I liked this collection of thoughts and lessons from Julie Zhuo, a design director at Facebook, including:
Sweep up the crumbs. Wipe the tables. Turn off the lights. Plug the holes that need plugging—even if it’s menial, even if nobody will know you did it. Do it in service of the product, the company, and this wondrous, magical thing you are all building together.
It reminded me of this story from Adii Pienaar, founder at WooThemes:
As CEO, I don’t necessarily think that washing dishes is part of my “job description” and it doesn’t carry any obvious priority in terms of things I need to get done today … sometimes the best thing I can do in my business is the smallest, simplest thing; especially if that means I can remove obstacles for my team.