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What not to learn from Nvidia’s Jensen Huang

by Jeff Haden: Bestselling non-fiction ghostwriter, speaker and columnist for Inc.com.
Sometimes the best thing you can learn from successful business people is what not to do.

When I worked at a book manufacturing plant, the human resources supervisor took a stroll around the shop floor once a week, Thursdays at 9 a.m., to be exact. His visits followed the same pattern.

He would said, “Whatcha doing?” We would answer, “Running books.”

“That’s how we pay the rent,” he would say, and laugh. Every time. Somehow he didn’t seem to realise we had all decided to answer his standard question the same way every time.

Then he would say, “Keep up the good work,” and reach to pat us on the butt in that old-school athlete way - but rarely succeeding, since we had long learned to position ourselves with our backs against our equipment.

Leadership by walking around

I learned two things from him. Formulaic, tick-off-the-“hang out with the troops” items on your calendar are worse than not speaking to employees at all. And butt pats are even worse.

Which leads us to a story about Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang from Tae Kim’s book The Nvidia Way, about the rise (and rise) of the AI hardware and software giant. (It’s a really good read.)

Huang, like Steve Jobs, had high expectations for his employees, and didn’t mind making sure people knew he wanted them to meet those expectations. As Kim writes:

No place in Nvidia headquarters was safe from a drive-by grilling from Jensen. Kenneth Hurley, a technical marketing engineer, was at a urinal when Jensen walked up to the one next to him.

“I’m not the kind of guy who likes to talk in the bathroom,” Hurley said. Jensen had other ideas. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked. Hurley replied with a noncommittal “Not much,” which earned him a sidelong glance from the CEO. Hurley panicked, thinking, “I’m going to get fired because he thinks I’m not doing anything. He’s probably wondering what I’m doing at Nvidia.”

To save face, Hurley proceeded to list 20 things he was working on, from convincing developers to buy Nvidia’s latest graphics card to teaching those developers how to program new features on them.

“OK,” Jensen replied, apparently satisfied with the engineer’s answer.

Could Huang carry on bathroom conversations with employees? Of course. He’s the owner. He’s the boss.

How to do founder mode

Paul Graham’s founder-mode concept, running a business with a hands-on approach at all levels, is a great concept on a number of levels. If only because I hate layers, especially management and hierarchy and the resulting agenda levels.

But founder mode can go too far. To paraphrase Chris Rock, just because you can … it doesn’t mean you should. Talk to shop-floor employees about challenges they need help overcoming? Absolutely. Talk to customer service reps, instead of the customer service manager, about customer issues that consistently pop up? Go for it.

Talk to employees about what they’re working on while they’re in the restroom? Sure, you’re busy, and sure, they’re there, so it’s a perfect opportunity for a little multitasking…. Or not.

Right topic, right place

Take a second and think about some of the habits you may have fallen into. Hopefully, none of them involve butt-patting or restroom-based project updates. But you still may be, without realising it, regularly finding the wrong place and time.

For example, I had a habit of double-dipping when employees came to me with a suggestion. I would listen, talk about their idea, come up with a plan … good stuff.

But I would then use the opportunity to talk about something I wanted them to work on, because, hey, we’re here, why not?

They would leave feeling less recognised, and less validated, and just plain less good about having a good idea.

Should you learn what not to do from Jensen Huang? Sure. But it’s even better when you learn what not to do from your own mistakes.

Because those lessons you never forget.

Useful resources:
BlackBird Media
Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry from forklift driver to manager of a 250-employee book plant. He has written more than 30 non-fiction books, including four Business and Investing titles that reached #1 on Amazon's bestseller list.
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