5 Things Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Can
Teach You About Being a Better Leader
by: MARLA TABAKA
from:
Inc.
IMAGE: Getty Images
1. Be a
leader, not a decider.
For Dorsey, a good leader is someone who
guides the people in their organization so that they can make the big
decisions–not someone who issues decisions down from on high. "If I have
to make a decision," he says, "we have an
organizational failure." With this kind of perspective, the health of an
organization depends not on the power of its leader, but on the power of its
members.
2. Empower
employees–and hold them accountable.
In 2014, Dorsey published an email that
he’d sent to the staffers at Square, admonishing them for name-dropping him in
order to get their projects and ideas approved. "If you have to use
someone else's name or authority to get a point across," he wrote, "there is
little merit to the point (you might not believe it yourself). If you believe
in something to be correct, focus on showing your work to prove it." This
approach both empowers
employees to be creative and innovative in their thinking--and
also puts the onus on them to produce quality work, that deserves to be taken
seriously.
3. Admit your
weaknesses--and then overcome them.
When he launched Square, Dorsey knew that
people were just waiting for the venture to fail. So he tackled their doubts
head-on. In an infamously audacious move,
he presented investors with a list of 140 reasons why Square would fail--along
with his own rebuttals. The gambit worked: investors came on board, and now
Square is the leader in the mobile payment industry. With that initial list,
Dorsey proved that he knew the industry, he knew the field, and he knew the
limitations and potential of his idea. What lesson can entrepreneurs take from
this? Be creative, be daring, and always show people that you know exactly how
to overcome your weaknesses.
4. Foster
transparency.
At Twitter and Square, Dorsey gave employees unprecedented
access to company strategy. At Twitter, notes from engineering meetings are
shared company-wide. At Square, employees get access to documents from board of
director meetings, and get to ask questions and give feedback. This kind of
inclusivity and transparency makes people feel like they’re working towards
common goals.
5. Test
everything, then test it again.
For Dorsey, perfecting the product is key--and
he’s developed unique ways of testing it. The Square offices house a coffee shop that
serves a proving ground for Square’s hardware and software. And Square
employees work shifts in local coffee shops so that they can see how their
services work in the field. This focus on usability means that Dorsey’s clients
walk away satisfied. And their satisfaction equals his success.
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