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Some questions pop up all the time...Frequently Asked Questions!
If you are a new leader, or an experienced leader facing a new situation
or a situation with a new twist,
you probably have questions that many before you have asked as well. As you might
imagine, The Techie Leadership Coach has fielded a great many such questions over the
years. That's why Yvonne and her staff maintain a "Frequently Asked Questions"
(or FAQ) Repository on the
Technical Leadership Online Resource Center™ — to help clients
get answers to common questions (or suggestions) without delay.
Below are a few examples of the sorts of questions
that pop up on a regular basis...
Q: What is my role as a techie leader?
Yvonne: Every successful techie
leader plays five essential roles. These roles are:
- Coach-Mentor — The techie leader must help group members
grow and develop to their full potential — exploring options, defining
personal career goals, devising action plans, and supporting individual and
group efforts to achieve those goals.
- Creator — Techies perform best when their environment promotes
creativity and nurtures motivation. The type of environment created by a techie
leader sets the stage for success or failure within the organization.
- Facilitator — Techies work better and achieve better results in
a collaborative environment. The wise techie leader facilitates techies and their
work rather than attempting to direct them.
- Liaison — Techies are not often noted for their great communication
skills. Techie leaders must open and maintain lines of communication both internally
within their group, and between their group and those outside their group, e.g.,
upper management, other departments/functions, and clients.
- Guide — Techies perform in an environment full of ambiguity and
uncertainty — this has a lot to do with the nature of their work. The techie
leader must clarify the path to success and resolve any ambiguity along the way.
If you are not yet wearing all of these 'hats' (roles)
within your own organization, then you have some work to do. Think of it as an opportunity
for real improvement — both for yourself and for your people.
Q: Why is managing time and estimating such a problem for
most technical people?
Yvonne: Time management is a challenge
for most techies, even at the best of times. The ambiguities, in fact the very nature,
of the work performed by techies makes estimating time requirements and meeting milestones
especially challenging. In general, there are eleven factors that commonly detract from good
time management in a technical endeavor:
- Ambiguity: Including lack of clarity with respect to the business
environment, project and process issues, selection and organization of work, roles,
assignments, priorities, and the unknown.
- Unrealistic expectations — ignoring reality: Client, management, or
personal expectations that are not possible, probable and/or viable.
- Shifting priorities: When priorities shift, the entire flow of an effort
may be disrupted because changes in priority require a context shift and potentially
may require a realignment of resources and schedules.
- Unfortunate timing: Miscalculation with regard to supplies, missing windows
of business or technological opportunity, etc.
- Passion: Techies sometimes lose their objectivity when pursuing an
interesting path of inquiry, becoming overly zealous in their dedication to and
their exploration of a problem to the exclusion of time commitments. In many cases, a
techie's natural desire for perfection makes it difficult for him or her to accept
"good enough" (from a quality point of view) resulting in a further
disregard for established timeframes and commitments.
- Lack of commitment: When individuals or groups are uncommitted to a project or
endeavor, they often treat time with disdain. Milestones, deadlines, and delivery dates
have little meaning and are not taken seriously. Time is not used effectively or
efficiently.
- Trivialization and over-confidence: Techies often view simple tasks or facets
of a project as trivial and uninteresting. As a result, they fail to take into account
the actual time required to accomplish such tasks. Add to this the additional time to
deal with contingencies and you have a consistent formula for failure to deliver on
time.
- Inexperience: Inexperience with a technology, concept, implementation
technique, or methodology creates a learning curve that is almost impossible to
mitigate. If time is not allotted for such learning curves, schedules become
skewed and immediately suspect.
- Poor estimating skills: Estimating time and effort for project tasks is not
an exact science. For example, techie leaders tend to think in optimistic terms
associated with their best people. They may also choose to optimistically ignore risk
factors. This lack of insight during
planning can be disastrous to a schedule. Individuals or groups may be set up for
failure before they even begin an effort.
- Chance and risk factors: Because competition for market share is fierce,
companies are continually trying to reduce their time-to-market. Unfortunately,
compressing timeframes increases the risk factors and requires extensive contingency
planning that is not always completed as necessary.
- Sloppy work: This factor is the insidious enemy when it comes to product
life expectancy and maintenance. Sloppy work increases the unpredictability of
both development and maintenance efforts.
Q: Should I give awards to recognize good performance?
Yvonne: Everyone likes to have their work
and their contributions recognized. Techies are no different in this. However, the
incentives and rewards that may appeal to salespeople and other individuals within your
organization do not always appeal to techies with the same level of enthusiasm or
priority.
Both personal and public acknowledgement of work well done is important,
but sincerity, fairness, and proportionate response are crucial. Be consistent and
specific in your praise and tie your kudos to known standards of performance. Plan a
rewards system that reflects the interests and values of your people. Don't know what
those are? ASK THEM! A word of advice: Techies are not impressed by
"rah-rah" promotions and rewards (they think they're stupid and a
waste of time).
Can you see yourself benefiting from readily available and pertinent Q&A
such as this? Then subscribe to the TechLORC™ today and dive in!
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