- people in positions of direct power (managers) aren’t any smarter or wiser than ICs. It’s actually surprisingly easy to be extremely incompetent and generally demonstrate no ownership of any problem. You can fly under the radar as long as others are hell bent on success and unknowingly carrying your weight (I was caught on the other end of this).
- do your best work, but at some point you have to let balls drop. Others have to fail sometimes to learn or for accountability to actually come into the picture.
- speak up louder and often when you’re unsure of something or when things don’t pass the sniff test. Don’t be afraid that someone will think your incompetent because you asked for help on ambiguous problems. You’ll realize that the people who you thought would judge you actually don’t know either, and in any case it was wrong to presume their response in the first place.
- you don’t have to be involved in every problem your team owns or is asked to own. At some point, you literally cannot scale to knowing every detail. Delegate things out the best you can, but solutions should always be documented so we can verify what’s going on and is it the right thing to do.
- don’t compromise on things you own. If someone’s lack of ownership is causing a fire, don’t risk the things you are directly responsible for to put out that fire.