How did your career at EPAM begin? Walk us through your career path at EPAM.

The multicultural environment in which the teams are built at EPAM boosts diversity and fosters development through exposure to a wide range of people and professional experiences. The project I am currently working on was started from scratch and this presented several opportunities: building the team, creating the working processes, sharing experiences and best practices with my colleagues and, most of all, being an active part of the change management strategy.

What has been your journey as a leader?

My first leadership role came when I was probably too young to handle it. Back then, I was mostly focused on the results and neglected the people side of the job, which was a mistake. During that time, I learned that to be close to my team, communicate transparently with them, and support them when they have issues or concerns has profound benefits. Happy people deliver the best results at work, they are committed, and you have more confidence in them as they develop their careers.  Also, leading this way was more authentic to me as I am naturally a people person - my batteries get charged by interacting with others.

Could you describe the transparent development culture within your team?

We are continuously focused on making improvements. We organize dedicated sessions every two weeks to discuss feedback from the team and hear new ideas about how things can be done in a better way. After each of these sessions there’s at least one idea chosen to be implemented. This is how we are optimizing processes and team collaboration to achieve goals. 

There is a collaborative environment that facilitates both individual development and our growth as a team. We have mentors allocated for our new joiners and everyone is encouraged to bring and implement new ideas. Also, there are over 17,000 training programs available for EPAMers, from soft-skills and wellbeing to more technical training programs that dive deeper into software engineering.

To read the rest of Anca's advice and insights, read more here: Learn How to Grow Successful Teams (wearecommunity.io)