• Leader’s role as an editor, not a writer. Red pen - cut things out, simplify. Only focus on 2-4 things that really matter. Goal over time is to use less red ink.
• Delegate - hard to walk between abdicating and micro-managing. Task-relevant maturity - give people more leeway when they have done the task before. Management style needs to be dictated by employee in a task rather than by your own ‘style’. Alternatively, think about 2x2 of consequence and conviction - step in at high-consequence, high-conviction; and explain why.
• Most companies expect that hiring more engineers will improve throughput, but it doesn’t. Most people are ‘ammunition’, but you need more people who are ‘barrels’. A barrel can take an idea through conception to shipping. You want to expand scope of responsibilities gradually until you see where it breaks.
• Insist on focus. Thiel - each person should do only one thing. Everyone rebelled. Focus until you conquer a problem - otherwise people will solve the B+ problems they understand how to solve, rather than the A+ ones they don’t. Metrics and transparency, via a dashboard, that defines business success. Do employees actually use this dashboard?