Work with Great People
Chris Lema posted a blog recently about business being personal and I whole-heartedly agree. It is personal. I work at least half of my waking hours every day and as Chris says in the article, "Life is too short to work w/ jerks." I have had jobs where the team was very cohesive, and jobs with a room full of alphas. Cohesion is king. Which brings me to the DevCentral team. I've worked with some great teams, but never before have I worked with a team of people that constantly wow me. Not just with their skills, but their genuine concern for me and others on the team. The traits I love about everyone on this team: humility, respect, drive. Everyone is driven and they're all way smarter than me (you should surround yourself with people way smarter than you, too, trust me), yet everyone has their niche. I'd like to highlight my perspective on the niches my teammates bring to the table.
- Jeff- our Steve Jobs--visionary and leader, but without the ruthless part. He's like that chess engine that is calculating 10 moves ahead. Sometimes it takes about six months after a meeting where the light bulb will go off and I'll think to myself "I see what you did there. Well done."
- Joe - our MacGyver. Joe can make anything work. You should see some of the crazy good stuff he comes up with. He's also the first to offer a ride up to the mountains for a skiing expedition, so he has a special place in my heart. :)
- Steven - our "glue guy." He's a lot more than that, but he's definitely the Scottie Pippen (for those unaware, Pippen was the glue guy for the Chicago Bulls NBA basketball team) on our team. There are no championships without him. He is superb at keeping us focused and at doing the little things to make us successful.
- Mo - our mechanic. You should see this guy work his Caractacus Potts magic on our systems. Plus, he, like Joe, puts the fan in fanatic for all things Star Wars, so it's all bonus to listen to their "deep thoughts" conversations on the ways of the force.
- Scott - our Thomas Edison. I suppose I should have picked an Australian inventor like Lance de Mole (the tank!) in honor of his nationality, but I digress. Scott builds more new functionality in his sleep (does he sleep?) than I have..ever.
- April - our community barometer. She single-handedly willed Guru Panels into existence, to rousing successes.
- Jim - our social anthropologist. His insights on people amaze me, and his drive to optimize the connective tissues amongst our internal and external teams will bring much fruit going forward.
- John - our new guy. John's only been with us a month, so he has time to carve out his niche on the team. I'd sell him out and call him our "dance club guy," but I'll let him share that story when next we are all together at a user group near you. Or at F5 Agility in San Francisco.
I could go on and on about my team, and even highlight some of the crazy goodness in our former teammates (looking at you, Colin, Josh, George, Don, & Deb), but I'll stop there. How about you? What traits make your teams successful?