Life Experiment 25, 2021

Hey There.

OK, so I have some explaining to do from the last issue .

The last newsletter issue was a bit of a rant (if it wasn't obvious). Had a shitty external meeting connected to the volunteer project I'm working on—a meeting with a sort of external committee, not with my team. And yes, it pissed me off.

But here's the thing I actually really like leadership, building the team, working with all team members, building the culture, mentoring and empowering team members.

Leading a team is a huge privilege. It's also probably one of the experiences that shaped my life the most and made me into who I am today. Probably even more than studying physics.

But my leadership history is the topic for another time.

My operating procedure is usually to build the team of my liking, with key players that have extensive responsibilities. I prefer to work with people that I've worked with before. You know, battle-tested team members. Helps with the trust a lot.

I'm pretty careful of accepting new people in the team, but once you're one of us, I feel like I'm the mama bear that doesn't like it when people try to screw with her cubs.

So I really hate it when other people try meddling with my team and by being assholes. I hate that part, but unfortunately, one can't shield the team from every external factor.

After my last large project in 2015 at the age of 21, I avoided all leadership roles until the previous year. I wasn't particularly emotionally stable.

Emotional stability

Here's the thing. Leadership will take an emotional toll on you. Whether you like it or not. It's sort of the price you have to pay if you want to be a good leader. Your job is to eat a lot of shit, mule and obsess over decisions and protect the team so they can do their best work. You sort of need to compartmentalise the stress, so it doesn't spill through the whole team.

I'm not suggesting to keep things from the team, but don't burden them with every little detail that stresses you out.

You can share, right? Yes, but not everything and not with everyone because people can often misinterpret things.

Ideal world

Since 2016 when I've led the last larger team, I've been creating the environment for the type of team I would like to lead.

I started building my little online knowledge empire because I wanted to make a place for a team on my own terms.

Now assembling a bunch of volunteers to work on a project is one thing but leading a paid team is a whole other story. First, you need a sustainable business that provides you with enough stable cash flow to keep the lights on.

Next thing, if you want to follow something similar to the playbook of Basecamp, not every business idea is good enough. Some things are just hard to scale when following such an ethical codex.

Am I overthinking it? Hell yes. But the reason I want to get this right is that so many leaders don't. They just do things quickly, and then the shit hits the fan.

So yes, you could say I enjoy the ideal situation of leadership. With all the good stuff but not the bad. Because the bad stuff it's what drains you and your team.

But luckily, teamwork and leading the team are things that can really lift one's spirits.

If you want to dip your toes into better leadership, I recommend The One Minute Manager book. Short but really good.

Cheers

Ziga