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.