David Henke's leadership slides.

1. Leadership 101
David Henke
Leadership: The ability to inspire others to achieve a
shared objective.

2. Abraham Lincoln
 Circulate amongst the troops
 Build strong alliances
 Persuade rather than coerce
 Honesty/integrity
 Never act out of vengeance or spite
 Have the courage to handle unjust criticism
 Be master of the paradox
 Exercise a strong hand (be decisive)
 Lead by being led
 Set goals and be results oriented
 Encourage innovation
 Master the art of public speaking
 Influence people through conversation and storytelling
 Preach a vision and continually reaffirm it

3. Abraham Lincoln, by example
 Civil War was worst nightmare in American history (more Americans
killed in this war than all other wars combined)
 Lincoln needed a vision, a plan, people that could execute on that
plan, feedback on the execution of that plan, and the ability to inspire
the country
 Eventually made slavery the key rallying point (Emancipation
Proclamation)
 Wrote and delivered incredible speeches (Gettysburg Address)
constantly reinforcing the mission
 Walked the front line to talk/listen to his troops as well as the
leadership
 Replaced McClellan with a drunk (Grant) because Grant would fight
 Never lost his resolve to complete the task

4. Steve Jobs (from notes at Yahoo leadership meeting)
 Focus
 Know your DNA
 Run the company like a small company
 Management is always the problem
 Passion for products/services
 Passion for employees
 Never forget what you already have (core assets)

5. Steve Jobs, by example
 Apple was 3 months away from bankruptcy when Jobs returned
 Focus: PDA no  IPOD yes, 16 computer lines  4 computer lines
 Know your DNA: build the computers/devices that consumers love
 Run the company like a small company: Simple, functional org, small
number of empowered leaders
 Management is always the problem: got rid of most management, 4000
employees
 Passion for products/services: agonized over UI of IPOD, willing to halt
production at PIXAR because Toy Story was not right; preferred “excellence”
and “caring” to the word “innovation”
 Passion for employees: Apple is best place to work; best people attracts
best people; rewards employees with the work product and financial freedom
 Never forget what you already have (core assets): great employees, great
products, incredible customer base, money

6. Henke Axioms
 What get’s measured gets fixed
 The code doesn’t lie (where there’s one bug there are many; a feature is a
bug in a tuxedo)
 Quality, schedule, features, pick 2
 There are three kinds of feedback, positive, negative, and none. Only one of
them is bad
 Long term vision, short term execution
 Don’t worry about the mule being blind, just load the wagon
 You are only as good as your lieutenants
 Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eras (tell me who you run with and I
will tell you who you are)
 The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz
 Be impeccable with your word
 Do your best
 Don’t assume anything
 Don’t take anything personally

7. Turnaround Principles
 Never give up
 Listen
 Focus
 Promote your best people; otherwise clean the house; shake things up
 Simplify and clarify the organizational structure
 Put recruiters to work, but don’t rely on them for all recruiting
 Hire young people (interns, new college grads) as well as senior folks
 Communicate constantly
 Change the story
 Establish a sense of urgency
 Form a powerful guiding coalition
 Create a vision; communicate that vision; empower others to act on that
vision
 Plan for and create short-term wins
 Consolidate improvements and produce still more changes
 Institutionalize new approaches

8. Organization/Culture
 F == Focus  fewer things done better
 C == Communicating right things to right people at right time
 S == Speed and quality of decision making
 Prioritize, decide, marshal resources efficiently
 Specify clear ownership and accountability
 Conway’s Law (org defines result) instantiated: If you have four groups
working on a compiler, you will get a four pass compiler
 Flatten the hierarchy
 Scrutinize what everyone is working on
 Manage out the bottom 10%
 Leadership, the ability to inspire others to achieve a shared objective
 Leverage: Maximizing value by performing both efficiently and effectively
 Results: Maximizing your time and energy on initiatives that move the needle

9. Top 10 Leadership principles from recent Internet
posting
 Assemble a dedicated team
 Over communicate
 Don’t assume
 Be authentic
 Know your obstacles
 Create a team charter
 Believe in your team
 Dole out credit
 Keep your team engaged
 Stay calm

10. Henke, by Example
 Asked to turn around Overture, responsible for ½ of Yahoo’s revenue stream
 Legacy systems failing; two attempted rewrites had failed in last two years
 Created two teams: one to keep the legacy pig alive, one to build the new pig
 Came up with a narrative (code-named Panama) that built a metaphor for
what we were attempting to do, comparing and contrasting our project with
the construction of the Panama Canal:
 Create the vision and build the plan
 Keep the workforce alive/Build the team
 Come up with an engineering solution that would work
 Invest in the infrastructure necessary to do it
 Constantly re-enforce the vision and the current status and the next
milestone
 When push comes to shove, DIG

11. Appendix A: Some leadership development
suggestions
 Communication: All-hands, targeted meetings, skip-level meetings, brown-
bags, re-enforcement and cascading of messaging
(e.g., leadership, leverage, results, vision/mission)
 Circulate amongst the troops; management by walking around, open door
policy, ad-hoc smoke breaks
 Mentoring: formal 1-1, executive coaches
 Training: LinkedIn University, Leadership Forum, every meeting is a training
session, Professor Flynn training, Public Speaking
training, Toastmasters, second in command represent us, Technology Boot
Camp, Sales Curriculum (very extensive)
 Sharing: numerous memos from personal experience (e.g., Deep Nishar’s
Product Principles)
 Cross-functional helpers: presentations, invitations to meetings, solicitations
 Books: see Bibliography

12. Bibliography
 The Startup of You (Reid Hoffman)
 The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz)
 The Goal (Goldratt and Cox)
 Six Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono)
 Lincoln on Leadership, Executive Strategies for Tough Times, (Donald T.
Phillips)
 The Art of War (Sun-Tzu)
 The Mythical Man-Month ((Fred Brooks)
 Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the box (Arbinger Institute)
 10 Secrets of Successful Leaders (Kara Ohngren)
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220518
 The Path Between the Seas - The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
(David McCullough)

13. QA