#2 April 2007
From Technologist to Leader
your path... your process... your success...
STCerri International Newsletter
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the new structure of my newsletters for 2007. The structure of this newsletter and those going forward will be as follows:
The First Section will be devoted to tips for technical professionals who want to be better as technical professionals.
The second section will be devoted to tips for technical professionals
The Third Section will be deveoted to tips for technical managers who want to be better managers.
With each successful newsletter you will find additional useful tips in each category.
Other sections will also be included that will address other topics such as interesting technical management news, upcoming tele-seminars, workshops, coaching, and products.
So here we go...
Be well,
Steven
In This Issue
Tip #1 on How to be an Exceptional Technical Professional
What does it take to be a great technical professional, to be a great individual contributor in your organization? I'm not talking about your technical competence. I'll assume you have that part covered. I'm talking about your non-technical, people and organizational skills.
There are 9 behaviors that are critical. These 9 behaviors, called Exceptional Performance Behaviors, are grouped into 3 categories.
The first category includes three behavioral traits that are your personal behaviors. The three behaviors are categorized as Exceptional Personal Behaviors.
The second category includes three behavioral traits that you exhibit in relation to your group, your team, or immediate organization. The three behaviors in this category are categorized as Exceptional Team Behaviors.
The third category includes three behavioral traits that you exhibit in relation to the larger organization, the larger company-wide arena of people, groups, and departments that are beyond your immediate organization yet within your company. The three behaviors in this category are categorized as Exceptional Organization Behaviors.
Each month I'm going to take one of the nine Exceptional Performance Behaviors and discuss them in detail. In this month's newsletter I'm going to address the first category Exceptional Personal Behaviors and the first behavior in that category, "Taking Initiative".
Tip #1: Taking Initiative is critical to your success as a technical professional in your organization over the long-term.
I'll begin by telling you what taking initiative "is not". If you just do your job really well and if you're a longer, you'll be known as an expert, you'll be known as a nice person or maybe a difficult person, but you will not be known as an Exceptional Performer. By definition, an Exceptional Performer takes initiative to "engage the world". Another way of saying it is that:
Taking initiative is seeking responsibility above and beyond your job description or assignment.
Taking initiative means that you are going to have to assume some personal risk as you engage the world where you might not necessarily "belong". You could make enemies and/or damage your reputation. Therefore, pick your initiatives carefully; but by all means, pick them.
Taking initiative doesn't mean that you have to take on big tasks or big projects, however. In taking initiative, day-to-day activities are just as important over time as the big projects.
Taking initiative means looking for the white spaces of the organization. What's not being done? where are there potential gaps in the interfaces? What role can you play that can make a big difference in your organization?
Taking initiative means doing your current assignment well AND taking on other important work in addition.
Taking initiative is undertaking extra efforts for the benefit of coworkers or a larger group; very often it benefits others more than it benefits you. Stay close to the Return on Investment (ROI) path, that is, the path that moves everyone's efforts toward a happy customer, and where profitability and increased shareholder value can be achieved.
Determine the Probability of Success and the Cost of Failure (i.e., calculate the odds). Every organization has its tolerance for failure... know your organization's tolerance and stay within it if your future in your organization is important to you...
In a nutshell here it is: Taking Initiative Means... Doing more than is expected in areas beyond your responsibility that furthers the advancement of your team, the organization, and the company while using sound judgement and some calculated risk always with an ROI focus.
Tip #1 on How to Move From Technologist to Technical Manager
One of the first facts we have to face as a technical professional is that college didn't prepare us to be managers. When I began teaching my classes in the Technology Management Programs department at the University of California, Santa Barbara three years ago to both graduate and undergraduate students, many students asked the department's associate dean; "Why do I need a management class? I'm an engineer, a scientist. I don't need any management classes."
That tone changed after the first quarter. Engineering and science students soon realized that in my classes they were learning something they had not learned in any other classes. And the same can be said for 90% of the technologists in the world. Colleges don't teach us how to communicate and how to manage and how to lead. Engineering schools teach us how to solve problems and be lead by others.
So what is a technical professional to do when he or she decides it's time to become a manager?
The first step is to realize that compared to engineering and technology, management is a new career. It is something we have never prepared for. In fact, dealing with people on the level required for management is something that we actually avoided. If we wanted to deal with people we would have become therapists!
There are 10 behavioral traits that are taught to us in college that make us great engineers, scientists, and individual contributors. The ten traits are absolutely necessary for our success as technologists. However, they must be changed and expanded upon if we are to successfully advance to management.
THE FIRST TRAIT TO YOUR SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION
1. Most technologists identify so closely with their ideas that they fight for their ideas rather than responding to the suggested improvements of others and they do not ask others for suggestions.
Throughout your college career, you were graded on what you did. If you did well on the questions on a test you received a high grade. The opposite was also true. Your success was tied to your performance and your ideas. It didn't take long for your identity to get linked to your ideas because your ideas were tied to your success. This circular thinking got programmed into you, into each of us, over the course of our college years.
And now you find yourself in a company. You start your job being praised for your ability to solve problems. You are lauded for your creativity. You are given raises and promotions based on your ability to solve problems with your own ideas.
And then you're promoted to lead, or maybe program manager, or maybe chief or lead engineer. You still think that your ideas are what count. You still think that you'll get paid and promoted because you've got the best ideas. You're going to lead your team because you have great ideas.
Frankly, this won't work if you want to be a successful manager. As a manger, the best ideas are probably coming from your team, not from you. As a manger your job is to facilitate the generation of the best ideas FROM your team. As a manager your job is to help your team be creative. Your creativity is less important than the creativity of your team. You're just one person. They are many.
You can contribute just like everyone else on your team. But you can't fight for your ideas; if you do you'll alienate your team. You can't take their ideas as your own. That will alienate your team also. Your job is to foster the ideas of your team. That's the first major shift in your career transition, understanding that your success is tied to the success of your team, not to your individual contribution. That's a Big Shift!
Next month we'll look at the second behavioral trait necessary for a successful transition to management.
Tip #1 for Technical Managers
If you are a technical manager or have been a manager for a while you know one thing for sure, and that is that you have few powerful tools at your disposal to influence your direct reports. In fact, I like to say that the only real tool a manager has is "communication".
Whether you are attempting to motivate employees to work the weekend, or you are attempting to motivate employees to get along, or you are attempting to get an employee to work more smoothly with a customer, all you have is communication. Whether you are cajoling, inspiring, or chatting; whether you are giving a disciplinary performance review or promoting a direct report, all you have is communication. If you are good at communication, my guess is that you are a good manager. If you are poor at communication, my guess is that you are a poor manager.
So to be a good manager you must be a good communicator. And by communication I don't mean the typical "listening" and "talking" skills. I'll explain.
As a manager, and as a human being for that matter, we all know what it's like when we are really having a great communication with someone else. We now what it's like to have that feeling when we are truly "connected" with another person and the other person understands us. We understand them and they understand us clearly. It happens and for some of us it happens more often than for others.
What causes this connection to take place? How do we make it happen when we want it to happen?
Scientific studies have been going on for years and the results are always the same. In fact, the information below seems to be clearly "hard wired" into our human neurology. It's part of being human.
The portion of that "connection" between people that is contributed by the words we use (i.e., the content) is approximately 7% +/- 2%.
The portion of that "connection" between people that is contributed by the voice we use (i.e., tone, speed, loudness) is approximately 35% +/- 2%.
The portion of that "connection" between people that is contributed by our physiology (i.e., body language) is approximately 58% +/- 2%.
There you have it. The connection between people has nothing (or at least very little) to do with what we say. It has to do with how we say it. That's why people can look us in the eyes and say those magical words, "Just trust me" and we don't. We don't because everything else, the voice and the body language doesn't tell us to trust them.
Therefore, the first step in improving your management performance is to understand the non-verbal communication cues that make the difference between "connecting" with your direct reports and not. The goal is to use the non-verbal communication cues to constantly and consistently enhance the connections with your direct reports that make communication most effective. Within this structure you can be assured that communication and influence and motivation will be maximized.
New Tele-Seminars Coming
I am structuring a new set of tele-seminars. Keep an eye out for this information. You'll be receiving notice of the tele-seminars shortly.
My Latest Blog Topics
I've set up a blog website at http://www.stevencerri.com. This blog site is updated once a week, every Monday, with new ideas and tips and suggestions for you to review and apply to your career advancement.
These are the most recent blog topics added:
My New CDs
I have several new CDs that you'll find useful.
CD #1: "Delegation Tele-Seminar"
CD #2: "10 Success Criteria for Becoming A Manager"
CD #3: "Transitioning from Technologist to Manager"
To purchase CDs
Coaching
Coaching is one of the fastest ways to accelerate with your career advancement. There are three reasons to get coaching:
1. You know you want to be somewhere else in your career but you're not quite sure how to get there or even where you want to get to...
2. You want to effectively overcome a crisis and you want advice, guidance and coaching on how to turn that crisis around...
3. You want to acquire a specific skill you now is missing and you want it now.
Coaching can help you fast in each of these situations. To learn more about coaching, click on the link below:
Coaching with Steven
Skype Has Been Added
For those of you who would rather use Skype for our coaching sessions, especially those who are international, Skype has now been added as a capability. Just download Skype to your computer and set up an appointment, and we can conduct a tele-coaching session with both voice and video! In a few days you'll also find a Skype button on my website for your convenience.
STCerri International is focused solely on helping technical professionals transition to management and leadership. The difference that makes the difference is that Steven Cerri is an engineer, a scientist, and a business. He teaches, trains, and coaches technologists from the point of view of having done it himself.
I hope you find the information in this newsletter and other products useful in your career advancement. Send questions, comments, and suggestions to: steven@stevencerri.com
Be well,
Steven Cerri
STCerri International
Copyright 2007© STCerri International and Steven Cerri. You are free to pass this information on to others and to reproduce it. I only ask that you reproduce sections in whole and you give attribution to STCerri International. Thank you.