Engineering Managers Expose, Part I. David Klink a.k.a “Dave”, the coach
Have you heard the classic saying 'People don’t leave jobs, they leave bad managers'? We want to make the case that we have awe-inspiring managers. In our Engineering Managers Expose interview series you will get to know our managers and decide for yourself. Who knows, perhaps we will spark your interest in HaleyTek as a future employer, if that classic saying is true for you.
““A coach is someone that sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness!””
While doing this interview, it became apparent that we have a real coach on our hands. David Klink, a.k.a. Dave the coach, started at HaleyTek as a Scrum Master and grew within the company into his new work commitment as Engineering Manager.
Be on the lookout for the rest of our interview series to get to know our outstanding dynamic trio of Engineering Managers. In part II of our series, you will get to know Nicolas Gattario whose leadership style is all about boundless support, creating the right environment and conditions in which we can be truly creative, thus reaching our full potential and continue to grow both professionally and personally.
Part III a chat with Jorge Jara, our very own MacGyver, focused on unleashing our inner drive, inspiring his teams to go beyond the expected and break the barriers of what is possible. Three very different personalities, joined by a common eagerness to be of service to their colleagues and of course their dedication to making HaleyTek top notch.
The leadership style
When we approach Dave with our questions he’s fast to answer, clear on his goals and ambitions but oh so humble, even when presented with the opportunity to raise himself through the roof, he’s not the one to blow his own horn. Honestly, we had to go to a colleague to get more juice on Dave. Here is what, Product Owner and colleague of 4 years, Pontius Nokrach had to says
“Dave is the kind of person that cannot walk by the coffee machine, overhear a discussion on an ongoing problem, and just walk by. He will immediately be soaked in and get involved and try to assist in finding solutions. When he does not have the answer, but he has a good way of guiding his teams to split big problems into smaller more manageable problems, he will always try to guide teams to identify at least one thing that they can act on to get things going. ”
When we asked Dave to describe himself as a leader he says “Never too busy to improve! I believe in continuous improvements – standing still is in practice going backwards in an ever-changing world. I also strongly believe that true motivation comes from within. As a leader you should inspire and give the means for people to find their inner driving forces.” He goes on to say that what inspires him at work is solving challenges and improving together with his coworkers. Connecting this response back to Pointus view of Dave, it’s safe to say that Dave can now add being self-aware to his list of attributes.
So, Dave tell us, who is your role model and why?
- I have many! One role model in the leadership area is Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, who put happiness first, for both employees and customers, and success followed from that. Can recommend his book “Delivering Happiness”.
The ”Njaa…”
Pontius recalls that there is a funny word, phrase or perhaps a just a sound(?) that you will often hear from Dave when he has an idea; The “Njaaa…”.
- I can think of multiple occasions when I have been in meetings were the discussions have kind of come to a dead end, and no more ideas are on the table. Then I find myself just waiting and hoping for the "Njaaa..." from David, and when you hear the "Njaaa.." that means there is One more option to explore. And quite often, he will present that idea that will finally bring us forward.
The personality
When it comes to the personality Pontius had more than a few things to say about David, “In all the years I have known David I cannot recall ever seeing him in a bad mood; mostly happy and always available to the team. Even when things are hectic and there are a lot of things ongoing, you can always approach him with questions without feeling like you are disturbing him. Perhaps, I should also add that David is very team oriented. I believe that comes from his background working as a scrum master for many years. Always focused on things that can be made better for the developer teams to enable them to reach their targets/goals/objectives.”
To sum it up
Finally, we ask Dave what appealed to him the most about joining HaleyTek and his new position, he said:
- HaleyTek is the perfect match of the small garage company feeling with the muscles to impact the world. There is a just-do-it mentality that I really like. I want to be part of an inspiring team of leaders, forming amazing development teams with a great culture.
Dave, what are some of your future goals and ambitions?
“Make HaleyTek the
no.1 employer in
the business! ‘
Just do it! 😎
There you have it folks, our Dave in short.