How to be a good employee (10 times the salary in 10 years) - Part 8: Let the bullets fly…

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Two things happened recently at work where I could have delegated better. 

I felt quite bad about them at first.

But they turned out to be right decisions after a week.

Therefore, as a manager, try to delegate properly, but more importantly, do not feel bad.

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1.I could have delegated

In drafting up a deck for the client, I discussed with the team and agreed on the storyline.

There were 5 slides that needed major work and 1 slide that needed adjustment.

3 of the 5 that needed major work would be hard to delegate, because I had all the information and background.

So there were 2 slides that needed major work and 1 slide that needed adjustment that I could choose to delegate.

There were 3 other members in the team.

I only delegated the 1 slide that needed adjustment to one team member and took the 2 that needed major work upon myself.

I guess I was partly trying to continue the work I had done on the 2 slides that needed major work and partly did not want to load the team more as I knew they were involved in other engagements too.

But afterwards, I regretted.

If I had delegated the 2 slides to the two other team members, there would be at least 4 benefits:

1. I would have less to do and could focus more on the 3 slides.
2. The workload of the team would be more even, at least from the perspective of this engagement. The team member that got assigned the 1 slide that needed assignment might feel a bit unfair in the current arrangement.
3. The deck would be more of team work, instead of my storyline and my deck.
4. If there would be needs for further changes to the deck, we could split the work more easily and deliver the update version faster.

I regretted over the weekend multiple times and could not help thinking about the benefits of better delegation.

In the beginning of the subsequent week, I managed to find time to complete all the slides. But I still felt bad.

However, after a few days, I found out that that could be the right decision.

One of the other team member got assigned to another engagement entirely. If I had assigned to him the one slide, I might have to take it back anyway, which would cause more interruption.

The other team member was entirely occupied on another stream of the engagement and she did not even bother me with it, probably partly due to that fact that I left her out of this stream to allow her more time to work on the other area.

Therefore, that decision could be the best one, in term of completing the work effectively without interruptions.

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2.I should not have delegated

The 2nd incident was even more straight forward.

I delegated some analysis to an intern and it turned out to be a bit complicated for her.

I had to spend more time training her than doing the analysis myself.

I regretted also. Why didnt I just do it myself?

However, I later found out that she could catch up much faster on the other analysis after the training. 

I guess the training enabled her to understand the methodology and my train of thoughts.

This is good and she is able to help me with more analysis, which definitely saved more time for me.

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Summary

Delegation is as much science as art.

As a manager, try to delegate properly.

However, if some seemingly less ideal decision is made, do not feel bad.

Let the bullets fly…

You never know how it would turn out.

And we can always learn to improve!

Till next time!

How to be a good employee (10 times the salary in 10 years) — Part 7: Do you have the picture?

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

It has been a while since we we had the last entry on “Good Employee” series.

Here comes the Part 7 — To be an effective employee, we need to have the “picture”.

The picture that allows us to visualize the end-state and to communicate it clearly.

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Why is it important?

The picture will enable us to plan backward so that we know by when we need to accomplish what by who.

This is the basis of good project management and the planning will assure your managers and colleagues that you have things under control.

This also is critical in stress management. Knowing that we have things under control is greatly relieving.

This is of course hard.

We need adequate understanding of the related areas, structured thinking, team management skills, just to name a few.

We also need some imagination to pick up the potential points of risks and then plan the mitigation and back-up options.

Experiences do help!

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What could be more important and harder?

Being able to communicate the picture clearly and make your audience understand is more important and a lot harder to do.

I always knew it would be hard, because people are very likely on different frequencies, due to background, experiences, education etc etc.

However, I never expected it to be so hard. 

Previously, even as a consultant when I had to communicate with people I do not know at all, I could typically manage it. 

I could adapt to their styles and habits fairly quickly. After all, it was my job to make them understand and cooperate. 

However, things are different now. 

My new boss posted a huge challenge for me.

I just could not seem to reach the common understanding with him. Even when I thought we did, we did not, because he expected totally different things from what I delivered next time we met.

This added a lot of frustrations and pressure.

After a while, I think I kind of figured out the reason — we were talking about different “pictures”.

He was always talking about the long-term picture and I was always trying to explain and align with him the intermediate picture which was realistic and executable given our resources.

He got frustrated because he simply wanted his picture. 

I was frustrated because I told him I understood his long term picture and now I would like to discuss with him what we can do to achieve it in a realistic way. Or at least, we should agree on the expectations before our next meeting.

Once I realized it, the communication has become much better. 

I will simply ask him “what do you think we should do now before we meet next week?” and if he has no clue, I give him my suggestions.

This seemed obvious and unnecessary to me as well at first. But that question clearly told him that we now discuss what we do today or this week.

That establishes a common platform. 

It is ok if he does not have a clue or he does not care. I will simply give my suggestions.

Sometimes, the solution is so simple. 

Simple solutions typically require clear and deep understanding which is not simple to do though.

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How do we crack that?

Getting to the root cause is not easy.

Based on my experience, I offer four pieces of suggestions.

1.Show the pictures

This is the most intuitive thing to do.

We want to explain and make people understand our pictures, so just show them.

This will be much more effective than just explaining verbally.

If we are building a PowerPoint deck, show the dummy deck.

If we are doing an analysis, show the scenarios — what are the possible outcomes and each possibility will lead to what conclusion.

If we are organizing a meeting, show the picture of the meeting venue, layout of chairs etc etc

2.Standardize rules of engagement

As much as we can, we should standard rules of engagement.

For example, terms.

In the professional world of phones, here are the terms that should be used across the board.

• Model — iPhone 12 is a model
• Variant — iPhone 12 128GB is a variant
• SKU — iPhone 12 128GB black is a SKU

For example, deadlines.

When we set a deadline with external clients, we expect our internal preparation to be fully completed, reviewed and finalized 24 hours before the deadline.

For example, data update cycle.

If we are doing analysis in Feb, data needs to be updated at least till Jan.

…

3.Sync up

This is similar to Point 2. However, this refers to things that cannot be explicitly communicated.

I remember a documentary on The Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron. 

The pilots said they spent pretty much all the time together to understand how each other thought so that they could sync up their actions to complete the beautiful maneuver without crashing into each other.

Most jobs do not require this level of sync up. But spending more time together seems to be a good way to sync up.

4.Think, analyze and summarize

Of course, with every encounter, we think, analyze and summarize. This will speed up the process.

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Summary

If we could have the picture and make people understand it, we send the strong signal that we have this area under control, which sets the stage for career success.

On the other hand, if we could perfectly understand the pictures of our managers, or even come out with the pictures before he does, we are on our way to become indispensable.

Till next time!

How to be a good employee (10 times the salary in 10 years) — Part 6: Always watch out for your ROI

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Welcome to another episode of the “Good Employee” series.

In this Episode 6, I would like to talk about our value as an employee.

It all essentially comes down to our ROI — what the employers are investing on us and what we bring to the employers in return.

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I grow up watching KongFu movies and I always admire the Swordsmen and the Generals who make all those awesome moves on the back of their horses.

I have always dreamt of riding a fast horse and tour around, better even with a bow and some arrows.

Therefore, when I went to big farms in New Zealand and grassland in Mongolia, I always looked for horses.

To my surprise, horses were rare.

When I asked, the answer was “Horses are not worth it. They eat a lot but produce almost nothing. They can be used as transport but cars and trucks are better.”

The real world is built upon practical terms.

Anything or anyone that does not produce enough value becomes luxury.

And luxury, like the horses, is kept due to passion, not necessity.

This is especially true in commercial space.

You could build a business by satisfying the passion of your customers. But keeping someone or something because of passion in the process is quite unlikely.

Even Nonprofit or Charity organizations have requirements for their members.

Therefore, let it be clear: employees will be got rid of sooner or later if they do not produce enough value.

As an employee, nothing is more dangerous than becoming luxury. 

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Ok! Now that is clear, let’s talk about how to increase our ROI.

There are only two ways:

1. Reduce the investment on us from the employers
2. Increase our value add to the employers.

There are cases where people refuse promotions and pay rises to avoid more responsibilities and at the same time keep their job.

However, this is not that common. And I personally do not recommend this approach unless you have special conditions or really love the job you do now (with back-up plans).

I just do not feel secure if I keep doing the same thing with no learnings. Someone younger or even AI could replace me the next day.

Therefore, I would count on #2: Increase our value add to the employers.

Value comes in many different forms, e.g. delivering good work, gaining trusts from your superior, providing specially resources or access to your superior, or even satisfying the personal preference or hobbies of your superior.

To add more value, one thing is certainly required: put in your efforts, thoughts, and attention. We cannot expect to be very relaxed and delivering enough value at the same time.

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After adding enough value, chances are promotion or pay raises wont come naturally.

You most likely need to show you want it and ask for it.

And there are two approaches: Passively or Actively.

Passively, we could focus on adding value, open everything up and hope for or ask nicely for what we deserve, which gives the decision power to others.

Actively, we could focus on adding value, and at the same time think of the next steps: maybe we hide a bit of the details to increase our irreplaceability, and ask actively for what we deserve, which gives us leverage.

Based on my experience, I have failed miserably on the first approach and I have seen many successes with the second approach.

Going forward, I will try the latter, even though the latter does require more thoughts and attention. We need to worry about many more things.

But remember, no matter which approach you take, the pre-requisite is enough value add.

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What if you keep seeing people with less value getting more than you do?

That feels like shit. I know and I have been there.

Again, look at the ROI, but from our perspective.

Is what we get at least matching what we put in? Do we have better options?

The thing we should not do is dwelling on the thoughts “This is not fair”.

Nothing and no one is fair in this world. Dwelling on that thought will kill all our passion, motivation and energy.

And it is pointless.

If you are not getting promoted, there must be causes. Even if the causes are not fair or can only be hidden under the table, they exist and you need to deal with them.

And it is not even true.

As mentioned, value comes in many forms. They might be delivering values that we do not see or cannot even imagine.

So focus on whether it is worthwhile for us, rather than whether it is fair to us.

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Summary

If we, as employees, do not add enough value compared to our title or pay, we become luxuries in commercial space. And nothing is more dangerous than that.

Focus on adding more value by putting in more efforts, thoughts and attention, instead of seeking for less pay or lower title. It is probably not up to us.

Once we add enough value, we can leverage it actively or passively to get what we deserve.

In the cases where we keep seeing people with seemingly less value getting more, focus on whether it is worthwhile for us, rather than whether it is fair to us.

Till next time!

How to be a good employee (10 times the salary in 10 years) — Part 5: Gravitas or Executive Presence

 

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Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

It has been a long while. And here comes the Episode 5 of the “Good Employee” series.

I recently took a training on “Executive Presence” and corrected my biggest misunderstanding on this topic: 

It is all about the “External” where one has to show by practicing and applying techniques.

Now I learned that the “External” has to be driven by the right “Internals” so that:

1. The “External” comes across as true and genuine, instead of fake and dishonest 
2. We do not get drained by showing gravitas

And I know I agree!

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The “Internals” really come in below three aspects:

1. Passion: This is the most fundamental condition for executive presence. This is what drives us to a destination and showing gravitas is just part of the efforts to get there.
2. The Effective Thinking Pattern: We need to take a broader perspective beyond our job scope or personal interest. We need to own the responsibilities to drive and think in the functional way that helps us advance on the end purpose.
3. The Effective Emotional Pattern: Negative emotions can break a person down. We need to be able to avoid that and do better. We need to pro-actively manage our emotions so that we constantly feel the positive and functional emotions that encourage us to drive forward and improve our performance. There is no excuse on this one for us, no matter how tempting it is to take a break and comfort ourselves.

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One problem I have struggled for so long immediately resonates me with the trainer’s teaching. 

I have always felt embarrassed pointing out the flaws or improvement ideas for other people’s work.

I always feel that this is “attacking” other people in the areas that are not even within my scope. This makes it extra hard for me to do it, even when I know I should.

I feel that I am bothered by this problem more than most people.

And it causes serious consequences:

1. The organization does not get the best work delivered
2. My managers and colleagues feel that I am too soft and indifferent to my job and the benefits of the organization
3. I feel either wasted because I do not reach my full potential in delivering value, or embarrassed, frustrated and exhausted because I have to force myself to do it and face emotional suffering due to reactions of my colleagues who feel “attacked”. 

Anyway, it is not sustainable and reduces my confidence and interest at work, and ultimate affects my career potential negatively.

So my “External” does not show Gravitas and I feel bad about it.

However, if I apply what I learned from the training, I see a potential solution.

1. Passion: I do want to contribute to the organization and that is what motivates me to work hard and deliver good work. Of course, it might be an overstatement to call that passion, but the intention is strong.
2. The Effective Thinking Pattern: I will point out the flaw and offer improvement ideas for the greater purpose to improve the benefits for the organization. I am not “attacking” my colleague and I am not doing it for my self-interest. Instead, it is my duty to stand out and make those comments.
3. The Effective Emotional Pattern: I can avoid feeling embarrassed, frustrated and exhausted due to reactions of others by managing my emotions proactively. Instead, I can guide myself to feel pride, accomplished and even superior, because that is the right but hard thing to do.

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Summary

Executive Presence or Gravitas has more to do with “Internals” than “Externals”.

Recognizing our passion, embracing effective thinking and emotional patterns is the foundation “Internals” for Gravitas.

We need to bravely take up the bigger responsibilities and perspective beyond our job scope and self-interest.

For the next two weeks, I will practice by utilizing every opportunity I get to prepare and speak up!

Till next time!