Alexandr Wang offers a contrarian take on management: the more brilliant your people, the less you should tell them what to do.
Most leadership instinct says that as you hire better people and take on bigger problems, you direct more closely. Wang's approach to running MSL goes the other way.
"In general, in terms of my management philosophy for MSL, [it] is not to boss people around," he says.
@alexandr_wang points to a line from Steve Jobs that flips the usual logic:
"Most companies hire people and tell them what to do, but we hire people for them to tell us what to do."
That inversion sits at the foundation of everything. For Wang, the entire bet behind MSL and TBD rests on it:
"That is like pretty core to the entire thesis of TBD and MSL and how we've built it… we're going to hire brilliant researchers and create the best environment for them to do the work of their careers and the work of their lives."
So instead of positioning himself as the person with the answers, he positions himself as the person who removes everything standing between great researchers and great work:
"Long story short, I'm not trying to boss anyone around. Actually, I'm trying to create the best environment for researchers to do incredible work."