

Spend the Time to Sell Your Programmers on Your Product - jswinghammer
http://aterium.posterous.com/spend-the-time-to-sell-your-employees-on-your

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DirtyAndy
All companies, not just start-ups, need to look at this and not just sell
their programmers, but all their staff, and more importantly explain to all
their staff exactly what it is the company does.

I do contract development and it has never ceased to amaze me how many staff
at companies really have no idea what the company does, I've worked at
pharmaceutical companies where you'd swear people have never even seen a pill,
and media and advertising companies where people must never seen an ad.

All companies should develop an introduction pack, whether that is a video,
powerpoint or brochure, for new staff. It should explain what the company
does, how it does it and why it is good at it. The payback would be immense.

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TallGuyShort
A positive side-effect of this is that it would force leaders to articulate in
their minds for themselves, exactly what it is they're trying to accomplish.
I've seen the described phenomenon a lot and it has been very demoralizing,
but I think the root cause is that a lot of leaders seem to be unaware of what
their company is trying to be and do.

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barryaustin
It's a basic function of leadership to communicate a sense of purpose and to
convince a team to buy in. It amazes me how often supposed leaders neglect
this.

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messel
Founders, managers, and executives will say "sure this is obvious".

But if it's not obvious to the guys writing the code on the weekend, or late
at night with a burrito by their desk then it needs to be.

Everything you do matters more if you believe in it. Pseudo religious, but
also psychological. Better to prune doubt when work needs to be done.

