How do you identify that you are the person who is causing problems?
The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
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Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#12Some financial firms have forced paid time off (atleast 5 consecutive days) to make sure they are never fully dependent on any one employee, and to fix it if they ever find themselves in that situation. (They also do it to make sure no one is covering up fraud by always working.)
That's what I was thinking as I read the first half of the article, regarding the basketball team. Sure, it's all well and good that you have a team that gels and excels and is successful. But you have to be ready to adapt. People will come and go. Retire. Die. As the leader of said team, a big part is being able to fill holes over time. That's how you create a dynasty.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#13Question: What a person that IS the exceptionally skilled person but that drags down the team, should do to not drag down the team?
One possible answer is that the most talented guy on the team shouldn't take on too large a share of the work.
Sure, he can do any task better and faster than anyone else, but in doing so he's robbing the less talented team members of tasks that they could worked on. The overall team productivity might be higher if he sits back and pays close attention to what his teammates are getting stuck on and only spends his time filling in those little gaps that nobody else can fill.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#14Some financial firms have forced paid time off (atleast 5 consecutive days) to make sure they are never fully dependent on any one employee, and to fix it if they ever find themselves in that situation. (They also do it to make sure no one is covering up fraud by always working.)
Off topic but: It's also done for security reasons. It's difficult to hide doing something bad if you're not there all the time. (Sorry just read your parentheses. I'll leave this here anyway)
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#15Question: What a person that IS the exceptionally skilled person but that drags down the team, should do to not drag down the team?
The problem wasn't that he is talented. It's that he's an asshole. Unfortunately the two often go hand-in-hand. I saw a top engineer once literally say to a colleague in ops: "Well my job is harder than yours so..." as rationale in a debate about something trivial. That kind of attitude is the hallmark of assholedom.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#16If that's the biggest mistake he's ever made, he leads a charmed life.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#17Here's his point (I think):
"The founder and I made the most classic of mistakes: putting up with someone because we were afraid to lose their ability. I’ve since come to learn over and over again, it’s almost never worth it."
Perhaps just me, but I don't like this style of writing. It takes pages of reading to arrive at a fairly simple point.
Authors, please make your point first. Elaborate all you like with long winded stories afterwards.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#18Question: What a person that IS the exceptionally skilled person but that drags down the team, should do to not drag down the team?
Don't be imperious or brusque. Learn to story-tell. Know how to present on the subject - if they're having race conditions, be able to explain race conditions well, for example. Don't pursue argument beyond it being productive, especially not for its own sake.
Make sure you're not proposing your personal One True Way. Be trustworthy.
At some point, people have to experience failure for themselves. You did, probably. Remember how that feels.
Ask to help, but that's a learned skill as well. You can't yank the wrench away from them. Set it up to where you can come in when they're in trouble, but be humble and "in the spirit of service."
I think being self-deprecating helps. Give ideas away. Make any conflict between (the collective) you and the problem, not you and them.
If people are defensive, learn to defuse that or accept responsibility for that, even if it's not your doing. And if all else fails, excuse yourself politely.
Sadly, a lot of this is basically charming or selling people. It has Venn overlap with seduction behavior.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#19This sounds similar to what I've experienced at various startups. The problem is that the people who have been around the longest tend to have more knowledge of the tools and techniques which relate to a specific project - Sometimes it even seems like their overall understanding of technology is superior too - But that is an illusion.
I've changed companies a lot as a software engineer and I noticed that whenever I join a new company, I usually feel like the dumbest person in the company at the beginning - For example, other developers might mention specific features of Linux which I had never come across before or they might make references to certain technical concepts which I didn't know about. But a couple of months in, I usually feel smart again and then I get bored... (This cycle happens every time when I change company).
What I realized is that knowledge doesn't flow very well between companies - Each one tends to get specialized in very specific ways but they don't realize it. The developer who has been around the longest is the most knowledgeable when it comes to the technology surrounding the project in its current state - So it's very difficult for another regular developer to 'win' an argument against them - This is bad because the most senior developer is often too deeply set in his ways (it works best for him) but in reality, you need the whole team to take a few steps back to find something which works best for everyone.
Re: The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made
#20Not really a professional career example, but this story reminds me of my time running internet forums, and how I made pretty much the exact same type of mistake a fair amount. I'd take on an active contributor as staff, but end up overlooking their hair trigger temper or hostile behaviour because they'd spent so much time contributing to the site beforehand.
What I didn't realise (and I'm sure a lot of people who keep on these individuals in paid jobs don't realise), is that it starts scaring off other qualified members/employees. By keeping on one bad individual, you drive away your other skilled users or employees.