How to be as successful as one of the co-founders of LinkedIn

I’ve been lucky to work with some truly amazing leaders and founders throughout my career. One in particular, LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, has stood above the rest in teaching me how to lead teams and create a great product culture. So, though he'll no-doubt hate this (see point No. 4 below), I’ve created a few axioms I've learned from working with Allen and my colleagues that I think can help any aspiring leader be more successful.

1. Dream Big and Act Fearlessly

The cliché is that nobody achieves great things without dreaming big. Yet, there is a shortage of ambitious visions and missions out there, especially among product leaders. And those who dream big often act small because they're so wracked by fear.

I still have the notes from my very first one-on-one meeting with Allen. While LinkedIn had a very clear mission and vision from its start, Allen had a way of describing what he wanted LinkedIn to do in very human, relatable terms: 

“LinkedIn should make every single moment of your career more effective, more fun, more interesting, happier and more successful.”

I remember thinking, "This isn't typically what I hear from a boss in our first meeting about what I'm going to be working on." That’s an ambition that rallies people, provides plenty of room for teams to invent, and something that impacts people’s lives. It builds loyalty. It builds purpose. And Allen has always dreamt big.

Early in my time, we worked together on a new product idea that was going to be a high-risk / high-reward opportunity. It would require a change in the company’s product vision, and a willingness to compete with big, new competitors. Our vision was big, and yet with every potential roadblock along the way, Allen was fearless: “Yep, that’s something we’re just going to have to figure out.” We charged the hill together.

2. Build Must-Have, not Nice-to-Have

It’s easy to get starry eyes for the future and lose sight for what matters. I’m an idea-a-minute kind of guy, which can sometimes be a curse. Allen has an axiom though that helps cut through this quickly whenever we brainstorm: "Is what you’re building a must-have or a nice-to-have?" Must-have services solve real problems or fulfill unmet needs – they build unquestionable loyalty against competitive substitutes. Nice-to-haves are fleeting, and difficult to retain users. You always bias toward must-have, and it’s a question I often ask product managers when we go through product roadmaps together.

3. Anticipate and Invent

Know your customers. Look at the marketplace. Understand your competitors. Learn from global trends and history. And then invent what you think is needed. Customers and competitors are not your blueprint for a roadmap. Divine knowledge from these areas, anticipate where it will go, and construct a path there. Allen understood what was going on with social networks before Facebook existed – he and his co-founders anticipated needs in the professional world, and created a unique path for that market – not one that was a rip-off of the other sites of the time.

4. Be Confident and Humble

I’ve never met anyone as humble as Allen. In spending 5 minutes with him, you would never guess he has been as successful as he has been. And he’s just as humble today, the co-founder of a wildly successful start-up that went public and then was part of a massive acquisition – as he was when he was one of just a handful of people starting out. (He even found time to have a great conversation about education when my mother, a teacher, visited LinkedIn). That humility helps prevent blind spots in the market and competition, and drives him to continue to build an even better service for members, despite the success. The confidence combined with that humility builds credibility. The uncanny thing about Allen is that when he talks about users and products, he’s almost always right. But that track record would never come across as ego.

5. Empathy is Essential

Having empathy for your customers and members is essential to understanding and anticipating their needs. Members First has always been a core value for LinkedIn, and that extends to much of the decision-making – is this something that would benefit the members in the long-run? But empathy for your coworkers is just as important as empathy for your customers. Allen always demonstrates this, whether it is always making himself available to provide advice or mentorship, or just to listen and understand the needs of coworkers, and what he can do to help them be more successful.

6. Fight the Good Fight

All these platitudes makes it sound like Allen is the nicest guy in the world. Well, sure, he’s a pretty good guy, but make no doubt, he’s a fighter. He fights like nobody else to keep LinkedIn focused on the vision he believes in for it. He stands up for the customer in strategic meetings. But time after time, he stood up for me and others internally, buffering me from exec flak, or helping fight battles for me to pursue the products and vision we had crafted together. Knowing he always had my back allowed me to build products that were more daring or fearless. I always had tremendous respect for him for all that he did for me and countless others to fight for what we believed in.

7. Be Good

Allen is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. He’s incredibly authentic, value-driven and always wants to do the right thing. He sets a pretty high bar for everyone around him. That’s inspiring for people who want to do great things in their career. That kind of leadership breeds a company of high achievement and energy, of loyalty and of commitment that bridges through difficult times. And really, it boils down to something pretty basic and universal: Nobody wants to work for assholes (see countless articles in business press today about the companies being led by them and the disastrous unsustainable cultures that are resulting).

I can’t say that I’m always able to model everything I’ve observed in Allen Blue’s form of leadership – he set a really high bar. But I’m always mindful of it – it’s easy to reflect upon my time at LinkedIn and know that often some of my most fulfilling moments have been influenced by working with him. 

LinkedIn has a uniquely powerful culture that attracts great potential employees who are surprised when they arrive and realize the cultural values aren’t just words – they’re embodied in action.

This marks the end of my time at LinkedIn, and I've found myself getting nostalgic in advance as I think about what I'm leaving in whole. I’m exploring a new opportunity with a team of equally talented people where I hope to embrace and extend Allen’s leadership and the experience I’ve had with all of my coworkers for more than five years. If I’m lucky, I’ll experience a fraction of Allen’s success, but no matter what, I’m already enriched by the experience of working with him.