After many years in the Bay Area, Grace Chen recently moved her family to Camden, Maine. She brings with her twenty years of product and business experience, including at two of the largest and most successful tech companies (Google, Meta) and a pre-IPO growth stage company (Square, now Block). She also founded an early stage venture-backed start-up (Common Networks) focused on expanding internet access. Recently, she has been growing her consulting practice focused on business and product strategy advising and executive coaching. 

This month, Grace is also kind enough to guest write this article focusing on how she thinks about building great teams. 

Managing Great Teams

Over my years leading product and business teams at different tech companies, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and watched other leaders, some of whom are regarded as the foremost CEOs and executives in tech, make mistakes as well. Those were all great learning opportunities. I’ve also gotten to experience and build teams that seem to ‘hum’ – teams that collaborate well, execute efficiently, consistently produce excellent work, and have great culture. While every leader should develop their own personal flavor on how they want to construct and manage great teams, here are my top five tips that can apply to any leader or manager, regardless of the industry.

1. Hire for attitude and learning aptitude, not necessarily for specific expertise. The best teams I’ve managed have been composed of many people who didn’t necessarily have deep knowledge in the particular industry or product on which we were focused. When I build teams and hire individuals, I look for people with a learning/growth mindset. I look for people who are challenged and motivated by tough problems, not by job titles. I look for people who are generally analytical and can bring that approach to any domain. And I especially look for people who are confident enough to have strong opinions, but are happy to say “I don’t know” or “That idea is even better than mine.” This latter piece is especially important because people without much ego are more likely to be open to collaboration, which in turn drives innovative solutions to problems.

2. Build diversity into your team from day 1. Drive diversity into your hiring practices early so that you force a culture of empathy, openness, and collaboration. Diversity includes many aspects: gender, background, field of study, life experience, etc. You will reap the business benefits when you end up developing better, more creative solutions to challenges.

3. Know when to have a zero-tolerance policy. I very quickly remove any people on my team that are manipulative, dishonest, or disingenuous. Even if they are brilliant, it’s not worth the damage to the team culture.

4. Create an environment where it is okay to not be perfect. I’ve noticed that at some companies, the expectation is that if an employee is going to present work to their manager, executives, or teammates, it must be polished and flawlessly presented. This creates an environment that is stressful and based on fear; it also encourages your teams to wait until too late before bringing you their ideas. Great leaders demand thoughtful work while also encouraging sharing work early and often so that the team can iterate quickly and react to feedback before ideas are solidified. This means that you must hold your team to a high bar while providing the psychological safety that encourages (and maybe even rewards) mistakes or sharing of incomplete work. 

5. Flex your style based on the situation. On the leadership-style spectrum of authoritarian to consensus-driven, there is a lot of room to play. I always find it somewhat alarming when a leader describes their leadership style as a single point on that spectrum. The best leaders are able to flex and understand when to drive consensus, versus when to simply make decisions and push them down to your team. They can assess what is needed in a particular situation and adjust their style. 

You can also read Grace’s insights on being a female leader in tech on Quartz and Forbes. To contact her, email gracechenconsulting@gmail.com.