<commit_before>---
layout: post
title:  "Spartans or Kobe Bryant?"
date:   2016-03-01 
categories: organization 
tags: idea concept
---

Building a team is never easy. I took the liberty to think really hard for how and who should join my team of software engineers. I took the liberty to envision what kind of team do I favor and go for it. I do not want to talk about why do I have to do all this (because incessant beuraucratic drama has no value in my thought-experiment), instead I want to share my team-building visions, ideas, and actions. When this idea is realized, I want to observe whether it is effective and/or can turn one terrible situation to a slightly better one.

I am not going to raise a hero. I simply cannot afford raising a hero among a group of naturally arrogant group people, the software engineers, who have the tendency to say "I am better than the rest of you". I am in a situation where my team is extremely short in numbers and the perceived expectations out of my team exceed our capacity. My situation forces me to get creative, and this is where the best time and place to prove my idea.

I am not going to raise a hero. Nobody in my team, not even myself, is a hero. There is no <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>. In my team, we are all Spartan warriors. We dine and bleed together. We are strong together. We complement each other's strength. We cover each other's weaknesses. The next time I accept another member, they will eventually make the rest of us better. How do I, as a leader, fit into this picture? I build this team, but I will never take the credit that it is because of me that the team is strong. I motivate and mentor my team, but I will never take the credit that it is because of me that each member knows a lot of things about their work. I am their leader, but I am still a member of the team. It is really not a matter of who is giving the direction or motivation, but it is a matter of actions each team member took that makes the team strong. 

There are drawbacks. We march, we don't run. Impatience attacks us from multiple directions; it most likely comes from our  end customers and work colleagues. We will accelerate, eventually. We will have a hero or two, eventually. But this is not part of my principles of building my team. I rely on natural causes in my team member's social dynamics among each other and among the people we face. As long as we keep each other in check, when one excels and another doesn't, then these heroes will look inside and help out their team members to excel together.

Once the number grows, I will have to revise this idea. No silver bullet. But when the number is small like what I have right now, I will take my chances and act on my Spartan team principles.
<commit_msg>added more stuff for building team entry<commit_after>---
layout: post
title:  "Spartans or Kobe Bryant?"
date:   2016-03-01 
categories: organization 
tags: idea concept
---

Building a team is never easy. I took the liberty to think really hard for how and who should join my team of software engineers. I took the liberty to envision what kind of team do I favor and go for it. I do not want to talk about why do I have to do all this (because incessant beuraucratic drama has no value in my thought-experiment), instead I want to share my team-building visions, ideas, and actions. When this idea is realized, I want to observe whether it is effective and/or can turn one terrible situation to a slightly better one.

I am not going to raise a hero. I simply cannot afford raising a hero among a group of naturally arrogant group people, the software engineers, who have the tendency to say "I am better than the rest of you". I am in a situation where my team is extremely short in numbers and the perceived expectations out of my team exceed our capacity. My situation forces me to get creative, and this is where the best time and place to prove my idea.

I am not going to raise a hero. Nobody in my team, not even myself, is a hero. There is no <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME>. In my team, we are all Spartan warriors. We dine and bleed together. We are strong together. We complement each other's strength. We cover each other's weaknesses. The next time I accept another member, they will eventually make the rest of us better. How do I, as a leader, fit into this picture? I build this team, but I will never take the credit that it is because of me that the team is strong. I motivate and mentor my team, but I will never take the credit that it is because of me that each member knows a lot of things about their work. I am their leader, but I am still a member of the team. It is really not a matter of who is giving the direction or motivation, but it is a matter of actions each team member took that makes the team strong. 

There are drawbacks. We march, we don't run. Impatience attacks us from multiple directions; it most likely comes from our  end customers and work colleagues. We will accelerate, eventually. We will have a hero or two, eventually. But this is not part of my principles of building my team. I rely on natural causes in my team member's social dynamics among each other and among the people we face. As long as we keep each other in check, when one excels and another doesn't, then these heroes will look inside and help out their team members to excel together.

Another drawback. I sometimes have to sacrifice my personal growth in favor of my team growth. I invested my time and effort in them so that, in the long run, my investment returns as a high level of personal satisfaction that my effort had some influence in my team,  my overall work-life balance is gradually restored, I get to learn more about them as they grow with their own merits, and I continuously build confidence and trust to the team with whom I am surrounded. Of course, it's a high risk investment, and I have seen myself failing to see my efforts reciprocate. I accept this drawback, in hopes that even in bad investment, I can make use of the experience as a stepping stone to make smarter decisions in the future. 

And my failures paid off. My team members opened my eyes in the powers of open source, Git, Github, tenacity, embracing the power to say no, teaching people how to fish, and now I have this page to fill with my ideas that I want to share and some I have made into a reality.

Once the number grows, I will have to revise this idea. No silver bullet. But when the number is small like what I have right now, I will take my chances and act on my Spartan team principles.

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