1 quote, 1 thought, 1 tip

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

 

1 thought

I was subcontracted by Google to help at one of their moonshot projects called Project Tango. I was very happy when I passed my probation, getting my contract extended.

 

But eventually, I was fired because I couldn’t work well with my team. That forced me to reconsider my fundamental assumption that I had been good at working in teams. Was I really that good?

 

Or was I simply forcing myself to work in teams because it was the norm?

That Google experience showed me that I was not good at teamwork. More importantly, it encouraged me to finally pursue more individual work.

Today, ask yourself: are you good at teamwork, or are you forcing yourself to be good at teamwork? It doesn’t need to be this way.

 

You can search for opportunities that celebrate individual, focused work.

But it’s about recognising that not everyone has to be good at teamwork. And that’s okay.

 

1 quote

The best outperformed the worst by a 10:1 ratio… It was a mystery with one intriguing clue: programmers from the same companies performed at more or less the same level, even though they hadn’t worked together. That’s because top performers overwhelmingly worked for companies that gave their workers the most privacy, personal space, control over their physical environments, and freedom from interruption.

62% of the best performers said that their work was acceptably private, compared to only 19% of the worst performers.

• Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

 

1 tip

The pandemic may have forced you to work from home. Instead of complaining about the lack of interaction with your colleagues, cherish it. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Has working from home made me more productive?
2. Why?
3. How can I continue this productivity level after the lockdown?