Netflix is one of the most successful internet companies in the US. Not too long ago it released a 126 page slideshow on the internet about its company culture and what it stands for.
One part of it that I found interesting was in slide 23:
“We’re a team, not a family. We’re like a pro sports team, not a kid’s recreational team”.
I though this was interesting because so many companies today strive to have their employees think of the company like a family (admittedly that’s what we used to strive for at our company before although now we try to find a balance between the two). But here’s how a company that runs like a pro-sports team will function.
1) People will be in senior positions not because they’ve been there longer but because they’re capable.
Here’s the thing, in a family your elder brother or elder sister is someone you must respect not because of whatever he/she has done to earn that respect but because he/she is your elder and has been there longer than you.
In a family, bigger responsibilities are often expected to be given to the older brother/sister not necessarily because they’re the right people for the job… but because they’ve been there longer.
A professional sports team doesn’t function like that. The best people are put in the most important positions and roles based on how capable they are and not based on any given right for being at the team (or company) longer.
Everyone works as a team and must pull their weight. Anyone who doesn’t, must be dropped quickly or the team will suffer.
2) No one person in the team thinks he is bigger than the team
Imagine a football team where all the strikers don’t work in passing the ball to each other in order to find the best opening to score a goal. Instead whenever they get a chance (even if it’s not a very clear chance) they each try for a goal on their own because they each want the glory of being the person who scores the goal.
It doesn’t matter if all the strikers are the best strikers in the world. If they play like that in a team, then the team fails because each person then is playing not for the team’s best interest but for their own.
If any one player thinks that he is bigger than the team, no matter how talented he is, he must leave the team or the team will go into a downward spiral of everyone then playing for themselves instead of the team.
3) Weak leaders are fired quickly
Manchester United is an inspiration for me in this particular point. When Sir Alex Ferguson retired, he handed over the exact same winning team to David Moyes who then messed it up for one entire season. Same team, different leader (and different coaching staff) and he failed. He was then fired.
In a family or in some family businesses, the elder brother is the leader because he’s the elder brother. No matter how incompetent he is, short of him doing something major to mess up the entire company into decline only would be he fired. By then it might have already been too late.
Why? In family or even family businesses we think about emotional attachments or love or respect among one another. We have a higher tolerance for incompetence because we think that’s what family is expected to do.
In sports teams, the only respect any leader gains is from performance and results. So anyone who doesn’t perform is kicked out.
4) People who don’t believe in the vision or direction of the team leave and are replaced by those who do
I’ve learned that people in teams sometimes must leave for renewal to happen. Look at Manchester United. This season they’ve brought in a different team and anyone can tell you that the past 2-3 games have showed a whole new different Manchester United than the one we were watching the last season.
That’s not really because the older players that left were weak players (Heck no… look at Welbeck or Kagawa now. They’re doing so well outside in their new clubs). But it’s because no matter how good a player is, if he doesn’t believe in the team and can’t work with the team as a team, then staying on with the team is bad for the team.
Now imagine if a company is run like a family and you can’t replace anyone.
5) Pro Sports teams strive for only one thing.
And that is to win. Nothing else. Everyone is clear that the only objective is to do better than anyone else in your league. That if you’re an Italian restaurant then you strive to be the BEST Italian restaurant in your area. If you’re an online retailer you strive to be the best in your region.
Wouldn’t it be cool if everyone in the team knew exactly that. That their mission isn’t necessarily to work hard on their jobs. It’s actually to be the best.
I think people would love to be part of a team that wins.
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An ending word:
Till today I don’t consider myself an expert when it comes to managing teams in spite of Co-Founding a company now that has over 170 employees. I’ve made many mistakes before in the past, some of them the very mistakes I talk about above. Heck I believe that an entrepreneur’s hardest job isn’t sales, cash-flow or things like that. It’s always managing people. Finding the right people for the right job and motivating them to be align with the company’s vision. All that is a lot harder than it sounds but I’m learning along the way.
We’re also hiring. You can click here to apply.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space