Lessons in leadership | Scaling an org, developing yourself, and tactical management advice | Jack Altman (Lattice)
Episode description
Jack Altman is the co-founder and CEO of Lattice, a people success platform for building engaged, high-performing teams. Lattice has raised over $330M, and was last valued at $3B. He is an expert in building company culture, and wrote a book on the topic, titled: “People Strategy”.
In today's episode, we discuss:
- The importance of self-awareness and how to develop it
- The value of difficult conversations and advice for having them
- Common mistakes when scaling a company
- How to approach firing decisions and the associated internal optics
- How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees
- How to get drastically more out of your team members
- Adapting to the challenging new economic environment
Referenced:
Jack’s book: https://www.amazon.com/People-Strategy-Culture-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1119717043
Jack’s company, Lattice: https://lattice.com/
First Round Capital's Newsletter: https://review.firstround.com/newsletter
Where to find Jack Altman:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaltma
Where to find Brett Berson:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
In this episode, we cover:
(2:40) Founders must continually grow with their company
(7:23) How to identify hiring errors vs management errors
(9:46) Managing the tension of delegation vs control
(11:51) How to cultivate self-awareness
(14:59) The one thing founders should never give up
(17:22) How to build a product org
(19:06) Hot take on micro-management
(21:05) The importance of context setting as CEO
(22:09) What founder transparency actually means
(23:43) Examples of “context setting” as a leader
(26:09) The value of uncomfortable conversations
(27:16) How to have uncomfortable conversations
(28:30) Founders must own their most difficult decisions
(31:48) Optimizing speed vs accuracy in decision-making
(33:50) The hidden biases in group discussions
(35:05) When Jack experimented with removing himself from all meetings
(37:48) The most unusual element of Jack’s leadership approach
(38:34) 4 pieces of advice for CEOs
(41:20) How to talk to customers
(42:59) The many sources of learning for CEOs
(46:45) Instructive framework for maximizing employee performance
(49:56) When long-time employees don’t scale with the company
(55:07) How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees
(58:19) Identifying team members that “aren’t a fit”
(59:57) Should you tell people why someone was let go?
(62:42) Managing in the challenging new economic environment
(68:18) Aligning an employee’s career goals with company goals
(74:27) You're probably underestimating your team's potential