In high school, Spencer Neumann’s football coach, George Conti, had a book full of plays, but his favorite was the end sweep, which he drilled over and over again at practice. The repetition might have bored some players, but one who appreciated the focus was Spencer because, well, the play worked. And in a way, the play is still working for the Netflix CFO who says Coach Conti offered him a life lesson in the power of focus and simplicity.
“I think the best leaders and business folks are those who are simplifiers, as opposed to the complicators,” he said. “The world is complicated, and clarity can be a hard thing to come by, so when you can boil something down to a priority or small set of priorities, you create clarity for your team that unifies its members and provides direction. That’s super powerful.”
By focusing on repetition and saying “no” to every “shiny new bauble” that came its way, Spencer’s high school team got good enough at the end sweep to “punch above its weight” in a competitive league.
“It’s hard to have the discipline to focus on getting a little better every day for something you’ve been doing for five or 10 years,” noted Spencer. One way to do this is simplify your metrics to support your priorities and goals. Do you track hundreds of metrics under the assumption that more is always better? Or do you boil it down to the two or three that really matter?
In the podcast, Spencer, a two-time All-Ivy defensive end at Harvard who held senior positions at Walt Disney Company and Activision Blizzard before coming to Netflix, explores the habits and mindset needed to say yes to the things that matter and no to those that don’t.
You Will Learn
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4:00 How to test if your metrics match your mission.
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6:00 Why the best leaders are simplifiers.
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15:00 What it means to be ‘in the work.’
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25:00 Why the first, and often most difficult question to answer is “What business are we in?”
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33:00 The danger of viewing “culture” as a static entity.
Resources:
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Connect with Spencer Neumann on LinkedIn.
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Learn more about the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
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