How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 144

performance metrics and plot trends to keep us as up to date as
possible. We have a raft of online "dashboards" for every
business we work in that provide up-to-the-minute snapshots of
where we are.
10. Communicate effectively. Every Friday we have an all-hands
assembly with announcements, introductions and questions and
answers. (Oh, yes, and some food and drink.) This allows
management to stay in touch with what our knowledge workers
are thinking and vice versa. Google has remarkably broad
dissemination of information within the organization and
remarkably few serious leaks. Contrary to what some might
think, we believe it is the first fact that causes the second: a
trusted work force is a loyal work force.
Of course, we're not the only company that follows these practices.
Many of them are common around Silicon Valley. And we recognize
that our management techniques have to evolve as the company
grows. There are several problems that we (and other companies
like us) face.
One is "techno arrogance." Engineers are competitive by nature
and they have low tolerance for those who aren't as driven or as
knowledgeable as they are. But almost all engineering projects are
team projects; having a smart but inflexible person on a team can
be deadly. If we see a recommendation that says "smartest person
I've ever known" combined with "I wouldn't ever want to work
with them again," we decline to make them an offer. One reason for
extensive peer interviews is to make sure that teams are enthused
about the new team member. Many of our best people are terrific
role models in terms of team building, and we want to keep it that
way.
A related problem is the not-invented-