Progress on Autonomy
While I still have a long way to go as a leader, I've certainly made strong progress along the way.
I closed another sale at codeabode this week. As for the team, it's sort of fell apart. I edit the website, I message the leads, I keep in touch with the paid students, and I organize all the library classes. Social media marketing has scratched to a halt under my lead, although I still believe that was never necessary in the first place.
My takeaway? codeabode is an example of everything I shouldn't be. A "Diminisher". A micromanager. A person who feels overwhelmed because they gatekeep all the responsibility.
To be honest, this was intentional. codeabode was my experiment where I stuck to traditional top-down management. I did run debates internally, but the only incentive to work at a place like codeabode would be the paycheck. It is the only one of my ventures that has generated money and remained profitable in what economists call the short run.
Contrasting my top down management with the transparent, open-ended, and hardwork-demandingculture at aquarc, you'll quickly notice how much more successful aquarc is, even if we haven't generated any revenue and only soaken up my pocket money. Our GitHub commits started out high, fell, and now are slowly making a comeback. All with significantly less effort and happier co-workers. That's the effect of going to the lengths of implementing effective team management in a startup.
We still have a long ways to go at aquarc; after pulling out the "weeds" (people who don't really do anything) and building a collective responsibility for the growth of aquarc, I understand that it's time to rebuild on the foundation of trust because of the growing fear. Systematically removing 40% from the aquarc group and the much smaller team is certain to cause some fear, especially because the change was so drastic and so quick. Although this step was definitely necessary so we can build what's next to come.
aquarc's team has shrunk from a boasting 16 (almost 17) to 9. The team might be shrinking, but the bonds within the team are tighter. And my experience is only going to deepen as we go along.
And as for codeabode? I do have some dead weight to cut, but I also think we would need well-defined roles to be able to accomplish anything. And maybe hang around some clubs at my school to figure out who's worth bringing on next.
“If it's not a hell yes, then it's a no!” Derek Sivers
Tags: reflection, growth