Jonathan Rosenberg is Senior VP Products bij Google. Een paar jaar geleden vroeg zijn alma mater hem om een ‘keynote address’ te geven, waarin hij, blauw als hij is, zijn visie op succesvol leiderschap geeft. Het spookte al een tijdje in mijn hoofd om zijn ‘rulebook’ eens in een presentatie te gooien, en na lang zoeken naar de juiste beelden is die slide deck nu eindelijk tussen alle andere opdrachten door afgeraakt.

Enkele voorbeelden uit zijn keynote:

  1. When you think you have communicated something too much, you are probably just beginning to get through
  2. We strived to empower everyone equally from an information standpoint. In the internet age, power comes from sharing information not hoarding it
  3. A leader’s words should always be thoughtful and precise: everything you say will be interpreted. Be crips and direct and choose each word wisely.
  4. Narrative is how we learn. If you want to be a leader, you will teach and tell stories.
  5. Urgency of a role isn’t sufficiently important to compromise quality in hiring.
  6. People with different background see the world a little differently. That’s invaluable.
  7. Instead of laying off the bottom 10%, don’t hire them.
  8. You shouldn’t tell people they are doing a great job, if they are not.
  9.  Goals drive behavior and conflict. Make sure you have the goals right. If they are creating conflict, change them.
  10. There are people who are great at strategy and there are those who are great at tactics. That’s why we have teams.
  11. Trust but verify (Russian proverb). The primary job of a leader is judgement and communication.
  12. Spend 80% of your time on 80% of your revenue. It’s obvious, but hard to do, because that other 20% will end up taking up an inordinate amount of time.
  13. …