{"id":5731,"date":"2010-12-30T14:28:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T21:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5731"},"modified":"2011-02-01T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T21:21:22","slug":"career-lessons-4-3-2%e2%80%93intuition-impact-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5731","title":{"rendered":"Career Lessons 4,3,2 \u2013 Intuition, Impact, Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The countdown - 4,3,2... courtesy "Shutterstock"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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We are counting down my top 10 career lessons of the past decade.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Here is the next set of memorable lessons\u2026<\/p>\n

4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trust your intuition<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have all been in situations where we have been asked to do something \u2013 but, for some reason it just doesn\u2019t feel right.\u00a0 Let me give you an example.<\/p>\n

A while back, I was asked to represent my team on an external forum.\u00a0 \u00a0My upper management wanted us to gain greater exposure to this external forum and had explicitly requested me to bring in other members.\u00a0 I met with this forum a couple of times and concluded that it was a total waste of my time \u2013 and it would really not make much sense to expand the participation.\u00a0 However, there was a certain cachet in being associated with this group, and there were political reasons to keep the relationship. Plus, of course, there was that direct request from my upper management.\u00a0 My lead engineers were also keen to participate \u2013 they thought there was actually something meaty going.\u00a0 These were the same engineers who were occupied fully on several critical projects.\u00a0 So, I was caught between encouraging them to participate and strongly advising them against it.\u00a0 My intuition was that if I advised them against it, they would resent it and it would impact their morale and productivity.\u00a0 I had to find a way to make them see the light.\u00a0 So, what I did was invite them to a 1 day session of this forum so they could see the group in action.\u00a0 I also advised them it was completely optional \u2013 ie. if they did not find it useful, they could simply leave.\u00a0 Well, needless to say, most of my engineers left before the end of the day and later informed me (and upper management) that they were not interested in direct participation.<\/p>\n

I made some excuses to the organizers of the external forum so that they would not think ill of us and continued to participate.\u00a0 My team knew that I was doing them all a favor by attending this on our behalf \u2013 and appreciated me for that.\u00a0 Their time and sanity was saved.<\/p>\n

I learned to trust my intuition even more after this!<\/p>\n

3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Make a difference<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you working on something that matters? I call this my \u201ccareer ROI\u201d.\u00a0 And, I must admit that I did not always ask myself this fundamental question.<\/p>\n

There was a time when my career ROI was not on top my list.\u00a0 I was a typical engineering manager.\u00a0 As long as I was working on something that was technically challenging, and \u2018next generation\u2019, I was quite happy.\u00a0 Never mind that we had little chance of making a real difference to our revenue or business.\u00a0 As a result, I spent many years working on things that were interesting, but really did not make the impact they should have.<\/p>\n

Over time, my sentiments changed. \u00a0My basic observation was that if you worked on something that mattered, it led to greater recognition and rewards.\u00a0 Furthermore, it was much more fulfilling to see your creation being used and adding value to the business.\u00a0 This realization drove some of my recent career decisions.<\/p>\n

At present, I am part of a small team that is driving broad based changes in how solutions are developed and delivered.\u00a0 We are developing a whole new way of doing business and opening new revenue opportunities.\u00a0 A lot is at stake, and there is potential to add tremendous value to the business.<\/p>\n

My lesson learned?\u00a0 Make a difference, and impact the business.\u00a0 It will increase your job satisfaction and career ROI!<\/p>\n

2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Surround yourself with good people<\/strong><\/p>\n

We spend a lot of time at work.\u00a0 Spending that time with people who you can work with, learn from and trust makes a tremendous difference to our job satisfaction.\u00a0\u00a0 Believe it or not, there was a time when I would put up with less than ideal \u2018team conditions\u2019 in order to stick with a cool project or role.\u00a0 Certainly, there are times when I had no choice.\u00a0 \u00a0Whenever I have been in this situation, it has led to less than ideal results.\u00a0 In one such role I was in, it seemed that the team could not get its act together \u2013 there was just too much infighting and lack of trust.\u00a0 Our business results were abysmal. And, I was deeply unhappy. Nevertheless, it was tough for me to move, because I really liked the technology and many other aspects of the role.\u00a0 \u00a0There were also very limited job opportunities.\u00a0 But, I was not having much fun and we were not able to have a positive business impact.\u00a0 Of course, I eventually moved on.<\/p>\n

So, how do you choose a \u2018good team\u2019?\u00a0 Ask around, do your research about the company, the leader, the team before you accept the job.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Are there people in that team who are like you \u2013 ie. have a similar background, share the same experience, values ?\u00a0 How are they faring?\u00a0 By doing some basic detective work about a new role, you can save yourself quite a bit of headache down the road.<\/p>\n

My lesson learned?\u00a0 The people you work with have a huge impact on your job satisfaction and your career ROI!\u00a0 I especially like Kimberley Wiefling\u2019s African saying \u2013 which I think is very appropriate for this lesson: \u201cIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a team.\u201d The future is a place \u2013 a place we\u2019re going \u2013 and we are going there together. Supported by each other, we\u2019ll be able to handle far more than we ever could alone.\u00a0 Thanks for that Kimberley \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are counting down my top 10 career lessons of the past decade.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Here is the next set of memorable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1494,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}