Build Better Teams

Founders Don’t Know Everything, so Build Better Teams for Success

Keep an open mind with teams and their ideas and you’ll reap the rewards.

Where do I fit in? This question is central to the tech industry. It’s applicable when defining roles, building teams, launching start-ups, growing existing companies, looking for new challenges and seeking to make a meaningful impact that betters people’s lives.

Dirk Elmendorf has a wealth of experience in these areas. These days, he mainly spends his time working on Jobward, an organization he founded to help job seekers navigate the hiring process. Back in 1998, he co-founded Rackspace. In-between, his resumé is peppered with experience building successful start-ups.

The common thread running through Elmendorf’s career is that success comes from finding people who fit — be they leaders or new hires — and emphasizing that everyone has a part to play. “Team building is essential in the modern era of business,” Elmendorf said. “Teams give a company opportunity, because you’re not relying on one person to be great at everything.”

Build Teams with People Who Fit

On the latest episode of the Cloud Talk podcast, Elmendorf and Rackspace Technology CTO Jeff DeVerter explore more deeply into nurturing this right-fit approach to team building, delivering insights into:

  • The vital nature of teams within any modern work environment
  • Ways in which technology has changed how modern companies must compete
  • Examining your own skill set and where it fits into a company
  • Finding a balance between deepening mastery and trying new things
  • The importance of using industry figures to get businesses on-side
  • Deciding when to leave a company — including one you founded
  • How individuals can impact the real world and improve lives through tech

It’s a candid discussion, but then Elmendorf prizes openness. “Conversation is sacred — it’s important to be open and trusting,” he said. “With every team I’m involved with, I try to build psychological safety into it. No one should need to worry about what someone will think or react should they say something — work is hard enough without having to be concerned about all that!”

Elmendorf’s approach to hiring and collaboration is similarly open-minded. He values the ideas and skills of those in his organization,— regardless of where they come from. At Jobward, a recent designer hire said he’d failed out of film school, but he turned out to be an excellent storyteller. “Finding the stories of people we’re working with and translating that into software is something I can’t do,” said Elmendorf. “All of a sudden, this designer’s ‘other’ skills — those beyond specifics he was hired for — matter.”

Arguably an even bigger lesson surrounds the first company Elmendorf founded. “Rackspace is a perfect example of why founders aren’t the Alpha and Omega of everything. We founders did not come up with Fanatical Service — that came from an early hire, and yet has been essential to the company’s success,” he said. “This highlights how teams matter. Recruiting people who add value matters. Your finest ideas are more about the ideas you recognize than the ones you have yourself — being able to curate the best of them, regardless of where they came from.”

What to do now? - Here is our new, quarterly released e-book, published by the office of the CTO, and it’s all about technology trends. Click here to download it!

Listen & Follow

 

Join the Conversation: Find Solve on Twitter and LinkedIn, or follow along via RSS.

Stay on top of what's next in technology

Learn about tech trends, innovations and how technologists are working today.

Subscribe
Cost Governance Research

Three Cost Management Stats IT Leaders Can't Afford to Ignore

About the Authors

rackspace logo

Rackspace Technology Staff - Solve

The Solve team is made up of a curator team, an editorial team and various technology experts as contributors. The curator team: Srini Koushik, CTO, Rackspace Technology Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist, Rackspace Technology The editorial team:  Gracie LePere, Program Manager Royce Stewart, Chief Designer  Simon Andolina, Design Tim Mann, Design Abi Watson, Design Debbie Talley, Production Manager  Chris Barlow, Editor  Tim Hennessey Jr., Writer Stuart Wade, Writer Karen Taylor, Writer Meagan Fleming, Social Media Specialist Daniel Gibson, Project Manager

Read more about Rackspace Technology Staff - Solve