Aspiration, explained
Great employees roll up their sleeves and get the job done, regardless of whether the task is “below” their role or pay grade. They worry less about the perception of doing grunt work and instead see that, if it’s what the team needs it’s what needs to get done.
Too many employees think too much about their personal brand—that is, they put their goals first, thinking about their teammates second. The best employees don’t worry about getting credit or recognition—they just do the job. And inevitably people notice this, putting them in positions that the “personal brand” folks are not invited to.
The people who try to stand out are often the last people we want to praise and promote—it’s the people who lead by example and find creative ways to do the work that is needed no matter the task.
Examples / Observations
Observation created about 4 years agoDouble shout out to our residential front end wizards (or wizard and witch, if you prefer) and "honorary" Practice members, Carolyn and Ethan, for super-ly putting the team first!
When Ellie was here, they both jumped in to help her sort through front end issues and learn the ropes of our codebase, and now that John and I don't have our own React-Gandalf to look to, they have both made time (lots of it) to answer questions and help us navigate through some weird bugs on a difficult project.
Carolyn and Ethan, we really appreciate how you've generously given us your time and have been so positive and helpful!
Observation created about 4 years agoFeaturing:Ross h.We don't wait to be told what to do, we take initiativeWe put the team before ourselvesNow for the real shout out for Ross 😆
I touched on this in our all-hands already, but I wanted to share how appreciative I am of Ross taking initiative to represent all of the devs in the interviews for the DoE.
Ross organized a meeting where the devs could share qualities that were important to them in the next DoE, and/or questions we wanted to have answered. He then helped guide us in distilling our collection of random thoughts into a few questions that the two selected interviewers could use while interviewing.
I appreciated how Ross took the time to think of how we could broaden representation of our needs an engineers from just the two interviewers to the needs of the whole team. That definitely demonstrated putting the team above yourself (even before you were selected as an interviewer) and I really appreciate it!
Observation created about 4 years agoShout out to Ellie on her last day for just being a great teammate. I've really appreciated her willingness to be flexible as the Practice squad has needed to shift priorities and direction a lot in her time with us. She's always been available and ready to help when I've been stuck with front-end things (and those times have been plentiful lately). You've been such a reliable part of the team since you've been here and we will definitely miss you on Practice!
Observation created over 4 years agoI mentioned in a shout out on Monday how Jaki had agreed to facilitate some meetings for the Practice discovery squad, even though she's no longer serving Practice directly.
Well, we've had two of those meetings, and I wanted to share why I'm overflowing with gratitude for Jaki right now. Some of the things that she did so wonderfully in these meetings:
- was patient and never rushed us, focusing on making sure we felt ready to move on
- asked great questions to dig deeper into some thoughts, and clarify other thoughts to help with understanding
- happily agreed to a second unplanned meeting when the first meeting wasn't enough (going back to the first point)
- even though she'd been on the original discovery crew and we were questioning some of the work that was done, she held back from explaining it all to us (as justification, which I would be super tempted to do!) until we were ready and had specific questions to ask
These meetings have helped relieve a lot of my stress and uncertainty about the next steps on the Practice discovery crew, and I attribute a lot of that success to Jaki using her skills to make sure our time was used as effectively as possible. Thanks Jaki!
Observation created over 4 years agoIf you haven't had the pleasure of working with John, in code or otherwise, you're missing out!
He is so skilled at helping me feel like he really is working with me, not like he is dragging me along. When we pair and I miss something obvious, he's great at pointing things out and explaining them in a way that never leads me to feel awkward or stupid.
John is great at bringing brightness to the room/Zoom. His light-hearted nature always keeps the mood positive, even when we are both staring at the screen and have no idea what to do next 😅
And finally, he keeps his opinions weakly held, always being happy to try out another idea/listen to someone else's thoughts rather than claiming his are the best. I feel so valued as his teammate because of this!
Thanks, John, for being so great to work with!
Conversations about We put the team before ourselves
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