Claire Hughes Johnson

Writing serves as a primary tool for clarifying and crystallizing complex thoughts and strategies.

"Whenever I do write something down, I'm glad I did. So I probably do more crystallizing by writing than I would admit."

Effective internal communication requires a deliberate strategy and multiple channels to ensure information is actually absorbed by the team.

"Having really smart communication practices is something that I think a lot of companies don't invest in early... Do you have a newsletter? Do you have founders do like a message or a quick video, whe..."

Alignment requires a multi-channel communication strategy that repeats key messages until they are fully understood.

"Never think that one communication, meaning an email or an all hands, reaches the audience. You have to be smart about how you communicate... Just like a marketer, use different channels. Some people..."

Offsites are essential for creating mental space and imprinting collective memory that cements team alignment.

"When you yank people out of their day-to-day routine, you create space, and also you imprint memory... you're basically activating new parts of their brain, and then you're also having a group experie..."

Meeting effectiveness is determined by the preparation and the explicitness of the objective rather than the act of gathering.

"The work of a meeting is not calling the meeting. Calling a meeting is easy. In fact, that is a problem... What you really want to know... People need to know why are we meeting, and what is the point..."

Interviewing is a learned skill that requires structured tools like rubrics and specific questions to be effective.

"I think interviewing is not a skill that comes naturally. People think it does. It does not... I really recommend... and my book has examples of rubrics, questions you can use. How do you really get a..."

Leaders should practice radical transparency by voicing the observations they are tempted to filter out.

"Say the thing you think you cannot say... I think that I've come to believe that often your biggest strength, one, is also your weakness, but two, is something that you don't know is a big strength be..."

Difficult feedback is best delivered as a non-judgmental observation or a curious question that the speaker 'owns' as their personal perception.

"One is, ask a question. Right? A question is not threatening... The next trick is you own it. This is your observation, this is your perception. This is not a judgment. I am not saying, 'Lenny, I thin..."

In high-growth environments, individuals should default to ownership of decisions when the owner is unclear to maintain organizational momentum.

"If you're not sure who the decision maker is, one, it's probably you. And I'd rather you act that way than not because you're going to like slow the whole company down. Follow a process and get it don..."

Categorizing decisions by their impact and reversibility helps determine the appropriate speed and process for making them.

"In the book, I talk about this framework that Bezos uses, type one, type two decisions. Is it high impact? Is it irreversible? Is it not? Really evaluate, what kind of decision is this? How hard is it..."

A clear mission and long-term goals provide the necessary context for employees to make the right independent choices.

"The mission is one line... you need a little more meat behind that... Articulating that, because until I said that to you... you might not understand why we invested in certain things or why it meant..."

A consistent goal-setting structure provides organizational stability and a clear way to measure progress against the plan.

"Stripe, we have an annual set of numeric targets that we put together, we have a system of goals or OKRs, objectives and key results... what is your structure for setting milestones that you want to a..."