Dave- happy to see how we can help. Sign up on the homepage or if you have some more specific things you'd like to discuss, you can email me at the email at the bottom of the job posting.
1,583 karma · joined May 7, 2012
Blog: http://jasonevanish.com Twitter: @Evanish
Contact: evanish dot j at gmail
Previously, I ran Product at KISSmetrics and co-founded Greenhorn Connect, a site for Boston entrepreneurs sold to The Capital Network in August 2014.
=== What we do ===
We're starting with facilitating better 1-on-1s through software, which help you be happier, and more productive when done right. (@RoidRage blogged about how we helped him at Travis-CI: http://bit.ly/LHpraise)
Lighthouse is profitable, bootstrapped, and generating hundreds of leads a month. I'm looking for someone to take over all things tech at Lighthouse, so that I can focus on making us more money by attracting and closing even more customers.
=== You are ===
- An engineer that cares about design and the little details that delight customers
- Looking to get in on the ground floor of a high potential startup (ie- lots of upside/equity!)
=== Tech Stack ===
=== Interested? ===I think this is a pretty heavyweight system, but he's right that any measurement is better than none. The time commitment though I bet will get difficult as they scale further.
One thing that really surprised me was no mention of the Google manager surveys they use to benchmark managers (https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/). It's a big part of the book "Work Rules" and core to how they ensure their managers are doing their job well...which then is key to retention.
They also didn't mention it, but hopefully they're doing one on ones between those reviews as it's the in the trenches action that bridges any reviews that ensures things really get better and you have good things to reflect on in a review. Otherwise, it's hard to remember much more than a couple weeks ago.
## Looking for: Tech Lead
Lighthouse helps people managers with the essential soft skills needed to lead, motivate, and retain their teams. If you've ever worked at a dysfunctional, hyper-growth startup, or a big company wrecked by politics, you've experienced how bad management can make work miserable. We're changing that by helping managers with the fundamentals of good management.
We're bootstrapped, profitable, and growing. Looking to transition from offshore development to someone we can work with locally to move fast and build a great product.
If you're looking for the chance to be a player/coach to build an awesome product and grow a team with the processes and systems you feel are best, this is a big opportunity, with the equity/upside to match.
## Tech stack includes: Rails, Capistrano, haml/scss, bootstrap, jQuery, Postgres, Stripe, GCal API
Full Description at: http://careers.jobscore.com/jobs2/getlighthouse/come-work-wi...
* Apply there or email Jason at GetLighthouse dot com mentioning Hacker News in the subject line.
Via: "Developing Leaders: What To Do When Your Team Grows Too Big" https://getlighthouse.com/blog/developing-leaders-team-grows...
If OP has a small, growing business, this seems impractical. I've worked at startups that tried this and even a quarterly bonus failed.
Why? Because things change too much. Despite their best efforts, what we thought was "The Most Important Thing" at the start of quarter ended up being slightly or sometimes completely different. This threw the whole bonus system off.
Now, since I was counting on those bonuses, I always immediately brought up any conflicts; I was happy to make the change that was best for the company, but didn't want to be financially penalized for it.
Also consider what an earlier comment brought up: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose (Dan Pink's Drive thesis). Financial incentives aren't the best options in creative roles.
Deloitte got rid of performance reviews recently and one of the things they replaced it with was asking managers who they thought was ready for promotion and why. They also asked if you had to start a team over again, would you want this person on your team. I think all of those questions cut through the BS and are exactly the kinds of 360 questions you're suggesting.
Imagine a manager is up for a director role and each person they manage is anonymously asked "Would you work for them again if they were building a new team?" It could be a great way to understand how much people really like working for them.
Google actually does this with their questions every manager's teams are asked it affects compensation and promotions for managers:
1) My manager gives me actionable feedback that helps me improve my performance
2) My manager does not “micromanage” (i.e., get involved in details that should be handled at other levels).
3) My manager shows consideration for me as a person.
4) My manager regularly shares relevant information from his/her manager and senior leadership.
5) My manager has had a meaningful discussion with me about my career development in the past six months.
6) I would recommend my manager to other Googlers.
(More here: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/)
1) No training for managers. 2) No measurement of managers against what actually makes a good manager (ie- only rewarded for results, ignoring if your team hates you and is quitting left and right). 3) First time Founders may not have had great role models or training themselves so they won't set a great example either. 4) First time managers are common because you were an early employee or around longer, so I guess you should manage. 5) Misaligned incentives: the only way to get a raise is to go into management 6) Being a manager isn't for everyone, but few companies make it safe to go back after 7) Turnover is tolerated more in the Valley than other places which can hide management problems others companies could never afford (it costs about 2/3rds of a salary to replace someone).
Re: Being able to be flat sounds great, but at scale creates a lot of challenges when you need decisions made and you don't all fit in a conference room anymore. Having someone who can make a final call (and ideally does take input from everyone involved) is more efficient than having 50+ people all moving in independent directions.
[2] Google Questions for Good Management https://getlighthouse.com/blog/google-management/ [5] [6] Why people take management jobs and shouldn't https://getlighthouse.com/blog/bad-manager/ [7] Why it costs over $65,000 to replace an employee https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hidden-costs-replacing-employ...
If you want to learn how one of the legends, Andy Grove of Intel, does it, then I highly recommend "High Output Management" to think through some of those challenges. Check Twitter and you'll see Keith Rabois, Marc Andreesen, Ben Horowitz, Ryan Sarver, and many others swear by it. Horowitz's "Hard Thing About Hard Things" is also great, but a bit more haphazard in how it covers topics.
Other orgs set up like that I've found have a lot of unspoken problems that lead to people leaving on a pretty regular basis.
As for hoarseness: ask more questions and talk less. - These can help: http://jasonevanish.com/2014/05/29/101-questions-to-ask-in-1...
If you instead talked about it in your one on one, they can spend more time on it with you.
That being said, in the right hands, 1 on 1s are amazing. They help managers and their team in a variety of ways:
1) Open channel of communication - Having a standard, private time to talk to your manager or report (depending on your role) is huge. Michael Wolfe has a great post on this http://www.michaelrwolfe.com/2013/10/19/do-i-really-need-to-...
2) Avoid interruptions - If people are constantly bugging you as a manager you can't get anything done nor give those problems attention. By meeting at a set time each week or two you can dive into the problem and give it your singular focus.
3) Talk about career growth - Most companies suck at this, but those that actually do talk about skill and career growth have a huge advantage. There is no other time to have this conversation besides 1 on 1s.
4) Catch problems when they're small - If you have to interrupt your boss to talk to them about something you're probably going to wait til it's a big enough deal to interrupt them, but by then it can be too late. Jason Lemkin writes well about this: http://www.saastr.com/by-the-time-you-give-them-a-raise-they...
5) Supporting the efficacy. - Is there a study out there? Well, not exactly, but Andy Grove CEO of Intel (High Output Management), and Ben Horowitz A16Z (the Hard Things about Hard Things) swear by them to the point they included them in their books, and recently Deloitte did research on them as a way to replace the hated performance review https://hbr.org/2015/04/reinventing-performance-management
There's a reason Andy Grove said the "90 minutes of your time can improve the effectiveness of your team for 2 weeks or 80+ hours". One on ones done right are that powerful.
I found so many people need this help I decided to make an app to help. If you're interested, I'd be happy to get you early access at GetLighthouse.com, just mention this thread at signup.
The post was focused on the employees and what happens to them, because they do care about their careers.
In my experience, when you help people with their long term goals, even if it's not their core job, you get a much more motivated team member.
I'm a big fan of what Reid Hoffman advocates for in the Alliance; work is a two way relationship and if we treat it that way, and are honest about it, we can all benefit more.
Would love to talk to you if you're interested (check my profile for contact info).
@abdinoor - what tactics do you use to get in front of these issues?
Many people haven't really thought about it and so you end up going on a fun journey helping them figure it out. Usually, you discover over time that there are a lot of things more important than money. Being the manager that helped them figure out what they really want (and hopefully get closer to it) builds awesome loyalty and motivation on the job.
Once you have the minimum amount to live comfortably (which in places like SF is actually a non-trivial amount), I've found raises and bonuses have only very short-term happiness that wears off in a week or two. It's feeling fulfillment in your job and making progress on your long term goals that really brings career happiness.
If you only judge by the team shipping on time or hitting their number, then a dictator/slave driver looks pretty good early on.
If you judge by employee morale, someone that misses numbers but doesn't overstress their team can look good.
Unfortunately, things like employee churn are lagging indicators, so if a manager wants to look good, the temptation will always be there to take credit for themselves out of self-preservation, even if it's all in their head that they're in any danger of losing their job.
Also - do you think it's that their overwhelmed, under-trained for the new demands of the role, or something else that causes so many managers to fail?
1) Cost of Living - This can change bc of higher rent, getting married, having a kid or a million other things
2) I'm unhappy about something else - When I have another issue with my work, it often leads to what many people have said in other comments..."I'm not paid enough for this" which can take many different forms. Addressing this is much more important than whatever financial increase you do or do not get in asking for it.
3) Envy - If you find out all your peers at similar stage companies are paid more than you, or that your coworkers are, you'll probably want a raise.
In my experience, #2 is actually the most common that leads you leave and even if you get the raise, a manager needs to make sure they treat the condition (whatever is bothering you) not just the symptom (I want more compensation for my work).
I hope to validate if that's just me or others similarly could use help holding onto that information and providing timely reminders. I have found it's little things like what I listed above that has greatly improved motivation and morale for the handful of teams I have worked with.