I’m not perfect so STFU

I don’t really know Tony Fadell but I suspect he is a visionary and creative leader, but I am going to pick on him a little. Oh and I also don’t know all the circumstances around the commentary on him and Nest coming from within and outside of google/Nest. So here we go. Owning our mistakes becomes increasingly difficult with success because we think we know best and we have the perception that inviting feedback will slow us down. Authenticity and public mea culpas can be bedfellows. Because the relationship between them is not always direct and because Tony is such a high profile CEO, I felt like I needed to write this post. I grabbed some quotes from Tony in a recent Recode post of a speech he gave to Google employees responding to the criticism and added some commentary.

1. “Of course, we’re not perfect. No company is. Nest isn’t perfect. I’m not perfect. No one’s perfect.” Using the nobody’s perfect response implies defensiveness and is dismissive of the people giving feedback. It’s quite different from saying “We and Nest are constantly seeking to become better”
2. “the articles…about Nest — they are incredibly disheartening because we don’t believe — and I don’t believe specifically — that those articles represent our culture” Also defensive and dismissive vs saying “the commentary, while painful to read, reveals that we have room for improvement.”
3. “That said, I also want to address the whole respect thing. I do respect the Nest employees” Just saying the opposite of the criticism doesn’t make it go away and doesn’t imply an openness to improvement.
4. “So when I read those things that say we don’t respect people, or I don’t, it’s absolutely wrong” ditto from #3
5. “So we’re opening all of our Lunch and Learns over the next month to all Googlers, to come and learn anything about Nest. Come and ask me questions. It’s an informal, open, honest format where you can come and get your questions answered.” Now this I really really like.

Being authentic means owning your failings (and successes) and is powerful medicine to encourage your team to be more open. When the CEO owns his/her shit, it makes it safer for the team to be honest about their fears and more openly share their constructive criticisms. In this way, transparency can dramatically build company loyalty.

Being intellectually curious about what your current and former employees think about you and your company and owning “imperfections” and failures is a sign of strength and will help you build a better company and culture in the long term.