(A Quick Talk I Gave at a People Ops Offsite)
Where I Came From
Before I joined Blend, I'd worked with companies ranging in size from 3 to 80,000 people. I'd worked with companies that were three people in a coffee shop, companies going through their very awkward teenage years (usually around 150+ employees), founders whose egos sucked all the oxygen out of a room, and and founders who could make every person in their organization feel excited to be there. Over the past decade in tech, I've seen all sorts of things, and I like to think I can spot success patterns and cracks in the infrastructure.
Why I'm Here
What I see at Blend are the key pieces needed for both a company's success and for me to be happy.
These things are:
Strong, empathetic leadership
Product market fit
An incredibly smart and adaptable team that passes the hallway quiz. (If you were to bump into a teammate in the hallway, or at the water cooler, would you stop to talk to them? Or would you run away?)
The Things I Carry
Now that you know why I’m choosing to be here, I want to share some of the things I’ve learned in my (very) cross-functional time at Blend. As our Head of People Ops would say, we’re giving away our legos -- but we’re also melting reinventing, reimagining, and throwing said legos out the window. Working in a high-growth company can feel like both inventing and building a rocket ship while it's already in motion, but I'd like to share some of the things I've learned and carry with me.
Over-communicate. Keep every party up to to date on progress and blockers, even if you think it’s superfluous.
Have Empathy. Understand where a person is coming from. They might be in a bad mood because someone cut them off in traffic, because they have a headahce, because they hate the rain, because their boss just yelled at them, or 1000000 other reasons. You have no idea what’s going on in someone’s head. Take a step back and think about what could be going on in their head, what external pressures are on them, and why they’re acting that way. Ask them, and listen, and from that place you can build a much stronger path forward.
Advocate For Yourself. This goes both ways. No one can read your mind. No one knows what you want to work on, what you don’t, or what’s going on in your own life or work. You have to advocate for what you want, what you don’t, for your work, and for your worth.