Note: this post is from my archive, back in May of 2019. A lot has changed since then, but I wanted to pull this back in. Bonus section below.

I’m currently reading Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle.There are so many lessons in this dedication to Bill Campbell when it comes to building teams that it’s hard to start anywhere. Every chapter is full of nuggets to apply in the lab. Years ago, I presented google’s re:Work post in a meeting with little to no reception. Finding this post years ago was something that I had been screaming from the rooftops for a while: employees need to feel psychologically safe at work. Little did I know, that the principles laid out were straight from the Trillion Dollar Coach himself. Well what does psychological safety actually mean? It means that what permeates through your culture at work is vulnerability, rewarding risk-taking, and allowing others to make mistakes at work. This is really hard to do. One, it needs to come from the top. Two, it takes good teams.

One of my favorite chapters in Trillion Dollar Coach (even though it’s hard to pick a favorite) is on teams.

Lesson one: Work the team, then the problem

Don’t talk about the problems, but talk about the team that is handling said problems. Build the right team, give them what they need to get their job done, and let them handle it.

Lesson two: Pick the right players

One of the positions I was in, I was told (during the interview) that I would get to build my team. This was at a time in my career that I really longed for. My current environment had no one familiar with sequencing at all, and it was promising to find and select the right people to grow the molecular division. That was so far from reality in what actually happened. Hopefully history does not repeat itself.

I’ve been on the wrong teams before

I know that I have never been the best team player. Most of that awareness comes from my expectations. Team activities in high school, maybe college, can easily set the tone for how one fares in the workplace. If you are used to doing the majority of the work on a project, then it will be hard to delegate and share the load later in life. If your workplace is not psychologically safe, employees will resist giving up responsibility out of fear of being replaced. Team members will hog the work for all of the credit and recognition for advancement. If individual performance bonuses are an option, everyone will be focused on getting their bonus, that they won’t cooperate on goals that benefit the company. Been there. I’ve been all of these places. And I think I’m finally free of those places and mindsets.

There are always opportunities to lead, and if you find yourself lost, I can’t recommend this book enough. Bill knew how to treat and mentor others, and build teams. I’m really thankful that the authors recognized how important these lessons were, and let us all be mentored by Bill Campbell.

Bonus Personal Lesson: Building a Team is Challenging

One of the pitfalls of building a team is being proactive. When the work gets overwhelming, you need to pull people in and fast. The sheer act of working with HR and interviewing multiple people in multiple rounds takes a lot of time. If you’re already buried in work, fast and, sometimes rash, decisions are made during the hiring process. This could result in a poor fit for your team’s skill or culture. The ability to forecast new team members in just the right time is a skill that I definitely did not have. The exact scenario played out above. I was proud of the team that I had built, but there were definitely challenges. When you’re hiring for niche skillsets and your local talent pool is limited, that can be challenging as well. Remember if you’re in a pinch for help, your search may be limited to a local area since they can usually start working sooner than a broader talent pool.

It’s ok to take a break from leadership

Just like the waves or taking a breath, I believe there can also be a cycle to leadership. We can always be leaders, but a defined leadership role can be a drain. If multiple people are coming to you for a decision, then decision fatigue creeps in. I avoid the build-your-own restaurants for this very reason. It’s okay to take a break from a leadership role if it is no longer serving you. Once you take a step back, you can work on yourself, improve some skills that you lack or have gotten rusty, and get back in the water. No one stays in the pool too long - you get all pruny.