People like this can be a huge help, but they can also cause real damage. I've seen it go both ways: someone can deliver a ton of value one year and create serious problems the next.
This article's description gives me pause because it reads as non-collaborative and needlessly abrasive. In my experience, people who bulldoze process and relationships are almost always a long-term net negative, even if they can ship something short-term at 10x speed.
If you are 10x, there's still a ceiling on what you can do. If you're leading a team of 50 and you can help each person get to 1.2x, you've created the same effective lift, while strengthening the team instead of burning it down.
And that's a durable change which doesn't go away if the "Wolf" leaves or has a down year.
Most wolves I know of are impossible to work with and a barrier to company scaling. Which eventually leads to à net lots of growth opportunity.
Worse I’ve experienced as dev around wolves is the typical tendency of being marginalised only to be later proven true about things. To me this is super toxic so duck them wolves really, they be lone very often.
This article's description gives me pause because it reads as non-collaborative and needlessly abrasive. In my experience, people who bulldoze process and relationships are almost always a long-term net negative, even if they can ship something short-term at 10x speed.
If you are 10x, there's still a ceiling on what you can do. If you're leading a team of 50 and you can help each person get to 1.2x, you've created the same effective lift, while strengthening the team instead of burning it down.
And that's a durable change which doesn't go away if the "Wolf" leaves or has a down year.