the one who always helps…

There are people in your team, project, around you, who are recognized. They know a lot, they are doing a lot, they are always here whenever there is something to do, a problem to solve, need for help. Everyone knows how good, passionate and motivated they are. They are eager, they will do everything what they can to commit what they promised.
It’s good to have a such person in your team. Especially if the person is a team player with passion that can affect others. People will invest in themselves to reach such level, with the attitude such person will motivate them to grow.
However, there is also another side of the coin and as a leader you should remember about it.

The problem does not lie in such a person itself. The problems are hidden and without well done retrospectives and team self-awareness the person’s eagerness can help them to stay hidden.

There’s an unexpected problem? He will handle this. Small change turned out to have a huge impact on the entire application? Or maybe your team just underestimated the amount of work and the customer treats your estimates as deadline? He will stay late and l work overtime. And he won’t complain. He would be happy to help.
If it happens rarely there’s no big deal. Probably we all have been there and, unfortunately, probably we will be a few more times. It’s good if the team is responsible and takes ownership. And does everything to complete whatever they need to.
Yet, it is dangerous if working overtime becomes someone’s habit. It is even more dangerous when this person does not say a word about this. And I’m not talking about burn-out. There are people who have no problem with working as much as it is needed. They find pleasure in this.
But there’s always something that they can work on. If it was problematic to achieve goal without this overtime. Then we have a problem. Maybe it is something with our productivity? Motivation? Size of the stories they’re working on? Well, until we don’t notice symptoms we won’t be able to look for a root cause. And it is hard to see signs if no one has a problem with them. If no one treats them as something unusual.

That’s why it should be really important for a leader to stop for a moment and take a look at his team member’s work habits. Sometimes it can tell us a lot. Sometimes this knowledge can be a first step for huge improvements.