Dee Hock, the founder of VISA (the world’s largest credit card payment system), was one of the eminent thinkers in management and organizational theory. As a lifelong student of Hock, his work and insights, I came across the following — which I thought about summarizing in my own words but realized that it’s too good to be butchered by me.

On Leadership:

“I used to have sessions with my employees once a week. Anyone could come, and we’d talk about anything on their minds. They always wanted to talk about management. ‘How do you do it?’ ‘What’s the best way?’ So I would ask them, ‘What is the single most fundamental responsibility of a manager?’

And I’d get a thousand different answers, all having one thing in common: They would be downward looking. They always had something to do with controlling those folks over whom they had power.”

At this point, Hock’s audiences usually smile expectantly: Isn’t that what management is about?

“Dead wrong,” says Hock, who waits for the confusion to settle in. “The first responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage themselves.” What?

Hock continues, “Their own integrity, their own knowledge, and their own ability, conduct, knowledge, ethics, and wisdom. Unless you do that, you’re not fit for authority, no matter how much you acquire. You’re not fit; you’re dangerous. You’re going to be destructive.

“And then I’d ask what the second responsibility is. And, boy, they’d think they were going to get those folks now. Dead wrong. The second responsibility is to manage your bosses. If they don’t trust, respect, and support you, how are you possibly going to do anything with your people? Managing your staff is useless if you can’t manage your boss.

“So, then I’d ask for the third responsibility of anyone who’s a manager - downward looking again. So, I’d say, ‘Dead wrong! Manage your peers, those over whom you have no authority and who have none over you. If you can’t manage them, how are you going to do anything with your people?’

“Then I’d ask, ‘What’s the fourth responsibility?’ And by then, everyone would be looking around. No one wanted to be wrong again. The fourth responsibility is to manage your staff.”

Hock likes to test his audience. “If you hire good people and teach them the theory and if they manage themselves, you, and their peers well and they hire good people and are willing to be well-managed by them, what do you have to do but recognize them, reward them, and get out of the way?” (Laughter, relief, and a few questioning looks.)

Hock responds to the unasked questions: How do you manage your boss? How do you manage your peers? He faces a sea of wide eyes with a calm smile.

“Well, the answer is incredibly simple. You can’t. There’s no way. You have no power over superiors and peers. But can you understand them? Can you motivate them? Excite them? Persuade them? Influence them? Set an example? Inform, forgive, and interest them? Disturb them? Of course you can. And eventually the work will emerge. Can you lead them? Absolutely.”

Hock contends that there is nothing that can stop anyone from setting an example. He tells audiences, “The truth is that you were born a leader.” (Raised eyebrows)

“You think not? Then, one of you stand up and deny that you managed your parents.” (Laughter.) “You were leading yourself, your superiors, and your peers from the day you were born until you were sent to school and taught to manage.”

The Evolutionary Vision of Dee Hock: From Chaos to Chaords by Bonnie Durrance (Training and Development. Copyright 1997, the American Society for Training and Development.)

1,294 Posts and Counting.
Don't miss the next post. Sign up now!

There is a fantastic story told by bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger:

I’ll always remember the first time someone asked me questions in the gym. It was about their legs. They said they couldn’t grow, and they wanted to know which exercises to add to their routine to hit the thighs. First, I said, “Let’s see your squat.” And they said, “My squats are fantastic. I can squat 405.” They got the weight on their back and lowered it approximately 2 inches, and came back up. That’s when I learned that people have a habit of looking for the next...

First things first—it has been a while. As you have undoubtedly realized, my Heretic posting schedule has slowed to a crawl. Which doesn’t mean I don’t post—I just happen to post (twice a week) on the radical Briefing. Check it out; you might like it! With this out of the way, let’s talk about GyShiDo.

GyShiDo?

Yes, GyShiDo. The Art of Getting Your Shit Done. 😁

More than a decade ago, Daniel Epstein, Will Butler, and I created—somewhat as a practical joke, but also dead serious—the GyShiDo Manifesto, after realizing that our individual superpowers were simply that we...

Are you optimizing your systems? Keeping a tight ship and making sure the trains run on time? Have your OKRs and KPIs been closely tracked?

You might want to rethink this…

Reed Hastings, the uber-successful founder of Netflix (and disruptor of the status quo in the entertainment industry—a true heretic), once remarked:

Most companies overoptimize for efficiency… The nonintuitive thing is that it is better to be managing chaotically if it’s productive and fertile. Think of the standard model as clear, efficient, sanitary, sterile. Our model is messy, chaotic, and fertile. In the long term, fertile will beat sterile.

We...

The Lie of the Entrepreneurial Dream

Ah, the glamorous life of an entrepreneur. Private jets, lavish parties, changing the world in a hoodie. It’s the stuff dreams are made of, right?

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s a load of crap. The real entrepreneurial journey is less “champaign wishes and caviar dreams” and more “lukewarm coffee and cold sweats at 3am.” It’s a gritty, messy, nightmare-fueled rollercoaster. And you know what? That’s precisely how it should be.

The Myth of Overnight Success

We love a good overnight success story. Some wunderkind drops out of college, writes a...

John Lilly, my former boss and then-CEO of Mozilla, once offered a piece of advice so obvious it seems absurd: build products that don’t suck. This was back when Firefox was running circles around Internet Explorer, delivering a vastly superior web browsing experience. Simple, right?

Apparently not. In the relentless pursuit of profits, countless companies have forgotten this fundamental rule. They cut corners, skimp on quality, and prioritize short-term gains over long-term customer satisfaction. It’s a recipe for disaster.

The Slippery Slope of Suckiness

Once you start compromising on product quality, you’re on a downward trajectory that’s hard to recover...

In a world saturated with information and distractions, the ability to communicate a clear, compelling narrative is a superpower. As an entrepreneur or business leader, crafting the right story can make all the difference in winning over customers, investors, and the public.

This insight was pithily expressed by political consultant Arthur Schmidt in his advice to General Electric in the early 20th century: “Campaigns are won not by the candidate or company with the best character or product, but by the one with the simplest and most clearly told story.” Or as his colleague Comstock summarized it decades later: “Pick...

The beloved brainstorm. The darling child of corporate innovation. The magic bullet that will solve all our creative woes.

Or so we’ve been told.

Brainstorms are a colossal waste of time.

They’re the equivalent of trying to catch fish by throwing a bunch of hooks into the water and hoping something bites. It’s inefficient, ineffective, and frankly, a bit delusional.

So why do brainstorms fail so miserably? Let’s break it down:

Production Blocking: The Waiting Game

In most brainstorms, only one person can speak at a time. While others wait their turn, their ideas evaporate faster than a puddle in...

To the day a dozen years ago, Silicon Valley legend Guy Kawasaki published a blog post lamenting the all-too-common phenomenon of what he called the “bozo explosion.” A company experiences a bozo explosion when a formerly brilliant team, consisting of A-players, makes the strategic mistake of hiring their first B-player (often in the name of growth… need those warm bums in seats!) and lets those B-players hire their own people.

The problem with B-players is not that they are “less than” A-players; the issue is that B-players, usually driven by the deadly combination of fear and ego, start hiring...

Serendipity – that magical, almost mystical phenomenon that seems to lurk around corners, waiting to spring upon us when we least expect it. But what if I told you that serendipity isn’t just a happy accident but a process that can be dissected into three core characteristics?

First comes the serendipity trigger, that moment of stumbling upon something unusual or unexpected. Picture yourself walking through a forest and finding a rare flower you’ve never seen before – that’s your trigger. It’s the universe’s way of saying, “Hey, look here! There’s something worth your attention.” Kindle your curiosity, and you will...

1,294 Posts and Counting.
Don't miss the next post. Sign up now!