I help founders build revenue growth, audience & personal brand ?? From 0 → $30M ARR | Startup & GTM Advisor & Builder ?? ex-LinkedIn & ex-Remote ?? | Founder: Huntrs
Here’s how Netflix nailed it: Netflix refers to themselves as a professional sports team, not a family. “We model ourselves on being a professional sports team, not a family. A family is about unconditional love. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best possible teammate, caring intensely about your team, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever. Dream teams are about performance, not seniority or tenure. It is up to the manager to ensure that every player is amazing at their position, plays effectively with others and is given new opportunities to develop. That’s how we keep winning the championship (entertaining the world). Unlike a sports team, as Netflix grows, the number of players also grows. We work to foster players from the development leagues so they can become the stars of tomorrow.” BOOM ?? Well said, Netflix. A company is not a family. Don’t get them mixed up. PS. Join almost 40,000 people and subscribe to my FREE weekly newsletters about sustainable business growth and the future of work. #startups #culture #futureofwork #gotomarket
It might seem a bit extreme for some, but I always advise people not to get emotionally attached to companies. As I often say, ‘at the end of the day, we’re all numbers on a spreadsheet.’ It’s a brutal truth. Instead of emotional attachment, focus on being impact-driven. Let the results of your work, both in personal growth and professionally, motivate you. Create an obsession for achieving results, and you won’t need to form emotional attachments to any company or organization.
Hanna Larsson: If anyone is ever told by a company that they’re like a family, I have one thing to say to say to them … “RUN!” The image of “family” that those companies are trying to sell doesn’t exist. They want you to believe you’re going to become a member of the Cleaver family when you get hired. Sure, it sounds warm and fuzzy, but let’s be honest here. A lot of families (most?) are wildly dysfunctional at best. So yeah, maybe they are like a family, it’s just more like the Simpsons, not the Cleavers.
Good point. I also like to tell that we're in team sport. We need star players but also supporting midfield, defense and goalie plus back office to help keep things going. There's a huge risk for companies in claiming that they are like family - employees will easily turn to call it a dysfunctinal family and like Edward said as well - when times get tough and you need to let go of employees it will make it feel at the minimum like a messy divorce. Companies need to be super careful what they want to portray as key values. Once you claim certain values, better stick to them from the top all the way down. At least with sports team analogy you can put in your OKR that you exist to win games and championships.
A toxic family which brings pizza from time to time :))
The whole “we are a family” narrative can be so destructive. It’s more in the subtle behaviors that are invoked with the word “family” than the explicit actions … - Because you don’t usually challenge family, and when you do you’re told it isn’t something you’re supposed to do. - Because we’ve heard the whole “blood is thicker than water” line and so feel we should always stick by colleagues - even when we know it’s time for them to go - Because there is the paternal influence - respect them, don’t challenge them Great highlights Hanna And love Patty McCord who has spoken on this endlessly too.
Or..or! You could realize that metaphors are just mental models and no metaphor is a perfect fit. At times a business is like a family and at times a business is like a sports team. Why do we need to choose one metaphor when there is something to learn from both?
Mixing employees with family is not the way to do it, Hanna Larsson 3 ways in why calling your employees a 'family' can be suffering for the employee: ?? Personal & work life mix-up ?? Committed workers might be used unfairly ?? Leaving employees may be seen as disloyal Even if you have the best intentions in calling your employees your 'family' or your 'work family'... ...it's much better to design a name for your employees based on your company's name or mission, like: ?? Disney = Cast Members ?? Amazon = Amazonians ?? Apple = Genious ?? Lego = Builders Your Team <> Your Family
Lovely story, from memory I understand that Netflix don’t take interns for the same reason, they are not there to train them but want high performers who hit the ground running. Taking your analogy deeper it is about the mutual loyalty and contract. Your seniority etc determine the duration of mutual loyalty. In a sports team players know they are valuable as long as they perform and when the contract is over/performance does not happen they move on but are paid to give their 100%. Don’t this this would work for a church or civil service… the purpose of a pension is to guarantee their commitment to the civil service and a church does not recruit “high performance” players.
I help founders build revenue growth, audience & personal brand ?? From 0 → $30M ARR | Startup & GTM Advisor & Builder ?? ex-LinkedIn & ex-Remote ?? | Founder: Huntrs
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