In episode 639, Rob Walling chats with Andrew Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of Suggestion Ox, about the secret sauce to building happy, high-performing teams and how we as founders need to unlearn some of the strict policies that have been in place for hundreds of years.
Suggestion Ox is a feedback platform that helps HR teams build candid communication between leadership and employees. And before that, Andrew co-founded a sports management platform that was acquired in 2021.
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Topics we cover:
- 2:10 - Why trust is the key ingredient when building high-performing teams
- 6:56 - Flexible vacation policies
- 9:17 - Flexible work hours
- 15:08 - The link between remote work and hiring and retaining great employees
- 18:14 - Using transparency to build trust with your team
- 19:43 - How transparent should you be with your team for temporary issues?
- 21:55 - Does this approach to trust and transparency work at scale?
- 25:57 - Getting better at giving constructive feedback as a manager
- 28:20 - Is it possible to hire the best people at scale?
- 32:08 - Andrew’s approach to dealing with bad apples or people who slack off
- 36:41 - Building a company culture where employees feel safe to give candid feedback
Links from the Show:
Andrew Berkowitz I Twitter
Suggestion Ox
Startups For the Rest of Us 