Benchling’s Leadership Principles

At Benchling, we’re thoughtful and deliberate about our culture. As our team has grown, we’ve established the key principles that are the foundation of our company culture. These Leadership Principles guide everything we do at Benchling, from our day-to-day interactions with each other, to how we make company decisions.

Admit mistakes and shortcomings

Leaders openly acknowledge their failures and what they don’t know, even when it’s awkward or embarrassing to do so. They do this to build trust, encourage learning, and foster comfort with vulnerability and feedback.

Deliver results

Leaders create an outsized impact with efficient teams. They maximize output, not headcount or budget. They make high-quality decisions quickly instead of engaging in never-ending debate. They’re rigorous about cutting fat and focus time on delivering what’s most important.

Disagree and commit

Leaders actively listen and seek to understand all perspectives. They mine for the disagreements people aren’t sharing, even when it’s uncomfortable. Once a decision is made, they trust the process and are all in.

Obsess over customers

Leaders deeply understand our customers and what they need. They embrace the complexity of our customers’ work instead of over-simplifying. They over-invest in building meaningful customer relationships. They obsess over what they can do to make customers successful.

Rely on work ethic

Leaders know they must will success into reality. Assuming the current trajectory will simply continue is arrogant. They outwork the competition. They embrace the grind and do the unscalable, unglamorous work to build an enduring organization.

Show empathy

Leaders take time to understand others’ point of view. They express their ideas in ways that motivate others to follow them. They express gratitude inside and outside their teams to give credit where it’s deserved.

Recruit and develop the best

Great leaders are great at recruiting, and prioritize it. They understand that A players want to work with A players, and have no tolerance for mediocrity. They retain great people by challenging them: letting go of their own egos and coaching their team on how to step up

Sweat the details

Leaders roll up their sleeves and have high standards. No task is below them. They inspect frequently and when the stakes are high, are personally accountable for even the smallest detail.

Think and communicate clearly

Leaders are intellectually rigorous in how they approach problems: they back up their claims with evidence and show their logic. They follow up clear thinking with clear communication. They don’t expect people to just “know what they mean”. They over-invest in simple, written communication to hone their thinking and are deliberate in verbal presentation.

Unite around the mission

Leaders operate as a singular team aligned to a singular mission. They respect the work and expertise of other functions, and put no one on a pedestal. Inspired by the potential of biotechnology to rewrite the way we live, they prioritize what’s best for the company as a whole to achieve its mission.