Category: Ask The Bent

First, you have to get clear about what care is. You can’t evaluate “care” itself because everyone values different things.

I recently had a new engineer join my team who is severely visually impaired. His impairment yields a number of challenges that I am having trouble sorting out.

Surprisingly, the expectations of a Good Employee don’t really change whether you’re on a team of many at a large corporation, or on a team of one working for yourself. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to achieve.

If it’s all getting done at quality, at scale, and on time — and no one is getting injured in the process — there’s not much room to criticize the process.

What your boss is trying to say is: “You are great. How can we expose more people more often to the way you think and act and work so it will rub off on them?”

We can brainstorm strategies with you for days — and we definitely will — but I doubt there’s a silver bullet piece of advice that will solve this problem. There are too many different players and you’re all humans: each of you is going to have different things you like and want. Ultimately, I recommend mixing and matching and making your own Thanksgiving plate with what feels right from this assortment.

No matter what your job title is, you can write such good documentation that anyone can jump in and ace something on their first try. You can yank the chain when you know something’s not right. You can create a safe space for honest feedback, for figuring hard things out, for talking your buddy through a nightmare situation.

I like to flip the assignment: How can they get to know me? Who am I as their boss? What are the qualities I want them to know I have, and in what situations can I show off those qualities?