Silverman: CEOs must build baseline competence in weak areas for empathy
Josh Silverman · 20VC: Etsy CEO, Josh Silverman on 2 Defining Traits of Great Leadership, The Danger of Attaching Happiness To Milestones, How To Structure Teams To Optimise for Experimentation and Agility &Whether You Learn More From Success Than Failure · Jan 18, 2021 · at 35:54
Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, discusses executive development with 20VC host Harry Stebbings, debating whether leaders should focus solely on their core strengths or build baseline skills in weak areas.
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“I think there's table stakes and there's your spikes or strengths, right? So whatever your job is, there's table stakes good enough. I'm not a project manager by nature. It's not What I'm great at. But to be an effective CEO, there's a table stakes level of project management that I need to have and be capable of, and I've worked hard to get to table stakes. I'm not saying I'm going to be great, and I surround myself with people who are much better at that than me, but if I don't have some level of orientation around operations, I won't have enough empathy for the people on my team who really need to do that and make that work.”
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