I'm a firm believer that the best leaders don't simply delegate and get out the way. At the same time, they also don't micro-manage and make every decision. Instead, they develop a strong system of accountability as well as a system of inspection. /1
A strong system of accountability ensures that every team member clearly knows what they are responsible for and what success looks like for them. Over the years I've found OKRs to be one of the best ways to create such a system of accountability sachinrekhi.com/a-leaders-guid… /2
A strong system of inspection enables a leader to regularly monitor progress, share best practices and learnings, and establish a high quality bar. There are a variety of mechanisms that have been used to create such a system of inspection /3
Design reviews have been a favorite system of inspection for leaders like Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer, Elon Musk, and more. In these reviews, the leaders deeply care about the user experience and provide direct input on presented wireframes, design comps, and prototypes. /4
Metrics reviews have been a favorite amongst leaders like Jeff Weiner, Dave Goldberg, and more. Here they get visibility into every aspect of the customer experience and the business by deeply instrumenting the business with detailed metrics and regularly reviewing them /5
Strategy reviews have been a favorite of Jeff Bezos. He requires all major initiatives to put together a narratively structure memo that he reads in detail and provides detailed feedback on every aspect of the initiative's strategy /6
Customer feedback has also been a popular system of inspection of Jeff Bezos and others. He reads specific customer complaints, forwards them to the relevant teams with just a ?, soliciting a response from the teams on why a customer might be having such a poor experience /7
Ed Catmull at Pixar created the Braintrust meeting as his system of inspection, bringing together the best storytellers to provide critiques to their peers, full of frank talk, spirited debate, and more sachinrekhi.com/creativity-inc… /8
Bill Walsh developed a Standard of Performance for every single member of his team and leveraged 1:1 and team coaching sessions to inspect and improve upon the adherence to those standards sachinrekhi.com/bill-walsh-the… /9
Next time you think you can just delegate and get out of the way, remember the detailed systems of inspection each of these leaders put into place and try to find one that personally resonates with you. sachinrekhi.com/how-to-be-a-gr… /10
I would love to hear about your favorite systems of inspection that you may have observed or put in place! /END
