Patty McCord on Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

Patty McCord is the author of the best-selling book "Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility," which was published in 2018 and translated into 12 languages.

She served as chief talent officer of Netflix for fourteen years and helped create the Netflix Culture Deck. Since it was first posted on the web, the Culture Deck has been viewed more than 15 million times, and Sheryl Sandberg has said that it "may be the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley.”

Currently, Patty coaches and advises a small group of companies and entrepreneurs on culture and leadership. She also speaks to groups and teams around the world.

 

Patty had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I’ve got something important to say and you have to hear me” (7:50).

“I had to be able to start to learn which audiences could hear me and which audiences I was entertainment for” (8:20).

“You just have to stop doing stupid stuff that doesn’t matter anymore” (9:30).

“I’m a shameless copier” (10:35).

“One of these days the right people are going to be in the room, and this is going to happen. Why not me?” (12:50).

“Your job as a manager is to create an amazing team that does fabulous work on behalf of the customer on time and with quality” (14:30).

“We get so left-brained that we forget about creativity” (18:40).

“I’m curious about creating space for people to think differently” (16:50).

“We especially get stuck when we get scared” (17:00).

“I hate the phrase ‘best practices.’ It just means what everybody else does” (20:55).

“You can draw ideas and inspiration from everybody, and everybody should” (24:55).

“Leaders are people who other people want to follow. A manager is somebody who builds the work and organizes the team to build great stuff” (26:20).

“If you want them to follow, then god dammit lead” (28:55).

“You want to know why I make so much money? Because my decisions are consistently right” (33:00).

“Beginning with the end in mind [is key to making good decisions]” (34:00).

“I think that the word loyalty is old fashioned, and I think that it’s not critical, but I think it’s important when times are tough” (41:50).

“The mark I want to make in my life is about creating environments where people can do their best work” (48:30).

“The relationship between work and family is a never-ending one” (53:10).

“My life work is a really different thing than it used to be, and that’s perfectly fine with me” (58:50).

 

Additionally, you can find Patty’s website here, and can also follow her on social media @pattymccord1. I’d also encourage you to purchase Patty’s book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, anywhere books are sold. Lastly, you can find the Black Sheep website that Patty mentioned here.

Thank you so much to Patty for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.