Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says not having favourite employees at work is 'just not good leadership'

Brian Chesky said employee favoritism allows leaders to highlight top performers, use their skill set and knowledge for strategy planning efforts.

Brian Chesky has been running Airbnb for 17 years and he has been outspoken about ignoring leadership advice that he found imprudent. One among them is not to have favourites at the workplace.

The CEO and cofounder recently opened up about why he chooses to openly acknowledge his most-liked employees at Airbnb. In an interview with Fortune, Chesky admitted that the idea of giving recognition to certain employees has a negative connotation, but not doing so exhibits poor leadership.

“At most companies, there’d be a protest if the CEO picked [favorites],” Chesky told the publication. “It would be considered unfair and not systematic.”

He, however, argued that when done well, employee favoritism allows leaders to highlight top performers, use their skill set and knowledge for strategy planning efforts, and encourage other employees to emulate them.

“You can have people making sure there’s no unconscious bias, people keeping you honest, looking for disparate impact inside the organisation. You can do a lot of surveys, and you can use that to reinforce your assumptions,” he said. Chesky added that “if you can’t have favorites, if you can’t say this is a high performer, and this is what excellence is, then you are going to be in big, big trouble. That’s just not good leadership.”

During the interview, even though the Airbnb boss declined to name his favorite employee--cheekily responding that he has “so many”--he did say his favorites are those with whom he texts regularly. Chesky is also known to gather his top 100 employees annually for a secretive three-day meeting to strategise the future of the company. He calls this congregation “The Roadmap Review.”

During this review, the hand-selected employees, most of whom are senior leaders, spend a week hashing out the budget. At most companies, Chesky told the publication, the CEO and CFO put their heads together to draft an annual plan then ask about 20 different teams to circle back on their strategy and budget for the following year. “Everyone’s going to ask for the world, and then you’re going to say no, and you’re going to have this negotiation, and it’s crazy,” he said.