by Jessica Tan, Communications Manager
The end of 2019 marked the end of a decade and my 3 months in Teleport. After being an Allstar in AirAsia for 2 years, I thought my first 3 months of teleporting over would be a breeze.
I was wrong. The people, the culture, the scope of work and especially the speed of things were beyond my imagination. Coming from the education industry into AirAsia, I described my Communications role as being more intense. Now in Teleport, the intensity x1000.
Here are the top 3 things I learnt from being in a start-up which I hope will paint a realistic picture to others who are thinking of or will be joining our exciting and growing team.
1. Speed over perfection
When you’re putting together a new team by yourself, you’ve got to start the ball rolling somewhere. I’m not saying we should produce half baked things but it should be good enough as a start. Like this blog, I started by putting together a content list with categories. Next was to look for willing contributors and research for other interesting and relevant blog topics. We’ve also put together two videos (shoot them myself) to attract talent and share the highlights from our recent town hall in Langkawi.
2. Be intentional
What are we trying to achieve with the things we’re doing? There are a million of things vying for our attention and it’s so easy to lose focus. It’s fine if plans change along the way, but we must always keep the end goal in mind. More importantly, to communicate openly with your team on the plans, be flexible, ask for feedback and strive to deliver your best and commit to continually improving it.
3. Stay humble
If there’s one quality everyone in a growing team appreciates the most, it’s humility. Humility to put aside our own pride, wants and emotions to achieve the team’s goal. That means, admitting if a task is beyond your capabilities and seek help completing it. We all come from different backgrounds and learning together not only brings us closer but will also help us improve as individuals. My hope is as we grow from over 300 to close to 500 people by end of 2020, we will remember to remain humble and celebrate the journey every step of the way.
(Originally published on the Teleport Blog on January 13, 2020.)
