Building great teams amidst chaos

There is so much about the Indian ecosystem that feels similar to the Bay Area madness of late 90s. It is absolutely crazy out here these days. There is just way too much money floating around, and I believe its contributing to a very shallow setup overall. I have way too many conversations with folks about things which I believe are consequences of great work (money, title, ladder) than about how to do great work. You tend to start getting cynical when the nth entrepreneur calls to say he is starting the nth food delivery startup… or talk to the nth person who has never shipped a product and wants to be a Director.

On the flip side, I believe that just like in Bay Area post nineties, India has to go through this cycle to get to a much more mature ecosystem overall. (Though the regular boom-bust cycles back home make you feel otherwise!)

But boom or bust, substance or fluff, at the end of the day, it will serve us well to remember that great organizations are built on top of great, mature, thoughtful people. So keep working hard to find people who will stand the test of time.

I have noticed that the following rule of thumb usually works. Go for folks who:

• want to discuss scope of work rather than title
• know that money, bonus, title are a consequence rather than input
• try to find ways to make the rest of the team succeed
• empathize and put themselves in the position of others
• focus on building a great org for themselves and others
• and just want to help you build great things

The world seems to love genius divas, but in my opinion, the solid, smart, team player who is open to learning is a better bet any day. Key are those people who will pick up anything, do any job, whatever it takes to help the org.

Because ultimately, whether you are the head of product of a large company or the CEO of a small one, whether you lead large orgs or are building a new, small one, we all need help. Sometimes from our peers, sometimes from our team. Great companies are made of great orgs. And great orgs are built on top of a lot of love, patience and empathy. From leaders who work hard to build a framework where fairness, integrity and transparency breeds innovation. And from teams who step up and just help each other win.