

VC: How a great entrepreneur deals with complexity - cwan
http://www.freddestin.com/blog/2009/11/how-a-great-entrepreneur-deals-with-complexity.html

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edw519
_4\. Push your team beyond what you and they think they are capable of - they
will be more empowered and will be able to complete more on their own if they
are reaching for a high bar_

This works great for programmers as long as it makes sense and you're brutally
honest with them. As soon as programmers realize they're being "gamed", it
stops working and _will never work again_.

I once had a leader who constantly moved deadlines up to push us. Being the
aspiring overachievers the we were, we always did whatever it took and never
missed a deadline.

Then the leader had to push a deadline _out_ 30 days for reasons unrelated to
us, but _he never told us_. He just figured that we'd push as hard as usual
and be done 30 days early. We learned the new deadline from a third party and
hit the real deadline, not the "30 day early" one. After that, there was
nothing he could ever do to push us again.

Leaders, beware. Once you blow your trust with us, all your tricks become
worthless.

~~~
jriddycuz
Push for quality, push for creativity, and push for time -- in that order.

I think its easy to try to push to _get things done fast_ first, especially
for non-technical managers, but this can be really counter-productive because
it starts to disenfranchise developers as the work becomes more drudgery and
harried tedium. When you push for quality features and creative solutions
first and only then push for time, the deadline crunch can really kick most
people's minds into high gear, and they can generate elegant and satisfying
results.

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volida
I agree with this one:

"Ignore the first request for everything. If it's really important then they
will ask again"

~~~
noaharc
It may be true, but it is a technique predicated on a certain lack of respect
for your subordinates. I don't much like that.

~~~
volida
I'd say it's just a way to identify a degree of necessity.

~~~
potatolicious
Humans are not machines - when a request times out, we don't just resubmit and
try again, there are other consequences to this failure to respond.

The lack of respect for your peers and subordinates is one.

~~~
trevelyan
You don't want very passive people working for you. You want people who can
route around what you're busy doing and manage their own projects.

If you are absolutely critical to whatever they need to do, they have to be
managing you about it, not just sticking more work on your lap and waiting for
it to bounce off. Which means more than sending an email and never following
up.

