Berger: Treat any commitment short of a 'hell yes' as a no
Kenneth Berger · Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM @Slack) · May 19, 2024 · at 16:44
Executive coach and former Slack product manager Kenneth Berger explains how startup leaders should handle lukewarm agreements and ambiguous commitments.
0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And so I think part of what I encourage people to do is one, to really hear anything short of a hell yes as a no, right? And so it's not a bad thing, right? Mostly the world tells us no. It's actually really great data. It helps us figure out what are we going to try next?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Kenneth Berger
Berger: Expert gut instincts are as valuable as SQL database insights
“Even though that gut information to me is just as important as anything we can get from, you know, The SQL database or whatever.”
Berger: I was fired from Slack three separate times
“I was fired from Slack three different times, which I feel like has to be some kind of startup record.”
Berger: Fear-driven motivation is dysfunctional for modern knowledge work
“Fear is for when there's a tiger chasing you and there's no tiger chasing me. I'm sitting in my office in a desk chair on a zoom call, right? Like there's no real danger here. And so fear is not particularly functional.”
Berger: Pure discipline is merely a short-term coping strategy
“It's not that discipline doesn't work, right? But it's like people pleasing. It's a short term it's a short term coping strategy. Like discipline will get you in the gym for a week, but it's not going to get you in the gym for a year, right? The people who are…”
Berger: Regularly making requests prevents self-deception and frustration
“And I think to me, the flip side of that is, is sort of the reason that the stakes around asking for what you want are so high because yeah, you know, if you're, we can't guarantee we're going to get what we want, but if we're asking for it regularly, if we're…”
Berger: Entering meetings convinced you are right is fundamentally disrespectful
“It's fundamentally disrespectful to go into a meeting already deciding that you're right and the other person is wrong, right? Because you can't know that for sure, right? There's always a new perspective, new data that could come in. And so you want that conv…”