November 26, 2011 at 4:19 am
People who are easy to work with find me easy to work with. In fact most people find me easy to work with. On occassions I can be very difficult, because on occassions it's neccessary (I don't put up with anyone trying to coerce or intimidate my people - I'm the only one allowed to do that; and I don't permit accountants or salesmen to dictate technology choices - that's for me and my team to do, subject to budget constraints; but I don't mind accountants or salesmen suggesting design solutions or technologies, sometimes they have really brilliant ideas that wouldn't have occurred to anyone on the technical team). It's essential for technical people to gain some understanding of the business and get on well and communicate with business managers - and I've very rarely found that business managers don't want to get on well and communicate with technical people.
Being very lazy, I like doing things right - it's less effort in the long run; part of doing things right is making sure that what the technical team is doing is what the busines actually needs, rather than some geek's concept of the perfect system; another part of doing things right is allowing team members to have views about things, respecting those views, and letting them do things their way not mine unless I have an extremely good reason not to; yet another is getting the team to communicate freely and happily both amongst themselves and with the business people. Of course I can't always do it all right, but I can at least try.
Tom
November 28, 2011 at 8:48 am
Seems to me that many have missed the point of "easy to work with" and assume it means someone who rolls over and eschews taking on problems up front. I didn't get that from Andy's article. I think he was referring to attitude and personal interaction - i.e. the curmudgeon! I rarely see the benefit of having a curmudgeon on the team, regardless of their talent. One can be emphatic or a perfectionist, and convey their point of view without being brash, arrogant and/or self-righteous - i.e. difficult to get along with.
I have no problem working on a team with people with different points of view or those with a passion for doing things right the first time. I have an issue (as either a manager or a team member) working with someone who, because of their attitude, becomes unapproachable or simply one you want to avoid because of their combative and oft arrogant responses.
Another type of difficult person that I think is detrimental to the workforce, regardless of their talent or skills, is the one who has to do everything on their time. The one who ignores deadlines, meetings or hates joint development because they view themselves as being superior to others and have the attitude that "I'm so good and important, that I can't be let go, so I'll make everyone bend to my schedule and view of what is important and what is not". As soon as someone becomes bigger than the company or team, it's time for an attitude adjustment (which rarely works), or time for them to go regardless of their ability.
-- RTW
Be curious!
November 28, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Lack of an arrogant, condescending, self serving attitude goes along way to being "easy to work with". Technical skills are crucial, but so can developing the "softer skills" as well, depending on the situation at hand. Afterall, when it comes right down to it in this industry, you are dealing with people, bottom line. No one really cares how much you know if you are a complete 14 carat gold bunghole to deal with. It eclispses everything, and I have seen many decent DBA's ultimately lose their job because they were flat out jerks to deal with.. There are ways to be firm, yet diplomatic at the same time as well. It is a crucial learned skill set too, too bad they don't teach that to MIS and CS majors in college. Office politics 101, you might say. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
November 28, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Best rule I know for moderating that kind of behavior is to remember that it's perfectly okay to think you're the most important person in the world, just so long as you understand that everyone else is too.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
December 20, 2011 at 12:11 pm
oh, no, you don't want a person that
"Yes, boss, I will do what you told me to do!"
Can you manage that?
Jason
http://dbace.us
😛
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