Management For Startups Podcast

Why is it that certain people can't seem to get better at management? Why are there so many bad managers out there? A year or so ago, I came across the first plausible explanation for this observation, from Ben Horowitz, a VC with Andreesen Horowitz. We take a look at why this framework seems plausible, and how to use it when it comes to evaluating management skills — be it yours or others.

Many of us are stuck working from home this week, as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe. This week's episode is about managing your team from this position — especially if you're not used to working remotely. What should you do? What should you watch out for? We talk about three things to handle this transition.

In my previous episode about my new book, Keep Your People, I mentioned that 'mission is an overrated tool for employee retention'. This was a throwaway comment that I realise should properly be explained. This episode, I spend some time unpacking the assumptions and arguments in that single sentence.

Giving good instructions is difficult! This week, we look at 'executive intent', an adaptation of 'Commander's Intent', a technique that was developed by the US Army for better, clearer instructions. The two books referenced during the episode: - Sources of Power - Power of Intuition

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos popularised the idea of 'disagree and commit' in his 2016 shareholder's letter. It's a fascinating idea, but it isn't the most common form of 'disagree and commit' that you'd experience as a middle manager. No, the most common scenario is one where you don't agree with your boss, but you're forced to execute his directives anyway. How do you deal with this situation? What should you do if your subordinates don't like what your boss wants to happen? This week, we find out.

This week we deal with the challenge many makers — programmers, designers, hardware engineers — face when they make the leap to management. How do you wake up in the morning to go to work when you no longer get joy from what you do? (Inspired from this HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485559).

One of the implications of the manager's job of 'increasing the output of the team' is to serve as the 'shit shield' for said team. This means protecting them from the natural randomness of events in your organisation, especially when it doesn't affect them directly. But how much to keep from them, and how much to let them know? What rule should we pick, and stick to? This week, we talk a little about how much protection is too much.

We've talked about delegation before on the MFS podcast, but one thing that I've neglected to mention is that it's important to 'explain why' when delegating to subordinates. Explaining 'why' — sometimes called providing context, or communicating executive intent — is important if you want your subordinates to make decisions on your behalf. This podcast is about how to do it, and how to get context for yourself when you're dealing with a boss who doesn't communicate executive intent.

Last week we discussed the dangers of firing too slowly. This week we'll discuss the dangers of the opposite view: that of firing too quickly. In my experience, startup managers who fire too quickly tend to have 'high standards', and they tend to come from performance-oriented organisations. The nature of doing a startup though, work against some of their instincts. We explore exactly how these differences occur, and what to do about them.

The Manager Ugh Field is what you feel when you're facing a difficult situation at work. Your brain throws up a deflector shield to force your attention away from a difficult action, conversation or confrontation at work. Knowing how to deal with the ugh field is what separates the good managers from the bad. This week, we discuss how to deal with the 'ugh' field — and how to turn it from a weakness to a strength.

This week's episode is about a heuristic we used at my old role. Basically: "if you can't train a given subordinate, let them go." This heuristic governed the way we thought about our probation program. I discuss the caveats and implications of this rule.

The Fundamental Attribution Error is a cognitive bias from social psychology — one that affects our interactions with other people, and one that everyone is vulnerable to. This week, we talk about guarding ourselves against the FAE — which turns out to be the same as guarding oneself against premature judgment of other people.