Direct feedback accelerates performance

I actually pulled them aside and I said, 'Hey, we need to move a lot faster. This is where we need to get to by X. We're a growth team. We need to prove wins out early.' And they don't have to be right, but just getting something out there, starting to line the whole team on what those are and then defining how we're going to measure success.

Anytime I've given someone effective feedback, it's always well received, even if it's tough to hear, people want to get better and they want to know how they can improve.

You're going to lose your top performers. And I think very often people are afraid to tell someone on their team when their work isn't good enough because they're afraid of losing them. But that's not a good reason.

If you really enjoy an interview, except for maybe something on the culture side, to give the direct feedback and see how people engage.

I have a framework called strategy, not self-expression. Most of the time, by the time we are giving feedback to someone, we have been frustrated for a while. The goal is behavior change. So if that's the goal, trim everything else that you were about to say that does not actually contribute to that goal and only keep the part that will make the person want to change.

I also try to frame things as this is how you're being perceived than you are doing X. Because I think even though it's hard to hear... then we can talk about, 'Well, what are ways that we can change the perception?'