How FreshBooks makes leadership decisions transparent—literally

As co-founder and chief executive officer of FreshBooks, the cloud-based accounting software service, Mike McDerment sets his staff expectations high and makes sure to support them so they meet the bar. When he’s at the company’s Toronto office, he rarely sits down to work on something himself—he’ll get interrupted about every seven minutes. For that reason, instead of being responsible for producing, he devotes his time to helping others solve problems. McDerment tells us why he wants to be visible to his staff and why his mornings are the only quiet time he needs.

At the office, McDerment usually has three things with him: his dog, Munroe; his phone; and his Moleskine notebook. “I used to keep everything straight [in my head], and now it’s just too much,” he says. “I find it really useful to be able to put those things you need to remember on a piece of paper, so you can focus on being present and solving problems.”