""It was actually really critical for the company that I had someone else who was a CTO," Shear said. "I didn't really understand our architecture direction, but I worked with him enough." "We went through a number of CTOs and they didn't work. They were bad," he said. "I'd hired experts, I was supposed to let them do their jobs," Shear said. "When I didn't like how something felt, or where I was taking the company, that I should crush down that concern and not act on it.""
""No one but the CEO ever really understands what's going on, because it's not their job," he told the "Social Radars" podcast. In an email to Business Insider, Shear wrote that over-delegating work leads to "slower decision-making on the margin, less risk-taking for the company as a whole, and lower efficiency." "I run a much, much smaller company now, so it's a very different situation that you can't really compare,""
Emmett Shear cofounded Justin.tv and served as Twitch CEO through its growth and 2014 sale to Amazon, leaving in 2023. Initial delegation to technical leaders enabled scaling, but a string of mismatched CTO hires created obstacles. Delegation hardened into a belief that the CEO should not override experts, which suppressed personal concerns and decisions. Over-delegation produced slower marginal decision-making, decreased company-wide risk-taking, and lower efficiency. Leading a much smaller company now presents a different context and highlights the need for leaders to balance empowerment with retained responsibility and oversight.
Read at Business Insider
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