Luc Levesque, Shopify's Chief Growth Officer: Leadership Blueprint Strategy - Updated 2020

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My blueprint

Here's a list of my quirks. Substitute with your own!

1. I value speed

Go as fast as you can by focusing your effort on impactful work and ruthlessly cut what doesn’t lead to impact. If it’s a big project, try to get early signal that it’ll work with a small test, research or data before committing to doing it. If you feel that you’re working on something that won’t help us make progress towards our goals, let someone know or come see me.

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2. I’ll be your champion

It’s important to me that I know what’s important to you. If it’s title, career progression, more challenging work, learning, money, having fun, I want to know what’s most important to you - without judgment. If it’s important to you, it’s important to me. For those who drive impact and help us win, I’ll be your champion to help you reach your goals as best as I can.

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3. Mistakes are ok

Finger-pointing drives me nuts. If a mistake’s been made, it's ok as long as we catch it early, learn from it and don't repeat it. When mistakes happen ( and they do ) I’m interested in what we can learn from it and how we prevent it from happening again, not who did it. Because we go fast – we make mistakes sometimes, and that’s ok.

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4. I value “eureka moments”

The big wins come from being creative and inventing new approaches, systems, tools and features based on our insights. Make time to think deeply about solutions in ways that the world has never seen. Eureka moments & crazy ideas are how we become ( and stay ) the best in the world at what we do. If others aren’t copying our unique approach, we’re not innovating enough.

Example: we once added easter eggs to our /robots.txt file to recruit SEOs. It attracted a lot of attention in the SEO community and helped us find talent in a unique way.

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5. I value focus

We live in a world of constant distractions. By focusing on what matters most, every day, small teams can produce stellar results, without burning the midnight oil. Let’s never lose that razor-sharp focus. Always make the hard decision to say no to work that may have been the best thing to do yesterday but is no longer the most impactful today.

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6 & 7. Redacted,
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to see the full blueprint 😉

8. I want you to be happy

I spend a lot of time thinking about and making sure that everyone on the team is happy and loves being here. If you’re not happy, none of the stuff on this list matters.

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9. I need to trust you

I need to be able to trust you and to blindly take you at your word - you can expect the same from me. If you're not sure about something, that’s ok. I rather you tell me you’re not sure and get back to me when you are, than getting a quick answer that you’re not confident in that isn’t accurate. It’s ok not to know everything.

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10. I value follow-through

I value ( probably more than most ) people who follow through when they commit to something and don’t need to be reminded. It drives me nuts when someone doesn’t follow through on a commitment and impacts trust. This goes both ways, it drives me nuts when I can’t deliver on something I’ve committed to you.

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11. I’ll help you become the best

I value people who want to be the best at what they do. I get a huge amount of personal satisfaction from seeing members of the team grow, improve, hone their talents, learn more, develop new skills... and just become: better. I’ll invest time, money, and do what it takes to help you be the best at what you do.

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