Golden rule for your career

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

I'm sure everyone has heard of the Golden Rule.  It teaches us how to happily coexist with people around us.  Treat others with respect, and it comes right back at you from them.

It is the basis for building trust with anyone.  Offering generosity and good will are the best ways to build trust, and based on that trust other wonderful things happen.  Communication, collaboration and execution all become easier once you have the trusting relationship with the person.

In a professional relationship, treating each other respectfully is a good start, but the focus is little different from non-professional relationship.  From a professional standpoint, everyone has one goal in mind.  We all want to be successful at what we do.  We want to get better at what we are doing.

Netflix's freedom & responsibility culture

I stumbled upon Reed Hastings' guide on Netflix's culture guideline.  128 slides of PowerPoint presentation outlines how Hastings has been running Netflix and kind of culture that he has been promoting internally.

It's an interesting look at how Netflix hires, measures and promotes their employees.

Culture (2009) from Reed Hastings

Manager should be an inspiring coach

It's hard to transition from individual contributor to manager role.  Becoming a manager is equivalent to applying for a brand new job.  As individual contributor, the person is measured by how much work he completed.  When he becomes a manager, he is no longer measured by how much he got done.  He will be measured by how much his direct reports were able to accomplish.

There is a world of difference in doing what you do very well vs. motivating someone else to do very well.  It is entirely different kind of art.  Understanding how to be successful as individual contributor helps.  But that's just one of ingredients to become a successful manager.  Manager has to inspire, motivate and coach his direct reports to get better at what they do.