Don’t Work With Me Unless You’re Built Like This

Let’s be clear,just because you care doesn’t mean you get to crumble. And just because you’re honest doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk. When I look for collaborators in development, I’m hunting for five traits. Not titles, not trophies, traits.

Here’s how I sort the “let’s build together” from the “please never again”:

1. Be a Problem-Solver, Not a Problem-Pointer
If your first instinct is to tell me why it can’t be done, you’ve just volunteered to sit this one out. I build with people who move things forward, even if the path is ugly, uphill, or held together with duct tape and sheer will. You don’t need all the answers, but you better be willing to chase them.

2. Add Value, Don’t Just Take Up Space
You walk into meetings with agendas, not anecdotes. You connect departments, clean up your own mess (and sometimes other people’s), and you do it without needing applause. You’re a multiplier, not a placeholder.

3. Be Known for Serving, Not Just Surviving
You lift people up. You follow through. You notice effort, even the quiet kind, and you repay it in kind. Serving isn’t subservience, it’s leadership that doesn’t need a nameplate to prove it.

4. Have Empathy, Without Letting It Wreck Your Judgment
You care. Great. So do I. But empathy without boundaries is just emotional chaos dressed up like virtue. You can be kind without being a pushover. You can feel things without letting them run things. Business doesn’t need martyrs, it needs humans who can hold space and still hold the line.

5. Be Honest, Even When It Hurts
No fluff. No spin. No dressing up a dumpster fire as “a learning opportunity.” I don’t want perfection, I want truth. When you screw up, say it. When I do, tell me. Respect is built on truth, and truth only works when it shows up on time, not once the deal’s dead.

Your skillset might open the door. Your character decides if you ever get a key.

I don’t need people who talk like LinkedIn posts, I need people who execute like they own the outcome.