Courage

Living the values

Design

• “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it” – Nelson Mandela
• Having the courage to admit when a design doesn’t work or doesn’t solve the problem correctly.
• Not being afraid of making mistakes with the intent to learn from them.
• Trying out new things to see how it can be used to improve your interface (not being afraid of seeing how far you can push your skills).
• Taking on tasks that are difficult and uncomfortable.
• Displaying perseverance under tight deadlines and expectations.
• Not turning down a challenge, but taking it head on and learning as much as you can from it.
• Being able to defend your design decisions when showcasing your work to stakeholders.
• Standing up for your team.
• Not being afraid to be vulnerable.

Engineering

• Have the willingness to confront uncertainty and intimidation. We all have to face new problems, technologies and principles continuously. Accepting that this will forever be the case, makes it easier to process.
• Having the ability to persevere when technical challenges arise is what separates developers from non-developers, even when you have no idea how to solve it when you start.
• Being aware of risk, confront your fears and take action. Aaaand go!
• Standing up for what you believe, but be willing to back it up with proof and metrics. Technical people don’t take information at face value, they have to be convinced. This process of convincing serves as a healthy self-check of our opinion and facts.
• Knowing your flaws, accept them, and then work with them. Sometimes it requires a tough grind, sometimes it requires asking for help.
• If you break the build, take it as an opportunity to learn. If you ship a bug, take it as an opportunity to learn. If you receive undesired feedback in a pull request, take it as an opportunity to learn. It’s tough, but that’s the only way to mature over time.
• Delivering updates on progress with confidence, and don’t hide information, even if it is bad news.
• Putting yourself into difficult positions by learning that framework, skill, tool that you’ve been putting off. You’ll have an immense sense of accomplishment.
• Accepting that incremental growth is the only way to keep moving forward. This means that you have to learn to crawl before you walk and ultimately run. It’s tough, but worth it.
• Even if others have difficulty doing it, separate yourself from your work. Judge it and not yourself. Be critical of it, but nurture it.
• Owning your successes and failures. Technical people often don’t want to be in the limelight, but find a way that you’re comfortable sharing personal wins. It’ll fuel your next endeavour. Likewise, accepting failure, and trying to learn at least one thing from it will keep you grounded and improve your senses for the future.
• Participating in conversations in our public channels, even if you have a difference in opinion - you might just enlighten someone else or be enlightened. Perspective is always a good thing, yours is not the only one.
• It takes a lot more to be the bearer of a tough message than a happy one, but learning to communicate during difficult times builds character.

Projects

• ‘Ripping the bandaid’ off difficult conversations that need to be had if your deliverables are at risk.
• Asking questions that you fear may make you look stupid – remember that everyone shares this fear and that you would probably not judge others for doing the same.
• When needed, speaking to the truths of a difficult situation in a way that is not confrontational, judgmental or blame-assigning. This can be difficult to achieve when working with multiple stakeholders who have different styles and values of their own, but always ask yourself what the cost of not speaking up may be.
• Being honest with someone, directly and face-to-face, in situations where you feel someone needs to do so.
• Listening to the feelings of others without involving your own, and giving anyone in your team the space to come to you with their difficulties.
• Taking on difficult challenges that no one else wants to. This doesn’t mean you should always sacrifice yourself to firefight, but recognise when your skills, knowledge or voice might be valuable to others.
• Defending your team from unfair or untrue remarks, so that they know you have their backs.
• Remembering your objective when trying to reach a compromise – a bad compromise is one where you don’t achieve your goal at all, but a good one gets you at least a little way there. Be willing to ‘find your wins’ in compromises, and encourage your teams to do the same.

Sales & Marketing

• Saying no when being bullied for information that you cannot accurately provide on the spot. Easiest example of this is, “What would an app cost me?”.
• Not being afraid to upsell similar services when the original plan did not work out.
• Reaching out to colleagues for urgent information, being able to navigate internally.
• Not shying away from unfamiliar situations.
• Educating the potential client if you are picking up that there are tested and tried ways to achieve their “new Facebook idea”.

Support

• Taking action in uncertain times, and making sure that our people feel safe and supported, for example, the extensive Covid-19 planning, as well as our focus on Occupational Health and Safety.
• Being patient and persevering with these changes – steering our people in the right direction and reiterating the importance of these changes. We practice living our culture day in, and out. There will be delays and setbacks, but we pick ourselves up and drive people quietly forward towards Glucode’s vision (we often work behind the scenes doing this).
• Protecting our people, we are not intimidated to speak up. When there are risks, it is important to be brave and have these difficult conversations early on; and, take a conservative approach, to make sure that everyone feels safe and secure.
• Not being afraid of being unpopular and taking a stand; we act as a voice and represent others, who feel, at times, that they cannot be heard in any other way.
• Bringing an objective point of view across, and be as logical about emotional issues as possible, so that issues are solved in a most professional and respectful way.
• Speaking up more frequently with candour.
• Taking on tasks that stretch your skills.
• Taking initiative.
• Mitigating risks, for our own department and the company.
• Managing deadlines.
• Persisting to achieve success, despite encountering difficulties or delays.
• Acting focused and strategic in a thoughtful and purposeful way.
• Practicing empathetic courage; put aside own biases and assumptions and be willing to listen.