IDL135 Season 3: The Manager's Handbook with David Dodson
How can you give feedback to your team in the best way possible to nurture cohesion and momentum in the business? What is the principal skill that you need for managing managers? How can you use your time well with your mentor?
Welcome back and thank you for tuning in! Today’s guest is David Dodson, a fund manager, Stanford professor, business commentator, and entrepreneur. David is also the author of The Manager’s Handbook, which investigates the five skills that make for good managers. In our conversation, we investigate what differentiates managers from leaders, how to give supportive feedback, and how to build relationships with mentors.
Meet David Dodson
David Dodson is on the faculty of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he guides students in tactical execution. He teaches one of the most sought-after courses at Stanford, and in 2023 The Economist listed his course as one of the three “hottest” courses at Stanford. He is a recent recipient of the MSx Teaching Excellence Award and a six-time speaker in the graduation Last Lecture series. He also holds an economics and business degree from Stanford University.
Dodson’s success in the classroom follows a vast experience in the trenches. Beginning as a McKinsey & Company consultant, he left to become a serial entrepreneur, where he operated six companies as CEO or Executive Chairman. He has since served as a board member of more than 40 public and private companies and has been an active investor in over 150 businesses.
He is a frequent business commentator on CNBC and Fox News, and he has been published in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Fortune Magazine, Forbes, CNN, Business Insider, The Hill, Denver Post, along with other publications.
Through his continued interest, he founded StudentVotes to increase student access to voting, where they developed innovative technology that has been 61 times more effective than prior get-out-the-vote techniques.
In 2000 Dodson co-founded Sanku, which developed the only successful technology to fortify grains with lifesaving micronutrients in rural African mills. Through this work, Sanku has saved and improved the lives of over five million rural families in Africa.
Visit Dave Dodson’s website, Futaleufu Partners, and connect with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
Giving feedback the best way possible - 09:45
Model radical candor for your team - 12:07
The principle skill you need for managing managers - 24:28
Create relationships with mentors - 27:20
Giving feedback the best way possible
Many managers - and some leaders - avoid giving feedback until the very end. They may do this because they want to preserve the relationship, not cause tension, or avoid a difficult conversation.
However, you need to realize that this way of going about giving feedback or trying to communicate with a team causes much more tension and conflict down the road. You are just giving in to short-term gain for a longer term suffering.
“When you’re not giving people instant feedback, you’re doing them a disservice and you’re doing it because you want to be liked, or you’re doing it because you want to make your job easier, but it’s not the way that you build a team. ”
The best way to give feedback is to:
- Consider it a professional gift to give perspective that could help someone’s approach or future work style
- Give it while it is still fresh and the situation is close at hand
“The best managers don’t accumulate all the information for a once-a-year performance review but the best managers are always on the lookout for coachable moments. ”
Model radical candor for your team
Solicit radical candor from your team by asking them for feedback and model it for your team by not walking on eggshells around the topic that needs to be discussed.
If you leave small issues to build up over time it may end in a big disagreement and even someone walking out.
To build both psychological safety within your team and to create an environment where the truth and sincerity are valued, honest and compassionate words need to be shared when necessary.
“If we stop and focus on the person first, and then we move from there, usually we get it right. It’s when we don’t consider the person … [that] you end up all by yourself. ”
The principle skill you need for managing managers
“Your principle skill is [that] you are a teacher and a leader … you’re no longer a doer. But being a doer is what got you to that place … and so you hang onto all of the things that made you successful … because you think they’re going to work in this new environment, but they don’t, they actually get in your way. ”
It is the classic piece of advice: when you get to the top and you are managing managers, you are the leader, and you need to set an example, then you need to start delegating.
Take off hats, and let people do what needs to be done.
Of course, you can do things every now and then, but not regularly, because your team needs to feel that you can trust them to do what they need to do.
Create relationships with mentors
Cultivating a willingness to seek and take advice is one of David’s five steps to building your greatest self as a leader, and this is what it means to have a mentor in your life.
“A mentor is not someone who has a fancy resume, they have certain characteristics that will help you in where you want to go. ”
Additionally, when working with a mentor, you need to learn how to use your time well. Pick a leader that you really admire and learn from them.
Learn about how they use and manage their time, and see how you can benefit from implementing similar systems into your daily routine. This is especially important when it comes to multitasking - don’t do it!
You can stir a pot of soup while watching TV, but you cannot have a conversation while reading an email. If you try to do too many things at once, you will be fighting uphill and things will take much longer to get done than if you just focused on them one at a time.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
BOOK | David Dodson - The Manager's Handbook: Five Simple Steps to Build a Team, Stay Focused, Make Better Decisions, and Crush Your Competition
BOOK | Kim Scott - Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
Visit Dave Dodson’s website, Futaleufu Partners, and connect with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
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