I read a lot of books on leadership, management and business in general. Trillion Dollar Coach was fantastic and has earned a spot on my top 10 list. I read a lot of books on leadership, management and business in general. Trillion Dollar Coach was fantastic and has earned a spot on my top 10 list.
I was particularly excited to read Trillion Dollar Coach because I've always had tremendous admiration for Bill Campbell and the amazing relationships and accomplishments he had in forming much of the interactive age of Silicon Valley. In fact, I don’t know that there is anyone who comes close to being so involved and connected with so many of the pioneers and leaders of the tech industry.
This was a very easy (and fun) read peppered with fascinating stories and insights on many of tech’s most famous builders and leaders. In addition, there were many clear-cut and actionable takeaways as well. Here’s a few that stood out for me:
• Bill’s Framework for 1:1s One on one meetings are a big part of my week and this check list added some perspective and thought provoking suggestions on how I can make mine better. I've implemented this framework moving forward.
• Managing the “Aberrant Genius” One of the toughest management challenges, I could have used these tips many times in the past. It’s definitely going to come in handy moving forward!
• Working with and leading engineers for the non-engineer manager I love the fact that Bill came from a non tech sales and marketing background and made such a major impact with very technical people. There’s a lot of advice and thoughts on how to be effective here which definitely resonated with me.
• People who are going to be let go should not be surprised. I loved this. It was perhaps my favorite part of the book as it validated something I have always believed and try very hard to always practice. People should never be surprised if they are laid off or fired. It's how to best handle RIF’s and other separations with dignity. It was very validating to learn that the late great Bill Campbell had the same philosophy as me in this area.
• Stay relentlessly positive but direct And at the same time remain focused, honest, transparent and, as noted, direct. Be the coach that tells their team “what they don’t want to hear and to see what they don’t want to see so they can know what they can be”.
Bill Campbell was a true business legend and this is a special book that allows one to go behind the scenes and benefit from the perspective and advice he bestowed on so many other legends in the making. People like Bezos, Schmidt, Page, Sandberg, Mayer, Horowitz, Brin and many more.
Finally, very special thanks to HarperCollins / Harper Business for providing me with this Advance Reading Copy of the book!...more
Nobody cares. Freaky Friday. Painting by the numbers. And fuck* Ernst & Young before they fuck* you.
Those are a few of my top takeaways from this pheNobody cares. Freaky Friday. Painting by the numbers. And fuck* Ernst & Young before they fuck* you.
Those are a few of my top takeaways from this phenomenal book that I have been long overdue on reading.
Oh yeah, it’s a struggle. Boy was it ever. The Hard Thing About Hard Things certainly took me back to the insanely hard times of 2001-2002 during the first Internet bubble burst. Horowitz does a terrific job of explaining just how stupid and bad that time period was for Internet tech at the turn of the century. And I do admire his creativity and boldness on pushing through to survive.
I really appreciate that right up front he states there is no “how to” recipe on dealing with complicated and dynamic problems. That’s so true. Not everything can be plugged into a spreadsheet and it is great to see someone with Horowitz successful track record and gravitas validate this truth. On this topic is this noteworthy passage:
“Some things that you want to encourage will be quantifiable, and some will not. If you report on the quantitative goals and ignore the qualitative ones, you won’t get the qualitative goals, which may be the most important ones. Management purely by numbers is sort of like painting by numbers—it’s strictly for amateurs.”
Horowitz is honest that is for sure. Even when he stereotypes people and positions like this….”sales leaders are usually tall”. Then he goes on to share how a “short guy built like a box” was the best sales leader he ever worked with. I appreciated the straight talk and lack of political correctness throughout the book.
One aspect of the book that did not resonate with me is how casual Horowitz is with disposing of people. He speaks in clinical terms of changing out employees once they are no longer useful to the immediate need of the company. It makes people and positions sound like the equivalent of an oil filter in a car. Valuable and necessary at the time – easily disposed of and replaced when needed without a second thought.
I suppose he is trying to make a point of a way to deal with the “hard” decisions around people is not to allow any emotional attachment. That’s not realistic for most and I don’t believe it is right either.
On the flip side, he has great insights on hiring and managing offering thought provoking approaches, strategy and tactics derived from real world experience. I particularly appreciated his insights on hiring the right people for the stage of a company. He notes multiple times that very often-large company executives utterly fail in smaller settings and vice versa. Also, I agreed with his position to hire for the “now” and not worry about if the person can grow into the role in the future. As he states, there probably will not be a future if you don’t have the right people now. Again, I believe that people can grow with the company, although he is not as optimistic and seems to prefer the “oil filter” method. Further more "hire for strengths vs. weakness" is another excellent piece of advice.
If you’ve read this far I’d suggest you read another perspective on the book by Arjun Narayan who rated it just 3 stars. He makes some valid points worth noting.
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