Nextdoor’s Bryan Power: Turning Big, Scary Opportunities into Career-Defining Success | E59
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What big, scary opportunities shaped Bryan Power's career?
And this podcast is all about enabling this for millions of people to see a map of what it actually takes for big leaders to reach success. So subscribe and download so you never miss it. Plus, it really, really helps me continue to bring amazing guests. Okay, so let's dive in.
I don't want a job where I'm thinking by myself.
I really experience success as a we, not an I. Brian Power, he leads the people team in Nextdoor, but before that, Chief Human Resources Officer in Yahoo, Square, Google.
How does Bryan reflect on his career growth?
I was lucky enough to join Google. I joined Square One as a startup. Both of those opportunities, I just felt like it was more than I was going to be able to do. I get an extra push from needing to figure things out. But I think everyone wants the success, but you have to go through the level of challenge you haven't dealt with before to really feel that come through.
What challenges did Bryan face transitioning from Google to Square?
When I'm looking for leaders, I really try to just pay attention to
If you talk to different professionals, they're thinking I would love to maybe work with some of these really cool companies. How do I even get in?
I think people underestimate.
Brian Power, he leads the people team in Nextdoor. But before that, Chief Human Resources Officer in Yahoo. Before that, Square, Google. You just pick all the cool companies, Brian. What helped you really climb up the ladder in all these amazing companies? Brian, thank you for being on the show.
I think if you go all the way back, I was also a dot-commer. I came to the Bay Area in 1999, and that was a really inspiring time in tech and in Silicon Valley. And I think I learned at an early age to try to chase down and lean into really challenging opportunities, probably a little more than I thought I was capable of.
How did COVID-19 change the work landscape?
Tell me more. I mean, you came before me. I was still back in Israel. So that's fascinating how you maneuvered the whole dot com.
I was really young. I was 23 or 24. And so I was grateful for to be exposed to like the super high bubble of the dot com where you kind of look back on it now and see that change was going to take longer than people thought it did at the time. But this period of massive change was clearly in the air, particularly in San Francisco in 1999.
What are the pros and cons of remote work?
It kind of reminds me similar of the feeling around AI today where people are not totally sure what exactly it's going to look like, but clearly something massive has really shifted.
You then ticked a lot of the companies that people would love to be part of, like Google, Square, Yahoo, Nextdoor. Like you tick a lot of boxes and you managed to also climb up to leadership in those amazing companies. What do you feel helped you?
It looks better looking backwards than it does in the moment. I was lucky enough to join Google. They had just gone public. This is now almost 20 years ago in 2005. And it was certainly a darling of Silicon Valley, but it wasn't like the mega corporation that it is today. And I just didn't anticipate the... journey that I went on there and everyone who's worked there has went on. And even Square, you know, I joined Square One as a startup and I can't say we all thought it would play out the way that it was. We were certainly optimistic, but it just succeeded more than even we anticipated it was working there. Both of those opportunities, and this has been consistent really with all of the the jobs I look at or teams I seek to join, I just felt like it was more than I was gonna be able to do. That choice that you're scared or stressed that you're gonna be able to achieve something, I've found for me personally is a better choice than taking something where you know you can do it.
It's actually, for me, a better choice to manage the stress and anxiety or feeling like you don't know what to do because you're probably going to figure things out as you go versus look for creating an opportunity where you're kind of boxed into a safe or a small position. It doesn't enable growth the way the big, scary opportunities do.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What big, scary opportunities shaped Bryan Power's career?
0:19–0:51
2
How does Bryan reflect on his career growth?
0:51–1:11
3
What challenges did Bryan face transitioning from Google to Square?
1:11–2:21
4
How did COVID-19 change the work landscape?
2:21–2:58
5
What are the pros and cons of remote work?
2:58–6:49
6
How can leaders build trust in their first 90 days?
6:49–10:53
7
What lessons does Bryan wish he learned sooner in his career?
10:53–31:46
8
How does Bryan assess and hire future leaders?
31:46–46:55
Speakers
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