Okay, you caught me, I am not a Silverlight expert. I do, however, play one on TV and feel qualified to discuss Silverlight at great length….
Before I begin though, how did I get here? The Swimfish engineering team is reasonably sized with teams in three offices, 2 in the US, one off-shore. We’re doing well and, to a large degree, knowledge and skills are fairly well spread out. We have been working on a very cool piece of software for an upcoming pilot and the date has been tough all along, getting harder day by day as the team works through some interesting issues with Silverlight…
Now, it became apparent yesterday that we were not going to hit the pilot date without some quick thinking or some major chopping of features…. I’m not a fan of chopping unless necessary so I did the only thing left to do…. I stepped in myself and became a Silverlight expert.
The team responded to the fact that I was with them late into the night, will be again tonight to ensure we’re on track. Did my expertise at fixing typos and adjusting item positions save the day? While my coding skills are clearly legendary they did not make a major difference, the real pros got the job done. My willingness to join in, to be part of the solution instead of just throwing it into their laps is what got us through night 1.
I always believe that great leaders must know how to delegate. If you don’t you will never lead a team of more than one. However, great leaders also need to know when to roll up their sleeves and get into the middle of things. Are you willing to do that when the time comes?
Oh yes, let me tell you something I learned about Silverlight…. First….
John
