The common mistake most managers make | Claire Hughes Johnson (ex-COO of Stripe)

[00:00] This is actually a very fundamental management framework. [00:03] of mine which is in a one-to-one interaction like your job as the manager [00:08] First of all, too many people think your job as a manager is to be the expert and tell people what to do. [00:12] No, actually, [00:14] Your job is to [00:16] enable, [00:17] people to be their very damn best on your team. [00:20] And you have to create an environment and a context and provide them information. [00:25] and then you need to provide them [00:27] a form of coaching now again i think people sometimes think coaching is lecturing [00:31] Like, let me coach you how to make this Excel model. [00:35] You know, and sometimes they do. Sometimes someone comes to you and says, can you exactly show me how to do this thing? [00:40] Bye. [00:41] But most of management is actually exploring with someone. [00:45] It is being curious. It is saying, [00:48] "I have seen this pattern. [00:49] of your work. Have you seen this pattern? [00:52] Is there something like I have a whole other framework, which is about hypothesis based coaching? [00:58] So instead of [01:00] I think intuition as a word gets kind of a bad rap and I kind of get why. Look, especially if you work with a lot of engineers, which I do, it's not particularly always data driven. But guess what? [01:10] Guess what a scientific hypothesis is? [01:13] It's a well-informed piece of intuition. [01:16] And I think too many managers wait until they have a million pieces of data. [01:21] to make an observation to someone about an area for improvement. Instead, [01:25] I would say take some data, [01:27] form a hypothesis and then explore it with the person.

[01:32] Because if you're well intended, which I think any good manager is, [01:35] I'm bringing up this thing. [01:37] because I'm trying to help you see it. [01:40] and tell me if it's true so that we can both help make it [01:44] more effective. [01:45] better. [01:45] Like, I mean, one very light example could be, you know, [01:49] I felt like in that meeting, how did you feel that presentation went? [01:54] And the person sort of says, "It's fine. I think I got through the material." [01:59] You say, "Yeah, I felt like you were maybe a little bit nervous." [02:03] I'm just exploring where you... [02:05] And by the way, the person could say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. [02:08] And then then you're you could back off or you could say, oh, well, [02:12] Maybe it was just me, but I noticed some physical, like your leg was shaking a little bit, your voice, your voice. [02:18] you know, you were kind of repeating yourself, [02:20] And they're going like, what? [02:22] And all you're doing is holding up a mirror. You're saying, and you have to own it. You have to say, my experience of you. [02:29] in that meeting was that you seemed nervous to me. [02:33] Maybe you were not, but actually maybe this is just a physical coaching. [02:38] thing, right? Have you ever had that? I have a few people on my teams who do this weird thing, this is like pre-virtual world, [02:44] But like when they're sort of getting uncomfortable in a meeting, they would back their chair up. [02:50] off the table right like sort of exit the circle [02:53] And that is a very physically... [02:57] Big statements. [02:59] And they had no idea, Lenny. They had no idea. I'm just watching the meeting and I'm like, oh my gosh, you're like four feet.

[03:05] from the rest of the group. [03:07] because you do not like this topic. [03:10] and [03:11] What I need to explore with you is how do you vocalize that instead of physically exiting the room or exiting the circle? [03:18] These are just examples. But I really think that that attitude of exploration and mutual sort of collaborative, let's discover some things about you. [03:27] And by the way, it can be mutual. They can go right back at you and say, well, I observe this. [03:32] Great. [03:33] Great. I mean, one of my favorite... [03:36] I've interviewed a lot of people for the book, different leaders and managers from lots of different fields, but one of them was Reid Hoffman, who's worked. [03:43] Typical. [03:43] But Reid, we were talking about the other operating principle, which is management versus leadership. [03:49] And Reed was like pretty honest. He's like, look, I'm more of a leader. I'm not a manager. [03:53] It's like, I'm not a great manager. [03:55] And then he told me the story. He's like, [03:57] He had in his first company that he was building, [04:00] He had a guy that he'd hired who was more operational. [04:03] and read [04:05] And Reed was like sort of making an observation to him about something they should do. And the guy goes to him. [04:11] Reid, I wouldn't hire you to manage a McDonald's. [04:13] Mm-hmm. [04:14] Thank you. [04:16] And Reed was like, OK, good. So tell me what we need to do so we can fix this thing. [04:21] But what actually reads operating principle, interestingly, when I unearth that whole thing, [04:26] was that he prides him, like it's very important to him to create an environment of open feedback. [04:32] uh he said what i love about that story yeah is it's funny and embarrassing

[04:37] but actually that that guy was comfortable saying to me, I wouldn't trust you to manage a McDonald's. [04:42] And I think that actually I found inspiring because I don't think everybody who founded a company or who's managing someone has created an environment with that much trust in it. [04:52] right and that's how reed thinks he gets a lot of stuff done is people just [04:55] Come right back at him with the feedback.