Know yourself
Don’t make plans without knowing the players in the story. And the key player is you. What are your strengths? What do you get energy from? What do you not like to work on? I have found this 2x2 to be useful in understanding my energy center.
Doing this exercise helps identify where you should seek help. As an example, I am not a software process expert. Worse, I actively avoid it because I dislike it. But I understand the importance. So I hire for my weakness and empower someone else to help with software process.
I have always enjoyed coding, and I still code regularly. But like any skill it starts to atrophy when it is not a focus area. Consequently, I write code now mostly for prototyping and staying in touch. And sometimes I write code and get immense satisfaction — and then I see how someone else has solved the same problem so much more elegantly.
I realize this is no longer my core competency, and I am ok with that. I am good at other things. So all the coding I do now is to (a) know whats happening in the industry and (b) for my enjoyment of coding as a creative process. And I read code to appreciate what others do (and suggest changes sometimes).
The Dislike-Good at quadrant is of particular interest to me. I am good at mentoring and growing others. I am honest with feedback. I think my writing is reasonably good. But I shy away from it because I don’t enjoy it. Writing this matrix down has helped me immensely — I have chosen to spend more time on mentoring and writing and slowly move it to the left.
