Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates explains why enterprise executives should not be coached through underperformance but replaced if direct feedback does not work.
“The right way to do it, you don't need to create a set of dashboards to justify that they're good or bad at forecasting. You can just share the feedback, and if they can't fix it, you know, you need to up-level them. And having that confidence in your evaluation of that sales leader and that executive is really, really core to being able to scale. You can spend a lot of time trying to coach people up, or try to cover for weaknesses, or try to you know, create systems and processes that help make things clear, but it's better. It's much easier. And much more scalable just to be direct with someone about it and own and just say, hey I need you to do this, and if they can't do it, find someone else. Your job is not to lead by example. Your job is to evaluate the performance, and that's a very, that, this has been the hardest switch for me mentally.”
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
Skates: Innovation stalls at 50 engineers without deliberate organizational restructuring
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