Entries tagged as ‘Taking Responsibility’
On Friday I heard a couple words from my manager that really helped a lot. The gist of it all was “thank you”. Boy did that make a difference. I don’t consider myself a needy person when it comes to affirmation at work. That said, having started a job recently after nearly a year of unemployment has made me a whole lot more self conscious.
I knew going into this that my new manager was pretty hands off. Personally I like it that way. I have had managers that were in my back pocket and quite frankly I find it irritating. Leave me alone, I know what I am doing. I will get done what you need me to do, just make it clear what my priorities are (and if you don’t, I will – so don’t be surprised if I don’t do what you think is the most important thing first). I’ll come to you if I run into problems that I can’t solve by myself. If I don’t ask for help, please stay out of my way. I’ll tell you what you need to know so that you don’t get caught unaware.
I guess what I am trying to say is that even if you have very independent people working for you remember to acknowledge what they are doing. They may not need guidance to get their job done, but an occasional pat on the back to let them know that they are on target is invaluable. Some of the folks that report to me have been working some crazy hours lately. It was pretty obvious based on what was accomplished over the last week. I’m hoping that my couple of words (thank you) meant as much to them as my manager’s meant to me this week.
Categories: Leadership
Tagged: Attitude, Confidence, Empowerment, Public Speaking, Taking Responsibility, Trust
Well, last week you got to hear about the pigeon roosting nightmare at our house, and this week it became even more interesting. There was one place where we didn’t replace the bird netting with aluminum screening due to its inaccessibility. Upon hearing pigeon noises yesterday morning my husband leaned over the railing to take a look. Both of us were dismayed to find a poor little (about 3′ long) corn snake totally wound up in the bird netting. It looked hopeless, at first glance it appeared that the snake had sliced himself with the netting it was so tight. Never mind that the piece of bird netting was mounted in a wooden frame screwed to the side of our house three stories off the ground. It was hung using an extension ladder, which happens to be at our other house…
The difficulty factor of this rescue clearly was high, so we didn’t take any pictures while it was in progress. We figured we had less than a 50% chance of success and didn’t want any reminders of a botched attempt. Besides, time was of the essence, the poor little fellow probably had been stuck there overnight. First step – remove the wood frame from the house. This had to be done blind, my husband had to lay face down on the deck with one arm stuck through the railing with a crow bar. I leaned over the railing from the top and helped guide him so that he could pry off the frame without hurting the snake. Once that was done, the “snake in a frame” was lowered 3 stories by a rope to the ground below.
This is where I stepped in with a pair of scissors. Luckily the bird netting was easily snippable and i started to free the snake from the tail end up. As I cut him loose he started to wiggle, which made things a bit harder to deal with and he kept trying to insert his tail back in the netting. Silly snake, stop that. At this point hubby had to hold him still. Snakes are strong, even little skinny ones like this guy. Corn snakes are constrictors so they can be tough to straighten out. I wasn’t convinced that he would be ok, there were parts of him that were protruding and bulging through the netting, but as I carefully unwrapped him and clipped the tight spots he started to look like a regular snake again. Whew! It was such a satisfying feeling to put him on the ground and watch him happily slither away. He was such a beautiful creature.
My husband and I have a habit of being in the right place at the right time to save critters in distress. We have two cats that surely would have died if we hadn’t rescued them as kittens. The youngest one was trapped (and howling) in a storm drain. It took us two days, some tuna fish as bait and a squirrel trap to get her out. We also learned the delicate art of getting a hummingbird out of a garage. That could have been a disaster, because they beat themselves silly against ceilings and can die in a few short hours without nectar. Untold numbers of turtles have been rescued from the roads in our area. Neither one of us can stand by and watch an innocent animal in trouble. It just isn’t in our nature.
So, we saved a snake, but we gave the pigeons a great access hole. DOH! It was time to fix the pigeon problem correctly. Down came all of the aluminum screening. I washed all of the guano out of their favorite roosting location. That in itself was an hour long miserable, dirty, smelly task. Out came the mitre saw and up went custom cut and fitted pressure treated wood barriers. We will never have a pigeon problem in this spot again. We should have just fixed it right the first time. Less time, less money, and no traumatized snake would have been the result. Ah well, another lesson learned.
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Culture, Taking Responsibility
I’m still thinking about that last book I reviewed. One of the other questions is something like – are you willing to pay the cost of your dream? Most people don’t even think about the cost of their dreams. Even small dreams have a cost. Big dreams have a huge cost. You need to know what it is, and if you’re willing to pay it.
One of my dreams is to own my own business. I vacillate between a high tech business and one that is not. There are benefits and detriments to both. I’ll touch on the non-high tech options a bit. There are a lot of costs. Here are but a few.
- Loss of salary – ok – I’m already there, starting a business now doesn’t mean I will lose anything. However I might delay how long it takes to get back to a good salary.
- Loss of identity – I’ve lived and breathed high tech my entire career. It is part of who I am. That would be gone. This one really hurts. I have a strong resume and I would be turning my back on it.
- Loss of stability – I’ve always had a “job” working for someone else. This is all up to me!
- Loss of expertise – Time to learn something new – and not be an expert anymore.
- Closing a door – Once you leave high tech, it is almost impossible to get back into it because the technology changes so quickly. Is it worth it?
What’s the cost of your dream? Do you think it is worth it? I’m still trying to figure that out.
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Goals, Motivation, Taking Responsibility, Women in Business
I just finished reading John C. Maxwell’s book “Put Your Dream to the Test – 10 Questions to Help You See It and Seize It”
If you want to get a feel for what this book is like – check out an adaptation from the book on his website. How Do You Know If Your Dream is Obtainable?
I’ve never read any of his books before and I just happened upon this one in the library while I was in the throes of navel gazing about my own future. These last 9 months (nine!! where does the time go?) of job searching and soul searching have been both good and bad. At first I really needed the time off but more recently I’ve determined that it is time for me to *DO* something productive. The question has been: “what?” Do I want to keep doing what I had been doing? Or do I want to try doing something completely different with a huge learning curve and a higher likelihood of failure? I’ve gone back and forth from one day to the next. I’ve been on interviews that seriously felt like my soul was being sucked out of my body… and then I’ve regretted not being more enthusiastic about the position! Well, maybe my gut was trying to tell me something. I think that it is time for a change. I am always happiest when I am learning something new. The bigger the learning curve and the more support I have while learning, the better off I am.
This book really helped me put my dreams about the future into better focus. I think that my favorite question is “The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?” Who hasn’t said that they want to do something because it’s what they are “supposed” to do? Clearly that’s not your dream. Or maybe you are doing something for someone else… that too, not yours. Sorry. How about you want to keep working on something because you’ve been doing it for all of your career but it isn’t fun anymore? hmmm. Sounds like that isn’t your dream anymore either.
I’m all for leveraging strengths and I know what mine are. I connect with people and I like to think that I bring out their best. I don’t lose sight of the big picture. I am extremely organized and I can be detailed oriented when necessary. I can run a complicated project like no ones business. I just need to apply all that to something a little different than what I have been doing.
I leave you with this final thought:
“Think of your comfort zone as a prison you live in – a largely self-created prison. It consists of a collection of cants, musts, must nots and other unfounded beliefs formed from all the negative thoughts and decisions you have accumulated and reinforced during your lifetime.” Jack Canfield
Categories: Book Reviews · Personal
Tagged: Creativity, Goals, Job Search, Taking Responsibility
Every now and then I notice that my weight has gone up by 2 or 3 pounds. This usually happens after a vacation or the holidays. Unfortunately it never wants to go back down on its own, so I figure that it’s time for a tuneup. The best way to do a tuneup is to do a diagnostic to figure out what is going on. Right now I’m in the middle of a tuneup and its not been a lot of fun, but I know I can do better.
First off, I take a look at my exercise program and determine if I’ve been lazy. Am I skipping the hardest exercises? Have I reduced the number of days I lift or my reps or weights because I’m not feeling strong? The worst for me is aerobic exercise. I hate it. Have I been avoiding running or getting on the stairmaster? Exercise is pretty easy for me to address. Food is always harder. I think this happens to everyone. You eat healthy but eventually you sneak in a cookie, or maybe some cheese, or some chips, or what about pizza and beer after volleyball? After a while you get used to that and you add something else. Before you know it, you’re eating a lot more calories. Time to start weighing and measuring. My favorite site for calorie monitoring is fitday.com. It’s free and easy to use and it makes it painfully apparent when I’ve been adding “snacks” to my diet.
This approach can be used on your business as well. Have you examined your costs lately? You don’t want to be cheap, but being frugal sure can help in this economic environment.
- One of the easiest ways to cut costs is to look at your broadband, telephone, and wireless expenses. If your contracts are up you will almost always be able to find a better deal. How do I know? I’ve done it. Actually I cut costs *and* I tripled the bandwidth of a company I worked for by doing a little comparison shopping.
- Does you company have multiple sites? Do you do a lot of travel between them? Do you have a corporate discount at a local hotel? Check out the competition. There is sure to be someone who wants to undercut your current deal.
- If you’re doing a lot of travel – don’t underestimate the savings you can obtain by planning in advance. Short notice flights will cost you dearly.
- If you’re really small do you negotiate with vendors to cut training costs? I’ve managed to secure free conference attendance for my team – something that should have cost $800+ a person. I’ve done this in two different companies.
- When you buy a new hardware or software platform do you ask for a discount? You’d be surprised what you can get if you just ask nicely. I’ve managed 10-35% discounts pretty easily by asking.
This isn’t rocket science, it’s just a matter of paying attention to what you’re doing. Whether is what you put in your mouth at meals or what you spend on an ongoing basis – the solution is the same.
Categories: Corporate Strategy
Tagged: Financial Prudence, Goals, Problem Solving, Taking Responsibility
Having held both product management and product architecture roles I’ve had a lot of experience determining product requirements. One thing that I’ve learned is that there are never enough hours in the day to implement everything that you’d really like to deliver to your customers in the time frame expected. Releasing a product can be compared to a 3 legged stool. You have the requirements or content, you have the amount of resources available (people and machines to do the work), and you have the amount of time it will take. One or more of these has to give in order to ship a product.
In this economic environment adding resources is unlikely – companies can’t afford to add to their payrolls. Many are reducing them. Adding too many resources really doesn’t help anyway. We’ve all seen the impact of too many new hires – everything actually takes longer to get done because of the ramp up time and the rework.
Typically a release is scheduled to occur at a set time as well. Many industries have large trade shows at which you want to demonstrate your product’s new features. Sometimes you have a large potential customer with a tight deadline and that will drive a release as well.
The one thing that is left is winnowing down the product features or content. How do you do that? Well, you have to prioritize and decide what is “good enough”. This can cause a lot of friction in organizations.
A lot of arguments over “good enough” are a symptom of a fragmented corporate culture. Disagreements about what is really necessary come about when the various teams involved have completely different understandings of what the customer’s needs and wants are. This usually happens when information coming directly from customers either wasn’t obtained at all (so the teams were making it all up on their own), or the information wasn’t disseminated throughout the organization in the form of priorities.
Questions to ask in prioritization:
- Is the functionality an integral part of the product as a whole? Is it a way to showcase the product and sell it? Is it the “hook” to get customers with?
- How frequently will the customer use this particular feature or bit of functionality? Always, frequently, often, sometimes, rarely, never(!!!)?
- If this feature fixes a problem, how likely will it be that the customer hits it in their use of the existing product?
- How difficult is it to access this feature or functionality? Number of screen traversals? Clicks? Custom programming or scripting? Does this make sense based on how often a customer will use it?
- Do competitors have this functionality? If so – is it a major selling point of their product? Is this a feature that the company wants to compete with? (or is this not an area of focus?)
- Are there standard performance requirements for the functionality that must be met? (UI, networking) If not, what will the customer tolerate? What will delight the customer? How hard will it be to delight them vs satisfy them?
- Is this a feature multiple customers are begging for? (might be a reason to give them an unpolished version for feedback)
- Is this a feature that your biggest and best customer (or potential customer) really wants?
- Is this a problem multiple customers are complaining about? (and how vehemently? Might be a reason for some extra polish)
Product roadmaps and feature prioritization are living documents. As you learn more about your customers and competitors your product has to change and grow. Make sure you concentrate on the right things first.
Categories: Corporate Strategy · Tactical
Tagged: Priorities, Problem Solving, Productivity, Taking Responsibility
This time of year makes point #2 in my post on What is Really Important more poignant. At the end of the year we all reflect on what we did over the past year and how we can do better over the next. For many of us, that focuses not only on our diets and exercise programs, but on how we can be a better person overall. How can we leave this planet as a better place than it was when we got here?
When I was younger my teacher once asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. Over the years there were a lot of different answers, but this one I distinctly remember. I told her that I wanted to have enough money to build a community where people who weren’t as fortune could live and get educated so that they could break the cycle of poverty. I haven’t done that – it takes far more money than I will ever have. I know there are many issues with that plan, but I think that it speaks to my ideal of “doing good”. Who wouldn’t want to do good daily in their job?
I don’t think that I could live with being the person who created the atomic bomb – no matter how amazing that discovery was. I’d rather be the person that made nursing homes just a little safer for seniors, or maybe someone who found a way to make green technology really affordable on a mass produced scale. What would be better than saving the planet one kilowatt at a time?
I don’t need to be famous in the good I do, I just want it to matter to someone even if it is in the littlest way. I believe that if enough people are doing good it provides a mechanism for all of the little things overcome the bad. I expect the best from strangers and treat them with kindness (still working on occasional bouts of road rage, but hey, I’m only human!). I’ve recycled since I was a child – before it was fashionable. I’ve carried reusable shopping bags for more than 10 years – who needs plastic. I buy produce, meats, cheeses, and bread from local farmers and bakers. I never buy pets, I always adopt from no kill shelters. If you come to my house in the winter – better bring a sweater… In the summer prepare for a heatwave. I do these things in my personal life, and I want to do them in my professional life as well.
I’m still searching for my next opportunity and I prefer it to be a “good” one.
Don’t you?
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Job Satisfaction, Job Search, Taking Responsibility
Have you ever wondered exactly what you are getting into when you go on an interview? I have. I remember what interviewing was like before web pages, social networks, and Google searches. It was really hard to get any information about a company without knowing someone who worked there. If the company was public you could go to the library and look at microfiche (dating myself!) newspaper articles and business results. That was the extent of it. Unless you were interviewing with someone famous, it was next to impossible to learn anything about the people you would be talking to. These days it is so much easier to be prepared.
I have a few things that I like to do before I interview with a company. Depending on the company and the information that is out there, this can be quite a bit of work – and a lot of times I can’t quite get to it all. Most of this is common sense I hope, but I thought I would write it down for others to think about.
I’ll start at the point where you’ve done enough looking into a company and a position to know that you want to send your resume in for consideration. At this point you should know a bit about the industry, the company and its publicly available financial information. You’ve made it through the resume screening process – and you’ve been contacted for an interview.
First off – ask a lot of questions when the recruiter or HR representative calls you. Find out exactly which group you are interviewing with. This will help you determine what product(s) they are responsible for. Many times the job description will not clearly state this. Don’t forget to ask for the interview schedule and names of the people you will be speaking with during your interview and what their roles are. Knowing if someone will be a peer, a superior or a subordinate and knowing if their role is technical or administrative can help you figure out what to expect when you talk to them.
Next go to the website. Many companies have an entire section devoted to “working at the company”. READ IT! if you haven’t already. You’ll want to concentrate on anything related to corporate culture to understand how you could fit in. Company blogs are great for this. Some sites even have hints about what your interview will be like. You’d be foolish not to pay attention to this information. One company that I talked to required a technical presentation to executives and senior management as part of their process. I knew about this far in advance of my interview day so I could plan for it carefully beforehand.
While you are on the website read as much as you can. If it is a large company with a huge amount of information on the web, concentrate on the appropriate line of business. What I mean by this is to read about the products that the group you are interviewing with is working on. Read the last 6 months worth of press releases from the company to learn about any interesting acquisitions, product releases or corporate sponsorships. Read the company’s most recent report to shareholders. If the company is not publicly traded, do some research on any investors that they mention. Expand your search from there if you have the time.
Once you feel like you’ve hit the important areas on the corporate website, start to branch out. Take the company name and search for the competition. Go to wikipedia and look up the company and its history. Go to yahoo finance or another finance site that you have access to and learn about the company’s recent performance if they are publicly traded.
Take those product names and search for the competition online. Search for product reviews online. Read them.
Ok – that’s a good start regarding the company. Now, the people. 
This is the fun part. Don’t think of this as stalking – think of this as market research. Keep in mind that the company probably has already done these types of searches before talking to you. This will help level the playing field. Google everyone on your interview list. See what you can learn about their industry involvement, where they’ve been quoted in the press, and maybe even what their personal hobbies are. Read their blogs if you can find them. Look them up on Facebook. A lot of people have public profiles.
My favorite is to look them up on LinkedIn. You’ll find out where they’ve worked and where they went to school. Sometimes you’ll find that they have worked the same place you have, or they have worked with a friend or old coworker. Once you have that kind of information you can learn more about their personality by talking to your contacts. You can also use this to form a bridge – knowing the same people – provided they are people that you both like and respect can help you develop a relationship with your interviewer.
Obviously all of this research won’t help you if you’re not qualified to do the job you are interviewing for. What it will do is make you more comfortable with the company and the people you will be talking to. This will help you come across as more confident and knowledgeable.
Oh – and don’t forget to make sure that you are prepared for skills and knowledge based questioning. Know your resume inside and out!
Categories: How Tos
Tagged: Confidence, Job Search, Relationships, Social Networks, Taking Responsibility
My endless painting saga continues. I guess that is no surprise. As long as I have rooms in my house that haven’t been repainted and I haven’t found the right new work environment, I will continue to update the way my home appears. As I have mentioned before, doing physical labor helps take my mind off of the all consuming job search and it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something useful.
I’m doing all this painting for a few reasons. First, my house is over 10 years old now, and some of the rooms (and all of the ceilings) have not been painted since we moved in. Clearly it is time. After a while walls get dings, dents, and scuff marks and ceilings tend to look a little dingy. In my case the tallest ceilings are also having issues with the sheet rock tape coming loose at the angle joints. Talk about a nightmare. My sheet rockers and painters weren’t the best I’m afraid and I have been repairing their work every time I paint a room. Second, as my job search continues the likelihood of me having to move my family grows. A clean and freshly painted house sells better, pure and simple. I try not to think about the second reason, but it is there, lurking in the back of my mind. This economy might force me to sell my dream home and relocate for a new position.
I don’t know about you – but I never knew the right way to fix loose sheet rock tape before. You’d think that you could just slap on a bunch of spackle and it will stick back down. It doesn’t. I thought maybe I needed more spackle. Well, that made for a lumpy looking ceiling joint, but at 14′ off the ground, it wasn’t *that* noticeable. I sanded and painted it, and figured that I would get to painting the walls today. No dice. While I was up on my ladder taping the ceiling to wall joint (makes for a really clean straight paint edge) I noticed that my patch job wasn’t looking all that professional. It was already starting to crack a bit. I’m sure that it would have held up for a couple of months – or longer. I just didn’t like it, I didn’t feel like I had done my best. I surely wasn’t proud of the job, more embarrassed I would say.
In the meantime I figured out the right way to fix ceiling joint tape. You cut it out and replace the entire section that is coming loose. Between the fact that I didn’t like the way it came out, and the knowledge that I had done it WRONG in the first place it really began to eat at me. I kept hearing that little voice in my head – “You did a crummy job. You really need to do it right. So what if nobody will notice it besides you – you notice that it looks bad.” I have a hard time shutting up that voice. Most times I can’t. I always feel the need to do the best possible job that I can. I guess I need a caveat here – there are times when I don’t have the resources (money, time, expertise) to do the best. I still strive to do the best I can based on the circumstances. Even with that caveat I sometimes am not happy with myself. There are different levels of best – unlimited time and money sometimes can bring a much higher level of “best”. In this case, I had the time. I had the tools (power sanders etc). Joint tape and spackle is dirt cheap (<$10). I had leftover ceiling paint for touch up too. After some learning I now had the expertise. Clearly it was time to tear up my work and start over again. Ouch.
It's had to tear up my own work. I know how hard it was to do in the first place. Even though I wasn't happy with it, I still didn't want to start all over. I thought I was all done with that ceiling. Besides, I had never done this correctly before. What if I screwed it up even more? I just had to jump right in and start yanking up joint tape. So I did. Once I got started, it really wasn't that hard. The worst part was holding an orbital sander high above my head standing on the top of a 10' ladder. Sanding wasn't too bad, it was all the junk that floated down and managed to get under my safety glasses that bothered me.
So now, I wait. The new tape is up and spackled. I'll need to sand it tomorrow to see how it looks. Right now it already looks better than my last attempt. I'm feeling pretty good. I did the right thing.
Reflecting on my work life, I've torn things up and redone them more than once. It's part of who I am. I've rewritten large software subsystems that were showing their age. I've tossed entire designs when an ah-ha moment has hit me. If I am presented with the right opportunity that gives me the time and resources to improve on my work, I will seize it. Sometimes I have had to bide my time. Sometimes I have been very fortunate and have been able to take care of a problem in short order. I've been known to keep lists of things that I am planning on addressing in the future. What can I say, my work is a reflection of who I am. I want my work to be something that I can be proud of.
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Job Satisfaction, Learning, Taking Responsibility
“Best advice I ever got” from Fortune Magazine
“In a world of uncertainty, we could all use a little advice. So we asked a host of influential leaders to share with us the wise words that changed their lives forever.”
Thanks to my friend Richard for pointing out this article to me. Lately I’ve been struggling a little bit with what to write about as I have been spending a lot of time on my job search and I really don’t want to write about that ad nauseam. This article made me reflect back on my career to see what advice really sticks out for me.
I remember many years ago when a promotion opportunity didn’t go well for me. I was extremely upset about it and I was having a tough time getting back into my existing role. I think part of the problem is that my career up until that point had been very successful. I hadn’t gotten much strong push back or negative feedback about my work. This time I received a bit – and it wasn’t information that could easily be dismissed because it clearly impacted my future career growth. I was crushed.
My poor manager at the time – who wasn’t the bearer of the bad news had to deal with me in my distress. Thankfully he finally hit upon the one phrase that put what happened into perspective – “Get Over It!” It doesn’t sound like much, but it was what flipped the switch for me. This is the key bit of advice that I’ve taken to heart. Everyone has problems both big and small. Their impact on you depends on how well you are able to learn from them and “get over it”. Resiliency is the key to future success!
“I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
- Thomas Edison, Inventor
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Resilience, Taking Responsibility
