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No-nonsense leadership with Ben Horowitz
Leadership isn’t for the faint of heart. While it can come with lofty highs, the lows often include a relentless cycle of high-stakes decisions and tough calls (complete with a few sleepless nights). Throw in shifting market conditions or unexpected disruptions, and the challenges only intensify, testing your judgment and nerve. So how do you forge ahead? Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz suggests running toward the hard problems, not away from them.
Horowitz is the founding Partner of Andreessen Horowitz and Author, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. In this video lesson, Horowitz explores how to make tough decisions with confidence and handle tough employees effectively.
Learning objectives:
Make tough decisions with confidence
Operationalize your culture
Train early to boost productivity and engagement
Handle tough employees effectively
Adapt leadership approaches to fit “wartime” conditions
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Lessons:
Lesson 1: Making Hard Decisions the Smart Way
Telling a friend the hard truth. Enforcing a rule your team dislikes. Holding someone accountable when it would be easier to look the other way. In life — and especially in leadership — doing the right thing often means making someone unhappy. This paradox is one of the trickiest challenges of leading others.
Lesson 2: Accounting for Management Debt
Neglect a small leak long enough, and it can bring down an entire building. Cracks widen, mold spreads, and what was once a minor issue turns into a costly disaster. Organizations tend to work in the same way, according to venture capitalist Ben Horowitz. Every time a leader avoids a tough decision — for example, by keeping a poor performer, delaying a …
Lesson 3: Building a Culture That Actually Works
“We value integrity.” “We lead with empathy.” “We have each other’s backs.” These phrases sound great on a company website, but do they actually shape behavior? Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz argues that culture isn’t built on abstract values — it’s built on clear, consistently practiced actions. If your company values client responsiveness, for exampl…
Lesson 4: Three Benefits of Taking Training Seriously
You’ve hired someone great, and you can’t wait to see them in action. They’ve got the credentials, the experience, the glowing recommendations — you’re sure they’ll hit the ground running with minimal input. But then … they don’t. Weeks pass, and they’re still asking basic questions, unsure of expectations, and struggling to get up to speed. What went w…
Lesson 5: Managing Smart People Who Are Bad Employees
We’ve all heard the advice: “Hire people smarter than you.” But what happens when those people also bring big egos, erratic behavior, or outright defiance? Some of history’s most brilliant minds were also difficult to work with — think Picasso or Steve Jobs. Great talents can come with great disruption, but as investor Ben Horowitz explains, there are w…
Lesson 6: Leading Your Organization Through "Wartime"
History remembers leaders who made tough decisions in moments of crisis. Think of Satya Nadella innovating in the face of Microsoft’s outdated culture and business model. Mary Barra steering General Motors through industry upheaval. Or Howard Schultz returning to Starbucks to revive the brand. Each of these leaders faced a defining moment, then acted fa…
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