LinkedIn CEO韦纳：生活中任何事都是奇迹
很喜欢Jeff对企业和个人发展的观点。非常值得借鉴和思考。
北京时间11月13日 《纽约时报》近日对LinkedIn的首席执行官杰夫·韦纳（Jeff Weiner）进行了专访。以下是专访内容。
问：每个人对领导力的理解都不同，你怎么定义？
答：简单地说，就是能够激励大家达到共同目标的能力。我认为这里最重要的一个词汇就是“激励”。这个词也是领导和管理的区别所在。管理者会告诉大家做什么，而领导者则激励大家去做事。要想具备激励的能力，领导者首先要有清晰的视觉，能够预想公司业务、团队以及产品最终要达到的状态。此外，坚定的信念同样十分重要，因为做任何都具有挑战性。领导者周围注定会有些持怀疑态度的人，如果领导者的视角比较独特，肯定有人认为任务完不成。为了激励大家，以上两点是领着内心深处必须具备的潜质。最后就是领导者的沟通能力，将自己对未来的想法以有效的方式传递给大家。
问：你认为过去自己学到哪些最重要的领导力经验？
答：多得数不清了。但最特别的一次是在雅虎，当时杨致远还是公司的首席执行官。当时硅谷很多公司打电话询问杨是否需要帮助。每个人都很支持他以及他创办雅虎，乔布斯就是其中一位。他曾来到雅虎为数百名高管做演讲，这些我都不会忘记。他说，离开苹果又重新回归后，他发现过多的产品和生产线在运营。于是，他将团队的注意力转到产品优化。优化听起来是件很简单的事情，但是真正的优化对于大公司来说是个非常棘手的问题：如果你只能做一件事，你会选择哪个产品？你不要对答案过多解释，你也不可以将两种产品组合起来，只需要唯一的答案。我立刻被乔布斯信念中体现的清晰度和勇气所打动。他的见解如此深刻，给在场的每个观众留下深远的影响。
问：还有哪些导师对你今天的管理与领导方法产生影响？
答：还有雷·钱伯斯（Ray Chambers），他实际上创建了当代融资收买行业，他的公司连续几年在华尔街名列前茅。不过之后他放弃了毕生事业。他想对全世界的人产生积极、深远的影响，于是转而投身慈善事业。雷让我明白了关于幸福的五个准则。第一个是活在当下;第二个是爱比对错更重要，恋爱的人可能更明白这一点；第三个是经常自省内心的想法，特别当你很情绪化的时候，这点几乎难以做到；第四是每天至少感激一件事情；最后就是抓住每个机会帮助别人。一生中能碰到这样的人真是万幸。
问：父母对你有什么影响？
答：我的母亲是非常相信直觉的人，有时让人捉摸不透。她见到生人后，先是打量半分钟，然后会说一些这个人的事情。这时那个人会说：“你咋知道的啊！”不过这可不是第六感，更多的则是类型识别的能力。我认为类型识别是领导者最宝贵的能力。她见几种特定类型的人，以特殊的方式去倾听，包括语调、肢体语言，并记住某些特定类型人所特有的行为。而从父亲那里，我学会的相信直觉和价值观的重要性。
问：你很早就渴望成为CEO吗？
答：不，不是我没想过，而是我没有这样的志向。我每天醒来后从没有说我想成为CEO，哪怕只有一次。实际上，根据我一路成长的阅历，我认为自己不想成为CEO。特别是我不想成为交易型公司的CEO,因为挑战性太强了。
问：为什么？
答：如果公司的文化、价值观、基础设施、人才以及大家的干劲等基础不牢固，这件事就比较难办了。大约10-12年前，我和父母去就餐。我的父亲对我说：“有一天你将成为CEO。”我说:“我不想。”他说：“不，你会的。”“父亲，你没听清楚，我不想。”我们一直在争论这个问题，但是他说对了。
问：有没有一些特定的表达方式是你在工作中经常用的？
答:当然。第一个已经成为Linkedin非官方口号。这可不是我的杜撰，而是我听到的一个句子，非常喜欢，所以决定拿来使用，它只有三个字“下一场”。这是我从杜克大学Blue Devils球队K教练那里学到的。每次球员上下场时，他都会喊出“下一场”这个短语。因为他不想让团队过多纠结已经发生的事情。无论这一场赢了还是输了，你可以稍微回忆一下刚发生的事情，但是你不应该花太多精力，赶紧信心十足投入到下一次的比赛中。
问：谈谈你想在LinkedIn培养怎样的企业文化
答：我们很严肃地看待公司文化问题，严格区分公司的价值观和文化。文化是我们本来的面目，它实际上是公司的个性——我们是谁，我们想成为怎样的人。价值观则是我们做日常决策时的原则。当然，价值观是文化的子集，他们有着千丝万缕的联系。理清这些关系有助于招聘员工，激励大家，提高生产率。
问：你能解释得更清楚一些吗？
答：我们的文化有五个维度：转变、正直、协作、幽默和结果。我们的价值观有六点：员工优先，关系重要，开放、诚实具有建设性；追求卓越，冒有头脑的风险，向主人翁一样去行动。目前，最重要的是价值观是员工优先，公司的价值就是我们为员工创造的价值。
问：很多人抱怨处理电子邮件的压力，你如何掌控这些？
答：对我来说，电子邮件是有助劳动效率、团队协作和知识分享的强大工具。这并不是说我没遇到其他人面临的问题。但是我意识到，如果你想减轻电子邮件压力，非常简单：你自己少发邮件。因为你每发送一次邮件，接下来会发生什么？肯定有人会回复，接着你又要回复他的回复，如果回复人添加了抄送，那么邮件波及的范围更广。再如果有人错误领会了邮件的含义，你就需要费口舌去澄清。
因此，我发邮件前会想好收件人及抄送人，我写下的每一个词汇都尽可能地精确表达内心的想法。将恰当的信息在恰当时间传递给恰当的人，邮件就会变成令人喜欢的工具。
问：我听一些CEO说，如果电邮引起争议，他们坚持认为要打电话或当面沟通。
答：我非常赞同。如果遇到争议，打电话可控制局势。
问：你对商学院的学生有什么职业生涯建议？
答：关于职业生涯和梦想实现，我通常以一个非常简单的问题给出建议：“我有一个问题，你们要15秒钟回答我。向后展望20、30年，你如何总结自己的成就？开始！”
如果他们15秒内不能回答，或许意味着他们之前根本没想过这个问题，或者他们没有确定性的答案，这也没关系，毕竟摸索职业生涯是一辈子的事情。但是我遇到的很多人都哑口无言。他们从来没有扪心自问过。
如果你的目标不确定，实现就会难上加难。这个道理简单而真实。所以，我对刚出校门的学生最重要的建议就是知道自己最终要达到的目标。即便不知道也没关系，从现在开始思考。
一旦目标清晰，你就会以各种方式展现自己的目标，包括你的说话、思考的方式以及你所交际的朋友。如果你真不知道答案，我的建议是努力提升自己的两个素质：工作激情与技能。
第二个是多和最优秀的人去交往。在这个年代、这个更全球化、网络化的社会，你共事的人对你有重要影响。我曾经认为，自己的老板、导师、领导、信任自己的人，允许自己犯错的人、培训你的人、你汇报的对象最重要，其实同事以及对你汇报的人、朝夕相处的人最关键，尽量和那些最优秀的人在一起。
第三点建议就是永远学习。麻省理工学院媒体实验室的主管Joi Ito喜欢提到一个词“幼态持续”，意思是延迟青春期的年限。对于动物来说当然不是好事，因为青春意味着不够成熟；但是对于人类就具有积极意义了。Joi Ito建议大家带着孩童般的好奇看待人生，这是多么强悍的理念！
我很喜欢爱因斯坦的一句话：“生活只有两种方式，一种是假定任何事情都不是奇迹，另一种是认为任何事都是奇迹。”我倾向于后者，并被有同样生活理念的人所吸引。
Q. Leadership is one of those words that everybody has a slightly different take on. How do you define it?
A. Simply put, it’s the ability to inspire others to achieve shared objectives, and I think the most important word there by far is “inspire.” I think that’s the difference between leading and managing. Managers will tell people what to do, whereas leaders will inspire them to do it, and there are a few things that go into the ability to inspire. It starts with vision, and the clarity of vision that the leader has, and the ability to think about where they ultimately want to take the business, take the company, take the team, take a particular product.
It’s also very important to have the courage of your convictions, because things are going to get challenging. There are going to be doubters, because if the vision truly is unique, there are going to be a lot of people who will say it can’t be done. In order to inspire people, that’s going to have to come from somewhere deep inside of you. The last component is the ability to communicate that vision and the ability to communicate that conviction in an effective way.
Q. What do you consider some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. There have been a lot, really too many to count. But one in particular occurred while I was with Yahoo, and Jerry Yang was installed as the C.E.O. Jerry got a lot of calls from the Silicon Valley community asking if there was anything they could do to help. Everyone was rooting for Jerry and rooting for Yahoo, and one of those people was Steve Jobs. He came and addressed several hundred of the leaders of Yahoo, and I’ll never forget it. He said after he had left Apple, and then came back, there was too much going on — too many products, too many lines — and he said he started to focus the team on prioritization.
Prioritization sounds like such a simple thing, but true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer, especially at a company with a portfolio approach: If you could only do one thing, what would it be? And you can’t rationalize the answer, and you can’t attach the one thing to some other things. It’s just the one thing. And I was struck by the clarity and the courage of his conviction. He felt it so deeply, and there wasn’t a person in the audience that day who did not take that with them as a lasting memory.
Q. What about mentors who had a big effect on the way you lead and manage today?
A. One is Ray Chambers. He essentially created the modern-day leveraged buyout, and he was on top of Wall Street with his firm, Wesray, and did that for several years and then basically gave it all up because he wanted to make a positive, lasting impact on the world and pursue a life of philanthropic activities.
Among many things that Ray has taught me are five rules for happiness. So the first one is living in the moment. The second is that it’s better to be loving than to be right, and if you’re in a relationship, you know how challenging that can be. The third one is to be a spectator to your own thoughts, especially when you become emotional, which is almost impossible to do. The fourth is to be grateful for at least one thing every day, and the last is to help others every chance you get. So I’m incredibly fortunate to have people in my life like that.
Q. What about the influences of your parents?
A. My mother is unusually and highly intuitive, to the point where it gets a little freaky from time to time. She’ll meet someone, and she’ll size them up after about 30 seconds, and she’ll say a few things to the person. Then the person will say, “How in the world did you know that?” But it’s not some sixth sense. A lot of it is pattern recognition, and I think pattern recognition can be an incredibly valuable asset, especially for leaders. What she’s learned to do is see certain patterns, listen to people a certain way, their voice inflection, their body language, and recognize and pattern-match certain kinds of behavior. From my father, I’ve learned about trusting instincts and the importance of values.
Q. Did you aspire early on to be a C.E.O.?
A. No. But it wasn’t that I couldn’t imagine myself in that role. It’s that I had no ambition to be in that role. I didn’t ever wake up and say I want to be a C.E.O. one day, ever, not a single time. As a matter of fact, based on some of the things I had seen along the way, I would actually think to myself that I do not want to be a C.E.O., and, in particular, I do not want to be a C.E.O. of a publicly traded company, because it can be challenging.
Q. Why?
A. If there’s not a firm foundation underneath the company in terms of a company’s core, its culture, its values, its infrastructure, its processes, its talent, with people all going in the same direction, and understanding what it wants to accomplish, it can be challenging. At the end of the day, when you’re a publicly traded company, if you allow the narrative to get away from you, it can be really tough sledding.
But I was out to dinner with my parents about 10 or 12 years ago, and my dad said to me, “You’re going to be a C.E.O. one day.” And I said, “No, I don’t want to be.” He said, “No, you’re going to be.” And I said: “Dad, you’re not listening. I don’t want to be.” And literally we started arguing about this. But he was right.
Q. Are there certain expressions that you find yourself repeating at work?
A. Sure. The first one has essentially become the unofficial mantra of LinkedIn, and it’s not something I came up with. It’s something I read and loved and decided to use. And it’s two words: “next play.”
The person I borrowed it from is Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski] of the Duke Blue Devils. Every time the basketball team goes up and down the court and they complete a sequence, offense or defense, Coach K yells out the exact same thing, every time. He yells out “next play,” because he doesn’t want the team lingering too long on what just took place. He doesn’t want them celebrating that incredible alley-oop dunk, and he doesn’t want them lamenting the fact that the opposing team just stole the ball and had a fast break that led to an easy layup. You can take a moment to reflect on what just happened, and you probably should, but you shouldn’t linger too long on it, and then move on to the next play.
Q. Tell me about the culture you’re trying to foster at LinkedIn.
A. We take culture very seriously, and we do draw a distinction at LinkedIn between culture and values. Culture is who we are. It’s essentially the personality of our company — who we are and who we aspire to be. Values are the principles upon which we make day-to-day decisions. And of course your values are a subset of your culture, so they’re very much inextricably linked. Getting that right helps with recruiting. It helps with motivating. It helps with inspiring. It helps with productivity.
Q. Can you break that down for me in a bit more detail?
A. So our culture has five dimensions: transformation, integrity, collaboration, humor and results. And there are six values: members first; relationships matter; be open, honest and constructive; demand excellence; take intelligent risks; and act like an owner. And by far the most important one is members first. We as a company are only as valuable as the value we create for our members.
Q. A lot of people complain about the crush of e-mail in their lives. How do you handle it?
A. Like any other tool, e-mail is what you make it . It’s an incredible tool of productivity, collaboration and knowledge-sharing for me. That’s not to say I haven’t struggled with it like everybody else. But one thing I realized is that if you want to reduce the amount of e-mail in your in-box, it’s actually very simple: you need to send fewer e-mails. I know it’s kind of a self-evident truth. Because every time you send an e-mail, what’s going to happen? It’s going to trigger a response, and then you’re going to have to respond to that response, and then they’re going to add some people on the “cc” line, and then those people are going to respond. You have to respond to those people, and someone’s going to misinterpret something. That’s going to start a telephone game, and then you’re going to have to clarify that stuff. Then you have someone in a time zone who didn’t get the clarification, so you’re going to have to clarify that clarification.
So I try to clearly identify who’s in the “to” line and who’s in the “cc” line. I’m going to be as precise as possible with every word I write. I’m going to try to convey the right information to the right person at the right time. And if you can hold to that, it can be an amazing tool.
Q. I’ve heard some C.E.O.’s say they insist that people talk in person or over the phone if it seems as if an e-mail exchange is becoming contentious.
A. I couldn’t agree more. As soon as you hit that trigger point, pick up the phone. Pick up the phone because you’re going to lose context and nuance. It’s going to end very badly. The phone is totally underrated.
Q. What career advice do you give to business school students?
A. The advice I give them about their career path and realizing their dreams starts with a very simple question. I say: “I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to have 15 seconds to answer it: Looking back on your career 20, 30 years from now, what do you want to say you’ve accomplished? Go.”
If they can’t answer it in 15 seconds, it probably means they haven’t thought about the answer before that moment, or they don’t have a definitive answer, which is fine, because for some people that’s a lifelong journey. But you’d be amazed how many people I meet who don’t have the answer to the question. They either never asked themselves that or they got swept up in a stream of opportunity that led from one thing to another — more titles, more money — and they just didn’t stop to ask themselves that simple question.
You can’t realize your goal if it’s not defined. It sounds so simple but it’s true. So the most important piece of advice I can give folks who are coming out of school, even people who’ve already begun their career, is to know what it is they ultimately want to accomplish. And if they don’t, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but start thinking about what it is, because once you know it, the moment you know it, you begin manifesting it. You manifest it in explicit ways by virtue of knowing and then pursuing it, and you manifest it in implicit ways — just in the way you talk, in the way you think and the things that you say to others and the people you attract to yourself.
And if you don’t know the answer to the broader question, my advice is to optimize for two things: passion and skill, not one at the exclusion of the other. You have to optimize for both. So that’s the first piece of advice.
The second piece of advice is to surround yourself with amazing people, only the best. In this day and age, in this more global society, in this more networked, interconnected world we live in, it’s just all about the people you work with. I used to think it was all about the person you worked for, having the right mentor, the right leader, someone who believed in you, someone who would allow you to make mistakes and take risks and teach you and coach you. It’s not just about the person you report to, though. It’s about the people you work with and the people who report to you. It’s about everyone you’re associated with, day in and day out. Surround yourself with only the best you can find.
And the third piece of advice is to always be learning. Joi Ito, the head of the M.I.T. Media Lab, loves to refer to the word “neoteny.” It means a delayed state of adolescence. With animals, it’s not a good thing because the animal has not fully matured. But with regard to people, it can be an incredibly positive thing. Joi likes to talk about maintaining a childlike sense of wonder throughout your entire life, and it’s such a powerful concept.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I like to lean toward the latter, and I’m definitely drawn to other people who do the same.
北京时间11月13日 《纽约时报》近日对LinkedIn的首席执行官杰夫·韦纳（Jeff Weiner）进行了专访。以下是专访内容。
问：每个人对领导力的理解都不同，你怎么定义？
答：简单地说，就是能够激励大家达到共同目标的能力。我认为这里最重要的一个词汇就是“激励”。这个词也是领导和管理的区别所在。管理者会告诉大家做什么，而领导者则激励大家去做事。要想具备激励的能力，领导者首先要有清晰的视觉，能够预想公司业务、团队以及产品最终要达到的状态。此外，坚定的信念同样十分重要，因为做任何都具有挑战性。领导者周围注定会有些持怀疑态度的人，如果领导者的视角比较独特，肯定有人认为任务完不成。为了激励大家，以上两点是领着内心深处必须具备的潜质。最后就是领导者的沟通能力，将自己对未来的想法以有效的方式传递给大家。
问：你认为过去自己学到哪些最重要的领导力经验？
答：多得数不清了。但最特别的一次是在雅虎，当时杨致远还是公司的首席执行官。当时硅谷很多公司打电话询问杨是否需要帮助。每个人都很支持他以及他创办雅虎，乔布斯就是其中一位。他曾来到雅虎为数百名高管做演讲，这些我都不会忘记。他说，离开苹果又重新回归后，他发现过多的产品和生产线在运营。于是，他将团队的注意力转到产品优化。优化听起来是件很简单的事情，但是真正的优化对于大公司来说是个非常棘手的问题：如果你只能做一件事，你会选择哪个产品？你不要对答案过多解释，你也不可以将两种产品组合起来，只需要唯一的答案。我立刻被乔布斯信念中体现的清晰度和勇气所打动。他的见解如此深刻，给在场的每个观众留下深远的影响。
问：还有哪些导师对你今天的管理与领导方法产生影响？
答：还有雷·钱伯斯（Ray Chambers），他实际上创建了当代融资收买行业，他的公司连续几年在华尔街名列前茅。不过之后他放弃了毕生事业。他想对全世界的人产生积极、深远的影响，于是转而投身慈善事业。雷让我明白了关于幸福的五个准则。第一个是活在当下;第二个是爱比对错更重要，恋爱的人可能更明白这一点；第三个是经常自省内心的想法，特别当你很情绪化的时候，这点几乎难以做到；第四是每天至少感激一件事情；最后就是抓住每个机会帮助别人。一生中能碰到这样的人真是万幸。
问：父母对你有什么影响？
答：我的母亲是非常相信直觉的人，有时让人捉摸不透。她见到生人后，先是打量半分钟，然后会说一些这个人的事情。这时那个人会说：“你咋知道的啊！”不过这可不是第六感，更多的则是类型识别的能力。我认为类型识别是领导者最宝贵的能力。她见几种特定类型的人，以特殊的方式去倾听，包括语调、肢体语言，并记住某些特定类型人所特有的行为。而从父亲那里，我学会的相信直觉和价值观的重要性。
问：你很早就渴望成为CEO吗？
答：不，不是我没想过，而是我没有这样的志向。我每天醒来后从没有说我想成为CEO，哪怕只有一次。实际上，根据我一路成长的阅历，我认为自己不想成为CEO。特别是我不想成为交易型公司的CEO,因为挑战性太强了。
问：为什么？
答：如果公司的文化、价值观、基础设施、人才以及大家的干劲等基础不牢固，这件事就比较难办了。大约10-12年前，我和父母去就餐。我的父亲对我说：“有一天你将成为CEO。”我说:“我不想。”他说：“不，你会的。”“父亲，你没听清楚，我不想。”我们一直在争论这个问题，但是他说对了。
问：有没有一些特定的表达方式是你在工作中经常用的？
答:当然。第一个已经成为Linkedin非官方口号。这可不是我的杜撰，而是我听到的一个句子，非常喜欢，所以决定拿来使用，它只有三个字“下一场”。这是我从杜克大学Blue Devils球队K教练那里学到的。每次球员上下场时，他都会喊出“下一场”这个短语。因为他不想让团队过多纠结已经发生的事情。无论这一场赢了还是输了，你可以稍微回忆一下刚发生的事情，但是你不应该花太多精力，赶紧信心十足投入到下一次的比赛中。
问：谈谈你想在LinkedIn培养怎样的企业文化
答：我们很严肃地看待公司文化问题，严格区分公司的价值观和文化。文化是我们本来的面目，它实际上是公司的个性——我们是谁，我们想成为怎样的人。价值观则是我们做日常决策时的原则。当然，价值观是文化的子集，他们有着千丝万缕的联系。理清这些关系有助于招聘员工，激励大家，提高生产率。
问：你能解释得更清楚一些吗？
答：我们的文化有五个维度：转变、正直、协作、幽默和结果。我们的价值观有六点：员工优先，关系重要，开放、诚实具有建设性；追求卓越，冒有头脑的风险，向主人翁一样去行动。目前，最重要的是价值观是员工优先，公司的价值就是我们为员工创造的价值。
问：很多人抱怨处理电子邮件的压力，你如何掌控这些？
答：对我来说，电子邮件是有助劳动效率、团队协作和知识分享的强大工具。这并不是说我没遇到其他人面临的问题。但是我意识到，如果你想减轻电子邮件压力，非常简单：你自己少发邮件。因为你每发送一次邮件，接下来会发生什么？肯定有人会回复，接着你又要回复他的回复，如果回复人添加了抄送，那么邮件波及的范围更广。再如果有人错误领会了邮件的含义，你就需要费口舌去澄清。
因此，我发邮件前会想好收件人及抄送人，我写下的每一个词汇都尽可能地精确表达内心的想法。将恰当的信息在恰当时间传递给恰当的人，邮件就会变成令人喜欢的工具。
问：我听一些CEO说，如果电邮引起争议，他们坚持认为要打电话或当面沟通。
答：我非常赞同。如果遇到争议，打电话可控制局势。
问：你对商学院的学生有什么职业生涯建议？
答：关于职业生涯和梦想实现，我通常以一个非常简单的问题给出建议：“我有一个问题，你们要15秒钟回答我。向后展望20、30年，你如何总结自己的成就？开始！”
如果他们15秒内不能回答，或许意味着他们之前根本没想过这个问题，或者他们没有确定性的答案，这也没关系，毕竟摸索职业生涯是一辈子的事情。但是我遇到的很多人都哑口无言。他们从来没有扪心自问过。
如果你的目标不确定，实现就会难上加难。这个道理简单而真实。所以，我对刚出校门的学生最重要的建议就是知道自己最终要达到的目标。即便不知道也没关系，从现在开始思考。
一旦目标清晰，你就会以各种方式展现自己的目标，包括你的说话、思考的方式以及你所交际的朋友。如果你真不知道答案，我的建议是努力提升自己的两个素质：工作激情与技能。
第二个是多和最优秀的人去交往。在这个年代、这个更全球化、网络化的社会，你共事的人对你有重要影响。我曾经认为，自己的老板、导师、领导、信任自己的人，允许自己犯错的人、培训你的人、你汇报的对象最重要，其实同事以及对你汇报的人、朝夕相处的人最关键，尽量和那些最优秀的人在一起。
第三点建议就是永远学习。麻省理工学院媒体实验室的主管Joi Ito喜欢提到一个词“幼态持续”，意思是延迟青春期的年限。对于动物来说当然不是好事，因为青春意味着不够成熟；但是对于人类就具有积极意义了。Joi Ito建议大家带着孩童般的好奇看待人生，这是多么强悍的理念！
我很喜欢爱因斯坦的一句话：“生活只有两种方式，一种是假定任何事情都不是奇迹，另一种是认为任何事都是奇迹。”我倾向于后者，并被有同样生活理念的人所吸引。
Q. Leadership is one of those words that everybody has a slightly different take on. How do you define it?
A. Simply put, it’s the ability to inspire others to achieve shared objectives, and I think the most important word there by far is “inspire.” I think that’s the difference between leading and managing. Managers will tell people what to do, whereas leaders will inspire them to do it, and there are a few things that go into the ability to inspire. It starts with vision, and the clarity of vision that the leader has, and the ability to think about where they ultimately want to take the business, take the company, take the team, take a particular product.
It’s also very important to have the courage of your convictions, because things are going to get challenging. There are going to be doubters, because if the vision truly is unique, there are going to be a lot of people who will say it can’t be done. In order to inspire people, that’s going to have to come from somewhere deep inside of you. The last component is the ability to communicate that vision and the ability to communicate that conviction in an effective way.
Q. What do you consider some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. There have been a lot, really too many to count. But one in particular occurred while I was with Yahoo, and Jerry Yang was installed as the C.E.O. Jerry got a lot of calls from the Silicon Valley community asking if there was anything they could do to help. Everyone was rooting for Jerry and rooting for Yahoo, and one of those people was Steve Jobs. He came and addressed several hundred of the leaders of Yahoo, and I’ll never forget it. He said after he had left Apple, and then came back, there was too much going on — too many products, too many lines — and he said he started to focus the team on prioritization.
Prioritization sounds like such a simple thing, but true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer, especially at a company with a portfolio approach: If you could only do one thing, what would it be? And you can’t rationalize the answer, and you can’t attach the one thing to some other things. It’s just the one thing. And I was struck by the clarity and the courage of his conviction. He felt it so deeply, and there wasn’t a person in the audience that day who did not take that with them as a lasting memory.
Q. What about mentors who had a big effect on the way you lead and manage today?
A. One is Ray Chambers. He essentially created the modern-day leveraged buyout, and he was on top of Wall Street with his firm, Wesray, and did that for several years and then basically gave it all up because he wanted to make a positive, lasting impact on the world and pursue a life of philanthropic activities.
Among many things that Ray has taught me are five rules for happiness. So the first one is living in the moment. The second is that it’s better to be loving than to be right, and if you’re in a relationship, you know how challenging that can be. The third one is to be a spectator to your own thoughts, especially when you become emotional, which is almost impossible to do. The fourth is to be grateful for at least one thing every day, and the last is to help others every chance you get. So I’m incredibly fortunate to have people in my life like that.
Q. What about the influences of your parents?
A. My mother is unusually and highly intuitive, to the point where it gets a little freaky from time to time. She’ll meet someone, and she’ll size them up after about 30 seconds, and she’ll say a few things to the person. Then the person will say, “How in the world did you know that?” But it’s not some sixth sense. A lot of it is pattern recognition, and I think pattern recognition can be an incredibly valuable asset, especially for leaders. What she’s learned to do is see certain patterns, listen to people a certain way, their voice inflection, their body language, and recognize and pattern-match certain kinds of behavior. From my father, I’ve learned about trusting instincts and the importance of values.
Q. Did you aspire early on to be a C.E.O.?
A. No. But it wasn’t that I couldn’t imagine myself in that role. It’s that I had no ambition to be in that role. I didn’t ever wake up and say I want to be a C.E.O. one day, ever, not a single time. As a matter of fact, based on some of the things I had seen along the way, I would actually think to myself that I do not want to be a C.E.O., and, in particular, I do not want to be a C.E.O. of a publicly traded company, because it can be challenging.
Q. Why?
A. If there’s not a firm foundation underneath the company in terms of a company’s core, its culture, its values, its infrastructure, its processes, its talent, with people all going in the same direction, and understanding what it wants to accomplish, it can be challenging. At the end of the day, when you’re a publicly traded company, if you allow the narrative to get away from you, it can be really tough sledding.
But I was out to dinner with my parents about 10 or 12 years ago, and my dad said to me, “You’re going to be a C.E.O. one day.” And I said, “No, I don’t want to be.” He said, “No, you’re going to be.” And I said: “Dad, you’re not listening. I don’t want to be.” And literally we started arguing about this. But he was right.
Q. Are there certain expressions that you find yourself repeating at work?
A. Sure. The first one has essentially become the unofficial mantra of LinkedIn, and it’s not something I came up with. It’s something I read and loved and decided to use. And it’s two words: “next play.”
The person I borrowed it from is Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski] of the Duke Blue Devils. Every time the basketball team goes up and down the court and they complete a sequence, offense or defense, Coach K yells out the exact same thing, every time. He yells out “next play,” because he doesn’t want the team lingering too long on what just took place. He doesn’t want them celebrating that incredible alley-oop dunk, and he doesn’t want them lamenting the fact that the opposing team just stole the ball and had a fast break that led to an easy layup. You can take a moment to reflect on what just happened, and you probably should, but you shouldn’t linger too long on it, and then move on to the next play.
Q. Tell me about the culture you’re trying to foster at LinkedIn.
A. We take culture very seriously, and we do draw a distinction at LinkedIn between culture and values. Culture is who we are. It’s essentially the personality of our company — who we are and who we aspire to be. Values are the principles upon which we make day-to-day decisions. And of course your values are a subset of your culture, so they’re very much inextricably linked. Getting that right helps with recruiting. It helps with motivating. It helps with inspiring. It helps with productivity.
Q. Can you break that down for me in a bit more detail?
A. So our culture has five dimensions: transformation, integrity, collaboration, humor and results. And there are six values: members first; relationships matter; be open, honest and constructive; demand excellence; take intelligent risks; and act like an owner. And by far the most important one is members first. We as a company are only as valuable as the value we create for our members.
Q. A lot of people complain about the crush of e-mail in their lives. How do you handle it?
A. Like any other tool, e-mail is what you make it . It’s an incredible tool of productivity, collaboration and knowledge-sharing for me. That’s not to say I haven’t struggled with it like everybody else. But one thing I realized is that if you want to reduce the amount of e-mail in your in-box, it’s actually very simple: you need to send fewer e-mails. I know it’s kind of a self-evident truth. Because every time you send an e-mail, what’s going to happen? It’s going to trigger a response, and then you’re going to have to respond to that response, and then they’re going to add some people on the “cc” line, and then those people are going to respond. You have to respond to those people, and someone’s going to misinterpret something. That’s going to start a telephone game, and then you’re going to have to clarify that stuff. Then you have someone in a time zone who didn’t get the clarification, so you’re going to have to clarify that clarification.
So I try to clearly identify who’s in the “to” line and who’s in the “cc” line. I’m going to be as precise as possible with every word I write. I’m going to try to convey the right information to the right person at the right time. And if you can hold to that, it can be an amazing tool.
Q. I’ve heard some C.E.O.’s say they insist that people talk in person or over the phone if it seems as if an e-mail exchange is becoming contentious.
A. I couldn’t agree more. As soon as you hit that trigger point, pick up the phone. Pick up the phone because you’re going to lose context and nuance. It’s going to end very badly. The phone is totally underrated.
Q. What career advice do you give to business school students?
A. The advice I give them about their career path and realizing their dreams starts with a very simple question. I say: “I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to have 15 seconds to answer it: Looking back on your career 20, 30 years from now, what do you want to say you’ve accomplished? Go.”
If they can’t answer it in 15 seconds, it probably means they haven’t thought about the answer before that moment, or they don’t have a definitive answer, which is fine, because for some people that’s a lifelong journey. But you’d be amazed how many people I meet who don’t have the answer to the question. They either never asked themselves that or they got swept up in a stream of opportunity that led from one thing to another — more titles, more money — and they just didn’t stop to ask themselves that simple question.
You can’t realize your goal if it’s not defined. It sounds so simple but it’s true. So the most important piece of advice I can give folks who are coming out of school, even people who’ve already begun their career, is to know what it is they ultimately want to accomplish. And if they don’t, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but start thinking about what it is, because once you know it, the moment you know it, you begin manifesting it. You manifest it in explicit ways by virtue of knowing and then pursuing it, and you manifest it in implicit ways — just in the way you talk, in the way you think and the things that you say to others and the people you attract to yourself.
And if you don’t know the answer to the broader question, my advice is to optimize for two things: passion and skill, not one at the exclusion of the other. You have to optimize for both. So that’s the first piece of advice.
The second piece of advice is to surround yourself with amazing people, only the best. In this day and age, in this more global society, in this more networked, interconnected world we live in, it’s just all about the people you work with. I used to think it was all about the person you worked for, having the right mentor, the right leader, someone who believed in you, someone who would allow you to make mistakes and take risks and teach you and coach you. It’s not just about the person you report to, though. It’s about the people you work with and the people who report to you. It’s about everyone you’re associated with, day in and day out. Surround yourself with only the best you can find.
And the third piece of advice is to always be learning. Joi Ito, the head of the M.I.T. Media Lab, loves to refer to the word “neoteny.” It means a delayed state of adolescence. With animals, it’s not a good thing because the animal has not fully matured. But with regard to people, it can be an incredibly positive thing. Joi likes to talk about maintaining a childlike sense of wonder throughout your entire life, and it’s such a powerful concept.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I like to lean toward the latter, and I’m definitely drawn to other people who do the same.
