Team Player
Hey!
Welcome back to another week of musings.
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Things I discovered in the past week
- Thrive in obscurity, a good post for people (like myself) publishing their thoughts, art, etc, to an audience of zero!
- Dude, Where’s My Strategy? is a good post about what makes a great platform engineering team.
I know that, generally, the term "team player" carries a negative connotation in capitalist work environments.
But I've been thinking about what would make me a better team player. Mainly because I had a few moments here and there where the friction made me believe that I was not working with the organization, and instead opposed it.
Not overworking
I don't mean overworking for the sake of the team. I also don't mean taking more and more tasks because you're "the best" at doing them. A company will never bat an eye at letting you go, however many hours you put in.
(I would recommend reading Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to our jobs keeps us exploited, exhausted, and alone)
Oppose it
Sometimes it is part of being a team player to challenge the status quo in a way that benefits the organization in the long term. Other times, you have to go with the status quo to win in the long term.
In either case, it's better to be aligned with your leadership and manager to avoid trouble and have someone on your side.
Delegate it
At other times, being a team player means delegating work to someone who wants to expand their scope or responsibilities. It means being aware and keeping these threads alive of people who wish to and are ready to step up.
As with any delegation, you need to help them succeed and follow up on any issues that might arise. However, this takes on a different role for you compared to doing the task yourself.
Choosing your battles
At the staff level, some of the projects become multi-year efforts.
This means that while we might choose subpar solutions in the short term, the cumulative effect of all those decisions must yield long-term benefits. That might mean setting up "triggers" for high-leverage choices or discussing in technology review forums.
Your turn!
Are you a good player in your current team? What are you doing to help yourself and others? Are you raising your hand to call out problems? Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email!
Happy coding!
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