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What is Becoming a Geek Leader All About? – Episode 0
Geeks: How to get credit for your great work
Fellow geeks:
Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve been given too little time, a tiny budget, insufficient tools and you’ve managed to turn out something really cool in spite of that?
Has it ever happened that you leveraged your creativity and talent to deliver something amazing and had your customer not even notice? You didn’t even get credit?
I just watched that happen this week. I’ll tell you what happened, and how you can make sure that you get credit (and support for future projects) when you’ve done a great job.
Google Fiber is coming to my town!
A few months ago I was thrilled to learn that Google had chosen Charlotte as one of the next cities where they will roll out Google fiber. Even though I live outside the city, and there’s zero chance that Google fiber will provide service, I was still excited.
One of the benefits of competition is that it shakes up the marketplace and challenges the status quo. Given the fact that internet service providers in the US are consistently rated the lowest in customer satisfaction, shaking up the status quo is a good thing.
Almost immediately after Google announced that it would be launching a residential 1Gbps service at $75/month, AT&T and Time Warner responded with promises of improved speeds.
Having worked in the telecom industry, one thing that I know about cable and phone companies is that they are VERY technology driven.
There are a large number of very smart geeks working there whose job it is to combine an ever-changing set of technologies into product offerings that support their customer needs. They frequently do it with short deadlines, insufficient funding and little organizational support.
Which brings me to today’s story:
After months of having my Time Warner internet service run without maintenance or attention, I was having some challenges. I restarted my router. I restarted my cable modem, and all was working. A few days later, the problem recurred. At this point I decided it was worth some investigation.
When I signed up for service, the sales people and I went back and forth over “bundles” and “features” and “options” and of course prices. We settled on a 30Mbps download/5Mbps upload service. They offered speeds as high as 50Mbps, but we settled on 30.
When I began to troubleshoot my issues with my cable connection, I ran a speed test and discovered that I was getting almost 120Mbps! I figured something was wrong with their bandwidth throttle, and it would get fixed soon.
A few days later I checked again, and was still getting that kind of speed. I decided to call tech support. I said “I appreciate higher speeds, but I think that your throttling algorithm is not working properly. I don’t want to pay more, so I thought I’d let you know.
The tech told me “Oh yeah. We upgraded everyone in your area. You now get 200Mbps download, 20Mbps upload.”
Wait. What?
Here’s the thing. Cable providers are consistently low scoring in customer satisfaction.
In the 2015 ACSI survey, Time Warner Cable had a score of 51 out of 100. (The average company surveyed was around 75.)
In this case, they upgraded my speed – giving me almost 7x the performance AT THE SAME PRICE – but didn’t even tell me about it.
What might happen to their customer satisfaction score if they advertise the fact that they are giving me more and not raising the price?
These geeks did something great. Something that I’m really happy about. something I might have been willing to pay more for. (I did go buy a faster cable modem today because my old one could only deliver 100Mbps, and they have provisioned DOUBLE that.)
Why didn’t they TELL ME ABOUT IT?
All marketers are liars
At least that’s what Seth Godin said in the book of the same name.
Now I know that “marketing” and “sales” are dirty words when it comes to most geeks. There’s a geek joke that goes “How can you tell when a technology sales person is lying? When their lips are moving.” Too many times geeks have been burned by promises made in the sales process that never materialized in the implementation process.
As a result, we tend to be skeptics and to disregard the “sales-y” stuff we read.
What if the TWC geeks had done something different? They have my physical and email address. They know exactly what equipment I have provisioned at the house. All of that geeky data is in a database they already have.
What if they had taken the time to identify all of the affected customers and send a series of emails like:
- “Something cool is about to happen, and it won’t cost you a thing.“
- “We’ve noticed that your cable modem can handle more speed, but if you want the MOST speed let’s help you get upgraded to a faster one.” Here’s a guide. (Or, call our specialists to help schedule a tech to come install a new one for only $175 plus rental fee.)
- “Here’s a list of stuff you can do with 200Mbps that you COULDN’T do before.“
- “Great news: we’ve gone live. Your internet connection is blazing fast!”
Let’s learn a lesson from Time Warner.
- Take some time to think about how to tell customers about the cool stuff you’re doing.
- Think about what matters to them.
- Think about the words that they would use.
Then say it out loud.
Remember Steve Jobs? Back when the iPod launched, all of the competing MP3 players were marketed by storage capacity: 64MB, 128MB, etc.
Steve Jobs came out in his black turtleneck and bluejeans, slid a sleek white and chrome box out of his pocket and said “1,000 songs in your pocket.“
Craft a few messages. Yes, it takes a little time, but if your customers understand and appreciate the cool stuff you’re doing for them, you’ll get the tools, resources, budget and team to do even more great work.
I wish that TWC had thought of this. And I’m enjoying my higher internet speed.
Oh – and to the geeks at TWC who made my faster internet connection possible: THANK YOU!
Geeks: What Business Are You In?
This morning I sat down with a practice manager of a successful IT professional services firm.
Our time sheet system stinks!
During our discussion she happened to mention that the timesheet system they were using is terribly antiquated.
- She told me that there were problems with ASP and supported versions of IE and more.
- She also mentioned that she really wasn’t able to leverage the data in the system because the reports did not work in ways that were helpful.
She needs new timesheet software, right?
What does she need?
Yes, she does, but that is not what she wants to buy. She has a business problem: she can’t get the right information out of her current system to make good business decisions. She can’t use current browsers so she has to spend time trying to figure out how to put data into the current system. This is wasteful.
It’s about her business problem
Does she want to buy software? No she wants a business problem solved. She wants it to be faster to enter information and she wants quality reports to help her make good business decisions.
There is no doubt that the only way she can get what she wants is by hiring smart geeks to write good code to solve those problems.
Your work as a geek is necessary, but not sufficient. You see, customers don’t buy tech. They buy the things that technology will give them.
She is ready to buy something that will give her more time, and give her better information fast.
How much does it cost?
- She doesn’t care how hard it is for you to do it.
- She doesn’t care how expensive it is for you to create it.
She has a business problem and a budget to solve that business problem.
If you can solve her problem within her budget, she will be a happy customer.
But platform X is the best!
We all know that some technology platforms are better than others. Some are far better at tackling specific problems than others.
This customer couldn’t care less which platform your technology uses.
- Even if you love that platform.
- Even if it is the best platform in the universe.
Do you want more resources for your project?
Want more resources? Go solve problems. Make customers happy by solving THEIR problems.
You are not in the technology business. You are in the business of solving problems for customers.
Do that, and your customer will be smiling like this:
And here’s the thing: When you start thinking like a business person and solving problems the business people understand they have, your projects will get better budgets.
You will find the support that you need from management.
You will finally have the resources you need to do the great work you want to do.
Go do it!
Email Etiquette STOP! Don’t reply to that email
Email Etiquette
Today I want to share a couple of quick email etiquette tips.
The “No Second Reply” rule
Years ago I had a boss institute the “No 2nd reply” rule of email.
If you send an email to someone, and they reply – but there are unanswered questions or details, you’ve hit the limit. We were not allowed to reply to the email. We had to call the person or better yet, go visit the person to clarify, answer questions, or resolve the issue.
When to pick up the phone
Today I was emailing back-and-forth with a geek. We were having a conflict. I was unable to reach him via phone.
When he emailed me, I replied and said (twice) “I want to speak with you about this.”
Rather than call me, he sent me another email.
When someone emails you and says
- “I want to speak with you” or
- “we should talk about this” or
- “let’s cover this during our next meeting”
DO NOT REPLY TO THE EMAIL! Pick up the phone and talk to them – or go visit them (if it’s feasible.)
You will save yourself and the other person a huge amount of emotional energy.
Not only that, but you’ll find that it’s MUCH faster than the email back-and-forth. After you’ve come to an agreement, feel free to type up a quick summary and email that to them.
It’s well worth it. Trust me.
“Game of Thrones” at work (HR Performance Forced Rankings) Here’s what to do instead.
Years ago I worked for a large company that had a really good performance evaluation framework. It was rich, thoughtful, comprehensive and was a total waste of time.
Why? In spite of all the great things in the framework our company required that we “force rank” our people based on the bell curve.
This was shortly after Jack Welch had promoted the idea that everyone in GE needed to be force ranked – our people *must* fall into low performer, average performer and high performer buckets. Not only that, but there must be a large percentage of “average” workers and a small percentage of “high performing” workers.
Our corporate leadership had bought into the idea that we needed to do this to challenge us to get better at our work.
In many ways this seemed like a great idea. Different departments had wildly different expectations about what constituted high performance. In some areas we suffered from “grade inflation” and people who were marginally competent got above average ratings.
In many parts of the company we had people promoted past their level of competence, and our “B” players (who had become managers) had hired “C” players to fill their shoes.
The “B’s” and “C’s” lowered our performance profile. We were not objectively checking our performance levels against anyone outside, and we had allowed our performance bar to drop to really low levels.
“Something” needed to change, and the “something” the leaders chose was forced rankings based on a bell curve analysis.
The bottom would be identified and forced out, the top would be rewarded.
(Of course the top end rewards were not statistically significantly different from those given to average performers – so the rewards system simply did not work, but that’s another blog post.)
I have to confess that I’ve not watched it, but I’ve read that the popular TV series Game of Thrones is famous for politics, intrigue and backstabbing.
The fact that the force ranking system set aside just a few spots for the top level of performers means that the rest of the workers have a great incentive to fight each other to get a good rating. This system actually provides an incentive to backstab and sabotage any coworkers who might prevent them from getting one of those coveted “high performance” ratings.
I had aggressively recruited SMART, hardworking people who represented the best and brightest. Statistically speaking we had been able to attract people who were better at their jobs than their peers. We had built a strong team culture – and delivered so consistently that leadership allowed us to add headcount while other areas were flat or declining.
When the new regime was instituted, it was a problem. My team absolutely skewed toward the top end of the bell curve. Frankly if it had not, leaders should have fired me for being stupid in my hiring!
When I did performance evaluations, regardless of the skill of the team members, some had to get a low rating, (almost ALL had to get an “average” rating) and I had to compete with my peers for the privilege of identifying ONE person across departments who was allowed to be recognized as a “key performer.” Not one person on my team. One person from among my Boss’ teams!
Seriously? This could have led to a dumbing down of performance – why be a stellar performer if the team member was not rewarded for it? I had a few folks who had performed in an amazing way – but the rules and “fairness” demanded that those people’s achievements were crushed in the machine of forced rankings.
I knew that this system was in place, that it was unfair to teams like mine, and I also knew that I didn’t have the power to change it.
So what did I do? When I recruited people I set expectations ahead of time. I told them”
I can offer you a position on a team where you’ll have strong coworkers. You’ll be experts. You’ll do meaningful work.
You’ll have the freedom to do it the way you want, and as long as our customers are happy, you can do it on the schedule you want.
As your boss I’ll cover your backside if you make mistakes, and together we will do great things.
I’ve got to be straight with you. In this system there’s almost nothing that I can do to influence your pay or your bonus. That’s the bad news.
If you’d still like to join, I’d love to have you on my team.
My team built a strong bond, and we worked well together. We “worked around the system” to build a solid culture, but it was in spite of HR policies, not because of them!
Your midlevel (and senior) leaders need to be recruiting the best possible people.
I’m willing to bet that you have not taught them how to do a great job in the hiring process. Have you taught them? What did you tell them?
If your managers (and HR Recruiters) are not attracting the right folks – then you HAVE to look at your recruiting and hiring practices.
It’s pretty simple. Not easy, but pretty simple.
If the people already on the team are not performing – you need to “change people or change people” –
- “Change people” – tell them exactly what you need from them and start getting it
or
- “Change people” – help them find another place to work.
You need to train your managers to do this, and then you need to hold your managers acccountable to actually follow through.
Forced rankings create all kinds of behaviors that are not good for your team.
Having the courage to teach managers how to set expectations and hold people accountable is not hard – the hard part is having the courage to do it. Here’s the good news: Your team members (generally) want to perform well and according to recent studies (generally) have no idea what you want from them.
Be clear in telling people what you need from them, let them surprise you with the results!
