In Jack Welch’s outgoing biography, he touched on the importance of People & Competition, two things he loved and parlayed into a successful career as “manager of the 20th century.”
Competition is all about conflict. People are all about communication, compromise & collaboration. How do you win when individuals are by nature focused on themselves and not the greater organizational goals? Balance is key, especially as WFH (or hybrid workforces) remains a reality. Welch turned out to be less than ideal as a model, leading me to realize that we sometimes idolize people as icons, and not for their real inner selves.
1. Talk is cheap
Corporations have lofty ideals and purported purpose but in effect, it’s all talk. The media projects tech entrepreneurs as individuals with deep principles when their only purpose is the pursuit of profit, vacillating on any issue as need be to ensure survival & success
It’s thus not surprising then that the corporations they lead project a certain image of themselves, but their daily actions do not necessarily support those ideals. It can be disheartening, so what worked for me was changing the things that led to my disappointment.
As 2024 came to a close, I realized that “what got us here, won’t get us there.” What worked for that young scrappy startup out of Montreal twenty years ago was not going to work for an established market leader with best practices and world class performance. That meant updating the playbook to become more realistic about the following dynamics. Introspection allows you to change yourself, because you cannot change those around you – expecting that is the definition of insanity.
2. Loyalty
Early on I sincerely believed that employers should show loyalty to their employees, to earn their trust so that over time employees believed in the org. This, over time, proves ineffective as a company becomes more established.
3. Prove yourself to me, then we’ll talk
My Achilles heel has always been to project the best version of people onto them – only seeing virtues and overlooking their sins. This makes you a great leader in the eyes of the weak, for the strongest on your team become disillusioned with you not being able to separate winners from wannabe’s. For every job position you have, there are dozens of people seeking that role. Once you have a high performing team, you need young talent to demonstrate themselves first before you entrust them with bigger responsibilities. Why?
4. Family, teammates & employees
As you may tell, early on I viewed the org as a family. But largely because of how crass so many corporations are with their human resources, employees never really feel that way (understandably), hence why companies are seen as teams, at most. But even that notion is not perfect, because a sports team’s dynamics isn’t that of a company’s. Ultimately, it’s a business: your employees are “constant free agents” who have the freedom to come and go as they please, just one difference from teams whose talent can’t just walk away at any point (until say free agency). As such, while you may hesitate to build proper contingency plans early on (as a lack of loyalty to them), you’re really just doing yourself and your employees a disservice by being idealistic and naive. Over the past couple of years, my advisors suggested we reduce headcount to mimic other firms’ who laid off their headcount to offset challenging times – which I resisted. But when you see how some react to that loyalty, it should not make you question your principles, but it has to force you to adapt your tactics to become realistic of these dynamics.
5. Just Do It
I personally tend to explain decisions in macro & micro context, drilling down why. Obviously this is helpful for people to contextualize requests and initiatives, but unless you are bringing on really experienced people to lead change or new initiatives outside of your scope, to some extent, stop wasting your time & energy trying to explain context to people: eventually, you just need the soldiers to point and shoot. If they do the small things well, then you can consider entrusting their judgment more.
6. Cart Ahead of Horse
Don’t reward individuals to encourage/motivate, reward for results. This seemed very crass to me early on, but as organizations evolve from relationship-based organisms to performance based groups, this is the only way to ensure the right talent stays at a company & is promoted. Otherwise, your company becomes a high school clique.
7. This isn’t kindergarten
In media in particular, there aren’t any obvious right or wrong decisions: you green light concepts and hope they turn into great stories. It’s noble to want to let everyone touch the ball before you shoot, but in reality, this just means art by committee which yields weak programming that you maybe should have cut off at inception.
8. No Job is Sexy
As CEO, you’d think my job tasks were all sexy and glamorous, but in fact, my day is filled with mundane and routine tasks, as well. “Grunt work” involving tedious tasks is par for the course. Technology can play a role in helping in these areas, but…
9. Be Real
No one likes change, and nothing is more changeful than technology. Humans have historically resisted change & disruption, even though the combination of human + machine has always yielded productivity, efficiency to create value. The best leaders understand that ignoring innovation ricochets back in one’s face. You wish that this would be a bottoms-up process, but in reality, waiting for individuals to lead the charge is asinine & naive. Unfortunately, you are responsible for ensuring that your organization does not fall behind.
10. Hire slow, fire fast
I hated this popular adage, but indeed, once you commit to an individual, they are your responsibility. And if said person isn’t top level talent, even if they seek employment elsewhere, they will never really take your org to the next level. Indeed, take the time to find out who you are hiring, what they may or may not be able to do. And without a doubt, if things aren’t working out, you can demonstrate patience, but eventually, put everyone out of their misery and let them go find another opportunity more suited for their skills and tendencies.
The reality is less is more: Alexander the Great never lost a combat, despite being outnumbered. Ultimately, a smaller, more loyal, stronger-willed army that is aligned will beat any larger army of mercenaries who won’t truly fight.
11. Feedback Loops
I used to think that people messed up, they knew it and didn’t need to be reminded about it. But people don’t actually know they are lost at sea. If you only give praise and hesitate to hurt people’s feelings when they err in minor ways, then you create this awkward dynamic when you notify people of major mistakes, which sends them into shock and confusion, feeling blindsided, when you’re just trying to help their development. My new rule is to give people feedback on the spot and then move on. If they cannot take it over small matters, they will not only make larger errors, but then feel a sense of indignation even if you are right to point out their lapses in judgment. This is Pavlovian conditioning 101. Naturally, “how” you say things may be more important than “what” you say, but by the same token, if you sugar coat feedback, people may not have the intelligence and experience to understand your intentions. Be direct, that’s a key trait of the best leaders.
13. Let People Find Out Whether the Grass is Greener on the Other Side
Years ago when I had a meeting at well known company’s HQ, I complimented their lobby and office… My host mentioned in passing that if employees resigned, they would never be welcomed back. This stuck with me, because I personally have never been dogmatic about this – viewing it more as a case by case matter. But with the passage of time, I realize that again, my views may have been naive (granted, it wasn’t merely altruistic, since you don’t want weak performers who can’t find employment elsewhere to stick around simply because they have no choice). While you should be open to welcoming back anyone, it’s not a bad baseline for your employees to
When said and done, none of my foundational principles have changed. But once you get to a place you dreamed of getting to, it’s time to wake up and embrace reality!