This interview of Michael Mathieu, C.E.O. of YuMe, an online video advertising firm in Redwood City, Calif., was conducted, edited and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. Do you remember the first time you were somebody’s boss?

A. Yes, my first management job was at AT&T, and I went from being an individual contributor to managing a small team.

Q. How old were you at the time?

A. Late 20s. I’ve always been pretty confident in my ability to do a job, so I kind of had this fearlessness. If I’d known what management was all about, I probably would have had a lot of fear, but going into it, as a young kid, I figured, “I can do this.” There was some apprehension because I’d never really managed a team before. So I had to learn very fast.

I think part of the reason I got the job was really my personality, which is about, how do I make everyone around me better? What can I do to help make people more successful? And I always thought that if I do that, it will ultimately make me more successful. So the transition was relatively easy because of that perspective.

I never had this management style where I would order people around. It’s really about, what’s our goal, and how do we, as a team, collectively make it happen? So my first management job was really treating myself not as a manager. I may happen to be on the organizational chart above you, but think of me as a colleague and how we can help each other be successful.

Q. How did you learn that lesson at a young age?

A. My parents were immigrants from Haiti, and both of them are doctors, against all odds. They’ve persevered, and the lesson they taught me was not necessarily humility, but that the key to success is to wake up every day and do the best you can do.

Their focus was never about competition, although I am competitive because I was an athlete as a kid. But my parents always taught me to be introspective and go after success with my own measurement, not other people’s measurements.

Luckily for me, my expectations were higher than what other people expected of me. I learned that collaboration and getting the most out of other people seemed to be where most people got their success.

I did karate when I was a kid. In karate, 90 percent of success is internal, preparing for that moment to win, and you do that by struggling internally about who you are, what you do, and how can you maximize your skill set for that moment when you do need to compete against other people. My sensei in karate never talked about himself. He never talked about what he could do. He always talked about the group, how we could help each other.

Because of the six kids in my family, I had to learn how to compromise and maximize. I think it’s a combination of having a large family and getting some early leadership lessons from something as simple as karate class.

Q. What about leadership lessons from particularly good or bad bosses?

A. You’re a collection of all your experiences, good, bad, indifferent, and great leaders you’ve worked with. Actually, you learn a lot from the worst managers you’ve had. You learn probably more than from the great managers.

Q. Did you?

A. Absolutely. I think my worst bosses were hyper-controlling. I’ve learned that leaders actually do the opposite, which is to give their best people complete freedom to do the job. The worst managers come in and believe, “O.K., I’m going to control this.” They’re very structured. And what I’ve learned is that actually stifles high performers.

People who are really good at what they do want freedom. They want to be able to be innovative. So I try to hire the best people and give them the freedom and flexibility to do the job they were hired to do. But they have to sign up for things to get that freedom.

Q. What are those things?

A. One is, make people feel like they’re part of the team. To do that, you’ve got to make people feel like they can come in and talk about anything with absolutely no fear of, “O.K., this could be stupid.” They need to feel like their voice is heard, and feel completely fearless to have those conversations with me.

Two, they have to be clear on what our goals and vision are. This is the mountain we’re trying to go after, and let’s be clear on what we have to do. And if you do sign up for that, you’re going to be accountable. If you give good people clear goals, you can let them be accountable and go after it in their own way. And then reward and recognize.

Q. Give me an example of how you reward and recognize.
A. I bring all of the U.S. employees together every two months. I want to tell them how we’re doing, what’s on my mind, and recognize people who’ve exhibited the leadership characteristics that we foster at YuMe. We give out an award, and that particular employee has it until the next vote. Then they hand it to the person who wins it next.
Q. How do people win the award?

A. People vote for the person who best epitomizes my mantra, which is: Be passionate about what you do and interested in making the people around you better. These people show humility. They’re selfless. They will work for other people’s success. The people who win are the ones who are the most team-oriented. They’re not the ones who have the best skills. But they’re passionate about what they do. They’re a positive influence. They’re not in the lunchroom gossiping about somebody.

That’s one of my tenets. If you have issues with a colleague, go to your colleague and say, “Joe, this is what I’m thinking.” Have a candid conversation.

Q. How do you hire?

A. By the time people come to me I know they can do the job, whether they’re engineers or salespeople. So when I interview people, I look for their leadership characteristics and their ability to thrive in ambiguity. So I try to ask questions about how they handle adversity. I want to get people’s thought processes on how they deal with something that’s not black or white, but gray.

I ask questions about their leadership, like, are they selfless mentors? Do they try to make people around them better? Are they proactive? Do they take initiative, so they don’t wait to be asked to do something? I try to get examples of that.

I try to really form a picture of this person outside the job. On a scale of 1 to 10, are they naturally curious people? Do they read? Do they want to learn? Do they have this thirst for knowledge that leaders have? Do they have the ability to find clarity among chaos, to have this calmness to be able to get stuff done? Does this person have a history of just being proactive in their life and not being told what to do?

I try to find people who are a 10 in tactical ability. And if they’re naturally curious people and they handle adversity with grace and they understand what they bring to the table, I’ll hire them tomorrow.

Q. What are your best questions to get at those qualities?

A. What I try to do now is find examples of how they’ve worked. One thing is, depending on the job they’re in, I ask about a situation where something didn’t go your way. How did you handle it? Explain that to me. And I love asking people what the meaning of life is. It’s a fun question because no one’s expecting it.

Q. What kind of answers have you heard through the years?

A. Some people automatically say happiness. For a lot of people it’s family, the people in their life, the quality of their relationships. I also say, "On your death bed, what do you want to be remembered for?" I love asking those questions because the folks who are completely prepared are not prepared for those questions.

Q. Have you heard some odd answers?

A. I have. My favorite is, "Are you talking about my business life or my personal life?"

Q. What does that tell you?

A. It tells me somebody is really disconnected from being passionate about what they do. They’re going to come in and say, “How can I position myself to be really successful?” versus just be who they are. Those are the people that will always be angling for something. The minute they say that, I’m like, “O.K., next.” We don’t need anglers in the company who are just trying to position themselves and managing up. We try to stay away from those kinds of folks.

Q. What other questions do you ask?

A. I try to ask: “When things don’t work your way, how do you deal with it? What’s life about? What’s the most important thing that’s happened to you over the last three years, something that’s really changed your life?” I try to ask questions that give me a sense of the person’s character and how they process information.

Q. So, what’s the meaning of life for you?

A. Two things: happiness and the quality of the relationships you’ve had in life. The impact you can have on people is why you’re here. Hopefully, you do that with enough people, and you have fun doing it.

From a business perspective, you try to generate a ton of revenue, keep the investors happy, and above all make customers happy. I try not to spend too much time talking about this stuff, because they think Michael’s going to be coming in here in his Buddhist outfit soon. But it’s about, am I present and here?

When you have a conversation with somebody, you’re not going to get the nuances of the conversation if you’re doing too many things. I try telling people, if somebody picks up the phone, stop your e-mail, stop what you’re doing, listen and have that conversation with the person and then move on. With most people in business, they’re on the phone and they’re on e-mail, and you know when they’re on e-mail.

Q. You can hear it in their voice.

A. Yes. So, I try to wake up in the morning, be connected, and have conversations with people. Don’t be distracted, and the little nuances of life will show up, and you will hear things. I’m not immune. I have to do a lot of things, and I try to slow down sometimes. I try to be present so I can enjoy the richness and quality of interactions with people. Most people can’t multitask without losing something in each of those tasks.