OpenAI and WLD CEO Sam Altman shared that strong criticism from researchers is a good thing. This perspective reflects his open leadership style, which values professional debate that he always pursues.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman shared interesting insights about his relationship with the research team. He revealed that, despite being a famous CEO, he still receives "disrespect" from researchers in meetings. However, Altman sees this as a positive sign, indicating openness and frank discussion within the company.
Workplace experts also agree with Altman's perspective. They believe that disagreement, even with superiors, is a key factor in maintaining effective teamwork. Silence can lead to risks such as project failures or loss of colleagues' trust. Sabina Nawaz (former senior HR director at Microsoft) advises seeking allies in meetings and proactively asking for everyone's opinion to avoid negative consequences. Joseph Grenny (co-author of the book "Crucial Conversations") suggests considering the risks of not speaking up and asking for permission from management to express differing views.
Altman's leadership style is also clearly reflected in his personal blog posts. In 2023, he wrote: "Fight against nonsense and bureaucracy whenever you see it and encourage others to do the same. Don't let the organizational chart hinder people from working effectively together." Earlier, in 2019, Altman emphasized the importance of caring for employees and encouraging them to achieve outstanding accomplishments without burning out.
Altman's schedule during the interview week with Bloomberg included a 3-hour meeting with the executive team on Monday, 6 private meetings with engineers over 2 days, a research meeting, and many other meetings to discuss "building computational capacity" and brainstorming product ideas. He also shared that he communicates internally more than externally, mainly through small group meetings and exchanges on Slack.
Many well-known tech CEOs also emphasize a culture of debate within their companies. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos encourages employees to adopt the strategy of "disagree but commit", meaning they are willing to back a decision even in the face of dissenting opinions. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have also shared similar views.