Joel Liu's Bookmarks tagged leadership →  View Popular

It makes me sad because I end up thinking about how Yahoo! Finance has stagnated for a long time. It never really recovered from the pain of the dotcom crash. So many of my old Finance coworkers have either left the company or moved on to other groups (several moved into Search last year). Heck, I encouraged many of them to get out!

There was a lack of leadership and, even more importantly, a serious LACK OF VISION. It really disappointed me.

• Employees set their own working hours


• Employees choose their own salaries


• All meetings are voluntary and open to everyone


• Employees hire their own bosses


• HR has been almost abolished, because leaders need to be able to treat their employees right themselves


• All employees rate their bosses twice a year and all ratings are published


• Employees choose which leader they want to work under


• Employees choose which Semco office they want to work out off


• Employees can take early retirement, meaning they get one day a week off in return for working one day a week after they retire.

If he had tried to play the "my stuff is the best and the rest is crap" line, he probably would have lost the sale. Instead, he played "I'm an authority and I'm looking out for your best interests" and that hooked me. He got the sale.

By the way, I've put 1800 miles on it without a problem and I really love the car. I've turned into a Ford evangelist.

Anyway, back to the topic. How do you persuade? In a weblog world where everyone has access to all the information on your company/ideas/you/your products/ etc.?

Do you take the "our product/idea/meme/service/etc is the best and the rest are crap" point of view? Or do you take "I'm an authority on this topic and I'm looking out for your best interests" point of view? Which is more likely to persuade you to change your mind?

Are you also looking to help customers become so passionate about your company and your product that they'll do a better job of selling your ideas/products/company than you ever could?