Secrets To Leading and Managing Technical Professionals to Be More Than They Could Be

by Janice Giannini

As a trusted business consultant and advisor, Janice has been helping clients achieve their stretch goals and create a new normal since 2005. She engages with senior executives and teams, particularly in complex businesses where misalignment is blocking their desired success, to develop and execute practical business strategies and plans. Clients have found her especially helpful when they recognize they must integrate an eagle’s eye and worm’s eye view in order to identify and remove obstacles. Janice has consistently taken on those challenges that others chose to run from. This typically involves those challenging times when failure is not an option and integrating business, technology and people changes must be accomplished simultaneously. As a result, many of her clients are complex organizations who won't settle for anything less than developing widespread professional competence.

and Doug Brown

The technical professionals in your business are, in many ways, just like anyone else - they want to feel that the work they are doing matters to the future of the company. It is easy to understand that not only do they want to feel acknowledged and appreciated for the contribution they make, and they also want to feel they are making a difference.

Instinctively, most technical professionals realize that the nature of their job may not put them in the limelight. The challenge then is twofold: make people feel appreciated, and make them feel that what they do matters in the absence of the limelight and the accolades that can come with that attention.

As small children, we heard over and over again, treat others as you want to be treated. At the time it sounded like platitudes and what all mothers say to their children.

As we have grown over the years and become more sophisticated, both professionally and personally, we have come to realize something: It really is simple if we let it be. Say "please' and "thank you." Treat others the way you wish to be treated. In fact, take it a step further, treat others as they would like to be treated. And check your ego at the door.

It has been said that people join companies or teams and leave managers. Research indicates that when people start looking for another challenge, typically salary is not the motive. They begin looking due to the relationship or lack thereof with their immediate manager.

As we have talked about in other articles, when people discover that they share commonly held values, it can act to positively galvanize an office or a team. It can also help to underpin or bridge difficult conversations when they need to occur.

As a vehicle to understand your own motives, values, desires, and beliefs, take the necessary time to rank order the following in order of importance.

Are you more motivated by:

• Achievement
• Aesthetic Beauty of Surroundings
• Autonomy
• Economic Security
• Emotional Well-Being
• Health
• Honesty
• Humanitarian
• Justice
• Knowledge
• Love
• Physical Attractiveness
• Pleasure
• Power
• Recognition
• Religious Faith
• Wisdom

The common sense of the ages is still true - It is tough to truly understand and lead others when you haven't even taken the time to understand your own values and lead yourself effectively.

What we have found over the years is that there are several key aspects that impact ability to manage and lead technical people The key is to understand who they are, what they are about, and why they joined the company, then develop the relationship so they stay and become strong performers.

It is often helpful to conduct a self-inventory. For example: do you know the following information for each of your colleagues and staff? Can you answer "yes" to any of the following:

Full Name
Nickname
Age
Marital Status
Number of Children
Approximate Ages of Children
Length of Company Service
Special Interest
Hobbies

Think about all your employees and answer with the name of the person who fits the question asked.

Who is your eldest employee?
Who is your oldest employee in length of service?
Who is your most loyal employee?
Who can handle the largest number of different jobs?
Who is your highest skilled employee?
Who is best suited to train new employees?
Who has the best attitude?
Who has the best possibilities for promotion?
Who will make the best understudy?
Who is the best natured?
Who is the fastest worker?
Who is the most stable?
Who is the most dependable?
Who has the best attendance?
Who does the highest quality work?
Who is the most cooperative?
Who is the best liked?
Who is the most intelligent?
Who is the best all-around employee?

Once you have taken the time to examine both yourself and your staff, take time to evaluate and enhance the overall work environment. While many people think the key to motivating staff is major incentive programs or managing through fear, in reality, both of those tend to be short term in duration. If you doubt it, just ask yourself how long it took you to get used to your last raise. The motivation was short term, wasn't it? Therefore, if incentive programs and fear aren't very "permanent," what is an alternative? Developing the attitudes that are conducive to success.

Some things are not always examined in terms of their impact on everyone, including, what is being celebrated around the firm? What behaviors are being penalized?

In addition, review your reward and recognition policies. Do status symbols (e.g., large offices, closed-in parking spaces) correspond only with vertical movements in the organization? Do raises or upgrades in the salary structure come only with promotions? Does your reward system correspond with the old definition of success, or does it support other approaches?

Let's examine some other low cost/no cost ways to enhance performance that are typically underutilized. Carefully examine the numerous policies and processes within your company to see that they support new attitudes toward motivation and success. Here are some suggestions.

Look at the employee communication methods your company uses. Do they celebrate employee success only by promotions? Are employees recognized for committee activities, task force membership, lateral moves, rotational assignments, and community activities outside of the company? Or does the company print pictures and send congratulations only when an employee moves up the corporate ladder? What definition of success does the company acknowledge-both implicitly and explicitly?

Create a daily climate for employees' development and growth. As someone's manager, see yourself not as a parent or director or superior, but as an equal partner working with them toward success. We recommend that managers/leaders see their subordinates as their "customers" who will defect when their needs stop being met.

Create a collaborative environment to make it easy for people to work together and develop trust and respect. Don't ask people to do anything you wouldn't do yourself.

Hire the most talented staff for the opportunities and challenges that you have and then trust them to give you their best effort.

Review training and development programs. Are your training and development programs designed so that people can fully grow and develop in their current jobs, or are the premier courses focused solely on management and executive development? Do your programs address life skills, such as self-management, effective communication, collaboration, and flexibility, or do these programs focus primarily on developing technical and individual competence?

Include technical leaders in developing the company strategy, starting with the overall company strategy. This enables the link from the beginning to mesh together the customers and the internal operations and systems.

Make the technical staff part of the overall business process from the beginning along with the marketing and sales staff. To truly develop strong teams that are in alignment at all phases of business, create the team and keep it together. That way they learn to work productively together as well as appreciate what the individual members of the team contribute. This creates a better solution in the end that matches the customers' needs.

Involve the technical staff with clients so they can see/ hear/and feel the customers' needs and thoughts.

Establish and frequently share the direct link between what the technical staff is working on to revenue, market expansion, increased client base, cost of doing business, customers needs analysis etc. This relates to the desire to help the business. Sometimes that direct link is not easy to see, help people see it clearly.

Assess individuals' needs, goals, and motives; and help them develop personal definitions of success.

Help employees align their individual goals and ideas with the needs of the organization. Frequently, employees have many ideas in their heads for personal and corporate growth and development. Unfortunately, however, either they don't discuss these ideas with anyone or, if they do discuss these ideas, they do not do it effectively.

Express appreciation and acknowledgment for the value of the contribution the technical staff makes. Sometimes this is not straightforward because non-technical staff may not fully understand the significance. Find a way.

Have an "incubator" for new products/services and new technology, even if it is small. It excites the technical curiosity and drives greater interest and visions for the future.

Balance the team in order to be productive. Too many or too few Einstein's for the job may not produce the needed outcome.

Operate within a climate of trust, partnership, and development on a daily basis.

Say "hello" and ask what's going on.

Most of all, say "thank you" often. People like to feel appreciated. We live in a world where almost everything depreciates over time. For instance, the minute you drive that spanking brand new car off the lot, its value has already decreased. People, however, are one of the few assets that should increase in value over time.