Via Lenny's Podcast

"Too many people think your job as a manager is to be the expert and tell people what to do. No, actually, your job is to enable people to be their very damn best on your team. You have to create an environment and a context and provide them information, and then you need to provide them a form of coaching.

— Lessons from Scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (ex-COO of Stripe), at 37:33

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Too many managers confuse their job with being the expert in the room. Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO and current Corporate Officer and Advisor at Stripe, reframes the manager's core responsibility: "Your job is to enable people to be their very damn best on your team." That means coaching through curiosity, not instruction.

Claire's Core Philosophy of Management

• Managing demands an explorer's mindset. According to Claire: A manager’s job is not to be the expert who tells people what to do, but to enable people to be their "very damn best. Managers must create the right environment, context, and information flow for their team. Most management work involves exploring patterns and being curious rather than issuing directives.
• Hypothesis-based coaching means exploring alongside the employee: Coaching is rarely about lecturing (e.g., showing someone exactly how to build an Excel model), though that is sometimes necessary if requested. While "intuition" can sound unscientific, managers should view it as a "scientific hypothesis" or "well-informed intuition." Form a hypothesis about the employee based on available data and explore it with the person to see if it holds true. Present it as something to explore together, not a verdict. Give the person room to confirm, push back, or add context.
• Intent makes all the difference: Approach the conversation with good intentions, clarifying that you are bringing up an observation to help them see something they might miss.

Tactics for "Exploring" in Conversations

• Ask Questions First: Start by asking for the employee's perspective (e.g., "How did you feel that presentation went?").
• Own the Observation: Phrase feedback as your specific experience rather than an objective judgment (e.g., "My experience of you in that meeting was that you seemed nervous").
• Hold Up a Mirror: Act as a reflection for the employee. If they deny a feeling (like nervousness), point to specific physical evidence you observed (e.g., leg shaking, stammering).
• Identify Physical Tells: Managers can coach on physical behaviors the employee is unaware of. Example: Claire had an employee who, without being aware of what they were doing, would physically push their chair back from the table ("exiting the circle") when the discussion made them uncomfortable.

The goal of exploration and hypothesis-based coaching is to verify if an observation is true so both parties can help make the work more effective. The exploration mindset allows employees to give feedback back to the manager ("holding the mirror" in reverse). With an explorer mindset, the manager creates an environment where feedback is welcomed without ego or defensiveness.