Powerful quotes from Powerful by Patty McCord

We do a lot of book clubs at work. Some of the books have been good, some have been bad, and some have been terrible.

Most recently I was in a group that read Patty McCord’s Powerful, a book about the Netflix culture.

While I don’t want to write a review of the book, I did want to share some of the highlights I made while reading. I made a lot of highlights, but some stuck out to me more than others.

At Netflix, when we were interviewing people, we told them straight out that we were not a career-management company, that we believed people’s careers were theirs to manage, and that while there might be lots of opportunity for them to advance at the company, we wouldn’t be designing opportunities for them.

I’ve long believed that we each own our own careers, and leaving it to your company is a mistake. It’s good to see this is how Netflix approached it.

I believe the best advice for all working people today is to stay limber, to keep learning new skills and considering new opportunities, regularly taking on new challenges so that work stays fresh and stretches them.

See any number of posts I’ve written here about learning and keeping the axe sharp.

People’s happiness in their work is not about gourmet salads or sleeping pods or foosball tables. True and abiding happiness in work comes from being deeply engaged in solving a problem with talented people you know are also deeply engaged in solving it…

This.

Finding the right people is also not primarily about “culture fit.” What most people really mean when they think someone is a good culture fit is that the candidate is someone they’d like to have a beer with. That approach is often totally wrong-headed.

This is so true. “Culture fit” is an easy way to filter out great people.

Bonuses, stock options, high salaries, and even a clear path to promotion are not the strongest draw for high performers. The opportunity to work with teams of other high performers whom they’ll learn from…

Yes.

The focus on employee engagement is misplaced; there is not necessarily a correlation between high engagement and high performance. There is also not necessarily a correlation between high performance in a current job and high performance in the job of the future.

My employer is all about “engagement” and I agree with McCord’s statement above.

When people feel that they have more power, more control over their careers, they feel more confidence—confidence to speak up more, to take more risks, to pick themselves up again when they make mistakes, and to take on more and more responsibility. They will amaze you.

That’s a great quote to end with.

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