#5 July 2007
From Technologist to Leader
your path... your process... your success...
STCerri International Newsletter
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the July 2007 edition of my Newsletter, "Technologist to Leader". Once again you will find useful tips and information to help you with your career advancement. In this month's newsletter you'll find the fourth tip in each of three categories: Being an Exceptional Technical Professional; Transitioning from Technologist to Manager; and Technical Manager/Leader... and you'll find other useful information as well.
Be well,
Steven Cerri
In This Issue
New Tip #4 for being an Exceptional Technical Professional!
Tip #4: "Following: Leave Your Ego At Home"
I've completed writing about the three "personal traits" that make an Exceptional Individual Contributor, an Exceptional Technologist. With this newsletter I'll begin the process of discussing the three traits that are "Group Traits" that lead to Exceptional Individual Performance. The first of these three traits is titled, "Following: Leave Your Ego At Home".
Leaving your ego at home means exactly what it sounds like. Top level managers all indicate that one of the traits they value in their technologists is the ability to keep their egos out of the everyday interaction in the office.
Now I know that leaving your ego outside the conference room door is easier said than done. But, the best, the brightest, and the most successful do it. They do it because they want to be successful rather than wanting to be "right". They do it because they know that sooner or later success in an organization is a function of being part of a team, not being a "lone wolf" (of either gender).
Most of the coaching issues I help technologists with at some point comes down to ego. They either don't want to talk to other people because they don't think they are as bright. Or they don't want to cooperate with certain people because they don't agree with them, they like their ideas better. Or they don't want to include others in their discussions and decision-making processes because they don't think others have anything to contribute. All of these issues revolve around ego; an ego that doesn't value other people and doesn't value what they can contribute to the team.
There is an old saying "Either lead, follow, or get out of the way." Well, it's a stupid statement. It's useless and more critically, it's misleading. I can't emphasize enough the damage believing in this phrase can do to people who want to be good contributors to their organization. It leads the inexperienced to believe that they either have to always lead or they just have to get "run over" by those who do. It's dumb.
The truth is that the very best technologists, the very best technical professionals, know how to behave in a variety of ways in a variety of situations; they can either lead, or cooperate, or support, or follow, or become transparent, all while contributing to the team. And they know that "getting out the way" can sometimes be the best way to contribute.
So the very best and the very brightest know that, as they mature professionally, their goal is to "either lead, or cooperate, or support, or follow, or become transparent", AND... they must know WHEN to do WHICH! There is an optimal or appropriate time to lead, to cooperate, to support, to follow, and to be transparent. In order to know which to do when, you cannot have your ego engaged. You must be able to clearly and effectively analyze the situation and keep your own personal emotional energies out of it.
Keep your ego in check and pick the most effective behavior in any given situation and you'll be able to choose your career.
New Tip #4 for Becoming a Technical Manager/Leader
Tip #4: "Avoid or Delay Difficult Conversations"
In past newsletters, I've discussed several of the pitfalls that technologists are prone to when they attempt to transition to management. In this July newsletter, I'm going to discuss the fourth pitfall, and that is the tendency to avoid or delay difficult conversations.
Now, most technologists understand that we became technologists because we didn't necessarily want to deal with people and we didn't like conflict. If we wanted to deal with people we would have become therapists, and if we had wanted to deal in conflict we would have become lawyers.
Most technologists avoid conflict and for conflict we need other people. Therefore, most of us end up avoiding people. I'm not saying we go around being paranoid of others. I'm saying that we spend a lot of time thinking about the universe and technical stuff, and not about the relationships we are in or not in. We deal with the laws of physics, software, engineering, and science, and we do just fine with that approach.
However, if we are going to transition into management then the rules by which we play have to change. Management IS about people. Therefore, what we thought we could avoid, heavy interaction with people and the associated conflicts, are thrust upon us. We cannot avoid the conflicts that come about by becoming a manager.
Therefore, we must become comfortable with conflict. And yet, the impediment to successful management is that we avoid the difficult conversations that may well lead to conflict.
We delay and avoid the difficult conversations until the circumstances become so egregious that the conversations we must now have are completely out of proportion to the original situation.
We avoid and wait for the situations to get so bad that we can't make any further excuses. We must deal with them and by the time we do they are so intense that they are very difficult. And the only reason they are difficult and intense is that we avoided and delayed them until they festered. But the fact that they are so difficult and intense only goes to reinforce that we don't like conflict. We think, "See, conflict is difficult and it should be avoided." It's just a vicious circle.
In order to be successful managers we must understand that the potentially difficult conversations must be addressed as soon as they come up. We must take care of business when we have to. We must deal with those uncomfortable situations when we first notice them.
Those of you who have taken my management classes know that I often say that "I'm not concerned if managers are comfortable. My concern is that their direct reports are comfortable and motivated to do their jobs. If a manager must be uncomfortable to accomplish that, so be it."
And this leads to my conclusion that technologists who want to become managers must learn how to deal with difficult conversations and situations as soon as they arise.
New Tip #4 for Technical Managers
Tip #4: "Control the Interfaces"
Here I want to introduce the fourth of Six Functions of Successful Executives©. Regardless of whether you are a supervisor or a CEO or an entrepreneur or any level in between, one of your functions is to control the interfaces between your team and the "inside/outside worlds". There are interfaces that your team must either directly or indirectly deal with, and a certain level of power and authority that the manager brings to the table can make all the difference between success and failure.
This function is based on the understanding that there are certain interfaces that must be controlled and influenced by the executive. Not necessarily all interfaces. But there are certain interfaces that cannot be controlled by anyone else except the executive.
This means that the executive must "manage and control" those certain interfaces so that the team can get their work done. The interfaces the executive must control depend on the level of the executive in the organization.
For example, the company CEO must control the interfaces that include the banks, government agencies, and public relations firms, that his or her direct staff must deal with.
The mid-level manager of a software department may have to control the interfaces that include the finance department, the sales department, and the quality assurance department.
The manager of human resources may have to control the interfaces that include the CEO, the executive staff, insurance companies, and the like.
As you can see, there are certain, specific interfaces that are most appropriately dealt with by a given executive level. And it is that executive's responsibility to manage and control those interfaces so their direct reports don't have to.
On-Going Tele-Seminars to Choose From!
Another FREE teleseminar is scheduled for August 16th at 2pm (Pacific Savings Time). This upcoming teleseminar is titled: What your boss wants you to know!
Here is what the upcoming teleseminar is about.
We're technologists, engineers, scientists, right? We didn't spend any time, (well maybe one or two classes) in organizational development, finance, negotiation, and legal issues. And yet, after being in an organization for a while you realize that decisions aren't made on technical merits only.
In fact, decisions are seldom made on the technical merits only. Usually they are made on something called business needs, or organizational considerations. What are they? What are the parameters that are used to make those important decisions? The important question is, "What does my boss want me to know that is important to the company?
Well, that's where we are going in this teleseminar. I'm going to spend an hour talking to you about the financial and operational considerations that drive your company's decision-making process. I'm going to tell you what the CEO thinks about and what he or she looses sleep over. I'm going to give you insight into what decisions are made by the highest levels of management and why they often look completely foreign to you.
Join me on August 16th at 2pm for an hour to look into the world of the CEO and upper management. Join me for "What your boss wants you to know!"
The phone call in number will be posted a week before the call on the website, at the link below.
See you there!
Also, for the schedule of upcoming teleseminars, click the link below:
Courses in Colorado in October
Two classes are scheduled for Colorado (probably in or near Boulder), the week of October 22. The classes are:
October 23-25: "Transitioning from Technologist to Manager and Leader"
October 26: "Influencing Without Authority".
More information will be on the website soon and if you are on my mail list you will receive more information on the classes via an email announcement.
(The dates have changed as of August 10th. Please see August's newsletter for the new dates.)
Steven's Blog
You can check out my latest blog entries at http://stevencerri.com/index.php/site/index/
CDs
There are several CDs available and in July I'll be adding my latest teleseminar CD: "Human Communication Models"
Some of the CDs now available are:
CD #1: "Delegation" teleseminar
CD #2: "10 Success Criteria for Becoming A Manager" teleseminar
CD #3: "Transitioning from Technologist to Manager" (2-CD set)
To purchase CDs click on the "Products" button.
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...
Coaching
Coaching is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your career advancement. Coaching can be used....
If you are an Individual Contributor and you want to be better or more rapidly advance to Organizational Contributor.... or....
If you are an Organizational Contributor and you want to be better or more rapidly advance into Part-Time Organizational/Individual Contributor and Part-Time Manager/Leader... or....
If you are a Part-Time Organizational/Individual Contributor and Part-Time Manager/Leader and you want to move fully into Technical Management and Leadership...
Then coaching is probably a good bet for the "fast plane" to your next professional destination!
To learn more about coaching, click on the coaching link on my website.
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 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.