Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…Sure. Step one, make sure you're doing your current job well. The way I explain this is when you go to your manager and ask, "What could I do to help?" You don't want their answer, even if they don't say it quite so bluntly to be, "Do your F-ing job." You need to be doing that already. So be doing a good job. And unfortunately, a good job is in the eyes of your manager in this case. You may think I'm doing great work, but if your manager doesn't, they're the ones you need to build as an ally here. Once you have that, go ask how you can help, do whatever you're asked, and then go back to your manager and suggest or ask, "I would like to meet this goal. Can I keep helping you? What could I take on that you need that would also help me meet this goal?" And that's where you start to try to bring your two sets of aims together. What do you need done, how can I get to my goal? And let's do those things together. And then you just repeat this loop. You build trust, you build the relationship. And with all good managers, and even a lot of moderate managers, they appreciate the help so much, they really lean into that. I think there's two really important elements of this that you haven't even mentioned necessarily, that I think are part of the reason this works so well. One is this forces you and your manager to identify the gaps that are keeping you from the next level, which it's often vague, and then you get to a performance review, and then your manager's like, "Ethan, you're still not good on this and this and that," and you're like, "You never told me that that's the things you're looking for for me to get promoted." So I think there's this implicit, here's what you need to work on to get to the next level, which I think is part of step four. And then you actually did touch on this that it's important to share your goal to your manager. Here's what I want. I want to get promoted. A lot of times they don't know that and you helping them understand, "Here's what I want, help me get there." It goes a long way. So there's a lot- Managers often fall into the trap. They chose to become managers, so they assume one of two things about you. They either assume that you want to keep doing exactly what you're doing forever, just maybe make a little more money. So you're an artist, you want to keep drawing forever. You're a lawyer, you want to keep writing contracts forever. Or they assume that, "Hey, I became a manager. I'm very proud of my career. That must be what you want." And these assumptions are natural, right? We tend to view by default that our path is great and everyone would want to be us. Now of course, some good managers don't do that. But if you clarify and express your goals, you remove that ambiguity.…

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