如何通过放权掌控全局

    能够让商业忠告类图书一致认同的观点并不多，但它们几乎都会给高管提供这样一条忠告：专注于大的事情，将细节交给团队。

    但我在整个职业生涯都采取了截然相反的做法。而且我相信，我到目前取得的成功，很大程度上要归功于这种管理方法。

    最近在与一些年轻CEO们合作时，我强烈建议他们尝试一下我“关注小事”的管理方法。虽然这似乎有违常识，好像我在诱惑这些CEO变成最可怕的怪物——微观管理者。但实际上这种方法会带来相反的效果。事实上，我发现这种管理方法能够建立起员工的信任，让最优秀的员工有最好的表现，并且最重要的是，它有助于建立一支高效的团队。

    首席执行官，尤其是公司创始人，往往发现自己在两种相互矛盾的冲动之间左右为难。一方面，他们渴望找到“A+”员工，凭借他们的非凡魅力将公司带到新高度。另一方面，许多CEO对于公司各个方面如何运营有清晰的愿景，带有一种邪恶的完美主义倾向。这意味着，他们往往会忍不住诱惑，参与到公司运营的每一个细节，而不是向他们花大力气聘用的人放权。

    换言之，CEO在进行微观管理。而这将不可避免地导致公司上下滋生沮丧情绪，士气低落，甚至陷入瘫痪。那么，“关注小事”的管理方法，如何实施才能奏效？

    在我创办的第一家公司开始迅速发展之际，我希望在不削弱员工独立判断能力的前提下，遵从自己内心的完美主义冲动。团队成员的确可以利用自己的独立判断（往往也更加明智）来完成工作。我的想法有其优点，可以避免“委员会设计”的陷阱——“委员会设计”通常只会产生令人沮丧的、打折扣的解决方案。但我的团队总是把我的想法理解成“宗教法令”，他们要么放弃工作自主权，盲目遵从，要么感到愤怒。因此，我与所有管理者达成了口头约定，详细说明了我会听从他们的哪些决定（大多数），以及我会特别关注哪些细节（只有少数）。

    例如，重新设计网站时，我会授予设计与营销团队决定网站结构、布局和页面流程的权限。毕竟，我之所以聘用他们，就是因为他们是这方面的专家；我希望他们感觉自己拥有把工作做好所需要的自主权。

    Business advice books don’t agree on much, but they’re practically unanimous on this bit of advice to senior managers: focus on the big things, and leave the details to your team.

    I’ve spent my career doing the opposite. And I believe it is largely responsible for the success I’ve had so far.

    These days, when I work with young chief executives, I urge them to try my “sweat the small stuff” management method. It may seem counterintuitive, as though I am urging CEOs to act like that most dreaded creature, the micromanager. But this approach can deliver the opposite effect. In fact, I have found it builds employee trust, brings the best out of the best employees, and, most importantly, builds high-performance teams.

    Chief executives, especially founders, often find themselves torn between two contradictory impulses. On one hand, they aspire to hire “A+” employees who will take the company to new heights with their awesomeness. On the other hand, many CEOs have a clear vision for every aspect of how their companies should be run and a wicked perfectionist streak. This means they often succumb to the temptation to get involved in every detail of the company’s operations, instead of empowering the extraordinary people they’ve just spent a great deal of energy hiring.

    In other words, CEOs micromanage. This inevitably leads to a frustrated, demoralized, and even paralyzed organization. Here’s where a “sweat the small stuff” approach can work well.

    As my first startup began to grow quickly, I found myself wanting to follow my perfectionist impulses without undermining my teams’ ability to get things done using their own—usually more informed—judgment. My ideas had merit, and they avoided the pitfalls of “design by committee,” which often leads to uninspiring and watered-down solutions. But they were often interpreted by my team as religious edicts and caused people to either blindly follow instead of lead or just get annoyed. So, I set up a verbal contract with all of my leaders, which spelled out the decisions I deferred to them (most of them) and a list of details that I specifically cared about (just a few).

    In the case of a major website redesign, for example, I gave the design and marketing teams the authority to determine the site’s organization, layout, and page flow. After all, I hired them because they were experts at this stuff; I wanted them to feel they had the autonomy they needed to do their jobs well.