Todd McKinnon, co-founder and CEO of Okta, explains how he balances analytical thinking and emotion when evaluating long-term strategic choices.
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“To make effect good decisions, you have to be able to argue with yourself. You have to be able to, in your head, hold opposing viewpoints.”
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More from Todd McKinnon
Disclosure
McKinnon: Okta's biggest early mistake was relying on contingency recruiters
“One of the, I think, the mistakes we made early in Okta is we didn't hire recruiters, full-time recruiters that worked for the company. This is obviously very early, but we waited too long to hire full-time recruiters. We tried to use contingency recruiting fi…”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 17:1720VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Insight
McKinnon: Leadership vulnerability becomes unproductive past the point of building trust
“I definitely think you can be vulnerable to a point where it's almost, you're a downer, you know. I have this problem, and I have this angst, and I'm, I have this hang-up, and this is messed up, and you come across as a complainer, or as a, or it's just not pr…”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 19:4120VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Insight
Todd McKinnon: Platform shifts offer the best opportunities to build new companies
“And whenever there's a platform shift in terms of how applications are built and how services are delivered, whether it's PCs or mobile or in this case, the cloud, there's a big opportunity to build new companies, or at least you have the best opportunity to b…”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 3:5220VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Insight
McKinnon: Very few business decisions are truly irreversible
“I think there are very few irreversible decisions. I think if you think about really irreversible decisions, you could get into paralysis.”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 10:0320VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Insight
McKinnon: Radical transparency in recruiting self-selects better long-term talent
“You should go the other way than your instinct. You should be super transparent about that and embrace what you are. Like, don't try to be the coolest thing on the block. Embrace what you're doing. It's more effective because it's just, it comes off as more ge…”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 18:5920VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
Insight
McKinnon: Startup CEOs should present clear board recommendations, not ask what to do
“The right way to do it is come in there strong and be, you know, open to input, of course, and be transparent and share information, but end it with a very strong statement about this is what we should do.”
Todd McKinnonFeb 22, 2021▶ 23:4320VC: Okta CEO Todd McKinnon on How To Approach Effective Decision-Making in Leadership, When Is The Right Time To Hire Recruiters and Heads of People, Balancing the Expectations of Wall St with Long Term Vision and What Truly Successful Board Management
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