First and foremost, I’d like to thank everyone who took advantage of our Lighthouse Lessons course close-out deals the last two weeks. I’m honored to help more of you grow your leadership skills one last time.
With spring not that far away, and reviews starting to move to the rear view mirror, it’s a great time to reflect on your skills as a coach, which is a theme of all the sections this week.
With that in mind, let’s get into this week's leadership content…
Table of contents:
- 🥘 Food for Thought on Torturing People into Greatness
- 📰 News & Reports for Managers on When 6 Weeks Beats 2 years
- 📚 Book of the Month on a Great Story in Tight Quarters
- ❓ Poll of the Week on Praise and Review Habits
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🥘 Food for Thought on Torturing People to Greatness
Jensen Huang has been an interesting CEO to study. With humble beginnings as a janitor, to now grow to being the CEO of one of the biggest, most influential companies on the planet, he’s come a long way.
We’ve also covered him a few times on the blog, most notably digging into why he does not believe in 1 on 1s, and how he is willing to do any job.
Now, this week we look at another one of his counter-intuitive comments. This time, he talks about how he avoids firing people:
And I love his mindset, which resonates a lot with what we talk about regularly:
“I’d rather improve you than give up on you.
…When you fire somebody you're kind of saying, “…it wasn't your fault, or I made the wrong choice."
…I used to clean bathrooms and now I'm the CEO of a company. I think you can learn it. I'm pretty certain you can learn this. And there are a lot of things in life that I believe you can learn and you just have to be given the opportunity to learn it.
I had the benefit of watching a lot of smart people do a lot of things. I'm surrounded by 60 people. They're doing smart things. All the time. And they probably don't realize it, but I'm learning constantly from every single one of them.
And so I don't like giving up on people, because I think they could improve. And so it's kind of tongue-in-cheek, but people know that I’d rather torture them into greatness.
…I think coaches that really believe in their team, torture them into greatness. And oftentimes they're so close, don't give up.
…Could you imagine you gave up at just that moment right before you got it?
So I don't want you to give up on that. So I'll just keep torturing you.”
There’s so much to love in this interview of Jensen:
- Embracing a growth mindset: Anyone can learn anything. If he can go from janitor to CEO, you can master any job.
- Learning from everyone around you: What a wonderful mindset, and a great way to learn. As Dale Carnegie quotes in his book, “Every [person] I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn."
- Coaching begins with belief: If you don’t think someone can improve, they’ll feel it in everything you say. It’s why so many Performance Improvement Plans are dead the day they’re written; everyone knows it’s a formality.
True learning requires coaching.
While in the end it’s on each of us to own our growth and development, having a great coach is how you advance much faster and stick out tough situations.
As a manager, it’s your job to be the coach that brings out the greatness in your team.
We all hit home runs sometimes; the person is self-motivated, knows how to learn on their own, and is enthusiastic about their work.
Yet, that’s not what makes you a good coach or leader.
No, what really separates the best leaders from the rest is embracing Jensen’s message of doing whatever it takes to bring out everyone’s best (aka - “Torture them into greatness”).
Isn’t this A LOT of work? Isn’t it easier to fire them?
If you’ve worked in tech for long, you’ve probably heard the old adage “Hire slow, fire fast.” At the first sight that someone isn’t working out, the common advice is to let them go.
And sometimes, that may be the right move. Yet, there are some very good reasons you should try “torturing them into greatness” instead:
- Make your hiring mistake a great victory: If you want to learn to love being a leader, there are few things as rewarding as seeing someone go from struggling to thriving. It’s the workplace equivalent of watching a child finally learn how to ride their bike without training wheels.
- Show faith and trust in your team: You know what scares people? Seeing team members fired left and right. It makes them hesitate and look over their shoulder. If you instead help those people turn around, the rest of your team can work with confidence, not fear.
- Save time from interviewing: If dollars and cents matter most to you, then consider the costs. By the time you give someone a severance package, hand off their work, and then run a complete hiring process…how much money and time have you wasted? Try putting a fraction of that into coaching them first.
Now, not everyone can be saved. Some people are checked out, the wrong fit for a role, or a total jerk. But a lot more people can be saved than you think if you try.
And if you’re not sure how to “torture them into greatness” start by following our battle-tested, proven process for turning around underperformers here.
📰 News & Reports for Managers
AI accomplishes more in 6 weeks of tutoring than 2 years of typical learning.
Ethan Mollick is a professor at UPenn Wharton who frequently shares interesting AI research in both the workplace and at schools.
The finding he shared recently is fascinating on its own, but also has important consequences for the workplace:
So first, let’s look at and understand the two charts:
1) Test scores were demonstrably better for those using AI tutoring
You can see the clear difference in scores between the control group and those having the AI tutor. That blue area is all gains.
2) More time with AI led to better and better results.
The study notes that the more days the students attended the AI tutoring, the better they scored. (Unfortunately, in Nigeria, school attendance can be difficult due to flooding and other factors)
The study’s authors note that this creates optimism for the idea that more time with AI could lead to even greater results.
What’s the catch? Teachers matter.
As Mollick tried hard to explain later in his thread of tweets, the design of this study is really important to note. They didn’t just set the students loose and let them use Microsoft CoPilot unsupervised.
Instead, they had teachers who helped show them how to use the AI.
Why this matters to you at work: Coaching Your Team!
The way we learn is changing. And it doesn’t stop when you finish school.
AI plays a huge role in how we learn new skills and gain knowledge at work, too.
And the teachers of the workplace are YOU. Managers must be coaches.
So as you try out AI, or see people on your team have success with them, take a step back and think about how you can teach the rest of your team.
There are many ways you can do this:
- Side by side, show and tell: One of the best ways to learn is simply sitting next to someone while they explain how they do something. Even better is when that same person guides you through some of your bumpy first attempts.
- Group presentations: If someone (or a small part of your team) has some awesome methods of using AI, give them time to present what they do so your whole group can see.
- Paired mentoring: When you truly love doing something, it’s a thrill to share it with others. Tap into that by pairing up those who need help with those who can coach and teach how they use AI each day.
- Lunch and learn guests: Sometimes the expertise isn’t on your team. Whether they’re on another team, department, or just a friend from another company, bring them in to show your team how it’s done.
- Default to sharing: If you learn something cool, build a culture that you show it off. Make a Loom, post in Slack/Teams, make a quick email explaining your process, or simply share the prompt so they can try it. What this approach lacks in quality can be made up for in the value of it being bite-sized and high quantity.
The point with this list is that you can be a coach in many different ways.
The key is to embrace the mindset and realize that a tidal wave is coming with AI. You can either learn to surf and thrive, or watch as others fly past you, and you get crushed.
Do you want to be the leader whose team grows more in 6 weeks than others do in 2 years, or the one crushed by others experiencing that growth and moving faster?
📚 Book of the Month on a Great Story in Tight Quarters
Are you tired of business books that follow the same old formula of Rule → Case Study/Example, Rule → Case Study/Example, Rule→ Case Study/Example?
Do you enjoy a good, true story, especially when it involves underdogs winning?
If you said yes and yes, then this month’s Book of the Month is for you.
Turn the Ship Around! By L. David Marquet
Imagine taking over the lowest performing submarine in the fleet, while being asked to challenge convention in the most rigid of places (the US Navy).
This book covers the tactics Retired Captain L. David Marquet used and that applies well beyond the military because as it turns out, a submarine is still just a collection of people on a team. They have the same challenges, frustrations, and culture issues as other types of teams.
Best of all, it’s in diary form, so you can follow the journey as he slowly, successfully changes the culture.
It wasn’t easy, and it took patience and a lot of effort, but the results are all the more satisfying (and believable!) as you see him go from near revolt by his crew to becoming one of the best ships in the Navy.
If you’re looking for a good book to read that is the perfect blend of storytelling and leadership lessons, definitely go pick up a copy.
→ Read Turn the Ship Around! now here.
❓ Poll of the Week
Last week, we asked you about an important habit: Recognition.
I was a bit surprised by the results:
Now, I love publicly praising team members and calling out good work as much as the next leader, but I wouldn’t call it my favorite.
No. By far, my favorite one is to give rewards and gifts, as you may know from the classic story I share regularly.
Nothing puts a bigger smile on people’s faces than a thoughtful gift, and it has no bigger impact than when you tie it to something great they did that you want them to keep doing (or do more of). It builds loyalty and effort like nothing else.
But really, any praise and positivity is a good thing for leaders to practice, so take the approach that resonates most with your team and that you enjoy the most. Because your attitude is infectious, especially when it comes to being positive and genuinely recognizing others for good work.
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Now, this week, we look at a task many of you are doing right now: Performance Reviews.
How big a lift is it for you to complete each of your reviews for a team member? Weigh in and see what others said by taking the LinkedIn poll here.
