If there’s ever been any constants in the technology world, these are them. Time and time again, I see people and teams get derailed when these principles aren’t followed.
1. Be a good coach.
If you ever played sports, especially as a kid, and had a great coach, you’d know it. I played a lot of youth baseball and had some great and some not-so-great coaches. One of my earlier experiences with the game was as a pitcher. I’d never had an ounce of pitching training (though that’s not what I told my coach), but it was easy, right? Just have to throw the ball over the plate and hope they miss. Up on that mound, sweating because I’m excited and scared to death all at the same time, I let my first official pitch fly…and hit the batter in the ribs. I was immediately upset because I hurt another person and let my team down all at once. Resolved to do better, I stood on the rubber and started to throw my next pitch, but stopped mid-throw as the runner now headed to second base, resulting in a balk and the runner advancing. I hadn’t known that I needed to change my starting position with base runners. After what felt like a hundred pitches and dozens of runs, I finally got through the inning. I had so much enthusiasm for the game and was so excited to be playing the position I’d dreamed of, but I failed miserably and just wanted to go back to the bus and hide.
My coach took me aside, and while he didn’t coddle me, he still put me at ease by telling me it was okay to fail. Everyone has done it. Everyone will do it. I would be destined to fail many times as life goes on. And it’s ok. He engaged me and took precious time to give me constructive feedback and instructions on how to not make the same mistakes again. He then did the unthinkable…he put me back on the mound for the second inning. I couldn’t believe it and was mortified, but I got up there and did it. I was still no Nolan Ryan (not even remotely close), but I didn’t make the same mistake again that cost me the balk. I had fewer runs scored and generally speaking, had a tad more confidence than I did when I left the mound the first time.
If my coach hadn’t taken the time to pass on his knowledge as he did, and not shown the understanding and compassion he did, I likely would have never stood on that mound again. He mentored me with his experience. He believed in me when I didn’t. He gave me room to fail. He set me up for success. He understood that while winning is an important goal, nothing is more important than growing the players.
I’d bet you don’t have to think hard to see the parallels between baseball and tech teams.