Ex-Twitch CEO Warns Leaders Against Over-Dellegate Big Decisions

A good leader delegates – but doesn’t abdicate.

Emmett Shear Cofounded Twitch’s Format Parent Company, Justin.tv, and eventually served as the Streamer’s Ceo when it spun off. He Watched Twitch Grow From A Small Enterprise to A Streaming Goliath, Including Its 2014 Sale to Amazon. He eventually left twitch in 2023.

Reflect on His Time at the Helm of the Company During a Recent appearans on the “Social Radars“Podcast, Shear Said One Mistake He made was over-dlegating at Twitch.

When he first started delegating work, Shear Said It Had Positive Benefits.

“It was actually actually Critical for the Company that I have some who was a cto,” Shear Said. “I didn’t really understand Our Architecture Direction, but I WORKED WITH HIM ENOUGH.”

It TOOK: “We were through a number of ctos and they didn’t work. They were Bad,” he said.

Eventually, Shear Said, that delegation tourned into thinking that he “wasn’t supposed to override” his employs.

“I’d Hired Experts, I was supposed to let’s say their Jobs,” Shear Said. “When i didn’t like how something felt, or where i was taking the company, that I should crush down and not act on it.”

That was a “Mistake,” he Said.

In an email to business insider, shear wrote that over-delegation leads to “Slower decision-making on the margin, lessen 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 situation you can’t really compare,” wrote shear, who runs he startup softmax. “But when I was at Twitch, I tuned whic things i chose to delegate over time and got Better at it.”

The Magic Recipe, he wrote, was “Better Judgment from Reflecting on past Experience.”

On the podcast, Shear Said that the Twitch Leaders he delegated to be “well-meaning,” but that they “didn’t really underestand what we were doing.”

“No one but the CEO Ever Really Undersands what’s going on, Because Ital Job,” He Said. “That’s My Job.”

Shear Said He Failed in His “Responsibility to the Company as the Holder of the Context.”

Shear’s Philosophy Aligns With Silicon Valley’s “Founder Mode” Ethos. YC Cofounder and Form President Paul Graham Coined The term after Hearing a Talk from Airbnb Ceo Brian Chesky.

In his 2024 EssayGraham Criticized The Idea That Leaders Should “Hire Good People and Give Room to Do Their Jobs.”

“In Practice, Judging from the Report of Founder after Founder, what this ofnestyen out to mean is: Hir Professional Fakers and Let Drive the Company into the Ground,” Graham Wrote.

When Graham Stepped Down As YC President in 2014, Sam Altman Rose to take the reins. Shear Also Has a Career Connection to Altman; During Altman’s Brief Ousting from Openai in 2023, Shear Took Over As Interim CEO.

On the podcast, Shear Said that a Ceo’s Job is not only only to delegate but also to discuss: “is this kind of decision that we have to get right, or is this kind of decision where it is up and it screw?

“That’s How I Learned All This Stuff, is I made a lot of the Mistakes and got to Learn from say,” he said.