What separates you from the herd is how you think about a situation.

I’ve worked in a culture of “𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆” and also in a culture of “𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺”.

Imagine you’re the TL of the core service team.

An internal user sends you the following:

“𝘐’𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘬8𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴, 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱?”

❌ 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝟭: “𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 7 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵.”

✅ 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝟮: “𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵’𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘴.”

A version of this happened to me fairly recently. It turned out that the chart version was hardcoded on the service end, causing the error.

It’s easy to look at a problem and bounce it back to the source as soon as possible.

Repeated such behaviors create silos in organizations. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀.

Instead, be the second person,

• 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 about issues

• It’s never you vs me; 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲

• The 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂; take that extra step

Many times, I’ve seen this culture fostered by overloading teams, stretching them thin.

So, there’s a lesson for leaders: If your team is oversubscribed, don’t subscribe to a ruinous culture; 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗯𝘆 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

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𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑝𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑? 𝐼 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑎 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟: ℎ𝑡𝑡𝑝𝑠://𝑤𝑤𝑤.𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝-𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠.𝑐𝑜𝑚

𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑒𝑡? 𝐷𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑝𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟.