Fun, Focused, & Fired Up
My brother and I recently decided that I should take on more responsibility at our beloved software company, BrightGauge (blog update here). With the change, more of the team is coming under my management so I’m having to get more familiar with each job function, and more importantly, each person doing those functions.
Luckily our team is really fantastic thanks to the focus we’ve had in hiring the right people. While interviewing, we immediately weed out anyone who is not humble (strong opinions but loosely held), passionate (about everything), or good (at their job and as a person). Those are the traits (values) we look for when hiring.
Now that I’m responsible for a few more teams, I realize the shared values are fantastic for getting people in the door but they don’t tell the whole story of how someone is doing while at BrightGauge. That’s when the concept of Fun, Focused, and Fired Up popped up in my head.
I’ve realized (and still realizing) that in order to operate at a sustainable high level at BrightGauge, and be a great fit, we want someone to be having fun, insanely focused (on the right the priorities), and most definitely fired up. And since the F pattern worked I went with it…but here’s what I mean.
Fun
First and foremost life is short and work/career is a huge part of one’s waking hours. If someone is not having fun (or detracting from other folks’ fun) at BrightGauge then long term we’re not a fit for them or them for us. And if long term there isn’t a fit, then short term there shouldn’t be a fit. What is fun? Well fun is ultimately personal…and it shouldn’t mean ping pong tables and happy hours. To many of us, fun is getting in flow. Fun is being challenged. Fun is working collaboratively. But sure, throw in a happy hour and the camaraderie and thats the cherry on top (at least for me personally). Ultimately though, fun is what someone makes of their day and how they perceive the work they are doing.
Focused
Focus is the rarest commodity in today’s knowledge worker environment and we’re no different at BrightGauge in the fight to protect and encourage it. We work hard at promoting Deep Work but since its a new concept, it is still a work in progress. The best folks, though, know how to focus themselves intensely and we, as a company, work hard at keeping everyone aligned on what they should focus on (hello BrightGauge dashboards and scorecards around our office). If someone is distracted at BrightGauge, something is either wrong with the process or the person. I take this one personally since much of our product is helping IT services companies stay aligned, which is a precursor for being focused.
Fired Up
Lastly, believers do more than non-believers. It’s the truth in just about everything in life. In a small company, someone who is fired up about what they do will go that extra effort… jump on a proactive call to save a churn, help a teammate when they’re swamped, think of new ways to improve how we work, etc. When everyone is putting in that tiny extra effort, the sum becomes so much greater than our parts. At BrightGauge, we want everyone fired up not just about the product we are building but how we’re building it as a team and company. We’ve done a good job thus far and I also think environment has more to do with this than the individual.
To sum it all up, the “triple F” realization has helped me personally focus on what I think is the key to sustaining at a high level of production at BrightGauge.
If you’re curious how to join us at BrightGauge or just to learn more about us, check out our career page or email us (even if we don’t have a position open). We’re always looking for humble, passionate, good people who want to feel this way at work.
