lessons in leadership | danoshinsky.com

05/15/201805/11/2019

Invest In Your People.

When someone finds out that I used to work at BuzzFeed, they usually end up asking me: What made that place so special?

I typically give them the short answer: BuzzFeed did an exceptional job of hiring people — people who were funny, smart, hard-working, and unusually curious. When you hire amazing people, and give them the freedom to do great work, you get a place like BuzzFeed.

But there’s a second thing that BuzzFeed did incredibly well, and I don’t mention it often enough: BuzzFeed invested in its people.

At BuzzFeed, there was a Learning & Development team that helped power everything we did. (A big shoutout to Regis, Annie, Michelle, Kris, and everyone else who did such great work on L&D!) Most BuzzFeed staffers were young — in their early-to-mid 20s — which meant that our staff was talented but inexperienced.

That’s where the L&D team came in. They put together classes and learning opportunities for everything. There were classes to help new managers learn how to manage a team, and classes to teach them how to hire someone new. There were classes for employees to learn how to communicate more clearly. There were classes to help with the little details — how to come up with story ideas, or how do more with Google Sheets — and the big picture stuff — how to be persuasive, how to give a great presentation. The L&D team would bring in coaches to work one-on-one with staffers, or invite college professors to speak about their areas of expertise.

What it meant was that BuzzFeed built a culture of learning. You were expected to learn new things, to push yourself, and to take advantage of these opportunities — that was part of your job. It was OK to not have all the answers, because there were always new opportunities to keep learning.

By investing in these L&D opportunities, BuzzFeed sent a pretty clear signal to its employees: We care about you and your growth, and as long as you’re here, we’re going to give you opportunities to grow into new roles. There’s a reason why so many of my co-workers stayed years at the company — even in a climate where many in media seem to switch jobs every year.

If you’re in a leadership role at a company, you should be asking: Does my team have the tools to do their jobs well? Are they learning and growing in their roles? Are we challenging them?

You may discover that you’re not doing that well enough — or at all.

Go out and invest in your people. Get them the coaching and the learning opportunities they need to grow. In turn, it might help you build a truly amazing team.

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That stock photo at the top comes via Unsplash.

01/31/201804/14/2018

Make The Hockey Assist.

Here’s something I love about team sports: Credit’s given not just to the person who scores, but also the players who set up the score. In basketball, an assist is only given to the player who makes the pass that leads to a basket. But in hockey, there’s also a secondary assist, given to the player who makes the pass that leads to the pass that leads to the goal.

Here’s what it looks like in action, as illustrated by my Washington Capitals:

The whole play is set up by #19, Nick Backstrom. He draws two defenders to the center of the ice, then makes the pass to #8, Alex Ovechkin. But because Backstrom’s already drawn the defense in, the goalie and defense have to be extra aggressive in defending against a shot from Ovechkin. Instead, Ovi surprises everyone by passing back to the middle of the ice, where #2, Matt Niskanen has a tap-in at the empty net.

It’s a beautiful goal — but none of it is possible without the play from Backstrom. The pass that led to the pass set up an easy goal.

I love the hockey assist. It’s a reminder that the big play often isn’t possible without a lot work first to set things up.

When you’re a manager, a lot of your job is making hockey assists, and trying to set up the conditions for success. That might mean getting your team the resources — technology, money, additional team members — do to work. It might mean setting the goals or giving your team the training so that they can do their work. It might mean figuring out a way to divvy up tasks so that your team can focus on doing something big.

You might not get the credit for your team’s win, but that’s OK. Being a manager isn’t about getting credit — it’s about putting your team in position to do its best work.

So make the hockey assist — and set your team up for success.

05/08/201705/08/2017

Set Learning Goals For Yourself.

There are a lot of things you can’t control at your job. In fact, the longer you stay at a job, the more you realize that many — if not most! — of the things that happen at work are outside your control. Successes are a group effort, and so are failures. I’m not here today to talk much about that.

What I do want to discuss are the things you can control. They’re smaller things, but they really matter:

You can control your work ethic: how hard you work, how smart you work, and with whom you work.

You can control your attitude: the energy and enthusiasm you bring to your work.

You can control the way you communicate: the way you talk to your co-workers, follow up on projects, and collaborate on your work.

There’s one more thing that you can definitely control: The amount you learn every year.

I just finished J. Keith Murnighan’s “Do Nothing!”, a book about learning how to adjust to a new leadership role. And in it, he makes a powerful case for setting learning goals for yourself and your team.

The idea is simple: As you advance in a job, you need to keep improving your skill set, your habits, and your knowledge, too. If you’re not learning more, you’re going to eventually hit the upper limits of your abilities — and peter out at your company.

So what’s the way to fight that? Keep learning. If your company has a learning & development team, take advantage of their classes! If not, talk to your manager about having the company pay for outside classes — something online, something at a local university, or something hosted by a professional organization in your field.

And if that’s not a possibility: You can always commit to two things that don’t cost a dime: 1) Reading more books, blogs, and articles, and 2) Networking with people in your field and asking great questions. Learning doesn’t have to come through classes.

This is the first year my team has set specific learning goals. We’re committing to learning new skills — how to get more out of Google Sheets, how to grow in managerial positions, how to communicate more effectively. And by making learning a bigger part of each job, I hope we’ll be able to grow that much stronger as a team.

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I love that ad at the top. It’s called “Vintage Ad #950: You’ll Have to Move Fast to Get Smart” by Jamie, and it’s licensed under CC BY 2.0.

04/13/201704/13/2017

Just Tell Me What’s Going On.

Here’s something I’ve discovered about managing a team that I learned at — of all places — the airport:

We’ve all been on a flight that gets delayed. Maybe you’re at the gate, still waiting to board. Or you’re on the plane already, and there’s going to be a delay. I’ve discovered there are two types of airline crews in that situation:

1) The Crew That’s Vague About What’s Happening — They tell you, “It’ll just be a minute” or “We’re just waiting on one thing, it shouldn’t be that long” — even if that’s not really the case.

2) The Crew That’s Overly Transparent — They tell you exactly what’s happening (sometimes in great detail, even if most of the passengers don’t understand the airport-speak) and how long it’s going to take before you get moving.

And 100 times out of 100, I’d prefer the second crew.

Why?

At an airport, transparency means one thing: Knowing what shit is about to hit the fan before it hits.

It means that if there’s going to be a delay due to weather or mechanical failure, you want to know what’s happening and how it’s going to affect your plans. With the second type of crew, you’re informed: You know that you’re going to be stuck on the tarmac for an extra 20 minutes because the pilot said, “We’ve gotten moved to 15th for departure, so it’s going to be a 20-minute wait,” and then he checked back 15 minutes later to say, “We’re 5 minutes away, sorry for the delay!” I’ve been on that flight before — even though they’re upset about the delay, passengers usually seem pretty calm when they know everything that’s going on.

I’ve also been on a flight where the crew is way too vague — and I’ve seen how panicked and frustrated passengers can get when they feel like they’re not being told the whole story.

Here’s what it means for a leadership role: In most cases, if you can be overly transparent, you should be. Just by saying, “This is something that might be hard to hear, but I’m going to share it with you anyway because you should hear it from me first”, you’re accomplishing two goals: You’re building trust with your team, you’re making sure your team isn’t surprised by bad news.

Don’t let shit hit the fan first. Get out in front of it — even if it’s an uncomfortable conversation. When everyone has all the information they need, it’s much easier for all parties to talk about what happens next.

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That photo,“#sunrise #tampa #airport”, by Mighty Travels is licensed under CC BY 2.0.