Double Journey

I had my best developer resign on me this week.  It is something that obviously bothers me.  You hate to lose your best employees because people of that caliber are so hard to come by.

The one bright spot came today when I went to talk to him to try and convince him to stay.  Knowing why he is leaving, I had little hope of trying to get him to stay but I had to at least give it a try.  As I started to go into my little spiel he told me to stop because there was little chance I was going to convince him to stay.  He told me that the one chance I had was if I told him that I was going to leave the company in a few months and that I would take him wherever I went.  He really enjoyed working for me and that it was hard to find a boss that he could respect.  He just did not want to work at my company any more.

It is an honor to work with smart people.  It is an even bigger honor when these smart people basically tell you that you are a great boss.  Makes me that much sadder that he is leaving.

You are not taking enough risks.  In a strange coincidence today, I talked about this very subject with three different people.

One of these conversations was with a subordinate.  Or more accurately it was a subordinate of a subordinate.  This worker was frustrated for a number of reasons.  One of which was the belief that this person felt as if he and his team were not performing at a high level.  He made the comment that he had never missed deadlines in the past and yet he and his team had missed several deadlines over the last few months.

Now, I corrected this person.  As the person who decided when and if things go out on time, I have not been unhappy with the performance of this team.  I do not think the team has performed great but they certainly have not failed either.  This person’s comment bothered me though.  How is it possible that you have NEVER missed a deadline.  I have not missed very many in my life, it is why I’ve done very well in my career, but I certainly have missed a few (non-critical) dates in my life.  I pointed out to this person that if he really felt as if he had never failed to deliver in the past, that it simply meant he had not taken enough risks or been aggressive enough in his life.

It would be easy enough for me to always deliver on the things I said I would by simply promising less.  But wouldn’t that defeat the point of great achievement?  If great achievement were predictable than it wouldn’t be so great.  Great achievement inherently has risks because you are going into uncharted territory.   So I told this employee, that he obviously was not pushing hard enough before and that his performance was probably not as great as he thought.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he took the feedback very well.  Maybe that’s why we had to have the discussion in the first place.

I finally got my annual review from my boss the other day.  All in all, it was really strong.  I did well across the board and scored really well in some key categories like “results focus” and “subordinate management”.  I appropriately got some areas for improvement.  Most of it revolved around my somewhat abrupt style of talking at times.  While I pride myself on being an excellent communicator, there are times when I get into arguments that I can be very short with people.  I have a strong personality and when I think I am right, I REALLY think I am right.  If I am dealing with people who just do not see it my way, and I feel passionate, I admit I can be somewhat abrasive and condescending.

Ironically, I also got feedback that while I am very focused on my work and the work of my team I tend to do it at the exclusion of others.  That is, if it is not one of my projects, I do not really care as much to see it to the finish line.  Well duh!  I do not mind getting the feedback.  If people feel that way and wish to point it out to me, I am happy to hear the feedback and see if there is something I can do about it.  But I find it a little bit ironic that I would get praised for my results focused but get the feedback that I should divert some of that focus to help others achieve.  It is not that these two things are mutually exclusive, but there is a reason I am good at accomplishing my goals and hitting my deadlines.  I bring deep focus for myself and my team on the things we work on.  I get my team moving in the same direction and that requires doing this by deflecting external distractions.

In any case, my review was positive.  I got strong remarks from my main customer, the SVP of the division and that was probably the most important thing.  He is perhaps my strongest supporter and he is the person who probably matters the most.  But during my review I kept thinking to myself, “What the heck am I supposed to say to this?”  What do you say when your review is almost all positive.  All I could think of was, “Thanks” and then I focused on my areas of growth.  I just felt like saying anything more would just be silly.  Despite my rather large ego, I do not like people singing my praises and get uncomfortable in those situations.  So I moved the conversation on to other things.

The thing is, I do not think most people say anything.  I have had to give several reviews and many of them were really strong.  I do not remember having too many deep conversations with people who have done well in their review.  So I ask you, what do you say when you get a great review?  Do you go over why you got a great review?  Do you want more specifics about why you are so great?

I read a book this weekend by Jeffrey Fox titled How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization. I eventually do want to run whatever company I may be working for so I figured I would pick up this book to see what it had to offer.  The book offers several short tips that can be summed up in one sentence.  These tips range from “See the Job through the Salespeople’s Eyes” to “Homework, Homework, Homework”.   This tip is the title of each small chapter.  The chapter, in one or two pages, goes slightly deeper to explain what is really meant by the advice.

The good thing about the book is that it small and very easy to read.  I finished the book in about an hour, maybe less than that.  I agree with much of the advice, and disagree with some others.  But having never been a CEO, perhaps I am not the best person to really judge the veracity or the efficacy of the advice given in the book.  Here are some of the better pieces of advice, and some of the worse.

The Good:

• Always take the job that Offers the Most Money - It is the first tip and I agree with this one.   Many will tell you to follow your passion, but if you want to rise to the top quickly, you should take the job that pays the most money.  The reason for their advice? You are more visible to upper management, you will be expected to do more and thus be given more responsibility, and all things being equal, it is easier to give the promotion to the higher paid employee.
• Keep Physically Fit -While I agree with it, I will admit to falling behind in this one.  Strong body = Strong mind.
• Don’t have a drink with the gang - I never drink with coworkers.  There is absolutely no upside to this and there is only downside.  If you get drunk, it shows a lack of control, and leaders are always in control.  Most people do not get this one, but it is one I agree with.
• Know everybody by first name - People really appreciate that you know who they are and what they do.  It is crucial to get
• Always say “Yes” to a Senior Executive Request - Even if it is crazy, you should try to figure out what the problem actually is and attempt to solve it.  People who get the job done get the top jobs.
• Never surprise your boss - This is very important.  You cannot let your boss look foolish and if you surprise her, she will.  Your ascent to the top requires that your boss speaks well of you.  She will not if she does not trust you.
• Never Panic or Lose your Temper - Leaders do not panic. They remain calm in front of any crisis.
• Don’t be an Empire Builder - This one is counter-intuitive but I totally agree with it.  Most people think the only way to become more important is to have more people under you.  I disagree.  You need to produce, and producers can win no matter what their resources look like.  They can do more with less.

The Bad:

• Skip all Office Parties - The reasoning on this is do not mix business with pleasure.  Parties are for pleasure, so you should not mix the two.
• Don’t take work Home from the Office - The reasoning on this is sound.  Your family comes first and you should be able to manage your time such that this is unnecessary.  Just do not know if I can ever get behind this idea.
• Don’t get Buddy-Buddy with Your Superiors - And the same goes for your workers.  This one is hard for me.  One I’m trying to get a better grasp of.  I do agree with it to some degree but not fully.  The book actually does not give sound reasoning on why this is such a bad idea, it just states it as fact.

There are several more that are probably worth mentioning but I won’t recite the whole book here. Go check it out. Like I said, it is a quick read, and one that is at least worth the 45 minutes it will take you to read through it.

Or in my case, give her options.  This is a standard bit of advice I give people when it comes to their boss. Whenever my boss asks me for advice, I always make sure to give her my recommendation along with a few more options for her to consider.  Just this past week, I gave her a list of ideas about how I would go about changing the tech org.  I did not think all of them were great ideas (one of them even suggested she should let me go) but I wanted to let her know that I completely thought through the problem.  I provided the pros and cons of each of the options, and then let her make the final decision.  In this case and others, if I have done my job correctly, she will just go with my recommendation.  As a manager myself, this is what I generally do.  I will almost always go with the recommendation of those that work for me.  If I did not trust them to make good decisions, I would have some other issues to deal with.

While seemingly obvious, not everybody really understands why this is so important.  People generally move up the professional ladder because they are good at making decisions.  Your boss is probably no exception.  What you are doing when you come to your boss with options is giving them a chance to flex what I am sure they consider to be one of her strengths.  Your boss probably does not have all the answers and will appreciate it if you lay down all the available options to her so she can make an informed decision. If you only give her one option, it puts her in a bad position and does not give her a chance to feel totally behind the directive.

Further, taking the time to actually think through all the options and presenting them to your boss shows that you have fully considered all the options.  So long as you come up with a good recommendation and thoughtful options, it should hopefully instill some confidence in your boss that you are capable of making your own decisions.  In time, your boss will come to learn, by seeing the thought you put in your recommendation, that you are capable of making your own decisions.  She will trust you more. She will come to your more often for advice because she will know you will completely think through the problem.

I was having a conversation with someone today about being a manager.  Being a manager is one of those things that everybody thinks is really easy but in reality is never as easy as you really think it is.  There are a lot of challenges most people just can’t deal with.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that if you have the right attitude and mindset it can be a relatively easy job.  You see, managers don’t really do anything.  There, I’ve said it.  In the end, they are responsible for the work of others and generally don’t produce anything concrete themselves.  Now that may sound nice and easy, but it has its own very difficult challenges.   The hardest part is dealing with the people themselves.

In a perfect world, people would just do what you tell them to do, do it well, and do it without complaint.  But the world is never perfect.   In fact, more often then not people are going to fall short in one of those three areas and you are going to have to deal with it.  Now here is the hard part, how do you deal with it?  If you are like most people, you want to be liked.  Humans have this desire to be liked by other people.  However, all good managers at some point have to be an ass.  Either someone is going to screw up, and you are going to have to tell them they screwed up, or you are going to have to tell someone something they don’t want to hear.  Perhaps they are behind schedule on a key project or you can’t give them the promotion or the position they want.  Whatever the case may be, most people do not want to be the bearer of bad news.

I’ve learned to deal with it in a relatively easy way.  I’ve just accepted that work is not a popularity contest, it’s work.   If people decide they don’t like me because I had to tell them something they didn’t want to hear or make them do something that they didn’t want to do so be it.  I’ve made plenty of friends in my life and a few people not liking me is OK.  That doesn’t mean I’m a jerk at work, I hate those guys as well, but at work, I do what I have to do to get the job done.   Most people accept that and even respect that.  In fact, I have found that most people hate those managers who go to the other extreme, try to please everybody.  In the end, when you try to please everybody you please nobody.  So long as you are consistent in your message, and people know you are working toward the good of the company or the team, things seem to just work themselves out

I got a new boss a few weeks ago.  It has been something that has been in the making for a while but it became official in the last couple of weeks.  I’m working in a completely different organization, and it looks at first glance like the scope of my job has greatly increased, but in reality I don’t see it that way.

It’s true, that my scope went from my particular division to company-wide.  My boss, who is the CTO, is much higher on the org chart than my previous boss.  But in reality, I don’t see much of a difference.  Sure, my co-workers probably do.   It certainly seems like I have more influence and scope, but that is mostly perception.  Here is the thing.  I just do my job.  I’m not overly concerned who my boss is and what my reporting structure looks like.  I’m here to do what is best for the company not necessarily what is best for my team or division.  This is especially true when you have a job as ambiguous as mine is, Program Management.  My main responsibility is to make sure we ship the right thing in the right time, and it doesn’t really matter who I report to because that function doesn’t change.

To be fair, my personal situation has gotten better.  I think my new boss understands my role better than my old one and is giving me more support.  But that is not to say that I’m going to do anything differently than I was before.  Having the interest of the company above and beyond most other things has always served me well.  It has kept be focus on the bottom line and had made sure that I make the right trade offs.   Not sure why I would do anything different just because the person I do my 1 on 1 with every week has changed.

The comic for Dilbert yesterday was fantastic and it actually covers a topic I’ve been wanting to talk about. I’ve done a lot of thinking about how reviews work in corporate America and how they fail miserably at achieving what they are set out to achieve. Reviews should be set up to give honest feedback to someone about their job performance, set clear goals going forward, and to motivate an employee to reach their full potential.

Everywhere I’ve worked, there has always been a mantra that “Our people are our most important asset”. This is particularly true in the tech world because your business is based on information and knowledge which must be created by smart and creative people. So, on the surface, there is at least some recognition that for a business to succeed in this space, they must have great people.

But almost every employer bases their review system on a bell curve. Now think about that. A bell curve represents a normal distribution. It is supposed to represent a nice AVERAGE population. For every “great” person you have, you must have someone who is not so great. The majority of the people will be “average”.

Now, I’m all for differentiation. I believe people need to be ranked within an organization and under-performers need to be pruned. But to go into a review with the expectation that your employee pool must come out “average” is laughable. If you are a knowledge based business, and you have average people, you are going to get average results. It’s a simple equation.

But differentiation does not mean that there needs to be winners and losers. I think the only incidence that I have heard of someone getting this right is Netflix. Netflix has a policy of keeping only the best. There are no “average” reviews. Getting an “average” review means you will be shown out the door. They openly advertise that they pay more than market rates. And I agree. If you want great people, you need to pay for it. Great people know they are very hard to replace. You may pay these people 15% more, but you will get 100% more work.

It reminds me of a controversy at Princeton when I was there. Grade inflation was a big topic there and at other Ivy League schools. It seemed that too many students were getting A’s and B’s. At the time, I agreed. I thought more people needed to get lower grades. But now being removed from the situation, I kind of see how ridiculous that is. Almost every single person at an Ivy League school was a top performer in their high school. Giving someone an ‘F’ because someone got an ‘A’ would be ludicrous. Someone else’s success should not diminish yours. Certainly, their success needs to be recognized and appreciated. They should get better rewards. But the notion that the only way to succeed is to make sure your peers fail is a very dangerous path to go down. But it is something that corporate America hasn’t seemed to figure out yet.