PDF Summary:What You Do Is Who You Are, by Ben Horowitz

Business leaders know that culture is the lifeblood of their organizations, and that the right culture can make the difference between success and mediocrity. But what exactly is culture? And how can you create the right culture for your organization while focusing on your company’s most important goals? These are the questions Ben Horowitz seeks to answer in What You Do Is Who You Are, based on his own experience as an entrepreneur and investor and the insights he gleaned from iconic historical figures.

In this guide, we’ll explore what Genghis Khan can teach you about inclusion, how revolutionary Toussaint Louverture can help you be a better role model, how the samurai can help you decide what really matters, and what ex-prison gang leader Shaka Senghor can teach you about consistently raising your standards. In addition, we’ll consider how Horowitz’s advice compares to that of other culture experts.

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Look for Specific Skills, Not Specific People

Horowitz says that to develop an inclusive military force, Gengis Khan identified unique strengths or skills in each community he conquered, absorbed them into Mongol culture, and taught these skills across his empire. Likewise, Horowitz argues that different groups of people often have different talents. It follows that if there’s a group you’re not hiring from, you’re missing out on the specific talents that group has.

Horowitz believes hiring managers often don’t understand the talents they don’t personally have, so they fail to look for people who have what‘s missing. To avoid this, Horowitz advises getting insight from people with backgrounds different from yours. Ask them to give you feedback on your hiring profiles, and let you know of any skills, communication styles, and customs people from their background have that you’re not taking into consideration. Add these skills to your hiring profile if they are relevant to the role, in order to reduce your blind spots in assessing candidates.

(Shortform note: Even as Horowitz argues in favor of inclusion, he is engaging in a type of stereotyping called essentialism—the idea that certain groups of people share certain innate qualities. Often, essentialism is deployed to attach negative characteristics to groups of people. While that’s not Horowitz’s purpose, he nevertheless associates genders and races with specific talents or skills they allegedly have by virtue of being part of that group.)

Give Everyone the Opportunity to Succeed

Genghis Khan challenged traditional hierarchies by making members of his army equal. While most armies had leaders on horseback and soldiers on foot carrying officers’ equipment, in his army, everyone rode horses and took care of his own belongings. Likewise, Horowitz recommends ensuring everyone who joins your company has an equal opportunity to succeed.

When companies begin seeing people as demographic statistics, they force employees to constantly prove they’re more than some element of their identity. To avoid doing that, Horowitz says you should let them know they were chosen because of the valuable skills and virtues they bring—and then give them opportunities to apply them. To check whether you’re on the right track, focus on attrition rates instead of hiring rates since low attrition rates will signal that the people you hired are happy at your company and choose to stay.

(Shortform note: Experts agree with Horowitz that true inclusion is only possible through the cultivation of a work environment where everyone can thrive. To cultivate it, examine how well your organization does on the four dimensions of inclusion:

• Social inclusion—employees feel accepted and part of the community.
• Relatedness—employees feel that colleagues care about them.
• Affective commitment—employees find meaning in being part of the organization.
• Organizational identification—employees self-identify with the organization.)

Lessons From Toussaint Louverture—Model and Reinforce the Culture You Want

Horowitz's third historical example is that of Toussaint Louverture, a revolutionary who shows how to model and reinforce a brand new culture through rules and by example. Louverture led the military and diplomatic campaign that liberated enslaved people in Haiti and set the stage for its independence from France. According to Horowitz, Louverture’s military and cultural leadership elevated the Haitian revolution from slave revolt to strategic military and diplomatic action. Under his leadership, they defeated Spain and England and improved their relationship with France. A decade after the insurrection began, Louverture became governor of the island. He proclaimed a new constitution that abolished slavery and ensured people of all races could have access to any job.

(Shortform note: Haiti didn’t declare its independence from France until after Louverture’s death, but his actions made independence possible. The revolution began in 1791, but it took 13 years of Louverture’s political and trade negotiations with France and the United States, as well as war with France, England, and Spain for Haiti to be able to declare its independence.)

Don’t Leave Ethical Gray Areas

Louverture continuously reinforced his cultural expectations for his soldiers. He spoke to his army regularly about ethics and kept them under strict discipline that didn’t allow for any of the usual acts of war, such as stealing and destroying property. In the same way, Horowitz says leaders must spell out what ethical behavior looks like in the organization and why it’s important to behave in that way. Ethical gray areas leave room for each individual to decide what to do, and they spell disaster if an individual makes a wrong choice.

(Shortform note: In The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek identifies three factors that encourage unethical behavior:

• Poorly designed incentives: If employees who behave unethically to meet their targets are rewarded with bonuses and promotions, peers get the message that being unethical is good.
• Use of rationalizations: System-blaming and blaming the customer enable employees to justify behavior they know to be unethical.
• Symptom fixes that overlook the bigger picture: If a leader tries to fix problems by implementing new rules, they create further hoops that employees will avoid.)

Make Rules That Stick

To emphasize the need to be trustworthy, Louverture forbade officers from having concubines, as was typical, since officers who cheated on their wives couldn’t be trusted. Horowitz emphasizes making rules that surprise people and force them to think about the principle behind the behavior, like Louverture’s rule for officers. To make a rule stick, make sure that people will remember the rule, apply it every day, and that the rule will make them ask “why?” with the answer pointing to the cultural tenet behind it.

(Shortform note: In Turn the Ship Around!, L. David Marquet shares an example of a rule that sticks. To improve morale among the crew of the submarine he led, he established a “three-name rule.” The rule required that when any crew member saw a visitor, he should greet the person using the visitor’s name, his own name, and the ship’s name. For example: “Good morning Commodore Kenny, my name is Petty Officer Smith. Welcome aboard Santa Fe.” The rule was easy to remember, and they applied it every day. Considering the “why” helped them actively embody the virtue Marquet wanted them to demonstrate: being proactive and asserting themselves as leaders of the submarine’s culture.)

Lessons From Shaka Senghor—Never Stop Improving Your Culture

Horowitz's final cultural model is Detroit-native Shaka Senghor, whose path to cultural leadership began the day he arrived at prison for committing murder in a street conflict. Ultimately, Senghor became a force for good inside the prison system by continuously assessing and improving the culture of the Melanics—the squad, or gang, he belonged to. He did this by reading and educating himself and squad members on self-improvement and Black leadership. He also became a leading criminal justice reformer after his release.

(Shortform note: Senghor’s path is an example of servant leadership, a model in which the leader puts the well-being of followers first. To become a servant leader, you must make followers a priority and empower them to grow and succeed, and behave ethically to have a positive impact on the larger community.)

Continuously Diagnose Your Culture

When a man convicted of killing a woman in a high-profile case arrived at their prison, Senghor’s men wanted to attack him because he had committed a senseless crime. Senghor realized that, to them, justice meant violence, and by condoning violence he would be enforcing a code of behavior that went against his own evolving principles. The squad then had a difficult conversation about the cycle of violence and how their actions perpetuated it.

Likewise, Horowitz encourages you to have a critical eye toward your culture. This will allow you to root out the problems and improve the culture. Specifically, leaders should observe certain vital signs of the organization:

• Vital Sign #1: Who is quitting and how often
• Vital Sign #2: How new employees behave
• Vital Sign #3: What key goals you aren’t meeting
• Vital Sign #4: How the culture looks outside the C-Suite
• Vital Sign #5: What behavior has become acceptable

How to Monitor and Measure Culture

In Measure What Matters, John Doerr advocates a systematic approach to monitoring your culture. He shares a study in which researchers found that high-motivation cultures depend on two elements:

• Catalysts—elements of a company that support the work being done, including goal setting, learning from failure, transparency, and engaging in meaningful work

• Nourishers—elements of a company that support the interpersonal needs of employees, such as positive feedback, professional development, and recognition

Doerr proposes a management system that helps keep tabs on catalysts and nourishers:

• OKRs (objectives and key results)—by establishing and measuring OKRs, you can monitor the catalysts of a positive workplace culture.

• CFRs (conversations, feedback, and recognition)—by implementing CFRs you ensure the culture has the nourishers it needs to sustain it.

Start Necessary Changes From the Top

In the same way that Senghor underwent a personal transformation before he could transform the Melanics, Horowitz argues that when something in the culture needs to shift, the change has to start with the leader. If you set the right example, people have a positive example to follow.

(Shortform note: In The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner lay out detailed guidelines to follow when setting an example for an organization:

• First, establish your values and communicate them to the team. Then, help your team align their values by proactively engaging in conversations about them.
• Next, model your values by embodying them constantly. You can do so by adjusting elements such as your calendar, agenda, and language to better suit your values and by being open to feedback on how well you’re modeling your values.)

Cultures Have Built-In Challenges

In addition to applying the lessons of successful cultures, Horowitz says it's important for leaders to be aware of three inherent characteristics that make culture challenging.

The first challenging feature of culture is that you must balance acknowledgment that it’s an unattainable ideal with taking action to get as close as possible. Culture reflects what the organization hopes to become. But Horowitz makes it clear that you can’t expect perfect compliance, though you need to work toward it.

(Shortform note: In Start With Why Simon Sinek clarifies that you can prevent the split between aspirational and actionable by keeping the focus on the “why” of your organization. Some strategies he offers to keep your focus are: using the metrics that truly align with your “why,” or purpose, and ensuring your company is prepared to transition leadership to people who support the “why” as strongly as current leadership.)

The second challenging feature of culture is that it needs to continuously evolve to allow the organization to move forward. Hanging on to culture as dogma can keep an organization stuck in modes of behavior that served the original strategy but no longer move it in a direction of growth.

(Shortform note: This challenge also points to a balancing act that culture leaders must enact: Maintain the organization’s core cultural identity without letting it calcify into dogma. In Built to Last, Collins and Porras provide actionable steps for leaders to sustain that balance:

• Maintain a core ideology by fostering a cult-like workplace centered on its values.
• Stimulate progress by experimenting and committing to challenging goals.)

The final challenging feature of culture is that it must permeate every aspect and area of your organization, so there are no inconsistencies that lead to confusion or frustration. Horowitz notes that everyone has to be on board with the culture, from rank-and-file employees to investors, so they all pull in the same direction.

(Shortform note: Culture experts highlight that not fostering a cohesive identity throughout an organization can lead to compartmentalization and the creation of silos, which endangers the integration necessary in moments of major change, such as a digital transformation. They point out two challenges that must be tackled to bring cohesion to an organization:

• Not letting go of legacy projects to embark on more beneficial ones outside of the organization’s comfort zone.
• Making frequent exceptions that seem small on their own but together amount to huge diversions from the organization’s core.)