Taking your engineering & operations role to the next level
One of the funnier tech presentations that I have ever run across with plenty of good content.
“At conferences there are always talks covering technical strategies, new tools and software, but this talk will aim to cover something completely different – the soft skills needed to be the very best at any job in operations or engineering. Most organizations are moving into a DevOps culture where the line between system administrators, operators, and developers is much more blurry, and to be great in these environments it is no longer enough to be technically knowledgeable in your specialty, it’s also necessary that you have great interpersonal skills including strong communication and emotional intelligence.”
It’s not enough to just do your work; that’s simply average. Find areas and gaps that should be filled and work to actually fill them!
What if…you saw your boss interviewing your replacement?
What do they have that you don’t?
Strategy - Playing the game - Teaming Up
Strategy
What does leveling up mean?
Where are you going?
Pick the right game that you want to play!
What do you want to be doing?
Become passionate about your work.
You can’t hit career targets that you can’t see. Have goals!
- Identify success.
- Be specific about steps.
- Identify the things that will be obstacles. Create if/then statements for dealing with them.
- Plan time to follow up! Are you actually achieving them? Is it still the right path?
Be open to change.
Game Play
Hard work never hurt anyone.
Become indispensible.
Look for other places to contribute.
And do the RIGHT things.
How does your work move the bottom line?
Managing your manager.
Give them the information they need to be successful.
Do they have a good idea about what you’re doing?
It’s your job to give your manager status.
Think about it, how can they even assess performance? It’s hard.
They can’t know what everyone is doing every day.
It comes down to TRUST.
Are you trustworthy?
Trust as a graph.
Trust from everyone, everywhere.
Authenticity. Deliver consistently.
Know the timing.
Put in the time to become a pro.
Coachability.
Seek expert feedback.
People screw up a lot, but feedback is hard.
People don’t voluntarily provide candid feedback most of the time.
You have to seek it.
Be very specific. Not like “how can I be better?”, but “on this project what is 1 thing I could have done better?”.
- Don’t be defensive
- Fight the urge to jump in
- Ask for feedback
- Listen for emotion
- Be gracious and thankful
- Change and adapt
Teaming Up
Charisma.
Don’t be cynical.
Be open.
Bring solutions. Don’t just complain at how things are. Be a change agent. Do something about it.
Empathy and attitude.
You control your attitude.
“You can change the world by changing how you feel about the world.”
Reframe
Reverse
Long term - how will you feel in a year?
Change for growth - what can you learn from the situation?
Communication
How you say it.
Improve written messages.
Know your audience. Who is it?
Lead with what is important. TL;DR
Be concise.
“Let me know if you would like more information.”
Make it easy to understand.
You should be able to talk at a level that can communicate to ANYONE!
Connecting
Make people feel important.
Take a genuine interest.
Be present.
If you’re in a meeting, engage and be in the meeting.
Repeat what you heard.
Write down people’s ideas, so that they feel heard.
Ask questions. Understand.
Don’t interrupt.
Collaboration.
Set an example.
If you aren’t really contributing, people aren’t going to respect you.
It’s all about relationships and influence.
Relationships are film strips
Don’t burn bridges.
Focus on the long term.
Don’t give up.
Energy is contagious.
Looking forward…do you know 3 things that could make your life and your career better?
Do you also know 3 things you could do to make it worse?
It all comes down to choice.
“You can’t become who you want to be by staying who you are.”