2022年7月7日

每個領導者最重要的工作之一就是定義你如何衡量成功。你可能聽過這句話，你測量什麼就得到什麼。更重要的是，你得到了你所獎勵的。如果你獎勵你的團隊的成功，他們會嚐試做更多的事情，比如讓他們獲得獎勵的事情。所以，小心你衡量的東西，小心你獎勵的東西。如果做錯了，你的團隊可能會失敗。這似乎是顯而易見的，但事實上，它相當複雜。原因在於，大多數領導者定義成功的方式忽略了最重要的一點。在斯坦福大學“從高處看”的采訪中，穀歌的首席執行官桑達爾·皮采是這樣解釋的:你必須鼓勵創新……你知道，有一件違反直覺的事情是公司在成長過程中變得更加保守。 You have a lot more cash, you have a lot more resources but, you know, companies tend to become more conservative in their decision-making. As a result, Pichai says his job is "encouraging the company to take risks and innovate and be okay with failure--and reward effort, not outcomes. " That last part is really important. In fact, those four words are one of the most important lessons for every leader. As Pichai points out, that can be difficult since "people tend to reward outcomes." Here's why it matters: If you only measure people on outcomes, they will do whatever it takes to avoid negative outcomes. They'll play it safe and fall back on whatever they already know that works. They'll keep giving you exactly what you've always gotten, nothing more or less. The thing is, avoiding a negative outcome is not a great measure of success. Avoiding negative outcomes doesn't lead to greatness. On the other hand, if you want people to work really hard, reward them for that. If you want people to take risks, try new things, and come up with new ways of doing things, incentivize them for their effort. Those things don't always lead to what we think of traditionally as success. Sometimes they are messy. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes the effort will cost you a lot of money. The point is, that's not necessarily a bad thing if what you're trying to do is build something new. If you're trying to do something worthwhile, you're going to fail a bunch of times anyway. You're going to break things and you're going to figure out how to put them back together. You might as well encourage people to learn from it all and reward them for their effort. Obviously, this doesn't mean you don't expect a lot from your team. It doesn't mean outcomes don't matter. It just means that the outcome you're looking for might be less obvious than a five percent increase in your stock price year over year. It really comes down to the type of culture--and, ultimately, the type of company you're trying to build. If what you want are incremental growth and a small but consistent increase in quarterly earnings, that's fine, but don't expect anything revolutionary to happen. If, however, you want to build a team that is willing to do hard things, reward them for their effort. Reward them when they try and fail, and when they learn and succeed. Ultimately, that's the best possible outcome anyway. Jul 7, 2022