A message came in that asked for a document only I had. While walking, I found the file on my phone (a 42-page document), attached it to a teams message, and hit send. Please take a moment. That is some Jetson’s level stuff. It’s incredible, and there is a man that, in many ways, made it possible.
Andy Grove, a first-generation immigrant, arrived in the US in his early 20s. In his memoir, he described his early life this way,
By the time I was twenty, I had lived through a Hungarian Fascist dictatorship, German military occupation, the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” the siege of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the years immediately after the war, a variety of repressive Communist regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint.1
Grove would join Intel corporation as the 3rd employee, become the first COO, and eventually CEO. In 1997, Time magazine chose him as Person of the Year, “the person most responsible for the amazing growth in the power and innovative potential of microchips.”
In addition to his work at Intel, he published seven books, including High Output Management - a personal favorite2. Grove is considered the father of the OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) used by many organizations, including mine. High Output Management is chock full of management and leadership wisdom, and I wanted to share a bit with you today. Here are a few of my favorites.
1. How you handle your time is the most important aspect of being a role model and leader.
The only genuinely non-renewable resource we have is time. We can likely make anything else. You have to be aggressive about your time, and it’s hard. It’s hard to say no to people, projects and not be in the room when you have an opinion. This is from Andy,
“To use your calendar as a production-planning tool, you must accept responsibility for two things: 1. You should move toward the active use of your calendar, taking the initiative to fill the holes between the time-critical events with non-time-critical though necessary activities. 2. You should say “no” at the outset to work beyond your capacity to handle.”
Move to active use of your calendar. Use it as a tool. Don’t let it just fill up. Think about what didn’t happen because you were too busy saying yes. Productivity is not being busy. Productivity is creating value.
The most important part about what Andy is saying is that you are a role model. How you spend your time will trickle. You are being watched, and your behaviors become team culture.
Andy also says, “Strategy starts with your calendar.” Think about how you can apply that to your life. Best case, you only have 4,000 weeks. Choose wisely.
2. The task of a manager is to elicit peak performance from his subordinates. A manager has two ways to tackle the issue: through training and motivation.
Teams exist to do what individuals cannot. Most of what happens in the world occurs through the work of teams. Even those that seem like individual contributors to society, I think about artists, have teams. The leader’s job is to maximize team performance.
I challenge Andy’s use of motivation here as I’m not sure it’s possible to motivate someone. It is possible to remind someone what motivates them, whether money, ideology, compensation, or ego (MICE).
People can be inspired to be a part of something bigger than themselves or be more than they thought they could be. That’s where leaders come in. Sprinkle their days with inspiration, and you will see the flywheel of performance pick up speed.
3. Training is one of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform.
Leaders should find the activities that provide the most leverage. Training is usually top of that list. Don’t delegate it. Don’t outsource it. Do it yourself. Face to face, I care about you, and we are in it together, training.
Be clear on what excellence looks like. And don’t ever forget that before you can hold someone accountable, you owe them clear expectations. Deliver that through world-class training.
4. A manager’s output = the output of their organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under their influence.
Yes, your job is to maximize team performance. Here’s the kicker of what Andy is saying. You are also responsible for the output of neighboring teams. Silos of excellence will kill an organization.
When leaders embrace that they are also responsible for the adjacent performance, silos get torn down.
5. You need to plan the way a fire department plans. It cannot anticipate where the next fire will be, so it has to shape an energetic and efficient team that is capable of responding to the unanticipated as well as to any ordinary event.
Teams get frustrated when their work is interrupted by fire drills created by the customer, the market, or meddling managers. Fire drills are part of your job, and you should plan accordingly.
To not prepare for the inevitable is a dereliction of duty.
6. Decision-making is not a spectator sport, because onlookers get in the way of what needs to be done.
Andy goes on, “Remember that a meeting called to make a specific decision is hard to keep moving if more than six or seven people attend. Eight people should be the absolute cutoff.”
The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is real. If you are leading, cut down on the attendees. If you are trying to attend, ask yourself if you need to attend to help or if you are attending because of your ego or insecurity. Again, think about your time and its best use.
I was recently introduced to the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO). There is some joy in letting go and spending time on what you are uniquely qualified to do for the team. Let it go. You don’t have to be in the room.
7. The key to survival is to learn to add more value
Humility allows us to realize everyone is our teacher. We are in a cycle of living and learning to get better. Whether you are an individual contributor, a leader, or an organization, you are compensated to add value. Stop adding value, or worse yet, remove value, and you don’t survive. It’s that simple.
If you want to thrive, keep learning, changing, and adding value to the lives of others.
Let’s get it, friend.
NEXT:
Grove, Andrew S. Swimming Across (p. 1). Plunkett Lake Press.
Grove, A. S. High Output Management. Souvenir Press, 1983.
7 Lessons From An Immigrant Who Has Shaped Your Life