The Angry Helper is the person who begrudgingly agrees to help you. They bemoan the process the whole time, bitter in the fact that they have to take time out of their day to help you figure out this “simple” problem that only they can understand. What you say and do is never enough to help, it was done wrong the first time and it will be done wrong the second and third and fourth…
If you were to measure the amount of hacks shipping in the latest release of your product by the date they were created. You would probably see a hockey-stick style graph. Up until that moment, you’ve done everything right, laid the foundation, put in the effort, plowed through your grunt work – making gains all day every day. But now the end is in sight and everyone is getting excited or worried about what is…
Then how do you expect to work together? If you can’t trust the person beside you, in front of you or behind you to be there when you need them the most. Then how can you lead them? You can’t. You need to know that when you ask for their help they will be there for you, or when the workload is too heavy they will all chip in to help or when it comes…
If you know something today that you didn’t know yesterday – you did a Good Job. If you tried something new, fell on your face and want to get up tomorrow and try again – you are doing a Good Job. If your work is making people, think and question their approach – you are doing a Good Job. If your quiet actions are drowning out the deafening sounds of negativity – you are doing…
Everyone wants to the hero that solved the customer’s problem, fixed the last fifteen bugs, saved the sprint, etc, etc. But whoever they are, they didn’t they do it on their own. Someone took over their other tasks. Someone else cleared their calendar of meetings. Another person on the team took on all their new hire interviews for them. When they worked through lunch, someone grabbed them a coffee later that afternoon. That’s how they…