To celebrate our 10th edition, I'd like to see how many questions I can answer from our 7653 readers while keeping it under the 5-minute read time promise.

Read time: 4 minutes 53 seconds

"What’s the right way to evaluate and rank technical teams, so a RIF isn’t random?" Max via Twitter.

There are two common forms a Reduction in Force can take:

I'd start here because the ranking isn't particularly important when you're exiting. And most companies should be making the call this way. It's the harder but cleaner choice - one decision to eliminate a thousand more. AirBNB did this to survive the pandemic.

In the scale-back model, there's no single right way. But a clarifying model could be borrowed from the world of sports: Wins Above Replacement (WAR). You're benchmarking each team member's contribution above freely available talent in the marketplace.

The hard part is defining what factors lead your team to "winning," but considerations for a technical team might include:

And one last piece of advice: It is better to cut deeper once than undershoot and need to cut a second time.

Most employees know how hard it is to navigate a business in times of change and will forgive the first one. But with a second one, they'll question your leadership and judgment. A misstep here will make it much harder to refocus them to do better with fewer.

"I am managing multiple locations with multiple subordinates. I know the details but don’t feel like I have time to focus on them and have to look at things in broad strokes. The company needs the details buttoned up but it’s hard to focus on everything.

How do I help raise the standard and attention to detail of location managers?" Stephen via MGMT Playbook.

Expectations - Align on the What (their goals) and the How (your shared standards). I wrote a full playbook on setting expectations.

Measurement - Pick the most critical standard and measure it. Use measures that prevent it from being gamed, or you'll end up with cobras everywhere.

Improvement - Tight feedback loops are necessary to reset a standard. Start by asking them:

Peer Pressure - Since you can't be everywhere, how can you create mutual accountability? Consider ways to gamify or incentivize the change you're trying to make.

"What's your trick to figuring out integrity during hiring? Currently, I have them dive into a recent mistake and talk about a difficult team member. It's helped build a good team, but I feel like I can do better there." Kevin via Twitter

I like where you started. A few more interview questions you could consider:

More than fixating on one specific answer, I'm looking for consistency across them. Anyone can have a single, polished story. Those who live the value will have many.

Other tactics you might want to consider:

Threat of Reference Check - Make it very clear that you'll be doing references upfront and explicitly checking the accuracy of answers, given your focus on integrity. The folks who built the Topgrading interview process believe this will help dishonest people opt out.

Blind References - Candidates are going to supply their best possible references. Reach out to someone you trust in your network who knows the candidate for their unbiased read.

Magnetic Mythology - Have a story that dramatically shows the level of integrity expected at your company? Share it early with candidates. It will attract the right ones and repel the others.

"How do leaders get honest feedback? Because of the leadership dynamic and people’s inherent fear of blowback, it can be incredibly difficult to get the straight truth (regardless of how you ask for it)." David via Twitter.

Self-Reflection - Get brutally honest with yourself. One tactic I found helpful is a decision journal (free template). By writing down what we expect to happen based on what we know today, we can use what actually happens to improve our decisions in the future.

Anonymous Surveys - I use these sparingly because I want teams that can feel comfortable bringing me the hardest truths, but this can be useful, especially with teams that are low on trust.

Coach or Peer Group - Leaders often need someone without competing priorities. As a coach, I only win if my executives win. So my incentives to speak truth to power are much better aligned than someone whose livelihood is controlled by that leader.

"How often should review be given?" Barrett via Twitter.

Formally, do it once a year.

I've worked at places where we did it more frequently, and it wasn't worth the cost.

I do build a "mark-to-market" into my 1:1 meetings once per quarter. We revisit the expectations we set, and both grade them blindly. Then we compare scores and reconcile any differences. The stakes are lower than year-end because there's still time to adjust.

The one exception is someone who is underperforming. I might tighten up the cycles to one per month to stay aligned on whether or not progress is sufficient.

"What's your go-to for building remote-first culture?" Jasper via Twitter

The biggest mistake I see companies making is trying to keep their in-person approach and get by with small tweaks to fit a remote-first world. The companies getting it right recognize that this requires a full rewrite of the company's operating system.

Why? Because the old system built in many implicit assumptions that don't play out remotely. You can't bump into people at lunch. There's no debrief after a tough meeting on the walk back to the office. Birthday cakes are tough to ship out to 10 different locations.

And the best principle I heard on this topic came from our friends at OnDeck:

If it's not written down, it's not real.

True of the culture. True of decisions. True of feedback.

My next move would be to rethink the interaction model and develop a Minimum Viable Cadence. I'd start with:

If that were enough to let us win, I'd keep the rest of the hours protected for my remote team to do deep work and keep the benefit of working remotely.

"If you could only give one piece of advice to a new CEO, what would it be?" Mahran via Twitter.

The higher fidelity view you have of yourself, the better the chances you have of building a team that will win. You'll know who you must bring in to complement you. You'll understand how your communication, decision-making, and problem-solving approach impacts others.

Make self-awareness your superpower.

We want the MGMT Playbook to help you win. So help us help you.

Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 leaders positively. If this playbook would help someone on your team make better hiring decisions, please forward it to them.

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Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!

Dave