Lessons Learned from CEOs - Issue #2

In January’s newsletter, I highlighted four CEO interviews about leadership and hiring from The Sunday New York Times. I received feedback that readers liked the newsletter, so I decided to continue with a second issue.

What I find intriguing about these interviews is they are personal and challenge some conventional notions of leadership and hiring practices. You can read their entire interviews on line by clicking on the CEO’s name. All quotes have been adapted from the article for this newsletter.

Bobbi Brown, founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics

How are you a different leader today than you were 5 or 10 years ago?

“I thought I should be the way I would think a corporate person would be. And I realized that the most important thing I could ever do, in my life and in my business, is be who I am. I would wear high heal shoes and black suits and go into meetings and there was something wrong. Now, I have high heels in my bags if I need them for a shoot. But I like sneakers. I like to sit on the floor with my team and work. I don’t like to sit in fancy chairs. It’s really important to the culture of my company that people understand who they’re working for.”

How do you hire? What are you’re looking for?

“When I interview someone, I know in the first two minutes if I like them or not. I find that if it’s easy to talk to someone and I see an openness and honesty and integrity, then I usually hire them. I first try to understand who they are as people.

What interview questions do you ask?

“Why do you want to work here, and what do you love? I like when people bring energy, creativity, newness to me.”

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com (shoe seller that Amazon acquired last year)

What are important leadership lessons you’ve learned?

At Zappos, we view culture as our No. 1 priority. I sent an e-mail to the entire company, asking them what our values should be. The initial list was 37 long, and then we went back and forth and came up with our list of 10. Today, when we interview, we have questions for each one of the core values.

How do you interview using your core values?

“One of our values is, ‘Create fun and a little weirdness.’ So the question is: On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1, you’re probably a bit too straitlaced for us. If you’re a 10, you might be too psychotic for us. Our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird, so it’s really more just a fun way of saying that we recognize and celebrate each person’s individuality.”

What interview questions do you ask?

“’If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?’ Then the follow-up is, ‘What’s the difference between misperception and perception?’ We are trying to discover how self-aware and how honest people are. I think if someone is self-aware, they can always continue to grow.”

Mark Pincus, founder chief executive of Zynga (a provider of online social games)

What are important leadership lessons you’ve learned?

“It started when I played on my school's soccer team. We didn’t field any great athletes, but we ended up doing really well, and it was all because of teamwork. Another is reliability, the sense that they’re not going to let the team down. And are you a playmaker.”

How has your leadership style evolved?

“One thing I did at my second company is I turned people into C.E.O.’s. I put sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets. I said, ‘By the end of the week everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and needs to be something meaningful.’ It was really effective. I’ve been surprised how much they can achieve without me being involved. That’s awesome.”

What else is unusual about how you run the company?

“We put the whole company on the idea of O.K.R’s which stands for objectives and key results. Every group has one objective and three measurable key results. We put the whole company on that, so everyone knows their O.K.R.’s. It’s a simple principle that keeps people focused on the three things that matter – not the 10.”