2010: The Year In Review

December 14, 2010 3 Comments

“Quitting smoking is easy; I’ve done it dozens of times.” the great American writer Mark Twain once said.

Although I’ve never been a smoker, I can relate to Twain’s sentiment. Setting a goal for yourself can be easy. If taken lightly, goal setting can be little more than creating a wish list of things you’d like to achieve in the future. However, the value of setting goals really is in defining your priorities and outlining a way to achieve the goals. This helps you to systematically live life in a way that is consistent with your priorities.

It’s the follow through and dedication required to turn the wish into a reality that’s tough.

My Goals For 2010

Almost a year ago, I shared my goals for 2010 with the blogosphere as a part of a meme that was going around at the time. Now it’s time to reflect on how I did this year.

Without a time of reflection, setting goals becomes a spark in a flash pan, a short burst of thought and enthusiasm without any real long-term commitment. Periodically reflecting on your goals helps to ensure that 1) the goals are still applicable, and 2) that you are making strides toward achieving the goals.

My Professional Goals for 2010

In January I set the following goals (there is more detail in the original post):

  • “Write a business plan for a new venture I’m considering.” This year I gave considerable thought to how this new business may take shape. I did some research and investigation. As a result, the concept morphed into something slightly different that my original idea. I think it’s better and more likely to succeed now as a result. I didn’t document a formal business plan so I fell a little short of this goal. Grade: B+
  • “Post a minimum of 72 blogs to my professional blog site.” This is my 66th blog post of 2010 so I came pretty close to my goal of 72 postings. I may get a few more in but I’ll likely miss the 72 mark. I feel that I made progress toward becoming a better writer during th year. Grade: A-
  • “Schedule and have a Weekly Review at least 40 times this year.” This has been my Achilles Heal. Making the time and having the discipline to regularly review my outstanding items and determine what I’d like to tackle in the upcoming week has been tough. On the weeks where I’ve done it, it’s felt great! Unfortunately, I regularly let me “trusted system” get out of date so conducting the review becomes much more of a chore. I’ve got to do better in this respect. I have found software and some routines to help though. Grade: C

My Personal Goals for 2010:

  • “Double the amount of pasture that I have fenced.” I made some progress here by getting a new paddock fenced and added to the rotational grazing plan, but I didn’t double the space. There’s still work to do. Grade B-
  • “Read at least 5 books on preparedness, survival skills, or sustainability on the farm.” I love reading. I’m not a fast reader so it takes me some time to get through a book, but I do enjoy reading books. This year, I met my goal of reading 5 books in the categories mentioned. Those weren’t my only books; I read a lot of other business and faith-based books as well. Grade A
  • “Paint three rooms in our house.” I got one room painted and slightly redecorated this year. Grade C
  • “Resolve an ongoing plumbing issue.” Although I resolved several new plumbing issues in our 100+ year old house this year, the issue I truly had in mind when I created this goal is still outstanding. Grade D

No Excuses

I also accomplished some other noteworthy items in 2010 that were not on my radar at the start of the year. Foremost in this list would be an addition to our family. We now have five kids so as you can imagine, that alone keeps us quite busy.

I also became a BSA Certified LifeGuard during the summer. (Now I have a fall back plan just in case this whole database and business thing doesn’t work out for me. <grin>) And I helped orchestrate a successful SQLSaturday in Nashville by serving as the Chairperson for the event.

I’m typically my harshest critic when it comes to performance. There’s always something I could have done better. Overall, despite falling a bit short on some of my goals for 2010, it was a good year and I’m pleased with the accomplishments.

Your Turn

So how about you? How did you do with your goals this year? Blog your review and post a link to it in the comments below.

Kevin Kline (twitter, blog) and Tim Ford (twitter, blog), you guys both called me out for the meme last January so I’m specifically interested to hear how you faired with your goals.

Filed under Just for fun, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Vote For The SQLRally Pre-Con Seminars

October 27, 2010 1 Comment

Do you know a real-life Pointy Haired Boss? Maybe you don’t work for him, but I bet you’ve met one.

In my consulting practice I’ve met a lot of them. They were once good technical people. So good in fact, they got promoted; it’s the natural progression in business. But they didn’t make the transition well. They knew how to do techie but they didn’t realize that moving from techie to a technical manager would require some new skills. When faced with pressure and stress they withdraw and do what they do best, the technical stuff, and ignore the real source of their stress, the managerial stuff. And they fall flat on their faces.

Voting Booths

Surely Smart People Can Be Good Managers

They can, and don’t call me Shirley (rimshot).

This is the premise of a series of blog posts called “So I Got Promoted, Now What?” that I’ve been writing recently. In the series, I’m discussing how technical people can leverage and build upon the skills that they already have to succeed in their new role as a technical manager.

I’m also adding to that and turning the concept into a one-day seminar that I can deliver to clients and in other venues like SQLRally May 11-13, 2011, in Orlando, Florida.

Vote For The SQLRally Pre-Con You’d Like To See

My Pre-Conference Seminar submission for SQLRally was selected as one of the three finalists for the Miscellaneous (aka the Professional Development) category. Now it’s up to the community to vote for the session you’d like to see.

Voting doesn’t mean you’re registering to attend. It doesn’t even mean that if you do attend SQLRally, that you’re obligated to the Pre-Con. It simply means that you think that the session you voted for would be of interest and is needed in the community.

There are three really good sessions from which to choose (listed in the same order as on the ballot).

  • Finding Your Dream Job by Chris Shaw and Steve Jones (1/2 day).The job market is becoming more and more competitive all the time as employees become more and more efficient at accomplishing more work and employers look to reduce their headcounts. This session will present the attendee with practical tips, tricks, and skills for enhancing their marketability. They will learn how to better use networking to their advantage, both online and offline, develop a technical blog, and build a better resume. Once someone has an interview, we provide them with techniques to prepare for the interview, and how to not only impress the potential employer, but also assess if this is the job they really desire.
  • So I Got Promoted, Now What? by Joe Webb (full day). “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” That’s the premise of Dr. Laurence Peter in his 1969 book, “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.” We’ve all seen instances where someone who is very good with technology is promoted and flounders. Horribly. And the worse they do, the more stress they feel. And they flounder even more. So what happens? They don’t make changes in their daily work required by the new position. In this session, you’ll learn how to do your job better once you’ve been promoted. You’ll become aware of the new dynamics required by your new role so you adjust and excel. You’ll learn how you can leverage the same successful tactics that made you a great technologist in your role as a director, manager, or team lead.
  • Leadership and Team Management Skills for the Database Professional by Kevin Kline (full day). Most IT leaders earned their promotions based on technical competency, not on leadership or managerial skills. Technical leaders rarely advance into leadership positions with the complex mix of social and soft skills that best facilitate their success and the success of their teams. Successful IT leaders require a combination of: Earning the respect of your team, A deep understand of effectively motivating technology professionals, Specific skills to lead database professionals competently that broadly fall into the categories of: Coaching team members to effectively meet goals and deadlines, Facilitating change and navigating organizational disruptions, Promoting communication within the team and with management Keeping teams and projects on task and within scope, Dealing with difficult team members, Practicing good team time management techniques. This one-day seminar equips attendees with training content, fun exercises, and reference material to further develop their leadership potential and achieve excellent results, both for themselves and for their teams.

Of course, I’d like for you to vote for my session, but frankly speaking I don’t think you’ll go wrong with any of them. I know the other speakers. They know their material and do a bang up job presenting.

What I do ask is that you make your voice heard and vote for the session you’d go to if you were to go to a session.

Filed under Events, Management, Professional Development, Promotion, SQLServerPedia Syndication

“Just Hit Somebody!” Developing A Bias Toward Action

October 21, 2010 8 Comments

“Come on, hit somebody!” That’s the sage advice I once received from my high school football coach. Later he elaborated to our entire group. I’m paraphrasing here:

If you don’t know who to block, that’s a mental mistake. You should know who to block. Period. But if you don’t know who you’re suppose to block, don’t just stand there; block somebody, hit anybody! Just standing there looking stupid is your second mistake. It’s better to make one mistake at full speed than making two mistakes by just standing there looking stupid.”

Line of Scrimmage

Inaction Is An Action

Much of the advice that I received from my football coaches doesn’t apply well to life off of the grid iron; it was far too sports-specific. However, that one piece of advice, “just hit somebody”, has stuck with me all these years.

Sometimes in business, in personal affairs, or even in spiritual matters, it’s far too easy to not make a decision. We tell ourselves that we need more information. Or perhaps we have enough information, but we need time to consider it all.

I certainly understand that. In fact, that’s my natural tendency. I’ve never taken a DISC assessment, but I probably have high values in the S and C dimensions which lean toward being cautious and deliberate.

But I’ve come to realize that often not making a decision is indeed making a conscious decision to do nothing. Continually asking for more information or trying to further analyze all the information that you already have leads to what’s known as Paralysis of Analysis. The opportunity is lost due to the time it took to reach a decision.

Sometimes it’s better to make a decision, any decision, and move forward.

Don’t Make Rash Decisions

To be clear, I’m not advocating that you should dispense with due diligence, that you should go around making a series of rash decisions. No, that’s short sighted and will lead to suboptimal results.

Each decision should be well researched and carefully analyzed. To a point. Then a decision should be drawn and action taken. Without action, there is no decision. You only have a wish. A decision requires an action.

Developing A Bias Toward Action

So how do we develop a bias toward action? It’s actually far easier than you may think. First you must recognize that no decision can be made with perfect knowledge beforehand. You simply will not be able to fully anticipate every aspect, every contingency, every possibility in a reasonable amount of time. It can’t be done. So there’s no point in allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

Second, you must consider your options based on what you know now and determine the best approach. Notice that this does indeed require that you do your due diligence, that you analyze your situation and options, and that your draw a conclusion (decision) from those options.

And finally, you must consider the opportunity cost of inaction. Will the marginal benefit/cost of delaying action result in a substantial gain? Will gathering additional information produce a significantly better result? Or will it only delay the result? What are the consequences of inaction?

At that point, you have enough information to reach a decision. To act immediately, or to act by intentionally delaying a final decision while you do more research. If it’s the latter, set a timeline to collect the required information and repeat the process.

If all things are equal, consider just acting now.

As Winston Churchill once said “I never worry about action, but only inaction.”

Filed under Business, Consulting, Professional Development

So I Got Promoted, Now What? Get To Know Your Peers

October 6, 2010 3 Comments

[This is part four in a series of posts about how to effectively transition to your new role after being promoted.]

Series Outline

How do you recognize an extroverted IT professional? Answer: He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.

That’s a harsh joke. It’s certainly not true for the people I know in the IT field, but it does illustrate a point. Those of us in the IT realm are not known for our exceptional interpersonal skills. It’s not that we don’t have interpersonal skills. It’s just that we tend to be more at ease when “interfacing” with other techies.

Being comfortable amongst similar people comes naturally. I’m reminded of the old sales axiom: People buy from people they like, and people like themselves.

Why Should I Care About My Peers?

Getting along with other IT folks may have been sufficient in your prior role, but as you get promoted up through the ranks you’ll need to extend your comfort zone to include a broader swath of the organization. Business is relational and you’ll need to be as well to succeed that landscape.

Why? There are many reasons. Here are but a few.

Learn From Your Peers

If someone has been in a position that’s similar to your new role in the organization, it stands to reason that they may have picked up some good insight during their tenure. I’m not suggesting that they’ll be perfect or that you’ll want to follow their lead. That’s probably not the case. You need to be true to your own style and make your own mark, but they may be able to help you navigate around potential land mines as you adjust to your new responsibilities in the organization.

Establish Lines Of Communication

In most organizations, a certain level of cooperation is required from multiple teams and departments. You must work with other groups to push the organization’s goals and objectives forward. It’s much easier to work with someone else when you’ve already established a professional relationship with him. People are more willing to go to bat for someone else if they know him.

Prepare For Future Conflicts

When two people interact regularly, there will eventually be conflict, even under the best of circumstances. The likelihood of conflict is escalated when put in the context of a stressful or demanding project. Some would even argue that the conflict helps to produce s better outcome. Regardless, those conflicts are less intense and are more easily resolved afterward if the two parties have already established trust and mutual respect for one another.

Vet Your Ideas Before Unveiling Them

As we come up with ideas for our department or the organization, it’s good to have a trusted colleague with whom we can share those ideas and get good and honest feedback. An idea that we conceive may have downsides that we haven’t considered. Vetting the ideas before announcing them will help you to improve the ideas and lay the groundwork for better acceptance of them when announced.

Expand Your Network

Let’s face it, business can be turbulent. Mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and outsourcing, recessions and contracting economies all make for a very dynamic workplace. In such an environment, it’s good to have an extensive network of people who can help you if needed, or who you can help.

Ok, But Who Are My Peers?

That’s a good question. I’m reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan where a young man asks “Who is my neighbor?” and learns that his true neighbors extend far beyond his confort zone.

Getting to know your peers means getting to know others both inside and outside of your current organization, those with whom you work regularly and those you only see occasionally, those who are in the same industry and those who work in complementary industries. In short, most anyone you come into contact with can be considered your peer for these purposes.

However, that’s a pretty ambitious target so let’s narrow it down a little for starters.

Peers At Work

The peers at work are primarily your colleagues at the same level in the organization. If you are the DBA Manager, your peers may be the Dev Team Manager, the Customer Service Team Manager, and the Quality Assurance Team Manager. Don’t limit yourself to one department or physical location; reach out to peers in other departments and locations.

You may also go up the promotional ladder a rung or two, depending on the culture of work environment.

Peers In The Same Industry

Trade shows and conferences offer great opportunities to meet other people in the same industry as yours. If you go to these types of events and only consume the information presented in the break-out sessions, you’re missing out of one of the most important aspects of the event. Networking (in the best sense of the term) is probably the most important aspect of these events. You can even participate when you’re unable to attend in person.

Peers In Complementary  Industries

During the course of your business day, you’ll likely meet people from other walks of life. Getting to know your suppliers, your customers, your service providers will help you to work more effectively with them.

How Do I Get To Know My Peers?

Getting to know your peers is not really that difficult. Little kids seem to have an innate ability to do it. If you go to a playground and watch for a few minutes, you’re bound to see a new kid arrive. At first he tentatively plays near the other kids, then before you know it he’s joined their game.

As we grow, we sometimes convince ourselves that it’s much more difficult than that. We start believing that meeting new people is hard. It’s not. If a little kid can do it, surely we can. Initially you may have a certain level apprehension or even anxiety about striking up a conversation with someone you don’t know very well. As you practice, it will become much easier.

Lots of books have been written about the subject. If you’re looking for a good starting point, try the classic How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s a good common sense approach for becoming a good conversationalist. In general, it’s simply finding common ground and becoming a good listener.

Some specific examples of situations where you can get to know your peers may be:

At Meetings

Meeting are pervasive in business today. Our calendars are full of them, so why not use them as an opportunity to meet someone new? Arrive early and introduce yourself to someone else who’s early. Spend a few minutes talking with her before the meeting. Afterward, send a short follow up email. Something simple like “Hey Darlene – It was good chatting with you before the meeting earlier today. Here’s a link to the resource I was telling you about. See you next week.”

Small Tokens

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your peers with little acts of kindness. For example, if you occasionally bring bagels or donuts for your team, buy some extra and give them to your peer for his team. Let him be the one to give it to his team. “Hey Marc – I was at the bakery this morning picking up some bagels for my team and thought your guys may want some too. Enjoy.”

At Lunch

Of course, lunch is one of the more common ways to get to know your peers. “Let’s do lunch.” as they say. But you’ll probably want to be more genuine than that. I find that it’s typically easier to establish a working relationship with my peers first and then invite them to lunch. For example, after I’ve met and talked with someone a few times I may ask “Hey – I was thinking of trying the new Mongolian place for lunch today. Have you heard anything about it?” And then you can invite him to join you.

Start Today

The best part about all of this is that you don’t have to wait until you’ve been promoted to begin getting to know your peers. You can start reaching out to your co-workers, customers, suppliers, and colleagues in other industries now. What’s stopping you?

Filed under Business, Management, Productivity, Professional Development, Promotion, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Stop, Drop, And Roll Before Answering

September 17, 2010 12 Comments

“I can’t believe what they’re telling me!”, that’s what the little voice in my head screams in some of my initial client meetings. Fortunately it usually passes through the marketing and PR filter en route to my mouth and it comes out “That’s interesting. How’s it working for you?”

You wouldn’t believe some of the systems and processes I’ve seen over the course of my 16 years as a consultant.

Some people know that they have a horrible patchwork of broken systems that are loosely held together by duct tape and bubble gum. Others think their system is “flexible except for this one issue we’d like for you to fix.” I’ve learned that one man’s flexibility is another’s bad design.

Fortunately experience begets familiarity and some of the issues I see are remarkably similar to ones that I’ve solved in the past.

It’s tempting to show them just how smart I am and immediately jump to the solution. In fact, cutting to the chase would save them time and money so everybody wins. Except there’s only one problem: I didn’t listen.

You’ve Got To Listen

Listening is incredibly important, not only for consultants, but for everyone. Regardless of your walk in life, being an good listener will help you as you work with other people. Listening helps people to feel understood, to feel that you care. And that goes a long way in building a relationship.

Conversely, if you don’t take the time to listen, other people don’t feel understood. You’re not listening, so you simply cannot understand what’s going on. They assume you don’t care or that you’re just too self-centered. Without a good understanding of the problem, they reason, how can you possibly offer a good solution?

So before you offer a solution, take some time to stop, drop, and roll.

Stop

Don’t interrupt their description of the problem. Let them tell it to you in all its glory, even if you’ve heard it all before. It’s important to them to tell it.

Most people feel their situations are unique and quite different than the problems you may have faced in the past. Let them tell you why. In fact, you may actually learn that their problem is subtly yet significantly different that what you were expecting.

Two rules to keep in mind. First don’t interrupt. If the other person is talking, be quiet. You can nod your head in agreement or smile when appropriate, but don’t say anything. Second, when the other person has stopped talking, count to 5 to make sure that he is really finished and not just regrouping his thoughts. Only then do you know it’s your turn to talk.

Drop

Drop a few clarifying questions back to the other person. Ask them to explain in more detail or from another perspective. Many people will focus solely on the immediate affects of the issue or what they deem as pertinent. If you delve a little deeper you can uncover a lot more information. Asking relevant questions also reassures them that you are listening.

Don’t limit yourself to abstract or technical questions. Ask them about the impact of what they are describing. How is this situation affecting them personally? How has the problem affected their job or other’s perception of them?

Getting personal helps you to understand their motives. This is especially powerful when talking with a prospective client.

Roll

Roll back what you hear them saying. Restate their problem and its affects. Summarizing or restating what they’ve told you helps makes sure that you, do indeed, understand their issue. It also communicates to them that you understand.

This also helps to transition the conversation. It’s moving from their turn to talk to your turn. They’ve described the problem, now it’s your turn to offer suggestions or recommendations.

Solve

After they have completely described their scenario to their satisfaction, then you are free to offer your guidance. Your initial assessment may have been right on, but they wouldn’t have listened to you since you didn’t listen to them. Listening cost you only a few more minutes of time and the rewards were definitely worth it.

So, the next time you’re visiting a prospective new client or someone approaches you with a problem, remember: Stop, Drop, and Roll.

Filed under Consulting, Professional Development

The Best Four Sentence Blog Post Ever

September 16, 2010 Leave a comment

“Eliminate all unnecessary words from your writing.” That’s the advice given me by Jeremiah Peschka (blog, twitter) at SQLSaturday 51 when I was picking his brain on writing. He recommended that I read “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. I’ve added it on my list.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin took this technique to an extreme. The result was nothing short of profound. In four short sentences, Godin managed to admonish and edify businesspeople the world over. Wow.

The power of making every word count.

Filed under Blogging, Business, Professional Development, Resources

I’m Choosing To Cheat

September 10, 2010 7 Comments

I’m cheating. And I bet that you are, too. In fact, most us of cheat at one time or another.

That’s the premise of Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley. In it, Stanley contends that we are all far too busy. We have too many commitments at work and at home; we’re stretched too thin, being pulled in every direction. There’s no way we’ll accomplish everything. Sound familiar?

So Many Things, So Little Time

So what do we do? We try as hard as we can. We spend a few extra hours at work to try to get caught up, cheating our family of that time. We take a long lunch or call in sick to get some personal things done, cheating work.

But we still come up short. No matter how hard we try, some things will be left undone. There’s just too much to do. We can’t do it all. We will miss some commitments that we’ve made. The only question is which ones.

Who Are Cheating?

For many of us, the two largest sources of commitments come from work and family. Think about those for a moment.

At work, you are replaceable. As good as you may be at your job, you’re still replaceable. If you quit, they will find another person to do your job. If you do your job poorly, they’ll fire you. If business becomes slow, they’ll lay you off. The company has very little, if any, loyalty to you as an individual. Yet many of us have great loyalty to our work. We work long hours, often burning the midnight oil, in the hopes of getting caught up or being recognized for a promotion.

Conversely at home, no one else can fill your shoes. You are the only husband or wife that your spouse has. Only you can be the mother or father to your kids. No one else can fill your role. And your family has nearly unlimited loyalty to you.

Yet when push comes to shove, many of us choose to cheat our family rather than work. We choose to devote extra time to the entity that has zero loyalty to us while robbing those that have nearly unlimited loyalty to us. We focus on areas where we are replaceable at the expense of areas where we’re irreplaceable. We choose to spend our time doing things that will be obsolete in five short years while cheating in areas where our impact may be felt for a lifetime or even longer.

Why? And what could we, should we do about it?

Making A Conscious Choice

In Choosing To Cheat, Stanley tackles this problem. He doesn’t pretend to have easy answers. But he does call your attention to the problem and offer some creative ways to approach your work and home life. I definitely learned a lot from the book.

It’s a short, easy read. You can easily finish it in one sitting or on a short flight. But it can be life changing if read with an openness and taken to heart. I have a good friend who would say that it literally helped to saved his marriage.

So, if you’re cheating, are you choosing wisely?

Filed under Book Reviews, Business, Productivity, Professional Development

SQLSaturday #51 in Nashville

August 17, 2010 Leave a comment

SQLSaturday is coming to Nashville this weekend, Saturday August 21st at 8:00am in the Student Services building of Nashville State Community College.

A Short Keynote And Great Intro Session

The day will begin with a short welcoming keynote, and by short I mean no more than 15 minutes. It’ll be just long enough to give you the logistical information you’ll need to make the most of the day.

Following the keynote, SQLRockstar, Thomas LaRock (blog, twitter), will give a presentation based on his book DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA in the cafeteria. For those who are somewhat new to the role of DBA, it’ll be a great way to start the day.

If that’s not you’re cup-o-tea, the other main sessions start at 8:30am as well.

Over 30 Great Sessions

SQLSaturday #51 is not this kind of conference

We had over 110 session abstracts submitted for SQLSaturday #51 and it was tremendously difficult to pare it down to a manageable number. We only have time and space for 30 sessions. If we’d only gotten a session on how to flex the whole space-time continuum thing using SQL Server 2008 R2 perhaps we could have accommodated more. Maybe next time.

In the 30 sessions we were able to provide, we have a good mix of SQL Server MVPs, authors, industry experts, and local professionals who are willing to share their experiences and their knowledge at the conference. The schedule is available on the SQLSaturday #51 site.

Quest Lunch Session & Stump The Experts

As if 30 sessions weren’t enough to saturate your brain with SQL Server know-how and best practices, we have two more fun yet informative sessions. During lunch, Quest’s SQL Server Expert and Nashville’s own Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) will share with us some things he’s learned over the course of his career.

At the end of the day while we’re raffling off some fantastic door prizes, we’ll play a game we’re calling Stump The Experts. A panel of well-known industry experts have agreed to submit themselves to your questions for a time of fun and humor. Can you stump an expert? Bring your questions and find out.

Don’t Delay, Register Today

This totally free event is sure to be fun, informative, and entertaining. But space is limited and there are only a few seats left. So head on over to the registration page and sign up today. If it’s full, you’ll be added to a waiting list and notified if space becomes available.

Filed under Events, Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Conducting Effective Meetings at DevLink 2010

August 6, 2010 6 Comments

I’ve sat in a lot of really poorly run meetings. Meetings that didn’t start on time, didn’t end on time, and didn’t accomplish anything. What a waste of time! And time is a precious resource in any organization.

Early in my career, I didn’t think it was my place to try to improve the meetings. Later I assumed it was just the way things worked. Eventually I realized that I was wrong on both accounts. Meetings can and should be better than they are.

So, I actively sought ways to make every meeting better. After much research, trial, and error, I’ve discovered some best practices for conducting meetings. I’ve also learned some things I can do to help improve meetings that I attend but don’t run.

I’m going to share these best practices later this afternoon during a session that I’m giving at devLINK. Here’s a link to the slide deck I’ll use.

Here’s a summary of my best practices:

  • Distribute an agenda prior to the meeting. Without an agenda, people won’t know how to prepare ahead of time and the meeting will wander
  • Have clearly defined purpose & outcome. Let your attendees know exactly what you expect to accomplish during the meeting.
  • Start the meeting with a welcome, an agenda review, introductions, & ground rules. This sets the tone for the rest of the meeting.
  • Keep to the agenda. Don’t drift; don’t run over.
  • Create and document action items. Make sure everyone leaves the meeting with a clear understanding of who agreed to do what by when.
  • Appoint a scribe to take & distribute notes. The notes don’t have to be fancy; just cover the decisions reached and action items assigned.

Questions:

  • Have I missed a good practice?
  • Are your meetings productive?
  • What do you do to make the run smoothly?

Filed under Business, Events, Productivity, Professional Development

So I Got Promoted, Now What? Employ the Same Successful Tactics

August 4, 2010 6 Comments

[This is part three in a series of posts about how to effectively transition to your new role after being promoted.]

Series Outline

Constant Change

It seems that Moore’s Law is on its seventh double espresso. The law, which was originally described by Gordon E. Moore in 1965, primarily relates to advances in computer hardware. But given the dizzying pace of changes in all technology , I think it’s more broadly applicable to other areas today. The affects on IT Professionals is fairly obvious.

Can you name a database administrator, a solutions architect, a seasoned developer, or any other highly skilled, highly technical IT Professional that views his job as a run-of-the-mill 9 to 5 position? I can’t. Most successful people in our industry realize that in order to do their jobs, a certain amount of continuing education is required.

So over time, we’ve developed ways to keep up with the latest trends in our field. We listen to podcasts, read blogs, attend conferences, participate in user groups, and take training classes. These sources, among others, help us to do our jobs better.

There’s A Lot To Learn

It’s important to realize that once you’ve been promoted, your job has substantially changed. Many IT Professionals fail to recognize this shift and languish in their new role as Team Lead, Manager, or Director. I’ve seen it countless times at the companies where I’ve consulted.

Need proof? Think back to the first few weeks or months as a new database administrator or application developer. How much did you know, really know, about your job? At the time you may have thought you knew it all, but if you’re honest with yourself, you didn’t. Think about how much more you know now.

The same applies to your new job. You may feel like you know how to manage others and work at a higher level in the organization, but trust me when I say there’s plenty more to learn.

New Job, Same Preparation

That’s not to say that everything you learned in your last role is now obsolete. On the contrary, we can supplement that expertise with newfound and complementary knowledge and once again prepare to excel in our new role. The good news is that you already know how to do this – just take the same approach that landed you the promotion.

Dive Into Your New Role

In much the same way you seized your prior technical role and sought out every bit of information you could in your area of expertise, you can and should do the exact same thing in your new role. How?

  • Seek out podcasts on how to manage a technical team. I like Manager Tools series of podcasts.
  • Look for blogs that are dedicated to effective management.
  • Attend a non-technical conference. Once again I hear good things about the Manager Tools conferences.
  • Read books on effective communications and leadership. There are classics like anything from Peter Drucker and Dale Carnagie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People as well as more contemporary books like Good to Great.
  • Join associations.

Expand Your Horizon

In your prior role, you may have found it valuable to learn some ancillary technologies to help you do your job better. The same is also true for your new role.

  • Get involved with ToastMasters International.
  • Read books about making presentations. Presenting to Win describes how to create an engaging presentation.
  • Learn more about negotiations tactics.
  • Look for opportunities to improve your budgeting and financial skills.

You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure

As a database or network professional, you may have found that capturing statistics and benchmarking data paid off in many ways. Metrics help determine when things are begining to depart from the norm. They can be used to help predict when upgrades will be needed. And they can be used to identify where the problem really is, and more importantly where it isn’t.

Metrics can be used in your new role, too. Capturing metrics can help you to justify new expenditures, identify gaps in your current levels and processes, and benchmark your areas of responsibility. Remember the adage: you cannot improve what you don’t measure.

Show Me The Money

Redundancy, high availability, and up-time are all good concepts and even measurements in some cases for technical people. We can see how they naturally help us to achieve our goals. However, oftentimes those concepts are a bit too abstract for other people, particularly those who may hold the pursestrings. In those cases, putting the concept or technology into financial terms often helps. For example the cost of a High Availability solution may be $200,000. That sounds expensive until you realize that the cost of being down for just one day is $500,000. In that case, $200,000 maybe well worth the investment depending on the probability of an outage.

The same tactics can be employed in your new role. Learn to associate your projects and requests with financial measures. Calculate the Return On Investment. The practice will help you to better understand the real need (or lack of real need). And it’ll help form a good basis for your request to your boss.

Carpe Diem

Although I couldn’t find a reference for it, I believe it was Tom Peters that once quipped “Nothing begets failure like success.” I believe he meant that once a company was successful at one endeavor, it was in danger of always trying to repeat that success and thus stifling true innovation.

As individuals, we are susceptible to that as well. If we, in our new job, continue doing the exact same set of tasks that made us successful in our prior role, we will doom ourselves to failure. However, we can employ the same fervor, the same passion, and the same tactics that lead to our prior success in our new roles and seize the day.

Filed under Business, Consulting, Management, Productivity, Professional Development, Promotion, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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