Lenny Rachitsky: uncertainty

Transcript context

…There were two leaders in my organization, I won't say which ones and I won't say when, but two leaders in the organization, partners across product and engineering, and they could not get it together. They could not work together. They were having misalignments and priorities strategy. They could not communicate. They were having conflict in front of the team. And the managers that had managed them were taking this very soft pedal approach of, "You need to work on your [inaudible 00:30:47] functional stakeholder, and here am I expecting all this performance management stuff to happen." And I called both of them individually and I said, "The way you are operating is not meeting our leadership expectations. If you do not change, you cannot be part of this organization anymore. I believe you can operate differently. I do." And I did. I believe these are very talented people who could operate. "I believe you can operate differently, but it is your responsibility to do so, and I need to see change starting tomorrow." I wanted them to succeed. And in fact, they did. It snapped in, they got it, and one of the... Turned into one of the most influential effective managers in our team over the course of probably the next six to nine months. And I think just clearly saying, "You are not meeting expectations. You will not be successful here if you continue on this path. I believe you can get here, but it is your responsibility." That is the conversation that is clear and kind and honestly very effective in most instances. That's an amazing example. Clear is kind, as you said. It reminds me of Kim Scott, who's on the podcast, shared this story about Bob. I don't know if you remember that story at all of just this guy at their company who was just doing a bad job and everyone knew he was doing a bad job, and then they had to fire him. When they're firing him, he's just like, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't anyone tell me that nobody thought I was doing a great job?" And I honestly think saying, "You are not doing a good job," is much kinder than, "I think you can improve on this aspect or that aspect." Or, "I've gotten some feedback that you could be better at..." That's not kind because it doesn't set somebody else up for success either in your organization or somewhere else.…

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