Spotify jobs rarely stay the same for more than 2 years, says CEO

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek
described one of his management strategies as
“excruciating.”
Business
Insider/Rebecca Borison

• Spotify jobs aren’t static,
  according to CEO Daniel Ek.
• He told Fast Company that he views
  jobs as “tours of duty,” just like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
• At Spotify, while your title might stay the same, the
  actual work you’re doing will almost certainly change over
  time.

In a recent interview with Fast Company, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said he thought of jobs as
“missions,” rather than static roles.

“You have a number of years when you perform a job, and then your
tour is over, and it’s time for you to think about what the next
step is,” Ek told Fast Company. “I describe them as missions. You
may have the same title, but you don’t have the same job more
than two years, and the more honest we are about that, the better
it is.”

He said he borrowed the concept from LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who viewed jobs as
“tours of duty” that should be carried out over two to five
years.

In a post on LinkedIn, Hoffman argued that
this “tour of duty” approach “gives a valued employee concrete
and compelling reasons to ‘stick it out’ and finish a tour.”

“Most importantly, a realistic tour of duty lets both sides be
honest about their goals and time horizons, which is a necessity
for trust,” Hoffman added. “In fact, acknowledging that your
employees might leave is how you build the relationship that
convinces great people to stay.”

So how does Ek implement this philosophy at his streaming service
company? He told Fast Company that he sits down with his
leadership on an annual basis, just to ask them one simple
question: “Is this what you want to do for the next two years?”

“I do this with myself, too, and I force them to do it with me,”
he said. “It’s kind of excruciating. People will naturally,
without really thinking about it, say yes. But after a while you
get to if that’s true, real passion.”

Ek added that “very few people at Spotify last more than two or
three of these rounds.” The Spotify CEO said that these employees
typically didn’t leave the company due to poor performance.
Rather, they were just better empowered to envision and pursue
their true passions elsewhere.

Ek’s strategy at Spotify is a variation of what LinkedIn
recruiters do during the hiring process. Business Insider’s Rich
Feloni reported that LinkedIn’s vice
president of global talent Brendan Browne actually asks job
candidates what they wanted to do after leaving the company.

Browne told Business Insider that his goal is “to see if you’re
willing to give me any indication, or a large description, of
what you want to do with your life professionally and then have a
conversation around what aligns with what LinkedIn does.”

Ek’s questions are also meant to ensure that the employee’s goals
still align with the work they do at Spotify. And, despite the
occasional loss of a star employee, Ek said his mission-based
philosophy is ultimately meant to boost retention and tamp down
on job-hopping. He cited the case
of Spotify’s head of research and development, Gustav Soderstrom,
who he described as a “great strategist” and a top team member.

Ek said that two years ago, Soderstrom revealed that he was
considering leaving the company during a one-on-one conversation
about his mission at Spotify. The reason? Soderstrom wanted “more
influence, but he didn’t want to do the work of leading all the
people.”

“I said to him, look, you can’t sit on the sidelines and enact
control,” Ek said. “You’re going to have to take the
responsibility that comes with that.”

After their conversation, Ek said Soderstrom revamped his
management style, took on more responsibilities, and “completely
outdid my expectations.”

“Had we not had that honest discussion, he probably would have
left,” Ek said.

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