Jeetu Patel: belief

Transcript context

…How do you actually operationalize this without just being overloaded with work and constantly having to meet with every team and remind them of the story? The first thing I feel is, you have to have very clear thinking because the clarity of thought is what brings clarity of communication. So, you have to spend the time with your team in sweating the details on what it is that you want to do and why you want to do it. The context of why is so lost, and constantly reminding people why it's important and having the least amount of asymmetry between the topmost layer in the organization and the bottommost layer is super. Now, by the way, I'm a Section 16 officer. There are certain things that, for example, you're in a quiet period you can't go talk about to someone else during that time period, but that's not allowed. However, the most amount of context that you can provide them in the way that you can because you're allowed to, the better off you are. And always treat people like adults. What I've found is, oftentimes when you go into corporate environments, like people start becoming very sterile in the facts that they provide. And sometimes it's okay to just say, "Hey, we screwed up here. This was really bad." That's not meant to ... One of the things that I found to be very counterintuitive, because every management book that you read will tell you otherwise. What do they say? Praise in public and criticize in private. I fundamentally disagree with that notion. I think what you have to do is establish enough trust among the team so that you are comfortable critiquing and debating in public. But when you're in private, take that moment to build the trust. Because if you build that trust and you tell them that you've got their back and you create a level of safety there in public, you don't want to be in a mode of posturing. You want to be in a mode of problem-solving. When you're just giving people perfunctory compliments all the time, and everything's just hunky-dory. Rose-colored glass is great. All your dashboards look green, but you're growing the business at 1.5%. There's an asymmetry there, something's broken. It's like, what do we need to do over here? And so what I tend to do is use the exact opposite approach. I tend to be very, very direct in public, be respectful, but be direct in public. This is not working. Let me tell you why it's not working. We got to face the facts. And then be very, very clear with people that you got their back in private. And don't be stingy with words on that front, because I feel like there are times when people are very stingy with words with people in private. You can't be stingy with words over there. And don't be stingy with critique in public, because I think people need to make sure that, "We are solving problems together. " And if we don't know the play that we're executing, if we don't know the things that we're going to need to do, then I am not really certain. eed to make sure that, "We are solving problems together." And if we don't know the play that we're executing, if we don't know the things that we're going to need to do, then I am not really certain. If you're making collective progress, and I think it's not going to be fulfilling to either you or the recipient at some point, and those compliments will feel hollow because you didn't mean them. Because you were trying to put it in between. Like Ben Horowitz says, and hard things about hard things that you have a shit sandwich. You say something really nice to someone, then you say something that's not really nice, and then you put no, just treat people like adults. Tell them the facts, watch your tone. I still have to work on that. There are times when I get very passionate. People think like, but watch your tone and make sure that you debate. Conflict is a necessary condition of business, but the only way that you can have productive conflict is if you've established trust. And the only way that you can establish trust is by making sure that you spend the time to establish the trust. So spend the time to establish the trust, but then focus on the best idea, winning and actually having the debate.…

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