Collaborator or Lone Ranger?
Where do you stand?
I have some bias towards being a designer/developer who can and should do everything & proudly hold his head high as a ‘machine’. Remember that scene in the TV series, ‘Suits’ where Louis Litt hired a new associate partner and proclaimed her a machine who doesn’t need a desk and can do her work autonomously? Yeah. That’s the exact picture a lot of folks portray while being interviewed for jobs, and they seem to take pride in it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I strive to do more and get my ass up to do a lot more hardwork than I have the capacity to do. That comes in handy when you’re trying to hit crazy deadlines or get some personal project done in time, for user feedback & idea validation.
So what happens when you gain the whole wide world (super skills) & lose your soul (can’t collaborate for shit)?
Collaboration seems to be the sermon that isn’t preached enough these days. This may seem counterintuitive because (a) getting stuff done is always the top priority & (b) everyone scoffs at the idea of anything being above getting the work done, as regards priorities. Imagine you having a super, super developer on your team but he’s always having issues communicating with the team. Worst of all, he just doesn’t understand other people’s ideas and perhaps just loves his own space. He’d most definitely be a huge thorn in the collective a — es of the team. That harms the culture (O ye fanatics of cultural fit) & generally affects the team’s productivity.
But come to think of it — a good collaborator would always be a good team player & by extension, have more potential to learn new things, actively increase her skills and probably be admonished to get the work done when she can’t. Or at least to an extent.
But the thing we’re missing is this — the person may be able to do 10 people’s job but when he’s part of a team, the general ability of the team to get shit done is compromised greatly. There lies the argument of ‘by what percentage is this compromise?’. Nonetheless (personally), I value my collaboration skills over my ability to get shit done — & I still get the shit done :)
Are you a collaborator or a lone-ranger?
