johnmaconline

Trust is hard.

I don’t necessarily mean trusting another, although that may be hard as well. I mean trusting in the unknowable future.

God asks us to trust. Smart people tell us to trust. We tell our kids to trust. We ask our partners to trust. We ask our team to trust. We’re told to trust the process.

But it’s hard.

Maybe that’s what makes it so important.

Building a team isn’t a lottery. It’s a chess match.

Within the ranks of sprouts and warriors, search for your essential generals, gatherers, and snipers.

The industrial machine hierarchy is out the window. When you get your team around the table, each member has their place. Each better than you at what they do. This ain’t your grandfather’s org structure. You’re building a team for the new work paradigm. 

Generals are your torchbearers, leaders, and the stalwarts holding your mission high. Commanders in competence, visionaries in ambition, they help you steer the ship, even through storms. Since not all eyes are on you, you need others who can also lead, if even just themselves. 

Next are your gatherers. More than just hard workers; they are the heart and soul of your team. They see the patterns others miss, collect the knowledge others overlook, and build the bridges others cannot. They are the glue holding your team together, the unassuming heroes fostering relationships, strengthening bonds, and fueling operations.

Then come the snipers. Your secret weapon and game-changers. They dive deep, deliver big. These are your experts. 

Building a great team is about pinpointing these roles, and then positioning them to maximize their potential. 

Choose right, and watch your team soar.

Should you consider hiring someone who has many years of contractor experience to be an employee?

This one is more of a yellow flag than a red one. It can work, but you should understand the risks.

Long-time contractors are typically specialists with depth in their niche. Hired guns. Snipers. Delivering specifics on time and with precision.

However, when you transition them to employees, the landscape shifts. You’re need team members who are invested and show up every day with curiosity and conviction. Your contractor ace swimmers may flounder on dry land.

Employees need a different skill set. They require breadth. Versatility is their secret weapon. They juggle tasks, pivot quickly, adapt to new roles. Their playground is vast. Their utility, manifold. They care. You want them to care.

A contractor turned employee might struggle to broaden their horizon and to invest the way you need them to. The singular focus that once was a strength may now be a constraint. Plus, they’re used to filling a role for time period, and then moving on.

Hiring a long-time contractor as an employee is an exercise in balance. It’s about finding that sweet spot where a contractor’s laser-focused expertise and an employee’s diverse skill set intersect. It’s also about finding someone who’s willing to invest — in the mission, the team, and themselves.

So, look before you leap. Transitioning a contractor to an employee might sound like a logical move, but it’s not always the winning move. Beware.

Not all that glitters is gold.

You’re on the hunt for craftsmen, meticulous in their method and knowledgable of their craft, yet agile in their approach.

Masters have their cherished tools, languages, and methods. That’s good. It means they care. You need your team to care. But there’s a fine line. When this affection hardens into dogma, it’s damaging. Productivity stumbles. Teamwork suffers. A single inflexible developer can grind your project to a halt, fracturing your team in the process.

Religious wars work against progress.

Then there’s the fluff. Buzzwords. Jargon. Overcomplicated explanations. This fluff hides gaps in understanding or skill. The true professional and master can simplify the complex and communicate it clearly. Even the sprouts you’re looking for know when to speak up about their current limitations.

Talking a good game isn’t the same as playing a good game. You need the players.

Remember, hiring the right people starts by eliminating the wrong ones.

Linus Torvalds ruined an entire generation of software developers.

Well, more specifically, he ruined a generation of his disciples in software team environments. He made it seem like it’s OK to be a giant asshole. Let’s be clear. It’s not. Not when you’re trying to build a great team full of sprouts and warriors, and you’re not one of the tech giants.

Torvalds is a master at his craft, no doubt. Yet, he’s equally infamous for a harsh communication style. Public rants and dismissive comments are his hallmarks. These behaviors spawned an intimidating, hostile culture. It squashed collaboration. It quashed innovation. It bred fear, not ideas.

Therein lies a critical lesson: Technical brilliance is not enough. An engineer who can’t play well with others can seriously damage the team’s dynamics, no matter how skilled they might be.

But don’t confuse “plays well with others” with “milk toast” and “B-players.” You need people who care, and you want them to speak up. You want conviction. You want creative tension, and you want everybody to hold each other accountable and to a higher standard. You should listen to ornery people who care. 

You just don’t have to be a dick about it.

You need people who argue about ideas, not about the person. You want people who can find empathy. You want people who contribute to the positive energy in the room.

Find the people who move the team forward, not backward. 

Hiring is hard.

Especially if you’re not one of the tech giants or a hot shit startup. But you can still hire and assemble a great team.

Previously we learned that hiring is not dating and that you’re looking for sprouts and warriors.

The secret is in strategic elimination rather than trying to assess perceived perfection. Shif your approach to eliminating those that will capsize the boat. 

Often, we’re too engrossed in finding ‘the best’, overlooking problematic traits that lurk beneath the surface. It’s like inverse anchor bias. The critical focus? Personality. Misjudge this, and you’re headed for an iceberg.

Consider arrogance versus confidence. You’re craving the confident, and you’re hoping to spot the arrogant. Arrogance dismisses critique and steamrolls colleagues, while a confident one invites feedback, respects peers, and fuels team synergy. You need to eliminate the blustery hype machines. 

Consider introversion versus milk toast. A great team member doesn’t need to be the life of the party or talk all that much. But she certainly needs to speak her mind and argue her convictions. The team needs constructive dissension and creative tension. You need to eliminate those who won’t ever speak up. 

Tune your hiring process to find the right personalities. 

The industrial machine drove the old work paradigm.

Work the hours. Supervisorship and micromanagement. Fifteen-minute increments. Org leadership. Come to this office. Park here. Sit in this office. We’ll give you snacks. Do what we say. Ask the boss. Fit in.

The old work paradigm required ever-increasing productivity, compliance, and hierarchy from the humans. Humans acting like machines.

But the industrial machine is in its death throes.

Queue the new work paradigm.

The new work paradigm values significance — for the mission, team, and the people.

Authority gives way to autonomy. Micromanagement replaced by empowerment. Compliance out, and creativity in. Our days aren’t dictated by the clock but driven by curiosity and commitment. Boundaries have blurred, giving rise to fluid, cross-functional teams. Unconventional thinking is celebrated, not silenced. The office no longer dominates work. Geography independence begets work-life integration.

This is the new work paradigm. Empowering. Engaging. Enthralling. Work of significance. Let the humans be the humans. Let the humans use the machines rather than be the machines.

The future is now. Embrace it with confidence or get left behind.

You’re looking for warriors, but warriors don’t always show themselves through flashy credentials.

Warriors go to battle. Warriors persevere. Warriors don’t stop until you’ve done the job. Warriors invest themselves in the team, the project, and the outcome. They’ve turned their scars into strength.

Warriors are made in the trenches, in the projects that have derailed, the classes they failed, and a life that’s gone sideways. In these harsh environments, they’ve learned to adapt, persist, and most importantly, overcome.

Herb Brooks, coach of the legendary 1980 US Hockey team, didn’t opt for the most skilled players. Instead, he sought fighters, individuals who knew adversity and still pressed on. He looked beyond mere talent, focusing on resilience, dedication, and the will to conquer.

In your hunt for warriors, ignore the shiny qualifications and uncover the gritty stories of resilience. Look for those who’ve fought battles, emerged victorious, learned, and are ready to take on the next challenge. Find those who value commitment over prestige, team victory over personal glory.

Warriors don’t require work experience in your field. Life throws each of us battles. Warriors are chiseled out of life experience as much as work experience. Sprouts can be every bit the warrior, just as a 20-year grizzled veteran.

How do you find them?

Listen to their stories — work, school, life. Discuss the battles they’ve fought. How they fought them. Find the uncut gems of wisdom.

Go beyond the resume and dive into life.

You’re looking for sprouts, and one of the best places to find them is fresh out of college. 

So how do you find them?

Experience has taught me this: the conventional hiring process for new graduates doesn’t cut it if you’re not one of the big tech firms or a hot shit startup. Google, Facebook, and Apple can afford the conventional approach to finding their superstars because they have a line of candidates that stretch out the door and around the block. 

So what if you don’t?

Toss the school name, GPA, and grueling theoretical interviews out the window. They won’t serve you, and that’s what everyone is looking at. You need to look differently. Don’t compete in that ocean. Find your own sea. 

Here’s what truly matters: Will this sprout succeed with us?

Software development demands a mix of technical skill, initiative, productivity, and teamwork. Spotting potential in these areas is the game changer.

Ask them one question: “What are you presently working on?”

If the answer smells like, “Well, nothing, I’m still trying to get my first job,” then pass. Yours will not be their first job, no matter what their GPA and class standing is. 

You need sprouts who are already working on something, regardless of pay because that shows initiative, creativity, focus, and self-reliance. They have curiosity and drive. They already care enough to do it. 

So, look for the sprouts who are already working on something. They’re your future.

You’re on a quest for sprouts and warriors.

Sprouts burst upwards, hungry to grow, learn, and become. They’re not complete, not yet. But within them lies a potential brighter than the brightest star. When you recruit, seek sprouts. Seek the thirst, the ambition, the raw, unshaped talent. More than that, seek the spirit.

Walt Disney built his empire by finding the right sprouts. The genius of Disney was his ability to see the sprouts, the raw potential, and to cultivate it.

Sprouts bring new ideas, energy, and turn into warriors.

Warriors win the war.

Warriors are embodiments of unwavering commitment, less about talent and more about resilience. They dance in the rain of adversity, not always the most gifted, but the most dedicated. They’ve tamed their tools, turned challenges into stepping stones, and carry a fire of willing contribution.

Herb Brooks built the 1980 US Hockey Team from a band of warriors. He chose fighters over flash. Grit over names. Resilience and experience in the ring, and those who had battled their dragons and emerged victorious. He transformed a group of collegiate athletes into an Olympic team that beat the invincible Soviets.

You don’t have to be Google, Facebook, or Apple to build an amazing team. You need to choose and recruit differently.

You’re gonna want to find sprouts and warriors.