00:00:00
let's say you have three tasks or four
00:00:02
tasks in a row over a twoe period and
00:00:04
every one of those tasks that you go to
00:00:06
do you run into a real unforeseen
00:00:09
problem that nobody could have predicted
00:00:11
you couldn't have predicted it
00:00:12
management could have predicted it so
00:00:14
it's not really anybody's
00:00:16
fault they don't really care as soon as
00:00:19
you bring that problem to them and you
00:00:20
say hey I I surfaced this unforeseen
00:00:23
complexity they're just hearing this
00:00:25
person doesn't know what they're doing
00:00:29
[Music]
00:00:37
if you get paid to be a software
00:00:39
engineer you might think the main reason
00:00:41
companies hire you is to write code and
00:00:44
that makes a lot of sense it'd be a real
00:00:47
problem if you can't write code at all
00:00:49
but that's not really what companies
00:00:51
want you for so in this episode I'd like
00:00:54
to share with you some of the harsh
00:00:56
realities that I've learned about why if
00:00:59
you go about your career in that you
00:01:01
basically act as though as long as you
00:01:03
do a good job you're going to get
00:01:05
recognized you're going to get rewarded
00:01:07
you might get really let down and really
00:01:09
frustrated and so I'd like to share some
00:01:12
tips with you today that if you follow
00:01:13
some of these techniques I'm going to
00:01:15
give you will really help you move ahead
00:01:17
of a lot of other developers so what do
00:01:20
companies really want from programmers
00:01:23
what they most want is
00:01:26
confidence have you ever seen another
00:01:29
developer who you know is clearly not as
00:01:32
skilled at writing code or some aspect
00:01:35
of Technology as you but you see them
00:01:38
get promoted you see them get rewarded
00:01:41
and you're really frustrated about it
00:01:43
you convince yourself somehow that the
00:01:45
management is wrong in promoting this
00:01:47
person or that they have some sort of
00:01:50
agenda and that's the reason you were
00:01:51
passed up well I had to learn the hard
00:01:54
way many times in my career that that is
00:01:57
not what companies are actually looking
00:01:59
for is that you just write good code you
00:02:00
got to get your work done but it's
00:02:02
really the confidence that you portray
00:02:05
in your own work and your ability to
00:02:07
help get the project done that's the
00:02:09
reason they're paying you and they'll
00:02:10
continue to pay you so today I'd like to
00:02:13
share several tips with you on how you
00:02:16
can actually increase the confidence
00:02:18
that your company has in you as a
00:02:21
programmer the first one of these is you
00:02:24
really got to minimize communicating
00:02:27
problems and doubt about the project now
00:02:31
this is pretty counterintuitive as
00:02:34
developers we're often hired to solve
00:02:37
problems or again that's what it looks
00:02:39
like we're hired to do and it's only
00:02:41
natural that when you join a software
00:02:43
project or like you know I was a consult
00:02:46
in the second half of my career if I
00:02:47
went on to a new client project within a
00:02:50
very short period of time I would start
00:02:52
to notice red flags and problems or
00:02:55
let's say you get into a code base and
00:02:57
you realize some serious problems with
00:02:59
the software architecture I would think
00:03:02
earlier in my career that I should
00:03:04
document all those that I should share
00:03:07
everything I find and that somehow then
00:03:09
management and other developers are
00:03:11
going to look at me as more valuable
00:03:13
because I'm finding the problems but and
00:03:16
this is such a hard lesson I had to
00:03:18
learn it's just about human nature it's
00:03:20
about just the reality of how people are
00:03:23
if you share too many problems that you
00:03:26
see with the software project with
00:03:28
someone's code with let's say process or
00:03:31
requirements or architecture at one time
00:03:34
it overwhelms people and it makes them
00:03:36
look at you sort of as Debbie Downer
00:03:38
you're you know just a negative person
00:03:40
that's constantly complaining about
00:03:43
problems so hear me here this is subtle
00:03:47
I'm not telling you to avoid problems
00:03:50
that you see and pretend they don't
00:03:51
exist it's actually really important
00:03:53
that you are aware of problems I mean I
00:03:55
think one of the reasons why we tend to
00:03:58
overcommunication
00:03:59
problems is because we're worried if we
00:04:01
don't let management or let's say other
00:04:04
developers or product management or
00:04:05
whoever know that we found some problem
00:04:08
well once stuff hits the fan and it and
00:04:12
you know the problem turns into a real
00:04:15
problem we're worried that we're going
00:04:16
to get blamed and that's a natural thing
00:04:19
to worry about you should still be aware
00:04:22
of the problems that you encounter but
00:04:24
one of the biggest mistakes I made
00:04:26
earlier in my career was just thinking
00:04:28
that people were going to really value
00:04:29
you how much I rais doubt and if you
00:04:31
think about like as a project manager if
00:04:33
you cast doubt on the way the Project's
00:04:35
being managed requirements are being
00:04:38
managed testing is being done you're
00:04:40
kind of calling their baby ugly so to
00:04:42
speak you're kind of sending a message
00:04:45
to the management or the project
00:04:46
management you're not doing a good job
00:04:49
and that could be totally true that you
00:04:52
could be completely right but you have
00:04:55
to be patient and careful with how you
00:04:58
actually communicate that so I would
00:05:00
really just suggest if you see a lot of
00:05:02
problems on your project write them down
00:05:04
take note of them and maybe pick one at
00:05:07
a time maybe two and communicate those
00:05:10
to whoever needs to know about it and
00:05:13
just wait until that one issue is dealt
00:05:16
with then raise some awareness of the
00:05:18
next one that's really going to fight
00:05:20
against people unfortunately having low
00:05:23
confidence in you because they're kind
00:05:24
of going to look at you like how come
00:05:26
everybody else on this project isn't
00:05:29
raising these problems and isn't saying
00:05:31
they have all this doubt in the project
00:05:33
but you are and again you would think
00:05:36
that people would see value in that but
00:05:38
I just had to learn the hard way they
00:05:41
don't the second thing you can do to
00:05:43
really increase management and the
00:05:45
company's confidence in you is to repeat
00:05:49
the desires of management in the same
00:05:52
language that they use I learned this
00:05:55
technique as a consultant but let's say
00:05:57
you're on a project and in the scrum
00:06:00
meetings you're always hearing people
00:06:02
talk about making sure they satisfy the
00:06:05
customer well we got to satisfy the
00:06:06
customer well is that satisfying the
00:06:08
customer and you hear that phrase over
00:06:11
and over again in scrum meetings or
00:06:13
status meetings or requirements meetings
00:06:15
if you start to use that same
00:06:18
terminology just say oh yeah I'm I'm
00:06:20
implementing this feature you know to
00:06:22
satisfy the customer or well I'm a
00:06:24
little concerned about this one aspect I
00:06:26
don't think we fully understand it let's
00:06:28
have a meeting to discuss it so that we
00:06:29
make sure we satisfy the customer you're
00:06:32
going to build rapport with whoever
00:06:34
you're reporting to whoever needs to
00:06:36
build confidence in you because let's be
00:06:39
honest we're all a little bit
00:06:40
narcissistic even if we don't have you
00:06:42
know full-blown NPD or narcissistic
00:06:44
personality disorder we all like to hear
00:06:47
what we say repeated we all like to see
00:06:50
other people agree with us and so if you
00:06:52
kind of drop phrases that you're hearing
00:06:54
your management use about the things
00:06:56
they care about and about the things
00:06:58
they're measured by and what's top of
00:07:00
mind for them they're going to kind of
00:07:02
subconsciously see you as aligned with
00:07:05
what they're looking to do and if at the
00:07:07
end of the day what's going to keep you
00:07:09
employed and what's going to get you
00:07:11
promoted and rewarded and recognized is
00:07:13
that everybody has confidence in you
00:07:16
that's an easy thing you can do that'll
00:07:18
really help
00:07:38
[Music]
00:07:45
the third thing you can do that'll
00:07:47
really increase management and other
00:07:49
people's confidence in you and that's
00:07:51
really ultimately believe it or not what
00:07:53
they're paying for is to anonymize blame
00:07:56
that you place on dependencies WOW what
00:07:59
does that mean well let's say you're on
00:08:01
a project and you have some task you got
00:08:03
to complete and it's dependent on
00:08:06
another developer getting their work
00:08:08
done or you know you need to deploy
00:08:10
something into a production environment
00:08:12
and for whatever reason your company
00:08:14
isn't fully doing devops and you're not
00:08:16
empowered as a developer to do so and so
00:08:18
you have to go through an operations
00:08:20
team or some sort of checks and balances
00:08:23
and they don't get their thing done in
00:08:25
time they aren't ready you know the the
00:08:27
easy knee-jerk reaction thing that have
00:08:29
done and many of us do is let's say
00:08:31
we're in a status meeting we're in slack
00:08:33
whatever we just want to kick the tires
00:08:36
and to the other person we just want to
00:08:37
you know kick a can rather and just say
00:08:40
oh well that was you know Jerry's fault
00:08:42
or oh well that's the Ops team's you
00:08:44
know
00:08:45
responsibility and what I learned as a
00:08:48
consultant that's a way better way to do
00:08:49
this is to basically frame the thing
00:08:52
that wasn't done just stating that it
00:08:54
wasn't done and what aspect of software
00:08:57
development or what department was
00:08:58
responsible and let management and other
00:09:01
people come to their own conclusion of
00:09:04
whose fault it is so again in that case
00:09:06
where the production environment wasn't
00:09:07
set up let's say they're asking you hey
00:09:10
Jamie you know I I I I expected that
00:09:13
feature to be done you know and and it
00:09:15
wasn't done or like we're behind on this
00:09:17
rather than just saying well the Ops
00:09:19
Team didn't get things ready for me in
00:09:21
time you could just say yeah well there
00:09:22
seems to be some issues with the
00:09:25
operations environment not being in the
00:09:27
state that it needs to be where I can
00:09:28
actually deoy it yet and then they're
00:09:31
going to ask you well why why are there
00:09:32
issues with the with the production
00:09:34
environment well I'm not really
00:09:35
responsible for the production
00:09:37
environment so I can't really say it's
00:09:39
just not in the state that I can do you
00:09:40
know do it yet they're going to go well
00:09:43
they're going as soon as you say that
00:09:44
they're going to think in the back of
00:09:45
their mind well wait a minute Jim's not
00:09:47
actually responsible for operations who
00:09:49
is oh Bob or Jerry or Mary or you know
00:09:52
whoever the other person is and they're
00:09:54
going to get off your case and go talk
00:09:55
to that person but the the reason why I
00:09:58
recommend that you do this is again if
00:10:00
you want to build confidence one of the
00:10:02
things that I think can cause you to
00:10:04
lose confidence with your management and
00:10:06
other people is if they're worried that
00:10:08
you're constantly blame shifting meaning
00:10:11
you're Shifting the blame for things
00:10:13
that you're responsible for on other
00:10:15
people now here's the thing a lot of
00:10:17
times other people are to blame you know
00:10:20
I'm talking about real situations where
00:10:22
you're dependent on another team to
00:10:24
deliver something they don't and
00:10:25
therefore you can't complete your task
00:10:28
but if you want to fight against that
00:10:31
part of all of us who if we hear you
00:10:33
know Reasons from other people that are
00:10:35
valid over and over again we start to
00:10:37
think they're excuses even though
00:10:40
they're not it's just natural we start
00:10:42
to think man every time I ask this
00:10:44
person something they've got an excuse
00:10:46
even though it could be perfectly valid
00:10:48
anonymizing who the dependency is
00:10:51
letting them come to their own
00:10:53
conclusions will really keep their
00:10:55
confidence in you the fourth thing you
00:10:57
can do that's pretty straight forward to
00:11:00
really increase the confidence that
00:11:02
management and other people have in you
00:11:04
is you got to reduce your
00:11:07
throughput produce less deliver less
00:11:12
commit to less why the hell would I be
00:11:15
telling you to do this I'm not telling
00:11:17
you to slack off I'm not telling you to
00:11:19
not care about the project I'm not
00:11:20
telling you to be you know doing less
00:11:22
work than you think you should be paid
00:11:23
for please you know I hope you know from
00:11:26
watching all the other episodes of this
00:11:27
show that I'm actually calling you be
00:11:29
even more ethical than a lot of people I
00:11:31
think that we run into but if you know
00:11:34
software development you know how
00:11:36
uncertain it is how many unplanned
00:11:37
meetings come up how stuff gets thrown
00:11:39
on your plate that you didn't expect how
00:11:41
you're going to run into problems that
00:11:42
you couldn't foresee you got to delay
00:11:44
your commitments I've talked about this
00:11:46
in many other episodes of the show you
00:11:47
got to minimize the things that you're
00:11:49
on the hook for and give yourself as
00:11:51
much flexibility as possible if you want
00:11:54
people to keep confidence in you because
00:11:57
let's say you have three Tas tasks or
00:11:59
four tasks in a row over a twoe period
00:12:02
and every one of those tasks that you go
00:12:04
to do you run into a real unforeseen
00:12:07
problem that nobody could have predicted
00:12:09
you couldn't have predicted it
00:12:10
management could have predicted it so
00:12:12
it's not really anybody's
00:12:13
fault they don't really care as soon as
00:12:17
you bring that problem to them and you
00:12:18
say hey I I surfac this unforeseen
00:12:20
complexity they're just hearing this
00:12:23
person doesn't know what they're doing
00:12:24
and I wish I I really wish I could tell
00:12:27
you that if you found the right company
00:12:29
and you and you you know just left where
00:12:31
you are or you searched high and wide
00:12:33
you're going to find a culture in a
00:12:34
company where that never happens and you
00:12:36
might be in a pocket of somewhere where
00:12:39
you're at a company where that isn't
00:12:40
happening but this is a real systemic
00:12:43
problem in the software industry that
00:12:45
unfortunately today we are often managed
00:12:47
by or at least you know we have to
00:12:49
basically deliver things to people who
00:12:51
are not as technical as as us or they're
00:12:53
just not in the same code that we are
00:12:56
and so if you want to keep the
00:12:57
confidence of whoever you're working for
00:12:59
so you get rewarded you get promoted you
00:13:01
know you don't lose your job because
00:13:03
people don't think you're doing a good
00:13:04
job the one of the biggest things you
00:13:06
got to do is just delay commitments
00:13:09
commit to less and reduce your
00:13:11
throughput and hey if you're hearing all
00:13:13
these things I'm talking about today and
00:13:15
you're going what the hell Jamie you're
00:13:17
just making me mad you know you're just
00:13:19
making my blood curdle I'm just getting
00:13:20
more frustrated that I have to be a
00:13:22
developer that is not you know the
00:13:24
reason I share stuff like this with you
00:13:26
that's not the reason I make these
00:13:27
episodes but you know some sometimes I
00:13:29
find people they're just sick of this uh
00:13:32
they don't want to deal with this they
00:13:34
want to pretend that this isn't the real
00:13:36
job they want to convince themselves
00:13:38
well I don't want to believe that being
00:13:40
a good programmer I got to worry about
00:13:42
what other people think I just want to
00:13:43
do a good job and get rewarded so I'm
00:13:44
going to just you know la la la ignore
00:13:46
what you're saying Jamie well if if
00:13:48
you're in that situation there's a good
00:13:50
chance maybe you shouldn't be a
00:13:52
programmer or maybe you should shift
00:13:54
Your Role a little bit you know maybe
00:13:56
you should get into leadership you know
00:13:58
if you are in a leadership position
00:14:00
you're actually responsible for changing
00:14:03
the company and and doing certain things
00:14:05
that you're not responsible for as an
00:14:07
individual contributor maybe that's a
00:14:09
better fit for you and I've got a free
00:14:12
Wiki called techr pedia you maybe heard
00:14:15
me mention this before on the channel
00:14:17
but it's got information that I've
00:14:19
collected about the top 25 job roles in
00:14:22
Tech that is meant to really help you
00:14:25
look at what are all the other Tech job
00:14:28
roles would maybe be a better fit for
00:14:30
one or is it time for me to get into
00:14:34
management or leadership or become a
00:14:36
consultant or become an entrepreneur so
00:14:38
you know I'm going to I'm going to
00:14:38
finish the points here in a second but I
00:14:40
just want to mention if any of this
00:14:41
frustrates you if any of this you listen
00:14:44
to and you're just you're pissed off you
00:14:46
don't have to stay stuck doing what
00:14:48
you're doing there may be something out
00:14:50
there that's a better fit for you the
00:14:52
fifth thing you can do that'll really
00:14:54
increase the confidence in you from
00:14:57
management and everybody else is to
00:14:59
elevate and recognize and praise your
00:15:03
co-workers I see so few individual
00:15:07
contributors do this people who are
00:15:10
really strong let's say senior engineers
00:15:13
and they wonder how come I never move
00:15:15
ahead well here's the thing you got to
00:15:18
think about when people get promoted or
00:15:21
people move into management they're
00:15:24
thinking do I want to promote somebody
00:15:27
who is never going to recognize my
00:15:30
accomplishments do I want to give
00:15:32
somebody more visibility in the company
00:15:35
who's going to only be out for
00:15:36
themselves and isn't going to care about
00:15:38
all the hard work I do and if they see
00:15:42
that in you that you always just talk
00:15:43
about what you got done and what you
00:15:45
completed and how much hard work you're
00:15:47
doing subconsciously again the the
00:15:49
management the project manager the scrum
00:15:51
Master the VP whoever's possibly
00:15:53
responsible for helping move you ahead
00:15:55
in your career they're thinking in the
00:15:58
back of their mind they not even realize
00:15:59
it that they're threatened a little bit
00:16:01
by you they're like I don't want to
00:16:03
promote someone who I have to worry
00:16:05
about competing against so if you really
00:16:08
want to build confidence in your
00:16:10
employer you want to get recognized you
00:16:12
want to get rewarded you want management
00:16:14
to be behind you you have to publicly in
00:16:18
meetings in slack whenever you can talk
00:16:22
about the good work other people are
00:16:23
doing congratulate your teammates for
00:16:25
hard things they did point out when you
00:16:28
were stuck and another person who's
00:16:31
Junior to you helped you fix an issue
00:16:34
you know I think when we get into this
00:16:36
place where we're so worried about image
00:16:38
management and looking like we know
00:16:40
everything you know we we basically send
00:16:43
signals to everybody else that we don't
00:16:45
know what we're doing because I think
00:16:46
most people can see through the BS of
00:16:48
someone who tries to act like they're
00:16:50
Flawless and doesn't have any problems
00:16:57
[Music]
00:17:05
the sixth thing you can do that'll
00:17:07
really increase confidence in you if you
00:17:09
want to be seen as a really valuable
00:17:12
member of your team and your a software
00:17:13
developer is to overc communicate status
00:17:18
now I know one of the number one things
00:17:20
that Engineers hate in this industry is
00:17:23
daily standup meetings or daily scrums
00:17:25
or you know whatever you want to call
00:17:26
them and some people on kbon teams do
00:17:29
them too but you know the idea of
00:17:31
getting into a room where everybody has
00:17:33
to say what they're working on what
00:17:35
they're going to work on next time
00:17:37
remember the whole purpose of the daily
00:17:38
scrum I talked about this in a video
00:17:40
like three years ago was really just to
00:17:42
get developers together so they made
00:17:44
sure they talked if they weren't in the
00:17:46
same physical area and and they were
00:17:48
able to just raise issues it has turned
00:17:51
instead into a glorified status meeting
00:17:53
it's just a way to let project
00:17:55
management know you're working and
00:17:57
you're getting stuff done that was not
00:17:59
the purpose of it but if you want to
00:18:01
build confidence in people you have to
00:18:04
give them the feeling that you are
00:18:05
making progress and I think one of the
00:18:08
things that's happened because of daily
00:18:10
stand-ups and daily scrum meetings is
00:18:12
management often looks at developers as
00:18:15
though the only time the developers are
00:18:17
willing to really be held accountable or
00:18:20
talk about what they're doing is in the
00:18:22
daily standup meeting and you know if
00:18:24
you've if you've been in in a team that
00:18:26
does this the daily standup meetings the
00:18:27
daily scrums you know it can be really
00:18:30
tough every day to try to think of oh
00:18:32
gosh how do I communicate what I did
00:18:34
this week but one of the things I think
00:18:36
a lot of people don't realize is if you
00:18:38
really want to get recognized if you
00:18:40
really want to get rewarded if you want
00:18:41
to move ahead one of the best things you
00:18:43
can do is send out let's say a status
00:18:46
report just a simple Google doc every
00:18:48
Friday let's say or every you know
00:18:50
Wednesday whenever it makes sense for
00:18:51
you where you just give whoever you're
00:18:54
personally responsible to some sort of
00:18:56
highlights of the issue Maybe
00:18:59
again not too many problems I talked
00:19:00
about that in point one but maybe one of
00:19:02
the biggest issues that's on the project
00:19:04
if it's still an issue or you know talk
00:19:06
about major accomplishments that you've
00:19:08
completed when they haven't even asked
00:19:10
for it now again I wouldn't say you have
00:19:12
to do this with every person that you
00:19:15
report to but if you have a a difficult
00:19:18
relationship with a manager or a project
00:19:20
manager or a scrum Master somebody like
00:19:22
that and you can tell this person
00:19:24
doesn't have a lot of faith in the team
00:19:26
or maybe you if you volunteer just send
00:19:30
them an email and say hey I thought it
00:19:31
would really help you I know we've got
00:19:33
jira or I know we've got you know
00:19:35
whatever tool we're using aana you know
00:19:37
for managing tasks and all that I
00:19:39
thought it would really help you if I
00:19:40
just kind of elevated some of the the
00:19:42
major issues that I feel like we got to
00:19:45
stay on top of week to week so this week
00:19:47
I'm just sending you a quick dock here's
00:19:49
some of the things that might really
00:19:50
help you keep the project on track if
00:19:52
you know where they're at and just
00:19:55
choose a few things that that are on
00:19:56
your mind that you think it's really
00:19:58
important the management that that's on
00:20:01
their mind I think they're going to see
00:20:02
you as a team player they're going to
00:20:04
see you as being concerned about the
00:20:06
success of the project and it's really
00:20:08
going to build their confidence in you
00:20:11
the seventh thing you can do to really
00:20:13
improve the confidence that management
00:20:16
and other developers and people have in
00:20:17
you is you got to highlight when you
00:20:20
found shortcuts to getting stuff done
00:20:23
it's really common when I'm on a project
00:20:25
I'll get assigned a task or start
00:20:26
working on something and I'll think
00:20:28
something was going to take me a lot
00:20:29
longer than I thought and I'll find some
00:20:32
really awesome workaround or I'll find a
00:20:35
third- party package that does it and
00:20:37
and saves me a ton of time and what I
00:20:39
used to do earlier in my career was in
00:20:41
paranoia and fear that I wasn't going to
00:20:43
get everything else done I would just do
00:20:45
it and not say anything about it and
00:20:48
actually that's one of the best
00:20:50
opportunities for you to make it really
00:20:52
visible that you've basically saved your
00:20:55
company or your project a bunch of time
00:20:57
now you want to talk talk about this in
00:20:59
a way where it doesn't sound like you're
00:21:00
just completely tooting your own horn
00:21:02
where you're you know raising awareness
00:21:04
because you're just trying to get a
00:21:05
bunch of recognition or accolades but
00:21:07
like for example if you were if you had
00:21:10
some issue with a memory leak and you
00:21:12
know you would estimated it was going to
00:21:14
take you a week to figure out what the
00:21:17
real cause is and you find some article
00:21:20
that gives you a tool that you can use
00:21:22
and you're able to find that problem in
00:21:24
like a day or a day and a half rather
00:21:26
than just in your next daily standup
00:21:27
meeting or when ever you're talking to
00:21:29
management or in slack just saying yeah
00:21:30
I'm past the you know memory leak issue
00:21:34
you can say yeah I I found a workaround
00:21:38
that actually saved us us is the key
00:21:41
word you want to say us not just saved
00:21:43
me you saved the team you saved the
00:21:45
company you know it saved us four days
00:21:48
that I thought we were going to have to
00:21:50
spend on this and just leave it at that
00:21:52
you know but if you raise awareness of
00:21:54
times that you found ways to make
00:21:56
progress faster remember a lot of
00:21:59
management and Engineering leadership
00:22:02
they do the best they can but they're
00:22:04
under a lot of pressure they're under
00:22:05
they're feeling a lot of anxiety they're
00:22:07
feeling that they need to rush rush rush
00:22:09
and get stuff to Market as fast as
00:22:11
possible so you can kind of tap into
00:22:13
that and build more confidence in
00:22:15
yourself if you let people know when you
00:22:17
found ways to get stuff done quicker and
00:22:20
the final way that you can really
00:22:22
increase the confidence that management
00:22:25
and other developers and people have in
00:22:27
you on your project Pro is if you
00:22:29
document verbal decisions now what I
00:22:33
mean by this is and I learn this in
00:22:35
Consulting let's say you find a real big
00:22:38
problem on the project or you have a
00:22:40
real strong opinion of a direction that
00:22:42
the company should go and you've not
00:22:44
been you know doing what I recommended
00:22:46
against in step one or or tip one of the
00:22:49
video today which is you're not just you
00:22:51
know spamming people with problems every
00:22:53
day you might have let's say a meeting
00:22:56
with you know an architect and the
00:22:57
product owner or something like that and
00:22:59
you bring up this problem and it's
00:23:01
clearly a problem and you know that it
00:23:02
needs to be solved but you just can't
00:23:05
get support for it you know I did an
00:23:06
episode earlier on the show about a year
00:23:08
ago about persuasion let's say you've
00:23:10
tried some of those things and you just
00:23:12
still can't quite persuade people to go
00:23:15
with what you feel is the right way to
00:23:16
go a lot of times when that would happen
00:23:19
before I was a consultant I would just
00:23:21
leave the meeting not do the thing and
00:23:23
then 3 months later 6 months later a
00:23:26
problem would happen because they didn't
00:23:29
follow my advice and I would mention
00:23:33
this to them I would bring it up to them
00:23:35
yeah well remember that meeting we had
00:23:37
and often they would just go well I
00:23:38
don't remember a meeting about that well
00:23:40
I I didn't say that or well I didn't
00:23:42
agree that we should not do that no we
00:23:44
have to do that and I would be so
00:23:46
frustrated because I'd be like I laid
00:23:49
out the whole case for this I explained
00:23:50
it to you maybe I even created a
00:23:52
freaking presentation to tell you how to
00:23:54
do it and you you still are going to
00:23:56
blame me for it well what you really got
00:23:59
to do is when you get out of those
00:24:01
meetings draft an email and just say hey
00:24:04
let's say it was you know John and Mary
00:24:06
you copy you know you send an email to
00:24:08
John and Mary and you just say FYI you
00:24:10
know conclusions of our meeting today or
00:24:12
something in the subject whatever you
00:24:13
want to call it and just say hey it was
00:24:15
really great to meet today um just
00:24:17
wanted to uh let you know you know I do
00:24:21
understand that we agreed we're not
00:24:23
going to deal with the failed database
00:24:26
backups or you know whatever the thing
00:24:28
is that's the problem that you were
00:24:30
trying to steer them away from and then
00:24:32
don't expect any response they may
00:24:34
respond they may not respond I've had
00:24:36
times when I've sent this and people
00:24:37
went well wait a minute actually maybe
00:24:39
that's not a good idea but most of the
00:24:41
time they won't but the reason I'm
00:24:42
telling you to do this is if you get
00:24:44
yourself into that spot then 3 months
00:24:47
later 6 months later whenever when the
00:24:49
thing that you recommended them not to
00:24:51
do or to do they get in trouble because
00:24:54
of it and the problems you were trying
00:24:56
to help them avoid they run into which
00:24:58
is pretty much
00:24:59
inevitable you can go back to that email
00:25:02
and say well actually we had a meeting
00:25:04
about this and they go well I don't
00:25:05
remember that forward that original
00:25:08
email to both people you know John and
00:25:10
Mary or whoever were present in the
00:25:12
meeting and just say hey uh just wanted
00:25:14
to let you know we did discuss this
00:25:17
earlier I understand how frustrated you
00:25:19
are because we're in this situation I'm
00:25:21
here to help us through it but this is
00:25:24
the original decision that was made you
00:25:26
know I'm I'm happy to help correct this
00:25:28
and get us back on track if we want to
00:25:30
make the right decision and you're
00:25:33
you're reminding them by saying if we
00:25:35
want to make the right decision that it
00:25:36
was not your decision to do that now
00:25:40
they're going to be frustrated a little
00:25:41
bit but it's going to build confidence
00:25:43
in you it's also going to hold them
00:25:45
accountable a little bit and it's going
00:25:46
to prevent them from blaming you for
00:25:49
doing things that aren't really your
00:25:51
fault so are you struggling to get
00:25:53
recognized for your hard work are you
00:25:56
being an amazing developer writing
00:25:58
amazing code implementing all kinds of
00:26:00
stuff and you're struggling because
00:26:02
you're still not getting rewarded and
00:26:04
recognized and getting the confidence
00:26:05
that you're hoping people would put in
00:26:07
you by now are you ready to stop buying
00:26:10
into what all the other influencers and
00:26:12
people tell you that it's just about you
00:26:14
need to be one of the top coders and
00:26:16
start putting at least a little bit of
00:26:18
your energy in your career into
00:26:20
communicating better and doing some of
00:26:22
the things I'm talking about today to
00:26:24
really build confidence in you let me
00:26:27
know about leave me some comments and if
00:26:30
you haven't heard about it already I
00:26:31
actually have a patreon now so if this
00:26:34
Channel's benefited you if you've been
00:26:36
helped in any way and you'd like to help
00:26:38
support ongoing creation of these videos
00:26:40
by me there's two memberships you can
00:26:42
join and one of them even gives you
00:26:44
access to a private Discord server we
00:26:46
have and you can actually talk to a
00:26:48
whole bunch of other people who love the
00:26:50
channel too they're also trying to have
00:26:52
healthy careers and get some help and
00:26:54
support from other people so until next
00:26:56
time thanks
00:26:59
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