How to Build Team Collaboration
At Google, Mike leads a team of strategists focused on helping multi-channel and consumer products companies with their digital marketing strategies.
Mike has been with Google for more than six years but ended up there by accident. He was visiting his best friend who lived in San Francisco; They toured Silicon Valley to see Stanford, Facebook, Twitter, and Google, among others. When they got to Google, my friend mentioned a friend of a friend who works there who was hiring for a similar position to Mike’s previous job. My friend texted a friend who then contacted another friend who in turn texted another friend. Before Mike left San Francisco, he was introduced to the team leader and began the official interview a week later.
Mike’s Google career started after a series of events
After reading The Catalyst Effect, Mike formed his own perspective on what catalytic behavior looked like. It happened while he was hosting the Talks at Google program. He was really excited to know that Shane Battier would be on the podium as he is a classic example of someone showing catalytic behavior. Mike grew up watching sports, so he really connected to Battier’s experiences. What Battier and he experienced in sports, he could easily transfer to the business world. He found that there was a lot of overlap.
It got him thinking about the people he wanted on his work team; specific people that he would like to work on a specific project because of their versatility. Of course you will always need experts in certain areas, but there are also the ‘points of contact’, which Mike really appreciated. Working with his colleagues revealed a handful of people with whom he could exchange ideas and who provided great added value. These people are often the leaders of the team and may not be fully aware of the significant impact they are having on everyone around them.
When Mike moved to New York, he shared this experience with his team
Mike was working with a fairly small group at the time and was managed by executives working in a different office. There was one person in his team who always helped everyone. He was so open and willing to answer any questions Mike had. As a remote contributor, Mike didn’t know the products as well as other team members who came in from other parts of Google. He felt that every question he asked was stupid or that he was pestering everyone with things they should have already known. But this team member never made Mike feel like he lacked knowledge or that he was a nuisance. His colleague was willing to help and was very encouraging. He was the first to make people feel welcome. You might assume he’s a very outgoing, very verbal person, but he’s not. He was actually very reserved and quiet. But he was often the person who encouraged everyone to do great work.
How would you experience this colleague if he entered the room now?
Mike explained that this colleague is very introverted while Mike feels like a fake extrovert in the sense that he would host a podcast and moderate many talks on Google, but in reality he is not. Mike is more of an introvert by nature, and that’s probably one of the reasons he and his colleague became such good friends so quickly. The teammate is very reserved, but he pulls off an incredibly funny joke that’s witty and perfectly timed. But that might be all you hear from him in a large group. But if you’re in a one-on-one environment, you’ll have a very robust conversation – very thoughtful, focused, and productive.
Mike shares that he’s learned a lot from presenting at Google panels
There’s an assumption in the Talks at Google program that moderators should moderate any opportunity that comes their way as long as it stays within the confines of the discussions to go with the flow, if you will. Anyone who has worked with Mike on a Talks at Google panel will find that they rarely accept the original idea as the end product. He is very interested in building a basic idea and turning it into something really compelling by expanding on it in an appealing way.