Reed Hastings

360 written report is a good mechanism for annual feedback. But avoid anonymity and numeric ratings, don’t link results to raises or promotions, and open up comments to anyone who is ready to give them.

use the Start, Stop, Continue method with roughly 25 percent positive, 75 percent developmental—all actionable and no fluff.

WHEN ONE OF YOUR PEOPLE DOES SOMETHING DUMB DON’T BLAME THEM. INSTEAD ASK YOURSELF WHAT CONTEXT YOU FAILED TO SET. ARE YOU ARTICULATE AND INSPIRING ENOUGH IN EXPRESSING YOUR GOALS AND STRATEGY? HAVE YOU CLEARLY EXPLAINED ALL THE ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS THAT WILL HELP YOUR TEAM TO MAKE GOOD DECISIONS? ARE YOU AND YOUR EMPLOYEES HIGHLY ALIGNED ON VISION AND OBJECTIVES?

For top performers, a great workplace isn’t about a lavish office, a beautiful gym, or a free sushi lunch. It’s about the joy of being surrounded by people who are both talented and collaborative. People who can help you be better. When every member is excellent, performance spirals upward as employees learn from and motivate one another.

The brain is a survival machine, and one of our most successful survival techniques is the desire to find safety in numbers. O

Today, in the information age, what matters is what you achieve, not how many hours you clock, especially for the employees of creative companies like Netflix.

One study showed people spend twice as much time thinking about their secrets as they do actively concealing them.

In most businesses, without even realizing it, senior managers stunt the abilities and intelligence of their own workforce by keeping financial and strategic information hidden. Although just about all companies talk about empowering staff, in the vast majority of organizations, real empowerment is a pipe dream because employees aren’t given enough information to take ownership of anything.

If a manager doesn’t know how many customers the company has signed on in the past weeks and months, and what strategy discussions are in the works, how does he know how many people he can afford to hire? He has to ask his boss. If his boss doesn’t know the details of the company’s growth, she can’t make a good decision either, so she has to go to her own boss. The more employees at all levels understand the strategy, financial situation, and the day-to-day context of what’s going on, the better they become at making educated decisions without involving those above them in the hierarchy.

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