Hoffman's chief of staff, Ben Casnocha, wrote an interesting piece on leadership lessons he's learned from Hoffman. This one in particular surprised me: "If you’re choosing between working with someone who’s a trusted friend and a 7 out of 10 on competence, versus a stranger who’s a 9 out of 10 on competence, who should you pick? Answer: if the trusted friend is a fast learner, pick the trusted friend."
The normal management guidance is don't hire your friends. According to Nick Bilton's history of Twitter, when Evan Williams asked legendary CEO coach Bill Campbell what the worst mistake he could make is, Campbell replied: "Hire your fucking friends!" So I asked Hoffman why he believes in hiring friends.
"You need to handle it well," Hoffman replied. "If I get to the point where I'm hiring a friend, I say, 'Look. Here's how we keep the friendship and the work stuff different. Here's how I'm going to treat you a little differently as a friend. Here's how you're going to act a little differently as a friend.' I'm going to be clear about the fact that I'm not going to privilege them at all in the continuum to the job and promotions and bonuses. All of that will be done in a very fair way.
"On the other hand, I will actually, as a friend, go out of my way to invest even more energy than I normally do to make this work. I'm committing to put in a little bit more energy. In return, one thing is I want you, as a friend, to do the same. The benefit you get from this is both a) a higher level of trust, and b) you get to work with people that you actually really like to spend time with. Which usually facilitates a generally positive working relationship anyway."
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