“When They Win, You Win”: Russ Laraway unpacks his new guide for the modern manager

Today’s episode is with Russ Laraway, a seasoned leader who's been at Google, Twitter, Candor Inc, Qualtrics, and is now the Chief People Officer for Goodwater Capital Since we last had Russ on the show, he’s written a new book, titled: “When They Win, You Win.” On today’s episode, we dive deep into the management frameworks and original research that Russ discusses in his book. He starts by pointing out how broken our process for selecting managers is to begin with, where we often default to just promoting the highest performer on a team, rather than looking for folks who explicitly demonstrate leadership chops. He explains the raw ingredients that point to whether someone’s ready to take on a management role — even if they weren’t the best individual contributor of the bunch. And if you’re looking to hire a manager from outside of the company, he’s got plenty of interview questions to suss out the right hire. Next, we explore the heaps of research that Russ did in writing this book, and how that led to him pulling together a few specific frameworks for managers to lean on. This includes a list of the behaviors of highly-engaging managers — and how you can put these into practice. As Russ discusses in today’s interview, there are countless resources out there on how to be a better manager — often with tons of conflicting advice. Russ distills all of this down to an essential, research-backed guide for the modern manager that cuts through the noise. You can follow Russ on Twitter at @ral1. His book, “When They Win, You Win” comes out on June 7, 2022. You can email us questions directly at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson