你们是一个团队，不是一个家庭。 别再跟我说你的公司“像一个家庭”。不是的。你认真想一想：你上一次把家人开除是什么时候？ 以 Netflix 为例，我们从来不把自己当成一个家庭。我们把自己视为一支运动队。而且不是那种每个人都有上场机会、最后都能拿奖杯的少儿联赛。不，我们是一支在最高水平竞争的职业球队。 当我担任管理者时，我的责任不是确保每个人都有上场时间。我的责任是：在每一场比赛中，把最强的阵容派上场。 我这样做，是因为我对球队的所有者负责，对观众负责，更重要的是，对其他队员负责。 我很早就明白一件事：最优秀的球员，从我这里想要的从来不是——“他人很好”，或者“如果她不上场会很难过”。 他们想要的是： * 每个人都在自己的位置上做到卓越 * 每个人都像他们一样拼尽全力 他们想赢 这就是为什么，作为管理者，你的工作不仅仅是把人招好、把团队激励好。因为当有人表现不达标时，你还有一项更重要的职责——你必须坐下来，清楚地告诉他：为什么你要把他下放到小联盟。 这对初创公司尤其残酷。因为几乎在所有情况下，你创业初期的那批人，并不会陪你走到终点。 在最开始，你需要的是通才。因为你还不知道公司未来真正需要什么样的能力，所以你需要那些擅长多种事情的人。你需要能接受岗位职责每周都在变化的人。需要那些被冒险吸引，而不是被稳定吸引的人。 最初的这支团队，会把自己的一切都交给你。他们会放弃高薪和完善福利，只拿原来一小部分薪水来跟你干。他们会加班到深夜、周末照样工作，他们会完成你要求的一切，甚至做得更多。 所以，当公司终于开始起飞时，你却不得不把其中某个人叫到办公室，告诉他：下一阶段的旅程，他不能再一起走了，或者你要在他之上引入一位更有经验的高管——这件事，格外残酷。 这一刻既不轻松，也一点都不好受。但如果我们要打造的是一支冠军级别的团队，那这本来就是工作的一部分。 而如果我连这件事都做不到，那我也不配坐在这个位置上。 You Are a Team, Not a Family. Stop telling me your company is like a family. It’s not. Just think for a moment: when was the last time you fired someone from your family? At Netflix, for example, we never thought of ourselves as a family. We consider ourselves a sports team. And not a little league team, where everyone plays and gets a trophy. No, we’re a professional team playing at the highest level. And my responsibility when I was the manager was not to make sure everyone got playing time. It was to make sure I put the best possible team on the field for every game. I did that because I owed that to the team owners. I owed it to the fans. And most importantly, I owed it to the other players I learned a long time ago that what the best players want from me is not to field someone because “he’s a really nice guy,” or “she’ll be upset if she doesn’t get to play.” They want to know that everyone excels at their position. They want to know that everyone else will be trying as hard as they do. They want to win. That’s why your job as manager is not just to hire well and motivate your team. Because you have an even more important job when someone isn’t playing well. Then you’re the person who has to sit them down and explain why you’re sending them down to the minors. This is especially hard for a startup, because in almost every case, the players you start with aren’t going to be the ones you finish with. At the beginning, you’re looking for generalists. Since you don’t yet know what they will need to be great at, you want people who are good at a lot of things. You want people who are comfortable with the fact that their job description is going to change weekly. People who are motivated by the adventure, rather than by stability That first team is going to give you everything they have. They’ll leave better paying jobs with great benefits to work for a fraction of their salary. They’ll work nights and weekends. They’ll do everything you ask…and then some. So it’s especially brutal when your company is just starting to take off, and you have to sit that person down and tell them that they won’t be coming with you on the next stage of the journey. Or that you’re bringing in a more experienced executive over them. That part is neither easy nor fun. But if we’re building a championship team then that’s part of the job. And if I can’t do that, I don’t deserve to be in my position either.