Understanding your partners
The first step to building strong cross-functional partnerships is to check your ego. We all know that engineers are awesome, but ask yourself, do you feel the same way about the partner teams you interact with every day? Do you know them? Do you genuinely respect and appreciate them for what they contribute to the team? Do you think of them as vital contributors or just people who are doing some tasks that you don’t really value? Your attitude and beliefs about cross-functional partners can’t help but leak into your words and actions to some degree. For this reason, the most successful collaborators will always be those that appreciate their partners for their unique experience, effort, and perspective. A welcoming attitude with a curiosity to deeply understand others is the best foundation for a good partnership. With this in mind, go about the work of getting to know your partners.
