
Ask HN: How did you successfully rejoin your old company/team? - KennyFromIT
I used to lead a team of about 10. Through a set of circumstances (neither good nor bad) I was transferred to a different project and then back again a couple years later. Now, that original team has grown to 45 and I&#x27;m just another cog in the wheel. I&#x27;m technically proficient, but my most valuable skills for this project lie in my institutional knowledge and leadership skills. The new team lead appears to act out of desperation to prove and assert her authority, so I&#x27;m concerned that she&#x27;ll look at me as an immediate treat. How can I successfully navigate these waters and provide the most benefit to the organization as a whole while not sacrificing my own personal growth? Have you done something similar in your career? How did that pan out?
======
davismwfl
Oh boy! Yes, I have done this personally and I have had teams where I brought
people back. I did this in 2011 actually, I joined a team that I had built
most of the original systems 7 years prior but now a whole new team of people
were working on them. Only people that were the same were the CIO, president
and a few others from different departments. So it was an interesting
challenge because everyone thought I was a threat to the director/manager
level people, when the reality was all I was there to do was write some code.

Best thing for you to do is to make sure the current lead sees you as an ally
and source of historical knowledge that can prevent her from looking stupid or
hitting preventable issues. The way you can work on that is to show support
for her and provide background or knowledge but be open about changes and
don't get defensive over changes. The worst thing you can do is become
defensive which even if you are right in a stance will isolate you, or worse
fracture the team into factions of them and you. So instead of saying we can't
do X, say something more like, well if we do that we will need to likely
address X, Y and Z. The point being you don't want to be a roadblock or a
naysayer, you want to be a team player and of course you want to try and
prevent stupid from happening but do so in a non-confrontational way. Also,
when discussing issues don't always reference when you were there before. Just
use your knowledge to help but not as a crutch or stick, and ask lots of
questions so people will feel you value them regardless of if they are new or
been there the whole time.

Hopefully that makes sense. The goal is to make yourself valuable to the team
lead and team overall, but do so without using your past knowledge as a
hammer. Use your knowledge as historical information that can help the team
but don't be an obstructionist which is what I have seen a lot of in the past
with people.

