A. Simply put, it’s the ability to inspire others to achieve shared objectives, and I think the most important word there by far is “inspire.” I think that’s the difference between leading and managing. Managers will tell people what to do, whereas leaders will inspire them to do it, and there are a few things that go into the ability to inspire. It starts with vision, and the clarity of vision that the leader has, and the ability to think about where they ultimately want to take the business, take the company, take the team, take a particular product.
It’s also very important to have the courage of your convictions, because things are going to get challenging. There are going to be doubters, because if the vision truly is unique, there are going to be a lot of people who will say it can’t be done. In order to inspire people, that’s going to have to come from somewhere deep inside of you. The last component is the ability to communicate that vision and the ability to communicate that conviction in an effective way.
Q. What do you consider some of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. There have been a lot, really too many to count. But one in particular occurred while I was with Yahoo, and Jerry Yang was installed as the C.E.O. Jerry got a lot of calls from the Silicon Valley community asking if there was anything they could do to help. Everyone was rooting for Jerry and rooting for Yahoo, and one of those people was Steve Jobs. He came and addressed several hundred of the leaders of Yahoo, and I’ll never forget it. He said after he had left Apple, and then came back, there was too much going on — too many products, too many lines — and he said he started to focus the team on prioritization.
Prioritization sounds like such a simple thing, but true prioritization starts with a very difficult question to answer, especially at a company with a portfolio approach: If you could only do one thing, what would it be? And you can’t rationalize the answer, and you can’t attach the one thing to some other things. It’s just the one thing. And I was struck by the clarity and the courage of his conviction. He felt it so deeply, and there wasn’t a person in the audience that day who did not take that with them as a lasting memory.
Q. What about mentors who had a big effect on the way you lead and manage today?
A. One is Ray Chambers. He essentially created the modern-day leveraged buyout, and he was on top of Wall Street with his firm, Wesray, and did that for several years and then basically gave it all up because he wanted to make a positive, lasting impact on the world and pursue a life of philanthropic activities.
Among many things that Ray has taught me are five rules for happiness. So the first one is living in the moment. The second is that it’s better to be loving than to be right, and if you’re in a relationship, you know how challenging that can be. The third one is to be a spectator to your own thoughts, especially when you become emotional, which is almost impossible to do. The fourth is to be grateful for at least one thing every day, and the last is to help others every chance you get. So I’m incredibly fortunate to have people in my life like that.
Q. What about the influences of your parents?
A. My mother is unusually and highly intuitive, to the point where it gets a little freaky from time to time. She’ll meet someone, and she’ll size them up after about 30 seconds, and she’ll say a few things to the person. Then the person will say, “How in the world did you know that?” But it’s not some sixth sense. A lot of it is pattern recognition, and I think pattern recognition can be an incredibly valuable asset, especially for leaders. What she’s learned to do is see certain patterns, listen to people a certain way, their voice inflection, their body language, and recognize and pattern-match certain kinds of behavior. From my father, I’ve learned about trusting instincts and the importance of values.
Q. Did you aspire early on to be a C.E.O.?
A. No. But it wasn’t that I couldn’t imagine myself in that role. It’s that I had no ambition to be in that role. I didn’t ever wake up and say I want to be a C.E.O. one day, ever, not a single time. As a matter of fact, based on some of the things I had seen along the way, I would actually think to myself that I do not want to be a C.E.O., and, in particular, I do not want to be a C.E.O. of a publicly traded company, because it can be challenging.
Q. Why?
A. If there’s not a firm foundation underneath the company in terms of a company’s core, its culture, its values, its infrastructure, its processes, its talent, with people all going in the same direction, and understanding what it wants to accomplish, it can be challenging. At the end of the day, when you’re a publicly traded company, if you allow the narrative to get away from you, it can be really tough sledding.
But I was out to dinner with my parents about 10 or 12 years ago, and my dad said to me, “You’re going to be a C.E.O. one day.” And I said, “No, I don’t want to be.” He said, “No, you’re going to be.” And I said: “Dad, you’re not listening. I don’t want to be.” And literally we started arguing about this. But he was right.
Q. Are there certain expressions that you find yourself repeating at work?
A. Sure. The first one has essentially become the unofficial mantra of LinkedIn, and it’s not something I came up with. It’s something I read and loved and decided to use. And it’s two words: “next play.”
The person I borrowed it from is Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski] of the Duke Blue Devils. Every time the basketball team goes up and down the court and they complete a sequence, offense or defense, Coach K yells out the exact same thing, every time. He yells out “next play,” because he doesn’t want the team lingering too long on what just took place. He doesn’t want them celebrating that incredible alley-oop dunk, and he doesn’t want them lamenting the fact that the opposing team just stole the ball and had a fast break that led to an easy layup. You can take a moment to reflect on what just happened, and you probably should, but you shouldn’t linger too long on it, and then move on to the next play.
Q. Tell me about the culture you’re trying to foster at LinkedIn.
A. We take culture very seriously, and we do draw a distinction at LinkedIn between culture and values. Culture is who we are. It’s essentially the personality of our company — who we are and who we aspire to be. Values are the principles upon which we make day-to-day decisions. And of course your values are a subset of your culture, so they’re very much inextricably linked. Getting that right helps with recruiting. It helps with motivating. It helps with inspiring. It helps with productivity.
Q. Can you break that down for me in a bit more detail?
A. So our culture has five dimensions: transformation, integrity, collaboration, humor and results. And there are six values: members first; relationships matter; be open, honest and constructive; demand excellence; take intelligent risks; and act like an owner. And by far the most important one is members first. We as a company are only as valuable as the value we create for our members.
Q. A lot of people complain about the crush of e-mail in their lives. How do you handle it?
A. Like any other tool, e-mail is what you make it . It’s an incredible tool of productivity, collaboration and knowledge-sharing for me. That’s not to say I haven’t struggled with it like everybody else. But one thing I realized is that if you want to reduce the amount of e-mail in your in-box, it’s actually very simple: you need to send fewer e-mails. I know it’s kind of a self-evident truth. Because every time you send an e-mail, what’s going to happen? It’s going to trigger a response, and then you’re going to have to respond to that response, and then they’re going to add some people on the “cc” line, and then those people are going to respond. You have to respond to those people, and someone’s going to misinterpret something. That’s going to start a telephone game, and then you’re going to have to clarify that stuff. Then you have someone in a time zone who didn’t get the clarification, so you’re going to have to clarify that clarification.
So I try to clearly identify who’s in the “to” line and who’s in the “cc” line. I’m going to be as precise as possible with every word I write. I’m going to try to convey the right information to the right person at the right time. And if you can hold to that, it can be an amazing tool.
Q. I’ve heard some C.E.O.’s say they insist that people talk in person or over the phone if it seems as if an e-mail exchange is becoming contentious.
A. I couldn’t agree more. As soon as you hit that trigger point, pick up the phone. Pick up the phone because you’re going to lose context and nuance. It’s going to end very badly. The phone is totally underrated.
Q. What career advice do you give to business school students?
A. The advice I give them about their career path and realizing their dreams starts with a very simple question. I say: “I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to have 15 seconds to answer it: Looking back on your career 20, 30 years from now, what do you want to say you’ve accomplished? Go.”
If they can’t answer it in 15 seconds, it probably means they haven’t thought about the answer before that moment, or they don’t have a definitive answer, which is fine, because for some people that’s a lifelong journey. But you’d be amazed how many people I meet who don’t have the answer to the question. They either never asked themselves that or they got swept up in a stream of opportunity that led from one thing to another — more titles, more money — and they just didn’t stop to ask themselves that simple question.
You can’t realize your goal if it’s not defined. It sounds so simple but it’s true. So the most important piece of advice I can give folks who are coming out of school, even people who’ve already begun their career, is to know what it is they ultimately want to accomplish. And if they don’t, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but start thinking about what it is, because once you know it, the moment you know it, you begin manifesting it. You manifest it in explicit ways by virtue of knowing and then pursuing it, and you manifest it in implicit ways — just in the way you talk, in the way you think and the things that you say to others and the people you attract to yourself.
And if you don’t know the answer to the broader question, my advice is to optimize for two things: passion and skill, not one at the exclusion of the other. You have to optimize for both. So that’s the first piece of advice.
The second piece of advice is to surround yourself with amazing people, only the best. In this day and age, in this more global society, in this more networked, interconnected world we live in, it’s just all about the people you work with. I used to think it was all about the person you worked for, having the right mentor, the right leader, someone who believed in you, someone who would allow you to make mistakes and take risks and teach you and coach you. It’s not just about the person you report to, though. It’s about the people you work with and the people who report to you. It’s about everyone you’re associated with, day in and day out. Surround yourself with only the best you can find.
And the third piece of advice is to always be learning. Joi Ito, the head of the M.I.T. Media Lab, loves to refer to the word “neoteny.” It means a delayed state of adolescence. With animals, it’s not a good thing because the animal has not fully matured. But with regard to people, it can be an incredibly positive thing. Joi likes to talk about maintaining a childlike sense of wonder throughout your entire life, and it’s such a powerful concept.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I like to lean toward the latter, and I’m definitely drawn to other people who do the same.
sonnypark 