Identifying gem in your team
Most of the companies and team have smart people, but how to identify them?
I’ve just finished watching tv show Silicon Valley. I admit I’m a slowpoke, but it’s certainly better to start later than never.
Anyway, in the show, there are many people with different backgrounds who try to build a product in a small team. They compete, build friendships, and learn to negotiate. Nothing special, a lot of fun, and definitely hyperbolized situations.
But watching it, I identified one thing: there is a clear understanding of the amount of contribution and value of every team member. It’s simple to identify the contributor in a small team, but what to do if the team grows?
It isn’t a book on how to grow the team or separate people to personalities, etc. It’s just an article that tries to inspire you to look at your team one more time. With some emotions, with understanding, and just with fresh thoughts.
Type of contributors
It’s definitely not a simple question, and there are many books written about group dynamics and team management. We won’t stop there.
But there are clear winners::
Individual contributor
Tech lead
Team lead
Individual contributor
This is a technical person who can solve any of the team’s problems. It’s the most boring person in a team who can do anything efficiently enough to do any task, understand any project, and contribute anywhere (or, at least, almost everywhere). It’s the person who can jump at a help and help in any situation. You can rely on this individual.
There are many types of personalities. This person can be loud, quiet, or the most polite and friendly one. Independent of personality, if you identify the contributor and give enough recognition and listen to feedback, your team will always be successful.
In case the person is not the most lovely one, just communicate and find a solution, since you have someone to manage the person. Keep going and be sure of your tomorrow.
Tech lead
It’s an individual contributor who can help other people. Everything we identified in the individual contributor plus an ability to contribute in others’ work (teach people, help with architecture, etc.) will make it your tech lead. This person can help you build a team of great individual contributors and guarantee delivery for the team, but not always manage them or the project.
When you identify an individual who can quickly jump into the team’s project and help to understand and organize the result, you’ve identified a tech lead.
Team lead
Team lead can be not the best individual contributor or tech lead, but a glue between non-technical management and technicians. This person loves to communicate and negotiate. A leader can identify priorities and protect the team.
A great team lead does not manage a team, but helps to solve problems and protects from external threats. I believe that team lead is not a higher level than a tech lead, it’s a parallel thread where the person can grow.
Exceptions
There was said a couple of lines about valuable individuals, but it’s important to always keep in mind that there is a difference between a person who is just bored in the team due to years of experience in the same company and/or team and the person who is a valuable contributor. There are many cases when a team can be stuck due to luck of experience. It means nothing, just try to be more careful.
Not every book, article, podcast, TV show, movie, or other content provides us with new and valuable knowledge. However, it doesn’t mean they can’t inspire us to reevaluate our past and future perspectives.