Building star engineers
Once you know the technical stuff, you are only just beginning…
I am heavily involved and interested in systems that allow talented engineers to develop to their full potential. Through school and uni you work predominantly on technical knowledge and book smarts. Then you hit the workplace and realise that actually those skills will only get you so far and you require a whole plethora of soft skills to really make an impact through your career. I have previously written how a comprehensive internal study at Google analysing what made the most successful teams found that technicals skills ranked dead last (!) of the 8 qualities looked at — soft skills ranked significantly higher with communication being amongst the top.
The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.
On a similar vein I am loving this article from Robert Kelley in HBR — “How Bell Labs Creates Star performers” in which they highlight 9 skill they deliberately cultivate in their employees to improve their individual and team performance. Writes Kelley —
Becoming highly productive does not require magic. When engineers produce at undistinguished levels, it is seldom because they are less capable — it is because they never learned the work strategies that lead to high productivity. Once these engineers are given access to the star strategies, their productivity takes off.
He identifies these 9 strategies as follows:
- Taking initiative: accepting responsibility above and beyond your stated job, volunteering for additional activities, and promoting new ideas.
- Networking: getting direct and immediate access to coworkers with technical expertise and sharing your own knowledge with those who need it.
- Self-management: regulating your own work commitments, time, performance level, and career growth.
- Teamwork effectiveness: assuming joint responsibility for work activities, coordinating efforts, and accomplishing shared goals with coworkers.
- Leadership: formulating, stating, and building consensus on common goals and working to accomplish them.
- Followership: helping the leader accomplish the organization’s goals and thinking for yourself rather than relying solely on managerial direction.
- Perspective: seeing your job in its larger context and taking on other viewpoints like those of the customer, manager, and work team.
- Show-and-tell: presenting your ideas persuasively in written or oral form.
- Organizational savvy: navigating the competing interests in an organization, be they individual or group, to promote cooperation, address conflicts, and get things done.
Of particular interest is the part of the article that provides a checklist for Taking Initiative:
Going Beyond the Job
- I make the most of my present assignment.
- I do more than I am asked to do.
- I look for places where I might spot problems and fix them.
- I fix bugs that I notice in programs or at least tell someone about them.
- I look for opportunities to do extra work to help the project move along more quickly.
New Ideas and Follow-Through
- I try to do some original work.
- I look for places where something that’s already done might be done better.
- I have ideas about new features and other technical projects that might be developed.
- When I have an idea, I try to make it work and let people know about it.
- I try to document what my idea is and why it’s a good idea.
- I think about and try to document how my idea would save the company money or bring in new business.
- I seek advice from people who have been successful in promoting ideas.
- I construct a plan for selling my idea to people in the company.
Dealing Constructively with Criticism
- I tell colleagues about my ideas to get their reactions and criticisms.
- I use their comments and criticisms to make my ideas better.
- I consult the sources of criticisms to help find solutions.
- I continue to revise my ideas to incorporate my colleagues’ concerns.
Planning for the Future
- I spend time planning what I’d like to work on next.
- I look for other interesting projects to work on when my present work gets close to the finish line.
- I talk to people to find out what projects are coming up and will need people.
These concepts are further expanded in Robert Kelley’s book — “How to be a star at work” (book summary here and powerpoint handout here)
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