Hey fellow managers and leaders!
Welcome to this issue of the Supermanagers TLDR.
You read that right. Today, we’re excited to announce a new chapter for this community, previously known as the Manager TLDR.
Yes, we might have a ✨ fresh ✨ new name. But don’t worry… the mission of this newsletter – and all the content we produce at Fellow – continues to be the same: to help you continuously grow as a leader and excel at the art of managing teams.
Now, why make the announcement today? 🎉
Last week marked a special occasion because we celebrated 100 episodes of the Supermanagers podcast. And for that special occasion, we had the honor of interviewing David Sacks – founding COO of PayPal, General Partner at Craft Ventures, and one of the best operators in the SaaS space.
Today’s newsletter will provide you with all the insights and best practices shared by our special guest… plus EXCLUSIVE content only available to the leaders in this community!
Let’s get into it ⬇
Exclusive content ✨
How did the “PayPal Mafia” come together?
There’s one thing that companies like Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer have in common – all their founders started their careers at PayPal. We were intrigued to know… how is it possible that so many great people worked together under the same roof? And why were they all successful in starting these innovative companies? Watch the exclusive clip below to hear David Sacks’ answer.
Hint: it’s all about people, timing, and playbooks.
TLDR ⚡
From PayPal Mafia to Viral Startups, How David Sacks Leads Growth at Iconic Companies – TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS:
1. Being “charismatic” isn’t necessary to be an effective manager.
According to David Sacks, you don’t need to be an extroverted or charismatic person to be a good leader – as long as you focus on a specific set of management techniques and activities…
2. There are six high-leverage activities that every manager should focus on:
- Prioritization: making sure people are working on the most important things.
- Communication: communicating what those priorities are.
- Alignment: resolving disagreements and working effectively together.
- Training: making sure people know how to do the job.
- Metrics: measuring the results.
- Feedback loops: creating cadences and rituals to learn and adjust.
3. Learning the art of delegation is important – but you shouldn’t ALWAYS delegate.
When you’re a manager, you want to do the things that maximize your team’s output. Sometimes, this might involve training them and delegating projects or tasks. However, David Sacks argues that sometimes, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and do some of the work yourself.
🏀 Quote: “Think about Michael Jordan ticking the game-winning shot,” said David Sacks. “He always wants the ball in his hands when there are 15 seconds left in the game, even though everyone’s guarding him because it’s a very high leverage situation for him to win. So if you’re in that sort of do-or-die moment, the shot clock is winding down, and the buzzer is about to go off. You have to make sure the ball is in the hands of the best person to take that shot, whether it’s a manager or the CEO. But in many other situations that aren’t high leverage, you want to delegate those tasks so that you can spend your time on more important things.”
There are so many great insights in this episode… we can’t wait to hear your feedback about it. You can tag @aydin + @fellowapp on Twitter.
If you enjoy this type of content, don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you can get notified when we post the next episode.
And last but not least, please tell your friends and fellow managers about this newsletter (they can subscribe here). It would be awesome if you could help us spread the word about these resources for growth-minded leaders like you!
See you next time 👋
Manuela & the Fellow.app team