Step up
Ladies and gentleman, do I have a recipe for success for you today.
It’s really simple: when you’re doing something that sucks or in a situation that sucks, instead of dwelling on the suck, step up. Think of the thing that sucks as a bad smell. Root out the cause of the bad smell, and get rid of it.
Something that sucks is the way it is because people have allowed it to become that way. It’s entropy, it’s lack of focus, it’s laziness. Whatever it is, it’s a bad situation. Who’s responsible for remedying that situation?
Someone probably has direct responsibility for the way things are. Someone empowered to make them better, but for whom the priority hasn’t risen to the top of their stack. What can you do?
Take responsibility. Step up. Take ownership.
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You’ve got a bit of duplicated code. Do you need permission to refactor? Hell no! You’re a responsible proxy for your owner. If the owner knew you were changing two (or many… sheesh) pieces of code every time you had to fix something, what would the owner say about that? Responsible development, or repetitive grunt work? Those wages they’re paying you… You think they want to pay you to do something twice?
Step up.
Last I checked, the steps for producing high-quality code were “red, green, refactor.” Get to it. You know the right thing to do. Don’t leave it for later.
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Feeling like the region you’re in isn’t served by a meetup group of your interest? Tired of being the only Ember/CouchDB developer you know? Sad to see other geographic locales with all their code camps and their conferences?
Step up.
Create that group. I recently moved to Perrysburg, Ohio. The nearest metropolis, Toledo, has a smaller total population than I’m used to, so I feared not having the same technology community I feel with That Community. In the new neighborhood, however, I met an Enterprise Architect out walking his dog. He introduced me to a couple local EAs, and we formed GTEAG, the Greater Toledo Enterprise Architecture group. Boom! Instant community! If you’re in the area, come meet with us!
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Your sprint meeting is coming up in a half hour. Your manager is overburdened with their own meetings. They didn’t prepare or really have an agenda, but there’s a lot to do. The meeting might be a disorganized disaster, wasting time on silence or organization “on the fly”. Without focus, the meeting could go off track and leave people discussing things that aren’t a priority. Do you really want to waste time in a meeting, or are you looking to stay productive?
Step up.
Take a few minutes before the meeting. Think through the stories. Come up with a plan. Then run the meeting. Not in an impolite “I’m taking over,” but take the responsibility off your manager’s shoulders and show that you can step in and handle it whenever something happens.
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You must always be on the lookout for ways to step up.. No manager ever sat there saying “Hey, I wonder if this is the year that I promote that developer who mentioned aspirations to management once. I should give them a chance, promote them to manager, train them, then see how they do.”
No, promotions are given to people that stepped up. Those people who show that they can do something pretty well without training. Those that have a natural ability or appetite. Your senior developers always bringing great design ideas up? You’ve got the makings of an architect. Your QA lead who shows they can drive the sprint meeting? Why not a Product Manager or a Project Manager?
At your annual performance review, make it positive. Look at your aspirations. What do you want to be doing in five years. You see yourself in management? What steps are you taking this year to train yourself for that? Will you volunteer to run a meeting? Will you volunteer to run the internal development community? Will you put together a presentation your manager needs to give but doesn’t have bandwidth to create?
You ain’t gonna become a woodworker by staring at your saw and wishing you had some time to cut some boards. You have to get out there and start making sawdust.
Promotions are given to people that stepped up.
Whatever your aspiration, you should be living it already. Today is the day you’re practicing for the thing you want to really be doing.
Journey begins with a single step. Step up. Today. Do it NOW.
Always remember, stepping up is not limited to the company you work for. Step up to volunteer for your kids’ school. Step up to help out with a community conference wherever you are. Write for us. Whatever you see as the suck in your world, take a step today to change it.
What do you aspire to change?
