Always Keep Your Glass at Least Half Full

Shabari Raje, co-founder of Findmeashoe.com, shares tips for cultivating a constructive attitude among a multi-disciplinary team across the globe in these troubled times.

Photo by Morning Brew on Unsplash

Even during a regular year a start-up often has challenges blending in people from different backgrounds, geographies, and work cultures to produce an outcome that pushes the boundary of what exists today. Many times, an ordinary “can do” attitude is not good enough to push through, one needs a more solid “consider it done” motto to change the game

Any shift in attitude can cause the innovation chain to slow over or even break down. As a founder, keeping this drive going across the team is often the key to ensuring productivity. A couple of years ago, specifically during a product pivot, this aspect came into the scanner and a few learnings helped us go a long way. In the middle of a sales cycle in late 2017, we unfortunately discovered our product needed additional data to recognize certain specific skin tones. Unless we fixed this, the product was not going to make a sale. As a team, every single person from our VP of Sales to technicians were required to support the pivot within a certain budget. Key elements which got us through the activity have become the backbone of our current work culture now. As a result we have been able to navigate & thrive in many tough spots.

Here are a few pointers which helped us cultivate this culture of constructivism and positivity through the team:

1. Focusing on small wins: While the bigger picture is always on vision, driving focus on the smaller steps becomes an easier and much more achievable target. This is key when your goals are a stretch, acknowledging each milestone can be a big morale booster for the team. As a B2B company, we have often focused on our big enterprise clients, but have recently made it more of a point to start celebrating onboarding small retailers, as well. Apart from boosting the morale of our team, this has made us appreciate the diversity of value we create in the ecosystem, which needless to say, helps us innovate better. Additionally, during a sprint, even a 5 minute debrief meeting at the end of each work day to cheer for a micro achievement can help build a long term constructive attitude. Recently, during a key customer launch we did a multi feature upgrade to our product and every single functionality was treated as a unique launch track & celebrated on each release.
2. Over-communicating: Given that remote and asynchronous working has become the norm now, it is crucial not to leave any detail to assumption or imagination. Communicating at the right time and setting the right context helps keep everyone in the same frame. Although this is obvious, it often is the weakest link in the process. Apart from having an open and conversational culture in the team, setting up an expected protocol for certain communication modules, e.g. what is expected over email, slack or video call or group e- meeting definitely puts everyone on the same page. This year we launched a Friday evening appreciation hour where everyone has to post a message cheering a co-worker for a recent win. These days, even a small virtual cheer goes a long way!
3. Driving common targets: Traditionally, objectives and key results have been set at an individual level or team level; sometimes, it might be a good idea to break the norm. While accountability is always required, often a common goal across two individuals or even small teams helps foster a working relationship and team spirit which becomes a key driver to having a constructive attitude across the company. This also enables individuals to take greater risks under a common umbrella.
4. Healthy mix of optimism & reality: Setting the right picture for yourself and everyone in the team is very important in order to keep the effort grounded. Hitting roadblocks and partial detours is part of the process and is inevitable. While it is crucial to understand causes of failure, quickly developing the next steps to recovery is crucial. When our company transitioned from investor fuelled cash to profitability there were (or rather still are) times when our cash situation would put us on thin ice. At these times, we have chosen to always lay out the expected visibility on all fronts with our key employees and set the right expectations.

Given the global crises caused by Covid-19, keeping this attitude & harmony through uncertain times has become even more crucial than usual. Making sure everyone is on the same page and wearing the cloak of positivity could be the difference that sees you through the pandemic.

Shabari Raje is passionate about building products and experiences which change the status quo. Apart from the cofounder role of keeping the team driven and productive, she is also responsible for making the product usable and adoptable. Prior to her journey to change shoe fitting, she ran her own design studio and worked for Human Factors International. She has a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from India and a Master’s in Product Design from Italy. Shabari joined the Springboard family in 2018.