Work rules!

by Laszlo Bock

9/10

Key Ideas:

To be a good manager: be a good coach, don’t micromanage, care about team, focus on priorities and results, communicate, have a vision, have the technical skills.
When it comes to hiring, the crowd is smarter than any individual. Onboarding is key.
Pay unfairly: two people doing the same work can have a hundred times difference in their impact, and in their rewards.

Other interesting notes:

Choose to think of yourself as a founder, then act like one.
Take power from your managers and trust your people to run things.
The most talented and creative people cannot be forced to work.
Improve performance by focusing on personal growth instead of ratings and rewards
Anything we are doing, we can do better.
Learning institution: Have your best people teach.
Engage in deliberate practice. Lessons in small digestible pieces with clear feedback
It’s not all rainbows and unicorns: be transparent, apologise, fix mistakes, teach.
Google’s greatest constraint on growth has always been their ability to find great people – people that can solve today’s problems and unknown problems in the future.

Being a good manager:

  • Be a good coach and give actionable feedback that helps improve performance
  • Empower the team and do not micromanage
  • Show consideration and express interest for team members’ success and personal well-being
  • Be very productive/results-oriented – keep the team focused on priorities
  • Be a good communicator. Listen and regularly share information from senior leadership
  • Help the team with career development. Have meaningful discussions about career development every six months
  • Have a clear vision/strategy for the team and communicate clear goals to the team
  • Have important technical skills that help advise the team

Employee onboarding:

  • Have a role-and-responsibilities discussion
  • Match your new joiner with a peer buddy
  • Help your new joiner build a social network
  • Set up onboarding check-ins once a month for their first six months
  • Encourage open dialogue

Thoughts on the book:

Very helpful if you manage people.

Longer summary/notes: JS, GL, GL2

If you like this, you’ll probably like: It doesn’t have to be crazy at work, high output management, Linchpin, Coaching habit, books