How to Stop Worrying About Being Liked and Risk Being Loved

Accountability without mentoring is heartless.

Mentoring without accountability is pointless.

To create a culture of personal ownership you have to have both.

You have to be able to talk about expectations — but not your expectations — the ones people have for themselves.

You have to be able to give actionable feedback — not feedback that contains the solution — but the kind that contains a thought-provoking question.

You have to be able to let people go who aren't cutting it — not to be cruel — but because it's cruel not to.

Being a great people manager is incredibly difficult because you have to do all this without letting your individual contribution slip.

It's also why in a world where automation is eating everything, being a great people manager is the closest thing to job security you'll find.