9. Cross-pollinate your teams
Stafford Masie
Ex-CEO, Google Africa and founder of Thumbzup.com
“I follow this principle: Choose insane passion, perpetual positivity, intermingled with integrity over any level of competency.”
“We’ve hired PhDs, astrophysicists, and a marine biologist but that was consequential. Not everyone is here working in their fields, but the collective knowledge base is helping us invent some very special new technologies. We’re all about cross-pollination. That’s how magic happens. And because it’s a team of driven experts who want to be here as much as we want them, I don’t need to manage.
We have a shared vision, goals and jointly established objectives. I don’t even have a designated office or desk. That’s not my role. I just keep pushing the envelope: ‘Okay, that’s great, but can we make it do this?’
I’ve surrounded myself with people much smarter than me, but I’m the dreamer. They tell me something’s impossible, and I argue that it’s not. I push them, and eight times out of ten they find a way. I promise potential new hires only two things: They’ll work on world firsts whilst surrounded by ultra-smart colleagues, and we’ll always continue hiring smarter people.”