Revolut's Nik Storonksy says he does this to underperformers
Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky may have 40 direct reports, but he does not like to manage. In a recent podcast, Storonsky reiterated his desire for employees to work independently at the fintech, but noted that he will "very selective[ly]" take exception.
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When he does take exception, Storonsky said the "best way to identify weak performance" is for him to personally "go down into details" of a department with consistent KPI underperformances. In this situation, Storonsky said he will directly look at "design level, code level [and] infrastructure level" output to see if what people are spending all of their hours on really warrants the time.
Storonsky doesn't say who's been subject to this scrutiny, but he notes that, "when things are going well, you obviously don’t dive deep." He also says that he assumes more management responsibilities for Revolut's compliance and financial crime departments, and does so because it's a "complex area" rather than for underperformance reasons.
If Storonsky starts looking closely at your work, therefore, you might be in danger. If he's deep-diving your manager's work, however, you could be in for good news; Storonsky says that in the process of going into the details of a department, you'll "know each team member as well, and it’s pretty easy to promote someone."
Storonsky wants independent employees. He says that, as soon as you start telling people what to do and classically managing them, "they're probably a failure," and he can usually identify those failures within three one-on-one meetings. Meeting direct reports to ensure they "feel great" is also a faux pas for Storonsky. He says "great people don’t need ‘how are you?’ They just need to have fun on the job."
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