This is opposed to being a writer, the creator of stuff, which is how most entrepreurs start.An editor has a different set of tasks:<ul><li>Eliminate & Simplify: Distil any initiative in something that can be repeated. Use simple frameworks.</li><li>Clarify: ask questions & squash elements of ambiguity.</li><li>Allocate resources: Who does what.</li><li>Ensure Consistent Voice: make sure the company speaks the same language.</li></ul>

Managing = Editing

One strategy, employed by companies like Paypal, is to only promote from within:<ul><li>The design lead is the best designer</li><li>The dev lead is the best developer</li></ul>This creates a performance based culture. The core assumption is that management can be thought. The best way to turn a high performer is through a mentor, which does not have to be the boss. The boss is focused on progress, the mentor or a coach is focused on you, the beginner manager.

No Managers

Do you know how to tell if you’re doing a good job? If you’re up at 3 AM every night talking notes on scraps of paper, have a knot in your stomach & a rash on your skin, are loosing sleep & losing touch with your wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humour & feel that everything might turn out wrong, then you are probably doing the job.

Ask yourself “Has this person did this before?”If they did: you can give them a lot of rope. If they didn’t you have to mentor and keep a close eye on them. This means that the management style should be dictated by the employee. Some will require more hands-on, other's would be will be able to carry their own weight. The concept came from Andy Groove’s High Output Management.

Task-Relevant Maturity

Aiming the people in the company should be the main focus of a leader. Ideally, as Peter Thiel said, everyone should have one thing they are focusing on. Sounds simple but it is counter-intuitive as people feel insulted to be working on ONE thing, especially since they take pride in juggling different tasks.Most people will solve problems in their area of expertise: B+ problems. A+ problems are hard, so most people procastrinate by focusing on B+ problems. It's your job not to let that happen.

Insist on Focus

The main goal for a metric is to predict output. Not activity.Be aware that people will optimise what is measured. So always ask “What will people do to maximize that number?” If there is a false positive rate, make sure you track it too: If recruiters are optimising for hires, they will fill roles. You need to counterbalance it with quality of hires.Look for anomalies. The insights is in the small deviations from the expected trend. for example: LinkedIN noticed that 35% of the users opened their static profile. It was vanity, they were looking themselves in the mirror. As they expanded on vanity features (content, endorments) stickiness grew.

Simplify Metrics

The metrics help people to make decisions, hopefully as good as you, the CEO would make yourself. Transparency starts with access to metrics. Some ideas:<ul><li>Make a simple & intuitive company wide dashboard. Measure its success by how many people in the team visit it each day.</li><li>Review board packs with employees.</li><li>Take & share meeting notes throughout the company. Because people will want to be in every meeting.</li></ul>

Metrics & Transparency

You want to do as less actual work and trust your junior partners to make decissions. How do should you know when to step in and when to let them go with it:<ul><li>Sort your level of conviction on a scale. Are you very sure something is a mistake or are you unsure about the outcome?</li><li>Same with consequences: How dramatic are the effects? Is it a reversible or ireversible decision?</li></ul>Where does the decission fit? <ul><li>If low conviction & low consequences, delegate</li><li>high conviction & consequences: step in & over-rule. The best way to do it is to explain the why rather than using authority</li></ul>

Deciding between doing & delegating

There are two categories of people: ammunition & barrels. Most people are ammunition. But you need barrels. You can add all the ammunition you want, but if you have only five barrels in your company, you can literally do only five things simultaneously. Barrels are the people who can take an idea from conception to shipping and bring the whole team together around that objective.How to work work with barrels? Expand their responsibilities until they break. How to find them in the company? See who is a resource to other people.

Barrels & Ammunition

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Lecture Transcript: http://tech.genius.com/Keith-rabois-lecture-14-how-to-operate-annotated

What should the CEO be doing on a day to day basis? How do you make sure the company is moving in the right direction? 
Keith Rabois, Partner at Khosla Ventures and former COO of Square, tackles the nitty gritty - How to Operate. Lots of actionable takeaways from this lecture!

See the slides and readings at http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec14

Discuss this lecture: http://startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64043

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Deciding between doing & delegating

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