Jun 25th, 2021
Best Practices
An Authentic Environment
Written by: Craig Vosper, Chief Delivery Officer
One of my favorite bits of feedback from customers is when we hear them describe us as authentic. We usually get comments like “you guys are down to earth,” or “we get to see everything, good and bad,” or even “we appreciate you telling us no when an idea isn’t great”. All these things demonstrate an environment of authenticity, which is an environment of trust and teamwork.
So how does one create this type of environment? First, by being yourself. Leaders should be who they are, not a “character” of who they think they should be. Treat people as you want to be treated. It does not matter what their role is. Treat your colleagues and employees as the most important assets you have at work, because they are.
Build trust. We see a lot of new folks who have been in other environments have early trust issues. They do not like to tell us bad news or try to “manage” the communication of it. It takes us a while to help them realize that bad news is best provided early so they can get help handling the situation. This fear of bad news also keeps them for asking for help, which ultimately slows down the project and reduces the advantages that the rest of the team could provide.
More showy, showy, less talky, talky! Do not hide progress behind a bunch of percentages and useless metrics, just give me the demo. Show me what you accomplished, show me the problem, show me the plan. Show me early and show me often. Nothing is more transparent than a demo of the software you have built so far.
Incent early failure. Guess what happens when you start showing more often. Things are wrong! This is what you want. You want a way to validate progress and understanding quickly so you can get to the right answer faster. This is especially true when dealing with remote and offshore teams. No number of “perfect” requirements will help you get to done faster than doing demos early and often.
For us, authenticity is not something we focus on, it is simply who we are here at Clientek. This means you are going to see us the way we are, good or bad, and you are going to see our work every step of the way. You are going to see that we will do whatever it takes to get your project done.