What type of person are you?
If I could best define culture of people I want to work with – Doers – Triers – Chancers – Supporters – Empathizers – Laughers — Mark Suster (@msuster) December 5, 2015
I always loved this quote from Mark Suster on what type of persons he likes to work with. When you are building a company from scratch culture is extremely important at every phase: this is the single element that will get the team to work for a common goal, that will retain talent and make this journey a human adventure.
We are probably all a combination of these specific traits but it's interesting to try to gauge where you stand. He defines each of them such as:
Doers: Those more inclined to pick up spreadsheets, code, marketing docs, product designs or even the telephone or hop on a plane to solve a problem vs somebody who tells you all the things wrong with the world.
Triers: People who don’t know if they have the right skills or knowledge but if asked are willing to help in any way possible. They are the people with can-do attitudes.
Chancers: These are people who don’t mind failure. They are willing to take a project that might seem hard or put themselves on stage even though they might sound stupid or to make a hard investment decision even if they may be criticized or wrong. They are willing to take a chance. Better to try and fail than to never try at all.
Supporters: Not everybody has the time, inclination or skills to help. But there are always those people who listen and are willing to be helpful as supporting cast members in a journey in any way you ask them to. Everybody needs supporters.
Empathizers: I like to work with people who are high on empathy. They are looking to help others and understand when you’re down. They lend an ear at the right time and even sometimes a hug. The understand the journey is hard and they have high enough EQ to know how to help and be available. They are the humans.
Laughers: If you can’t have fun what’s the point. I like working with people who don’t want to separate business and personal. I want to work with more people who understand that there’s no point in hitting goals if you have no fun along the way. I want to be around people with a sense of humor.
So for this new year, could you think of one of these characteristics you could improve?