What did you get yourself into?
/Many years ago, I took a position that really excited me. Great company, exciting challenges, and an opportunity to deliver on what I knew and to learn what I wanted to know next.
As with most new jobs, I walked into a bit of a mess so the first few months were focused on cleanup. My 90-day honeymoon over, it became clear that the business had outgrown its core systems—as in five years ago—and a crisis was looming.
The cost of handling business was growing, shipments were being delayed and issues were beginning to impact revenue. So I bravely went where only Captain Kirk would go and committed to addressing the issue within 9 months.
It only took a few weeks for me to realize that I was in over my head. I knew this commitment would make or break my prospects, and it started to feel bad.
During one of my 2am staring contests with the ceiling, I decided to go for broke.
I knew I had the technical chutzpah to make this thing work, but that wasn't my job anymore. My job was to muster my IT team, our consultants and—most of all—my too-busy-to-help business partners.
Next morning (3 am actually), I listed everything we had planned to do, put a checkmark next to outcomes I believed to be critical, and a question mark against anything I thought was discretionary.
For the next week, I did nothing but negotiate, barter, push back, and eventually align with every business owner on a stripped-down plan that got them what they needed, and eschewed any distracting wants ("give me a business case and we'll consider for phase 2").
A couple of weeks later, I was sleeping soundly. We finished the important work within 9 months—under budget—everyone was happy. No-one requested a phase 2.
When I began the negotiation, I had nothing to lose. I learned more about simplification, focus, decision-making, communication and planning in those two weeks than on any other project I've lead.
WHEN YOUR BACK'S AGAINST THE WALL
Look at that last paragraph again. It has 6 of the 8 proficiencies that I've seen to be critical to success as a tech leader. Not just for me, but across the over 100 tech leaders I've coached over the last 30 years.
I've written about these 8 proficiencies in the Technology Leaders Handbook. Grab a free sample here.
Do you have questions about how these proficiencies apply to you? Hit reply and let me know what's on your mind.
... and if you missed these related articles, go back and take another look:
Minimal Effort Means Avoiding Work