find out why a majority of the top firms are using Tegus on a daily basis. Head to tegus.co/patrick for your free trial.
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This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:33] - [First question] - How he evaluates the team of a company he’s working with
[00:04:48] - The pace of decisions made around changing team members
[00:06:10] - Understanding the potential quality of outside leaders being brought into the company
[00:08:13] - How he characterizes great and constructive confrontation
[00:09:53] - What he’s found to be most effective in convincing senior talent to join a team
[00:11:36] - Ways he personally generates energy to sustain himself in this pace of business
[00:14:17] - How he fosters and nurtures healthy communication pathways
[00:15:36] - Narrowing the focus when evaluating a new product
[00:17:58] - Is it possible for a focus to be too narrow?
[00:19:31] - An example of a dazzling customer that he’s worked with
[00:21:04] - Working backwards from a problem and building something that solves it
[00:23:03] - Building trust between a company and its customers over time
[00:25:37] - Overview of the base layer ingredients of trust
[00:28:12] - Sequential versus parallel processing and how they affect building trust
[00:30:22] - Lessons in successfully translating between engineers and business people
[00:32:58] - Crossing the chasm and effective sales organizations
[00:35:17] - Working compensation into getting more out of an organization
[00:38:45] - How much a sales organization needs to work backwards to serve their product
[00:41:40] - Great questions for board members to ask their executive team
[00:46:07] - Where the analogy of ‘business as war’ falls down and defining the highlander concept
[00:48:01] - What he feels he could still hone in his skillset
[00:49:16] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
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