Frank Slootman explains in his book how to lead for hypergrowth by raising expectations, increasing urgency, and elevating intensity.
The “Insanely Great” Standard
Try to apply the “insanely great” standard on a daily basis to everything you do and see how far you get.
Generally people lower their standards to move things along, don’t do that. You have to fight this impulse every step of the way.
Don’t Settle for Respectable Mediocrity
Seek to exploit every ounce of potential you are entrusted with.
If you want to win big, imagine a radically different future that is not tethered to the past. This is why innovation always seems to come from the least expected places. They don’t have a past to care about.
Building a Strong Culture
Culture describes how people come together as a group on a day‐to‐day basis. It is not about making people feel good per se, it’s about enabling the mission with the behaviors and values that serve that purpose.
If you want to create a strong culture, you have to drive a more consistent set of behaviors, norms, and values and most importantly you have to focus on consistent and clearly defined consequences, day in and day out.
You know you have created a good culture when most of the organization is willing to defend and promote those values and call out deviations on a day‐to‐day basis.
Drivers and Passengers
There are two kinds of people in companies, drivers and passengers.
Passengers are people who live with an “enough” attitude, meaning that they want to do only what is expected and nothing more.
Drivers, on the other hand, get their satisfaction from making things happen, not blending in with the furniture. They like to take ownership, drive initiatives, motivate people…
You should have a company full of drivers.
Don’t be Scared of Firing People
Hiring is hard but firing is even harder. If we know that something or someone is not working out, why should we wait to pull the trigger? When there is doubt, there is no doubt.
Care About What Others Say About You
Nothing puts more rocket fuel in your career tank than what other people say about you. Bosses, peers, and subordinates will all have strong opinions about what you’re like to work with.
Smart managers know that for anyone well beyond entry level, exhaustive referencing builds a clearer portrait of a candidate than any number of interviews.
Good Leaders are Honest
Good leaders are honest, they explain that none of us are truly safe in our roles for any length of time. If this fact makes people uncomfortable, that’s good. You need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable because the only alternative is denialism.
No Strategy is Better than its Execution
If you don’t know how to execute, every strategy will fail, even the most promising ones.
Execution is hard, and great execution is scarce—which makes it another great source of competitive advantage.
“Priority” should ideally only be used as a singular word. The moment you have many priorities, you actually have none.
Crave a Culture of Energy
It is common for people to ask to get back to others within a week or more. Instead of expanding times, you should start compressing cycle times.
If we just change our mindset we can move so much quicker and this means working under a sense of energy and urgency.
Good performers crave a culture of energy.
To truly inspire trust, underpromise and overdeliver.
