Be effective

If they want to be effective, they are thinking like an organizational contributor (and, significantly, like a manager). If they want to be right they are thinking like an individual contributor.
Be Well,
Dwika - ExecuTrain



New Tip #3 for becoming a Technical Manager/Leader (Steps #2 and #3)
**Steven Cerri

Tip #3: "Do You Want To Be Right or Effective?"
As a technologists, how many different ways were you conditioned and taught to seek the right answer? Here are just two:

1. In school, in college or in your technical education, you were taught to provide the "right" answers on your exams. The right answers meant good grades. The wrong answers meant poor grades. The right answers often had to be given to two or three decimal points. Ambiguity was not allowed. Your exams were not "blue-book, essay" exams. They were rigorous tests to find that one and only right answer.

2. At work, when you provide the correct answers you get a positive annual review and a good annual raise. If you provide wrong answers too often you're let go.

As you succeeded at work and began to take on bigger and more complex tasks, you began to notice that the "team" became more and more important. At some point your best or right answer wasn't what was necessary. All of a sudden, your best answer was supposed to integrate into the "team" answer in a way that made the team's answer the "right" answer. The right answer literally went from being "your right answer" to being the "team's right answer".

I can tell you that for most technical professionals, this shift is a "big deal". It's not easy going from being rewarded for "your right answer" to being rewarded for giving it up for the "team's right answer". However, this is the shift I talked about earlier in this newsletter when I talked about "individual contributor" versus "organizational contributor". This is what I mean when I ask technical professionals whether they want to be "right" or be "effective". If they want to be right they are thinking like an individual contributor. If they want to be effective, they are thinking like an organizational contributor (and, significantly, like a manager).

This is the shift that must be made to make your successful transition to management and leadership.