It Only Took 10 Words for Twitter’s New CEO to Explain Why You Shouldn’t Want to Work There
Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, hasn’t been on the job long but she’s already making her mark. Most obviously, she intervened to repair the social media company’s relationship with Google Cloud. Twitter has stopped paying many of its bills, and it’s not hard to see how that could be a problem.
For example, it hasn’t paid rent on a number of its offices, leading to its eviction in Boulder, Colorado. That’s bad, but not nearly as bad as if it gets evicted from its cloud computing platform. Yaccarino reportedly held a video call with Google Cloud’s CEO, Thomas Kurian, to patch things over, even coming away with the possibility of Google spending more on advertising on the platform.
There is, however, one thing that should have you worried, especially if you’re in the tech industry and considering working for Twitter. A few weeks ago, Yaccarino sent an email to employees at Twitter, and it’s a cautionary tale for every leader and entrepreneur for what it says about how you cast vision and define success:
Twitter is on a mission to become the world’s most accurate real-time information source and a global town square for communication. We’re on the precipice of making history–and that’s not an empty promise. That’s OUR reality.
When you start by wrapping your arms around this powerful vision, literally everything is possible. You have to genuinely believe–and work hard for that belief. And in this moment of complete reinvention, we have the opportunity to reach across aisles, create new partnerships, celebrate new voices, and build something together that can change the world. And from what I can tell so far, you’re built for this.
The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility.
We need to think big.
We need to transform.
We need to do it all together.
A lot of that is exactly what you might expect from the new CEO of a company in distress. I don’t know how else to describe Twitter, which has lost as much as 80 percent of its employees in the past nine months, and a significant number of its advertisers. You would expect the CEO to come in and attempt to rally the troops.
The thing is, there’s nothing in that email that explains what she means. She refers to “wrapping your arms around this powerful vision,” but it’s not at all clear what she thinks that is beyond turning Twitter into “the world’s most accurate real-time information source and a global town square for communication.”
She calls that Twitter 2.0, and, according to Yaccarino, “The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility.” Those 10 words should be a big red flag for anyone thinking about working there. Let’s break down exactly why:
“Success”
One of the most important jobs of any CEO is defining success. The problem is, the email isn’t clear how Yaccarino–or anyone, for that matter–defines “success.”
Specifically, it’s not clear how Elon Musk defines it. That is, after all, the only thing that matters. Sure, Yaccarino is the CEO, but Musk not only owns Twitter, but he’s also sticking around to head product and IT for the company.
“Twitter 2.0”
Most of the people I know who have used Twitter for years would agree there are plenty of things that need improvement, but that isn’t the same as “complete reinvention.” What does that even mean? Twitter still seems like largely the same website, just more broken in strange and random ways.
If, by Twitter 2.0, Yaccarino is referring to the version that makes money charging its users for a blue checkmark, I think it’s clear that hasn’t worked. Mostly, I think it means “whatever Elon Musk wants it to mean today.” That’s fine–there are privileges that come from being the guy who owns the platform. It’s just really hard to expect others to get on board with something that depends on the whims of its richest and most high-profile user.
“All of our responsibility.”
This last part is tricky. Sure, as a leader, you want everyone to feel a sense of ownership in the success of whatever it is you’re trying to build. The thing is, it’s not actually everyone’s responsibility. If you are the CEO, it’s your responsibility.
Not only that, if you don’t know what success looks like, you definitely don’t want to be held responsible for it. And, if you’re in charge, you can’t expect to hold other people accountable for something you can’t articulate.
Overall, those 10 words might seem like a thing you say to inspire and motivate people, but the problem is, without context, they’re just words.
Look, from everything I’ve heard and read, Yaccarino is an exceptionally talented leader. More importantly for Twitter, her ability to win people over and build relationships fills a huge hole in the leadership at the top. It also helps that she’s known as someone who is as tough as they come when it’s time to make a dal. She’s also one of the most highly respected advertising executives there is, having previously served as the head of NBCUniversal’s ads and partnerships division.
Honestly, I think the email says more about Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, than it does about Yaccarino. It tells me that Yaccarino’s hands are tied–that her primary job is building the version of Twitter that Elon Musk wants to use, instead of using her strengths to build a company that you’d want to work for.
