The common thread that runs through them, both the to-do and not-to-do, is the need for honesty with employees and the speed with which rumors will spread and kill moral.
We’re hearing that at least a handful of employees who weren’t remote also woke up to seeing that they were laid off via the fact that their emails and Hipchat, a messaging product, had been turned off overnight.
Rank-and-file staff members are frustrated about being in the dark on the company’s future, and a handful of employees have stopped showing up for work entirely, several insiders said.
Dorsey’s response to the turmoil is garbage.
“I empathize with the feelings that come from the constant critique, the constant negativity, and the constant doubt.”
There is no way a guy worth more than a billion dollars can put himself in the shoes of someone who depends on their paycheck to feed their kids and pay the mortgage/rent.
And that lack of empathy shines clearly through the rest of his comment.
“But hey, that’s life in the arena. All we control is how we choose to react to it.”
I sincerely hope that his global workforce is choosing to update their resumes and react with their feet.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
Well, actually, it was a shared 1st place with the Garage.com conference I went to in 2000 and met Guy Kawasaki and Bill Reichert who funded my company based on the impromptu pitch I did to them at the conference.
However, I am writing now about the last day of the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco. A fantastic last day.
It completely reinforced what I wrote yesterday, that this has been the most practical and useful conference I’ve been to as a startup founder.
Even though I’ve done several startups and had successful exits on three, and been on the other side of the table as an institutional investor in startups, it was astounding how much I learned that was useful.
I really wish that this conference had existed 15 years ago when I got started in the startup business!
In addition to Ash being a good presenter, every minute and every slide he went through was deep learning in how to get the operational aspects of a startup up and running around a new product.
In fact, it was a systematic methodology of building new products that I wish had been available for my past ventures. Everyone who is in the process of creating a new product, especially a software product, should read Ash’ book and participate in one of his practical seminars.
I have yet to experience a more dynamic, fun and practical seminar leader. In building a startup or product, one of the core challenges is how to price the product to get maximum conversions to sales at the highest possible price.
What Justin did was lead us through a hands-on session of how to accomplish this and got us actually doing a practical test on several products (after dividing us into teams, each testing pricing on one product) focusing on how to price them and pinpoint the optimal price to sales ratio.
Justin and his team are experts well worth consulting with to get this right. It is guaranteed to earn you a lot more money and save you from pain.
To be honest, based on past conferences I’ve attended, I had low expectations arriving at the Lean Startup Conference. And as you have read, I’ve been totally blown away by what I experienced.
If you are an entrepreneur, even an experienced one, you must beg borrow or steal to get the opportunity to go.
Don’t miss this learning opportunity – for me. It would have saved me millions of dollars in cash, several years of time, and lots of sleepless nights and struggles at home and at work.
I have one criticism about the conference – please choose better names for the sessions.
The naming convention was horrible and made it difficult to compare notes with fellow conference participants of what they had experienced since none of us could remember the names of the sessions.
Thank you, Lean Startup Conference – I’ll see you next year!
Several people I’ve talked with recently have quoted from Eric Ries’s The Lean Start Up with almost the same religious fervor people espouse Guy Kawasaki or Steve Jobs.
I haven’t read it yet, but after reading a brief column in WSJ’s About Tech Europe and watching the video I realized that Ries probably doesn’t appreciate that kind of blind devotion any more than Kawasaki or Jobs and is quick to say so.
Much of what he says is common sense,
“If 10 people in a row hate my product is that statistically significant? It is not conclusive evidence, but it is certainly telling you something.”
If you have 100 customers you can already say what percentage are paying. If it is zero then I can already start to be a bit worried about the model.”
which is often the easiest to rationalize or ignore.
Of course, you ignore it at your peril.
If you have read The Lean Startup please share your thoughts below; I’ll share mine after I’ve read it.
Are you one of the thousands of managers who spend your days trying to increase productivity and improve your company’s bottom line and you nights worrying that you aren’t doing it fast enough—if at all?
Does your company hire experts to teach motivation and employee engagement techniques?
Do you twist in the wind trying to implement complex, sometimes costly, approaches?
Why?
Why complex when some of the smartest CEOs, advisors and academics are all saying the same thing?
Simply put, in the words of Tony Hsieh, if your employees are happy they will make your customers happy; if your customers are happy they’ll spend more; if they spend more your bottom line will grow.
Saturday I gave you multiple links showing just how simple and inexpensive engaging your people can be—but not everybody reads Saturday.
So, instead of writing yet another post on engagement, I thought provide a video from Guy Kawasaki, who talks about how to “enchant” your employees.
His advice is simple and doable, although it does require the right MAP.
The only cost may be to your ego, since in order to implement it you need to change.
Leadership is one of those things that everybody talks about, lots of people write about and some do it. My preference is to focus on those who have performed as leaders.
Although leadership doesn’t always equate to being in the top position, the links today refer to positional leaders who do a superb job leading.
Let’s start with an interview with Kip Tindell, chief executive of the Container Store, who talks about the principles underlying the culture, communications, hiring execs and a very interesting concept called the size of your wake.
Most people’s wake is much, much, much larger than they can ever imagine. We all can’t imagine that we have as much impact on the people and the world around us as we really do.
Next is David Hauser, co-founder and CTO of Grasshopper, a virtual phone system specifically for entrepreneurs. Started when he was still in school it reached profitability quickly; like most entrepreneurs Hauser wears many hats, including the company’s culture.
When we started we did not clearly articulate the values at all and that was a big mistake and today we talk about it all the time.
If you read books on great companies, they usually leave out a dirty little secret. It doesn’t make for good public relations — like talking about how you “empower people” or how your “greatest assets” are your people. Both of these well-worn clichés are true. What is also true is that it’s hard to build a great company with the wrong people.
Instead of unhappy, I probably should have said disrespectful (to others, not me), incompetent, unreasonable, undependable, irresponsible, unproductive, dysfunctional (I did say that one), angry, whiny or mean — and beyond a manager’s ability to repair.
When I finally got a management position, I found out how hard it is to lead and manage people. The warm, fuzzy stuff is hard. The quantitative stuff is easy…
I’m unfamiliar with Strategic Strategist and have no idea what, if anything, this means, but still! So I told some friends and my b5 cohorts and received some very nice congratulatory emails telling me that I deserved it, etc. Fun!
But it got me to thinking once again that I just don’t have the ego for the networked, self-promoted, memememe world I live in.
It’s not that I don’t believe I have a lot to offer.
I think I’m a hell of a writer and that what I say has value, whether it’s of direct use or stimulates new thought paths.
To be honest, I’m often blown away when I read old posts here or at MAPping Company Success and realize I wrote them. The same goes for my book, The Swamp & the Alligators: a slightly irreverent guide to career planning and the search process. It’s 16 years old now and it’s still on Amazon.
I know my coaching is valuable and that it’s unique; it takes a different approach from much of the other coaching available.
But I’m always a bit amazed when others see its value.
Believe me, it’s not humility or any of those supposedly noble feelings. It’s just that it surprises me when the outside world agrees with me.
As my readers know, I’m very opinionated, but that doesn’t mean I assume or expect anyone else to agree—in spite of the law of averages saying that some will.
I’m lousy at “working the room,” whether in the real or cyber world.
Back when I attended parties I would hang out helping in the kitchen and over the course of the evening most of the interesting people would wander in and end up staying for the kind of conversation you can sink your teeth into (I’ve always been lousy at small talk).
I seem to do cyberspace the same way.
And, I’m grateful to say, the interesting people keep wandering in and staying to talk.
Communications are all important to the smooth running of anything involving people.
Obviously this includes business, since companies are no more than an affiliated group of people committed (in varying degrees) to progressing towards the same goal.
“Simple clear purpose and principles give rise to complex intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple stupid behavior.” –Dee Hock (Visa founder)
There is no question that this is true as proved by the next two quotes from opposite ends of the clarity spectrum. Follow the first and you will be reviled by your colleagues, but implementing the second will make you both loved and influential.
The first is a superb example of what not to do from an organization that has demonstrated throughout its existence a brilliant ability to obfuscate in all its communications.
“Passive activity income does not include the following: Income for an activity that is not a passive activity.” –IRS form, Passive Activity Loss Limitation
The second is a bit of brilliance from a guy (pun intended) I hold in the highest regard. It’s just too bad more people don’t follow this particular advice.
“I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It’s a skill that you learn. The key is the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides given in 20 minutes using no font smaller than 30 points. If people just adhered to this rule, they would double or triple the quality of their presentations. Less is more when it comes to pitching. You cannot bludgeon people into believing.” –Guy Kawasaki
But as important as communications are, never lose sight of the following:
“Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.” –Colin Powell
No kidding. After 30 years it still never ceases to amaze me that managers bust their butts spending time and money finding the right person, craft the offer, close the candidate and then go merrily on their way assuming that the person will show up at the appointed time—even if that time is two or more weeks in the future.
A lot can happen in two weeks.
When they do show up these managers do little-to-nothing to integrate them into the team, culture or work—other than to assign projects with a sink-or-swim attitude.
These managers complain when new hires don’t ‘hit the ground running fast enough’ and are totally perplexed when they either burn up or burn out and leave.
What motivates mangers to act like this? Sometimes ignorance, but mostly just not thinking.
Remember that
People aren’t water faucets. They don’t turn off emotions and feelings in the morning when they leave for work. They’re present in all their chaotic, sloppy splendor—but rarely admitted or discussed. Many of these emotions and insecurities will surface during traumatic times. According to the shrinks, changing jobs, even voluntarily getting out of a terrible situation, is one of the three greatest traumas that people face. (The other two are relocation and divorce, because unlike death people can play the ‘what if’ game forever.)
Resigning isn’t easy; it’s not comfortable and people don’t like doing it. And the longer they’ve worked for the manager/company the harder it is, especially when nothing is really wrong.
Even in this economy, counteroffers still happen although they’re counterproductive. They hurt the company, the group and the individual. The ones that work are the exception to the rule—probably less than 5%. As far back as 1983, the WSJ National Employment Weekly was printing articles warning about the dangers of accepting counteroffers; nothing’s changed; if anything it’s gotten more so.
Once your candidate has accepted, take an assumptive approach when talking about anything in the future. Use phrases such as: When you’re here, After you start, etc.
Then lock in your hire with these seven simple acts (simple once you think of them).
Call her after her resignation to make sure things went smoothly.
Assign a buddy from the team who can supply help and information on a proactive basis.
Give her information to read to familiarize herself with your market, company and its products.
Discuss the first project and give her information to take home.
Besides you and her buddy, have various members of the interviewing team call her occasionally to tell her how much they’re looking forward to working with her.
Solicit her opinion; ask for her suggestions.
Don’t overwhelm her, but make her feel that she’s already a valued member of the team.
Be sure to come back tomorrow and learn what to do after they start work.
One of the dumbest things consultants and HR dreamed up a few decades ago was using pretty words and euphemisms in place of the real ones—fired and terminated.
I’ve written about Guy Kawasaki, read his books and enjoyed hearing him speak since I met him at a talk in 1999—very smart and very funny. He knows that laughter opens minds to new ideas.
Most managers hate laying people off, although I’ve known of a few who take sadistic glee in it.
Layoffs damage everybody—those doing it, those to whom it’s done and those left standing afterwards.
Guy lists 12 actions to keep the layoff from crippling your company—
Take responsibility. Cut deep and cut once. Management usually believes that things will get better soon, so it cuts the smallest number of people in anticipation of a miracle. Most of the time, the miracle doesn’t materialize, and the company ends up making multiple cuts. Given the choice, you should cut too deeply and risk the high-quality problem of having to rehire. Multiple cuts are terrible for the morale of the employees who have not been laid off.
Move fast. One hour after your management team discusses the need to lay off employees, the entire company will know that something is happening. Once people “know” a layoff is coming, productivity drops like a rock. You’re either laying people off or you’re not—you should avoid the state of “considering” a layoff.
Show Consistency. I cannot understand how companies can claim that they have to cut costs and then provide severance packages of six months to a year of salary. You would think that if they wanted to conserve cash, they’d give tiny severance packages. Typically, there are three lines of reasoning for generous severance packages:
Cutting head count, even with severance packages, is cheaper than keeping the employee around indefinitely, and we don’t want any lawsuits.
We have lots of cash, so our balance sheet is strong, but we need to cut heads to make our profit-and-loss statement look better.
Wall Street (or your investors) is expecting dramatic actions, so we need to do this to show the analysts that we’ve got what it takes to be a leader.
None of these reasons makes sense. If you need to do a layoff to cut costs (and conserve cash), then provide minimal severance packages, cut costs as much as you can, conserve as much cash as you can, and deal with your guilt in other ways. If nothing else, it’s a consistent story.
Clean house.
Whack Teddy.
Share the pain.
Show consistency.
Don’t ask for pity.
Provide support.
Don’t let people self-select.
Show people the door.
Move forward.
I included full text on the three I think are most critical, but they’re all important, so take the time to not only read them, but also understand the reasoning behind them, because if they don’t resonate with your MAP you won’t be able to implement them should the need arise.
Guy’s subtler than I, but we agree that immediately after your announcement the dumbest (my adjective) thing you can do is go to your office—no matter how much you want to hide.
Your people need you now more than ever, both the folks leaving and the ones staying. The minutes and first hours after the announcement all your managers need to be with their people—no exceptions, no excuses.
No matter how sick a company is people often manage to convince themselves that somehow it will all go away. I’m watching that happen now with a woman I know and it’s sad; sadder because she knows she’s kidding herself, but still does it and puts off any effort to find another position.
I thought you might be up for some fun today and one of the most fun things I do is read is Guy Kawasaki. This weekend I ran into two interesting bits, an interview and a column in Always On.
The interview brought something forward that I think is very important, especially given the current economic times.
When talking about his new book, Reality Check, and who makes the best venture capitalist, Guy downgrades MBAs and those who haven’t had operating roles, saying
“Consulting, investment banking and accounting do not provide you with “on the firing line” experience. You’re always the “outside expert” who zooms in, interviews a few people, creates a PowerPoint presentation and then tells people what they should do.
Unfortunately, analysis and ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. A consultant can tell you to reduce your work force by 10 percent, but figuring out who to lay off and looking people in the eyes when you do it is much harder.”
No kidding. A lot harder.
This is important advice for regular business folks in companies of all sizes, not just entrepreneurs, to keep in mind when looking for help in solving difficult situations. In fact, pretty much everything Guy says can be applied with minimum tweaking to any size company, so read the interview and reap the value.
Guy also says that entrepreneurs, like ‘leaders’, aren’t recognizable up front and that the real proof is in the results.
Now for the fun.
Guy considers it“irrational to base one’s mood on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). After all, (a) what does that have to do with the real world? And (b) it reflects the buying (and selling) decisions of the same investment bankers who got us into this mess.”
So he created a more rational way to measure the health of the economy. Here are three of the 11 measures that make up the GIA (Guy’s Index of Absurdity).
Venture capitalists attend board meetings via WebEx rather than Gulfstream.
Pierre Omidyar [eBay founder] starts selling stuff on eBay.
Men can speak at Blogher as long as they pay for the time slot.
Enjoy; reading Guy is a great way to start the week.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
A few weeks ago I wrote about three ways to close a company — the right way, the wrong way and the (allegedly) crooked way — and years ago referenced Guy Kawasaki’s guide to laying people off.
But it got me to thinking once again that I just don’t have the ego for the networked, self-promoted, memememe world I live in.
Once your candidate has accepted, take an assumptive approach when talking about anything in the future. Use phrases such as: When you’re here, After you start, etc.
I thought you might be up for some fun today and one of the most fun things I do is read is Guy Kawasaki. This weekend I ran into two interesting bits, an interview and a column in 
