#6 August 2007
From Engineer to Leader
your path... your process... your success...
STCerri International Newsletter
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the August 2007 edition of my Newsletter, "Technologist to Leader". In this month's newsletter you will find useful tips and information to help you with your career advancement. In this month's newsletter you'll find the fifth tip in each of three categories: Being an Exceptional Technical Professional; Transitioning from Technologist to Manager; and Technical Manager/Leader. You'll also find an announcement of upcoming courses in Colorado in October and November.
Be well,
Steven Cerri
Note: If you have missed any of my previous newsletters you can find them archived at: Archived Newsletters
In This Issue
New Tip #5 for being an Exceptional Technical Professional!
Tip #5: "Teamwork: Select and Be On a Team"
With this newsletter I'll be writing about the fifth trait of an exceptional engineer, scientist, and technical professional. It's the second of the "Group Traits" that lead to Exceptional Individual Performance. This second group trait is titled, "Teamwork: Selecting and Being on a Team."
Teamwork is a term that is often thrown around as if we all know what it means. For some being on a team is equivalent to "just showing up". You've heard the old phrase that 90% of success is just showing up. Well not anymore.
The work world no long supports those who "just show up." It's important to "contribute." And so whatever team you decide to be on it's important to contribute to it.
That leads us then to two specific steps, "picking" a team and "being" on a team. Lets take "picking" a team first
You may be on several teams at any given time in your career. Most of those teams will "require" your participation. Your participation will be required because you are on a project, a task, or are part of the department.
What I'm talking about here when I refer to exceptional technical professionals is the team participation that is not required. Find something in your company or organization that you don't have to be part of. But if it interests you and you can make a contribution, join. Pick those voluntary groups in your company where you can shine, where you can contribute something unique and that furthers the goals of the company or organization.
Once you select the team to be on, give to it. Make this an example of what it is to give just because you can, just because you are a human being helping others in your organization. You will get noticed and it will feel good as well.
It's easy for us as technical professionals to put our heads down and focus on our work to the exclusion of all other things. This is an opportunity to select a team, contribute to it, and expand your influence into your organization beyond your immediate reach. Have fun and be useful, all at the same time.
New Tip #5 for Becoming a Technical Manager/Leader
Tip #5: "Believe Everyone Will Do Their Job (and therefore avoid the interface conversations)"
I want to tell you a story. I once observed a training session in which the instructor set up a "roll-playing" scenario. (By the way, I don't use roll-playing.) This instructor set up a situation in which a team of people were to "construct" a "product." The product was a cup with labels on it and a string attached to a Popsicle stick. An "assembly line" was set up composed of the training participants and the last person in the assembly line was a "quality assurance inspector", a QA inspector. The QA inspector had a specific set of parameters to inspect for and everyone on the assembly line knew what those parameters were. The process began and I was an observer.
I was stationed at the end of the assembly line and I noticed that as the "cups" were coming off the assembly line, approximately one out of 10 cups was passing quality inspection. After about 15 or so cups had been manufactured I stopped the training and made the statement that most cups were failing QA inspection. People on the assembly line looked at me and at each other with a blank stare but no one said anything. So I said, OK, continue manufacturing your cups.
The process continued for another minute or so with nothing changing in the quality of the cups. Once again I stopped the training and pointed out that most cups were failing QA. Once again, no one said anything and once again I told the team to continue with their manufacturing process.
Finally, at the end of the exercise, the training instructor asked the team how they had done. The individuals all thought that the exercise had gone well. However, at the end of the line, the QA inspector was surrounded by 30 cups only 4 of which had passed QA inspection.
Once again I asked the group a question. I said, "Twice I stopped your manufacturing process and told you that quality was poor and twice you ignored my statement. What were you thinking that allowed you to continue on with your processes without changing anything?"
The answer was telling. The participants responded this way: "We were each doing our job. We assumed that the people upstream from us and downstream from us were doing their jobs as well. We didn't feel comfortable questioning the people we depended on or the people who depended on us nor did we feel comfortable telling them how to do their jobs. So we just stuck to our tasks and to our focus of doing our jobs well and we assumed the others would do their jobs well too."
There you have it. That's the perfect definition of NOT BEING ON A TEAM. Working in our own little world is not being on a team. Being on a team is looking "upstream" and "downstream." Being on a team is taking responsibility not only for what you give to others and but also for what others give you to.
It's called, "having the interface conversations." Those people, those organizations you "interface" with and depend upon must be communicated with. And you cannot assume that everyone will do their job as expected. Being on a team is "participating" with others. Participating with others requires interfaces and that means communication "across those interfaces."
New Tip #5 for Technical Managers
Tip #5: "Getting Results"
This is the fifth of Six Functions of Successful Executives©. We all know that whether you are a supervisor or a CEO or an entrepreneur or any level in between, you are supposed to get results. In fact, most managers think that's all their supposed to do... get results.
If you've been following my newsletters you know that I don't believe that. However, there is no doubt that one of the six functions of successful management and leadership is to get results.
Now getting results can be tricky, because getting results is not just the end point, it's also a process. I know one vice president of software development who gets results in a very chaotic way. Schedules slip, programmers don't know what's expected of them until it's late in the process, requirements are kept from them.... all those wonderful things that get in the way of achieving results in a smooth fashion. But because the vice president has good programmers working for him, they pull him out of the fire time after time. He and his team get results but not because he knows what he is doing but because his programming team knows what its doing. And so far, they've been able to compensate for him.
There is a better way. The better way is to structure, at any given time, an open and complete channel of communication that structures clear expectations from the manager to the direct reports and clear feedback from the direct reports to the manager.
Here is an example of one component of getting results. When discussing getting results with my direct reports I often tell them the following: "If you want to upset me, surprise me. I don't like surprises and you (i.e., the direct reports) are the people who will know first when some aspect of the task is in trouble or needs to change. My job is to help you be successful. So if you wait until you've exhausted all your possible interventions and then you come to me and it's late in the game and I'm backed against the wall, I'm not happy. However, if at the first sign that things might not be as expected or as planned you come to me and alert me, I might be able to help with resources, time, etc. and I may have sufficient time to help in some way. An early alert is much more useful than a too-late warning."
Getting results is not just about having a good team working with you. It's also about being able to structure an environment where getting results is a default outcome, not a hairs-breath escape!
On-Going Tele-Seminars to Choose From!
Another FREE teleseminar is scheduled for September 20th at 2pm (Pacific Savings Time). This upcoming teleseminar is titled: "How To Excel As a Technical Professional!"
Here is what the upcoming teleseminar is about.
Over the years, studies have been conducted to determine what managers and executives want in and from their technical professionals. The major question for top level executives in technical companies was:
What attitudes, traits, and specific behaviors do you look for that identify technical professionals as those who you will nurture and promote?
Well, the answers are in and in this teleseminar I'm going to list the nine specific behaviors and traits that are required if you are going to advance to the top.
When young people ask me why it was important to get good grades in high school, I answer that it isn't, in and of itself, important to get good grades. There are plenty of happy and successful people who got good high school grades as well as many who did not. However, what good grades get a young person is "choice." It's almost impossible to know what the future holds. And getting good grades in high school doesn't guarantee the future. But most likely it will ensure choice. Choice to pick the college to attend. Choice to get a scholarship. Choice to select the major you want. Even the choice not to go to college. Good grades in high school go a long way to guaranteeing choice in the future selection of a career and a life.
I see this teleseminar the same way. You may not decide to advance all the way to the top of your organization. You may decide not to adopt the traits of the star performers. However, knowing what they are, and having the choice to choose them or not, ensures you much more opportunity, much more freedom and flexibility, much more choice.
Join me and your teleseminar colleagues on September 20th at 2pm for an hour to look at What it takes to excel as a technical professional!
The phone call in number and bridge number are listed below and will also be posted on my website, www.stevencerri.com.
See you there!
Also, for the schedule of upcoming teleseminars, click the link below:
http://stevencerri.com/index.php/PublicCalendar/Free_Tele_Seminars/
Courses in Colorado in October/November
A series of classes are scheduled for Boulder, Colorado, starting October 30.
The classes are part of a series titled: "Advancing Up the Technology Management Ladder"
Module 1: October 30 "So You Want To Be a Manager"
(Evaluate your readiness to manage & lead) (can be taken as a stand-alone course)
Module 2: October 31 "Communication, the Only Real Tool of Management and Leadership"
(Learn how to effectively communicate with anyone in any situation).....(can be taken as a stand-alone course)
Module 3: November 1 "Management and Leadership Styles for Success"
(Learn how to evaluate management situations and select and use the best management style)....(can only be taken by enrolling in Modules 1 and 2)
Module 4: November 2 "Influencing Without Authority"
(Learn how to effectively influence when you don't have authority)....(can be taken as a stand-alone course)
Modules 1, 2, and 4 can be taken independently and stand alone as complete courses. Module 3 builds on Modules 1 and 2 and therefore, can only be taken if Modules 1 and 2 are also completed. (i.e., Modules can be mixed and matched to your preference except Module 3.)
More information regarding each of these modules will be on the website next week.
Free Stuff
Check out the page http://stevencerri.com/index.php/articles/index/ (also known as the "FREE STUFF" button). There you'll find several articles and other useful information, all of it FREE.
Some of the Free Articles include...
Skype For Coaching
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!
STCerri International is focused solely on helping engineers, scientists, and technical professionals transition to management and leadership and on helping technical managers and leaders build environments that allow this process to continue on an on-going basis. The difference that makes the difference is that Steven Cerri is an engineer, a scientist, and a businessman. 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.