Team changes. Threat or opportunity?

This week my good mate James Parton leaves my team. We have been working together in Bluevia from its early days and he's got an outstanding reputation in the industry, with developers and within the company. So lots of people came to me saying, "WOW, that's a big problem, ain't it?"

And my answer to that is NO, it's not. Actually I see it as an opportunity. But what does it take me to think like that? Am I a masochist or is there something that really drives me to think that way?

I must say I knew that was a about to happen. Sooner or later. He's talented and I knew from lots of talks in our trips and drinks that he had the internal need to face a challenge outside a big corporation. And Twilio, a hot Silicon Valley start-up is a cool way to cover that need.

So yes, I knew. But that doesn't make the difference.The reality is I really think that people need to rotate. It's good for them and for the teams. After being too long in a team you lose your passion or at least the stress so getting new people in is good.

It's also good for team spirit to see member growing. If everybody is stagnated in their positions for long, everybody can get to think that there's no better life than that. So this can be a good incentive for the team. Of course it needs to be explained like that to the team. Better avoid saying, "he's leaving, OMG, OMG, we should jump off the window". A positive message would work better :-)

Personally for me it's a good signal. I'm doing my work right. I've always thought that managing a team is about supporting your team member to get to their goals. If they get to them and it's perceived inside and outside the company, it means that I've done something right myself.

So yes I'll miss working with him but I'm sure somebody will come who will challenge the status quo and think totally out-of.the-box. And that will make it better for the team, the initiative and, finally, for me.

Keep moving