The Hagakure #61: Sunday Round-Up
Improving performance, hiring better, and scaling yourself.
Oh, hey there. 👋
Long time no see. How have you been? And if you’re new here, welcome! I’m grateful to have your attention. 🙂
A few months ago, I wrote that I wasn’t sure there were going to be new posts here but “if there are, it’s because I truly had something I couldn’t help but say.”
I find myself again with some things to say.
I have been using LinkedIn regularly as a way to express them for a couple of reasons:
I’m working on making my writing and thinking more concise.
I loved learning recently about how LinkedIn drives their long-term mission through the algorithm itself, and how it aligns with my own mission of being helpful to those I can help.
So, the plan for now has been to post there daily something you can read in a couple of minutes of your time.
Yesterday, however, a friend suggested I use this newsletter as a sort of digest for those posts—he gets my newsletter but he doesn’t spend time on LinkedIn, and said he’s been missing my content. (Thanks, André 🙏)
There’s probably a significant enough group of my subscribers in the same category (Substack, !LinkedIn) so I thought, what the hell—why not experiment?1
What follows is my top 3 posts from last week. If you enjoy them, I’d be super grateful if you hit the ❤️ button here to signal this format is a good idea, and that I should I keep doing it. Or just let me know in the comments what could make it more useful to you. 📝
The journey is on.
Most managers are lost when it comes to improving the performance of their direct reports.
The easy explanation is that they’re either not good enough, or they don’t care enough. Sorry to say, but that’s lazy and if that’s you—you’re not doing your job.
Here’s the 20% that gets you 80% of the way there…
First and foremost:
Make yourself lead from a clean energy place of trust, belief, and compassion. It’ll show. Humbly question your own beliefs about the person, and give them the benefit of the doubt. You’d like the same in return.
Then:
1️⃣ 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱).
Engage in 1:1 conversation where you ask your direct to play back their own understanding of everything that needs to be clear. Too often we think we’re clear but we’re absolutely not.
2️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀.
Someone who’s afraid of screwing up will *never* perform. When the amygdala in our brain is activated, even with low-grade constant stress, the prefrontal cortex is dimmed. It’s like working drunk.
3️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀).
Avoid falling into the advice trap in your well-intentioned urgency to help. Ask questions that help the other person make their own connections, and come to their own ‘aha’ moments. That’s how learning (magic) happens, and performance improves.
Invest in these for a few weeks and you might be surprised by what unfolds.
Now that hiring is slowly becoming fashionable again… are we going to do a better job at it this time around?
If you’re on a tight budget (as you probably are), you have no choice but to be a lot more effective.
Here's the 80/20 that made a gigantic difference for me hiring in the past:
1️⃣ 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁
Hiring is not a problem to be solved. It’s a golden opportunity to build a phenomenal team. It must be designed. Dedicate the time, attention, and care required to build a hiring *system* that consistently produces great hires. That means design, measurement, and continuous iteration.
2️⃣ 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽
The very best results I had were always in close partnership with Talent Acquisition people who loved recruiting. If you don’t have them in-house, or you’re competing for their bandwidth, make a solid case for engaging with an external party that works in an embedded model. the rec hub. are best in class in this and have been great partners to me in the past.
3️⃣ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆
Be unapologetically and fearlessly authentic when interviewing candidates. Tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly. The right people want to solve problems, not go where everything is amazing. Anything less makes a bad marriage much more likely. The wrong hire has the potential to rot everything good you already have.
4️⃣ 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀
The values of a company are almost completely dictated by the values of its top leadership. Whatever they are, own up to them and be straight up with the candidate. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. It’s disrespectful, dishonest, and that’s a movie never ends well.
5️⃣ 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
Hire learning machines, instead of obsessing about those who have “done it before.” Past experience can be helpful, but it backfires a lot—habits and arrogance prevent many people from adapting to a new reality. Plus, with all due respect, if you’re a “nobody startup” without the name recognition, why would you close yourself off to a gigantic swath of talent that is out there?
Scaling yourself is having high confidence that everyone else will make high quality decisions, frequently.
Not the decisions YOU would make, necessarily. But high quality, highly aligned decisions.
How? These four things can help:
1️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗼 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
You just don’t, because it’s a complex adaptive system. You have an “illusion of control” which helps you sleep at night (helpful), but it’s an illusion nonetheless (and that's OK). Chaos, however, does not necessarily follow from lack of control.
2️⃣ 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆.
Especially with your directs, communicate not only the output (the decision itself) but also the process (the thinking behind it). It helps disseminate it and also creates the opportunity for you to get feedback and improve your thinking, not just that one particular decision.
3️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹, 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲.
Remember: absolute freedom is paralyzing. Principles prune the available options from the get-go, and prevent good people from going down bad rabbit holes, wasting time, energy, and money.
4️⃣ 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲: “𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲, 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻?”
You’ll be amazed by what you’ll learn.
At the end of the day, I always go back to the wisdom of former Sun Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy:
"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 '𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯' 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵."
What's your own top tip for increasing the quality of decisions in your org?
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Until next week, have a good one! 🙏
It’s a safe-to-fail experiment, anyway.