Lessons in leadership | Scaling an org, developing yourself, and tactical management advice | Jack Altman (Lattice)
Jack Altman is the co-founder and CEO of Lattice, a people success platform for building engaged, high-performing teams. Lattice has raised over $330M, and was last valued at $3B. He is an expert in building company culture, and wrote a book on the topic, titled: “People Strategy”. In today's episode, we discuss: The importance of self-awareness and how to develop it The value of difficult conversations and advice for having them Common mistakes when scaling a company How to approach firing decisions and the associated internal optics How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees How to get drastically more out of your team members Adapting to the challenging new economic environment Referenced: Jack’s book: https://www.amazon.com/People-Strategy-Culture-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1119717043 Jack’s company, Lattice: https://lattice.com/ First Round Capital's Newsletter: https://review.firstround.com/newsletter Where to find Jack Altman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaltma Where to find Brett Berson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ In this episode, we cover: (2:40) Founders must continually grow with their company (7:23) How to identify hiring errors vs management errors (9:46) Managing the tension of delegation vs control (11:51) How to cultivate self-awareness (14:59) The one thing founders should never give up (17:22) How to build a product org (19:06) Hot take on micro-management (21:05) The importance of context setting as CEO (22:09) What founder transparency actually means (23:43) Examples of “context setting” as a leader (26:09) The value of uncomfortable conversations (27:16) How to have uncomfortable conversations (28:30) Founders must own their most difficult decisions (31:48) Optimizing speed vs accuracy in decision-making (33:50) The hidden biases in group discussions (35:05) When Jack experimented with removing himself from all meetings (37:48) The most unusual element of Jack’s leadership approach (38:34) 4 pieces of advice for CEOs (41:20) How to talk to customers (42:59) The many sources of learning for CEOs (46:45) Instructive framework for maximizing employee performance (49:56) When long-time employees don’t scale with the company (55:07) How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees (58:19) Identifying team members that “aren’t a fit” (59:57) Should you tell people why someone was let go? (62:42) Managing in the challenging new economic environment (68:18) Aligning an employee’s career goals with company goals (74:27) You're probably underestimating your team's potential