Think about war. Do you want the general in some ivory tower or on the front lines? The troops fight harder if they see the general on the front lines. Nobody bleeds for the prince in the palace. Get out there on the front line. Show them that you care and that you’re not in some plush office somewhere.208
If they see the general out on the battlefield, the troops are going to be motivated. Wherever Napoleon was, that’s where his armies would be at their best. Even if I don’t do anything but show up, they’ll look at me and know I wasn’t spending all night partying.209
Never ask your troops to do something you’re not willing to do.
Whatever the people at the front lines are doing, I try to do it at least a few times myself.210
It is my firm belief that the separation of the workplace into “executives” and “employees” does not create a good working environment. We want to create a system of equality without artificial barriers, so someone can start as a trainee and one day lead the entire company.
This is why we eliminate all special privileges of executives. Everyone has equal access to parking, eating at the same tables, and there are no management offices. I am convinced that managers should work at the forefront, in the same work environment as the entire team. Even though I run a company, I still do not have my own office and often move my workplace to the most challenging area in the factory.
Managers should always take care of their team before they take care of themselves. The supervisor is there to serve his team, not the other way round.211
All technical managers must have hands-on experience. For example, managers of software teams must spend at least 20 percent of their time coding. Solar roof managers must spend time on the roofs doing installations. Otherwise, they are like a cavalry leader who can’t ride a horse or a general who can’t use a sword.212
Always be smashing your ego. Internalize responsibility. Whether you’re a CEO or any other role, do whatever it takes to succeed.213
A major failure mode is a high ego-to-ability ratio. If your ego-to-ability ratio gets too high, then you’ve broken the feedback loop to reality.214
In AI terms, you’ll break your reinforcement learning (RL) loop. You want to have a strong RL loop, which means internalizing responsibility and minimizing ego.215
Do whatever the task is, whether grand or humble.216