Two thoughts on Good Intentions
Ready for your second instalment of advice from someone who has spent an alarmingly long time working in tech? Great!
Here are my second and third go-to clichés for my 25-year-old self. I hope they’re helpful.
Assume good intentions…
Once a company gets to a certain size, the biggest challenge can often be just navigating the people. The work itself might not be that hard, but all the people you have to get through to make it happen can be exhausting. This is especially pronounced in a fast-growth environment, where new hires are arriving every month. Suddenly there’s a flurry of new faces you don’t recognise and that can create challenges. You find yourself thinking ‘That guy seems like a bit of a nob…’ or ‘Why is this person blocking my project?’ But the likelihood is that they are simply coming at things from a different perspective to you.
Your colleagues aren’t intentionally getting in your way or falling out with you. In fact, they’re almost certainly coming to their role with the very best of intentions. It’s just that they might be on a different mission to you, or their interpretation of the company direction is different to yours. (As an aside, this is why clear direction from leadership is so important, to leave no room for interpretation). Their manager could be giving them advice that runs counter to how you’re doing things, or they might have been put on a project that partially overlaps with yours (extremely common in scale-ups.)
The best thing to do when you’re in this kind of scenario - where there’s friction, potential conflict and suspicion - is, first, to assume best intentions and, second, grab some time to learn where the other person is coming from. Understanding their perspective will likely lead to some kind of ‘Eureka!’ moment where suddenly it all makes sense about why you’ve been butting heads.
Plus, everyone has different workplace values. Some people care about the strength of their relationships with their colleagues. Others want to see a plan or a strategy before they feel comfortable working on something. While others just want to get on with the job and see some action. And you’ll always have someone asking ‘Where is the data that backs this up?’
It’s these different perspectives that make a great team - and company. It’s no good hiring a whole group of people that have the same work style, opinions, and set of values. Sure, you’d agree on things more easily, but you’d be missing out on so much experience, talent and diversity of thought.
You need all of these varying perspectives - and to actively embrace these differences - to create a great business. And remember, your customer-base isn’t a homogeneous blob either. Your team needs to reflect that. Realising this, and embracing it, is key to personal success in a growing company.
It’s a skill that product marketers especially need to master, too. For your own growth, it’s essential to understand where all of your colleagues are coming from. But in your role as a bridge between the commercial and product parts of your organisation, you need to be able to do this on behalf of other teams. So when Sales and Product have fallen out over a project, you’re there to smooth things over, and help each team understand where the other is coming from.
So, as a default, it’s more productive - and good for your own sanity - to assume people are approaching a problem with the best of intentions.
But also…
…The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Hopefully I’ve just convinced you that most evils at work don't come from malicious intent. But that doesn’t change the fact that, sometimes, the most epic failures can come out of the most honourable of ambitions.
While we can place good faith in our colleagues and accept that what they are doing comes from the best of intentions, sometimes we also have to call out the bullshit and prevent a terrible plan from happening.
What’s the advice here? Well, for me, I can sometimes fall into the optimist trap, too often glossing over the things that are going wrong, in favour of a ‘It’s all going to be ok’ mentality. But what I've realised in recent years is that it’s important to be vocal when you have concerns, as long as you’re constructive about it.
Sometimes it’s important to acknowledge that, yes, a person or team might have great intentions but, dear lord, we’re heading for a shit show. Otherwise people won’t buy into you, especially if you’re a leader. You need to balance optimism with authenticity and be honest with your colleagues when things aren’t ok.
Your company will thank you for it, as well. Too often in project retros - where hindsight is 20/20 - it transpires that failures could have been avoided if people had voiced their concerns earlier. Again, you want to keep it constructive, but if you can master how to give this kind of feedback, it’s a great skill to have.
One extra caveat
We should also accept that some people (a real minority) do actually have shitty intentions. At Google, because the company was already so successful, I noticed a ‘what’s in it for me?’ mentality in some parts of the business, where people went into projects or meetings interested in what they would get out of it. There was no worry about the health of the business, or a need to rally together to complete the mission, which gave people the luxury of thinking about themselves instead. You can't do much about this, apart from focus on what you, yourself, can influence and find colleagues who also genuinely care.
This trend wasn’t at all universal, but it existed, and it’s why I personally much prefer growing companies where the stakes are still high. At a company that hasn’t fully found its success yet, employees are much more focused on the health of the business, knowing that if we all work together as a team, we’ll all be successful together. (Bonus cliché: a rising tide lifts all ships.)
Hopefully some of the above resonates with you. Let me know your own experiences with good intentions in the comments.
Cheers! 👋