The following is a collaboration between Tessa Ann Taylor, Director of Engineering for The New Yorker and myself (Irina Tsyganok, Global Director of Engineering for Vogue) and is part of a short series on creating happy, healthy, high-performing, global teams.
To say that 2019 has forever changed the way most of us think, work and live our lives is an understatement. As the option of collaborating in-office disappeared and the boundaries between our private and professional lives blurred, the focus on building health, happiness and high performance in teams took on a new meaning and became even more important.
During the past two years, Tessa and I, from our home offices on different continents, have led ourselves and our teams through a significant organisational change and into a global way of working. We have expanded our teams across the globe and established a significant team presence in yet another continent. At the same time, both Vogue and The New Yorker have continued to ship features that serve our readers by packaging powerful journalism into new gorgeous digital experiences.
We organised our key observations, learnings and tips into a short series of articles, which we would like to share with you.
Take a look and let us know if any of the below resonate, and please, contribute your suggestions in comments!
In this series — The Culture (link), The People (below), The Work (coming soon), and Taking it Global (coming soon).
The People
A great team is made up of great individuals, as teams are a sum of their parts.
You and your team have worked so hard to establish the beautiful team culture, so now it is crucial that your new hires help protect and strengthen it further.
With each individual bringing their own perspectives and values to the table, it is important that any new hire should share in your core values and bring new perspectives. In other words, “culture fit” is important.
What: Hiring for culture fit
A lot has been written, both critically and positively, about hiring for “culture fit” and more recently, “culture add”. To synthesise these two concepts, a good hire shares your team’s values (values fit) and brings new perspectives (perspectives add).
How: First, be clear on what team culture is and what it is not. We often hear terms ‘team morale’ and ‘team culture’ used interchangeably, which is a mistake.
To us team culture means attitudes, behaviours, values and perspectives of team members, as well as things that you and your teams repeatedly do and measure (or choose not to). Whereas, things like company perks or relaxed dress code can influence team morale, but they are not culture.
Characteristics are not culture — a candidate having similar taste in music or sport as their interviewer only indicates that they will have something to talk about during downtime, it is not an indication of a good culture fit. Culture fit is about values and behaviours — it has no expectations of gender, race, class or ability.
Second, ensure that your new hires are set up for success. If your team culture is great, this objective almost meets itself. If your team culture needs fixing — be honest with your new hires and work with them towards the goal of building the culture you desire.
Toolbox: This ‘Behavioural Question Bank’ published by the University of Virginia offers good guidance on assessing your prospective hires’ suitability for the role from the perspective of culture-fit.
What: Who over what
Take care in choosing your accountable parties — people who are responsible for outcomes, goals and leading others, such as Technical Leads.
Coach them on successful delegation, ensure that they feel trusted but also accountable for the consequences of what is done and not done. I might write a separate article on coaching — please let me know in comments if it’s of interest.
Be generous with your time and attention to this group, work closely with them set them up for success — this is one of your best time investments as a leader.
How: In potential candidates, look for values and principles that will serve your team and the organisation well. For instance, for Tessa and I honesty, resiliency, loyalty and creative problem solving are important.
Toolbox: If you are looking to promote an existing colleague into the Technical Lead role (we always try to promote from within teams whenever possible), offer opportunities for ownership and accountability on a smaller scale before offering the title. Pay attention to attitudes and behaviours displayed in the process: are they happy to take on more responsibility and rise to the challenge or are they resenting having been given more work for with no change in pay or title? Observe how you and them work together — communication, feedback exchange, how they communicate with other teams etc.
For new hires into the role, lean into behavioural/situational questions during the interview process. I also have my engineers interview their potential lead and I always listen to their feedback.
What: Build succession
Make sure your team is capable of taking care of itself in your prolonged or permanent absence. A good leader identifies and builds a successor as soon as they start in their own role. Not having any potential candidates to take over once you’ve moved on means it’s time to revisit your hiring and development strategies.
There are exceptions to this rule in engineering teams — engineers love to solve problems and it is perfectly possible to have a dynamic, high-performing team of brilliant individual contributors none of whom has desire to move into leadership. In this case, work to ensure that you share knowledge and information with your teams frequently and effectively, that your teams are known to the wider organisation and key stakeholders.
And delegate, delegate, delegate — efficient delegation is not a trait of a lazy manager, it takes skill and a lot of work to get right.
What: Take time to hire right
Because the penalties for hiring wrong are too high.
This is pretty self-explanatory. Hiring is hard, firing is harder, and in many cases, near-impossible and by all accounts, extremely unpleasant.
How: Try not to succumb to the business urgency and hire in a rush to show good numbers. Make every effort not to drop your standards and if you must compromise, do so only regarding a candidate’s technical expertise, never their attitude.
Tessa and I would take an enthusiastic self-starting junior who loves to collaborate over a seasoned expert with 20+ years of industry experience who finds team collaboration torturous, any time of the day.
If you must hire urgently or when the longevity of the role is unknown, opt for consultants until you establish clarity in your requirements and find the right person who can join you for a long time.
Toolbox: Standardise and document your interview process, so that you assess all candidates against the same criteria.
After all relevant assessments, the litmus test question I always ask myself and the team is: “Are we genuinely excited to work with this person?” If the answer is anything but a clear “yes!”, we keep looking.
What: Teach, trust, evaluate, reflect.
Understanding that managers and teams constantly go through the process of personal evolution, have a plan (development, team growth, career progression) but remain flexible. Provide honest feedback. Seek feedback on your own performance.
How: Teach the teams to fish rather than give them fish — even if they make mistakes. Training is the process of personal evolution, experience creates internalised learning that theoretical study cannot replace. As a leader, provide opportunities to learn through experience and make it safe to fail.
Trust that your teams will act with integrity and will do their best to achieve optimal results.
Evaluate performance as accurately and precisely as possible. This is not the same as providing kind feedback — kind but inaccurate assessment is harmful to the recipient and the organisation. So stay honest and objective even if it’s uncomfortable.
And ask for accurate feedback on your own performance from your leadership, peers and reports — adjust what you do if needed.
Reflect on the performance of your individual team members, as well as your team as a whole. Do you have underperformers? How is that impacting the team as a whole? Is this the right environment for them to perform at their best? Do they need more/different support, or are their skills and interests better suited for a different type of team or organisation?
Consult with your Technical Leads on analysing strengths and opportunities for development in your teams, work together to establish a plan
Toolbox: Use frameworks, peer feedback, metrics and formal performance reviews to document all aspects of a person’s performance. Make performance discussion a flowing dialogue, not an annual box-ticking exercise.
Accurate, objective feedback is your friend. It may not always be comfortable to provide or accept accurate feedback, but remember that in the end, accuracy and kindness are the same thing.
We hope some of the above resonated with you. Our next post will focus on Work and how to make it enjoyable, stimulating and rewarding for you and your teams. Till Then!
