A good leader is a chameleon
My boss called and talked to me yesterday about several matters, but one topic we got on was leadership. He explained to me that good leadership is becoming a chameleon among your staff. I don't mean to hide from your staff or be difficult to find, but what he was describing was learning what makes your staff tick and enhancing those things for optimal results.
HOW TO: Prioritize your work queue
Recent changes at work brought several new responsibilities and projects directly to my work queue. I struggled for about a week with the new influx of work as I had to determine priorities and where projects were in their progress. Here are some things I did to figure things out and prioritize my rapidly growing work queue:
Seth Godin: Modern Procrastination is right on
Seth Godin speaks to the staff and I at Fusework Studios in a lot of ways. He has made great points in marketing and how to design Web sites to maximize conversion. In my position as a programmer he hasn't spoken a great deal to me personally, but a friend of mine had posted a link to this article about modern procrastination that absolutely caught my attention.
I feel this article is right on about any modern workplace. It is so easy to feel overwhelmed and that you're always busy. Once you finish a project you're immediately on to the next task. Then add the distractions of social networking, and then you're doing all you can to keep your head above water.
What kind of business are you looking for?
I sat down and thought about where I work. I work at Fusework Studios. I thought about the hard things that most people don't think about. The question I asked myself was "What kind of business would I want Fusework Studios to be?"
So I prepared a list of things that I look for in a business that I work for or that I'd run. I think this exercise really helps to find out if you're the fit for a company or the company fits you. Here are some things that come to mind for myself:
Discipline is my theme in 2010
Almost everyone looks at a new year and thinks of resolutions they'd like to see themselves accomplish during the upcoming year. Most of those people will see their resolutions sink into the sunset and think, "There's always next year." Sadly the last few years I have felt like one of those people. I'd like to say I have done the things I have preached about day in and day out as well as made life better for myself and my family, but unfortunately I feel I have become another statistic of failed resolutions.
When to include blogging on your resume
On my resume I chose to include blogging and my blog site because most of my writing is related to the field in which I work. I also listed my various social media locations in hopes that it shows that I am active in the social media community. As a Web developer and software engineer I felt it was important to show that I am on the leading edge of new media since that is the industry in which I like to work for.
I have been asked the question "When do I include blogging on my resume?" The answer is subjective. I think you have to be careful because these days employers are looking at your online presence before they interview you. They want to get to know you before they "get to know you." The internet is transparent. Social media is transparent. They say people are judged mostly on what they do when they think no one is looking.
When to include blogging on your resume:
- Your blog is industry specific to your career path.
- You keep the blog up-to-date. An up-to-date blog shows you are dedicated and determined. An old rusty blog may not show these things.
- You don't have a lot of grammar mistakes and offensive language. This shows your ability to write coherently without using a lot of street jargon and language not appropriate for the office.
What is your opinion on including your blog? Do you do it? Do you have apprehensions and why?
What is your brand?
Every complete business has a brand. In most cases the brand is what lifts a company to a whole new level. Let me give you an example:
McDonald's makes good burgers, but I wouldn't say their burgers are great. A little family-owned restaurant down the street may make burgers that make your taste buds think they tasted heaven, but McDonald's comes to mind before that restaurant. Why? It's not because of the burger. It's because of the brand.
McDonald's has built it's name on fast-food and good service, and the company is almost more of a real estate company considering the millions spent in research each year to find the best locations for their business. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the United States who does not know what McDonald's is.
So now the question is what is your brand? How do people perceive you? What have you done to shape your brand so that when someone is searching for or considering hiring you they are met with a positive image on who you are not what you say you are?
This is really hard. I struggle with it day to day. I am human like everyone else and make mistakes but every single day I work to strengthen my brand as a web and software engineer with a solid foundation in business and social media. I am trying to bridge that gap between engineers and business thinkers.
What is your brand? How are you perceived? What comes to mind when someone asks "tell me about 'insert your name here?'" Let me know and let the world know. Let's hold each other accountable.
Brushing the dust off on .NET development
I will be the first to admit that over the past four years since graduating from Ball State University my path in programming has steered me away from .NET. This wasn't necessarily a personal choice. My first position developed their proprietary CMS in ASP Classic VBScript which I took the time to learn how the code worked and ended up becoming quite proficient in it over the past several years. When I started my position at Fusework Studios I continued to write in ASP Classic because that's what I had become accustomed to, and at the time it seemed simpler to stay in that realm.
For some time that's where I became comfortable. It was definitely within my comfort zone. Over the past several years I have had only a handful of projects that would venture into the realms of PHP and .NET development. Each time that I dared to enter this unfamiliar or old territory doubt crept into my mind, but thankfully I have been able to be accomplished enough that I was able to develop and succeed on each project.
Recently on a project I have had to update my personal and work computers with the latest Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 package. I disassembled a compiled DLL file that I was not familiar with only to find that the modifications needed done to the site needed so much more than this DLL was structured to do. I had two choices:
- Modify the DLL extensively to get the end result.
- Take what I needed from the code in the DLL and write a new application to accomplish the client's goals for the site.
I opted for number 2, and it was invigorating to be able to brush the dust off a long-lost development approach after working with ASP Classic for so long. Mike Lacey, the other Web developer at Fusework Studios, is a big supporter of .NET development and kept telling me "welcome home." It felt good to take on a new challenge. To do something different. To create something new. After going through the motions for some time in ASP Classic it felt great to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. I think inherently that's all a programmer or engineer really wants to do at heart. We want to create. We want to create something new. Even now my mind is reeling over what I can try next. The great thing is...I can't wait.
Do you read the “User Manual?”
On any given day I'm sure that many of you in a service or product-based industry have run into daily questions and concerns about something you provide that could be solved only with a few moments reading the help documentation you sent. I'm a victim of this and sometimes the villain as well when I'm trying to work with something I am unfamiliar with and want answers right away.
In this day in age I find it surprising how many people never even look at the help or user manuals that product providers send with their goods. It's almost staggering. Any time I am diving into a new development tool or CMS platform I try to read as much information as possible to get better acquainted before I start pushing buttons and trying things. On a personal level I always look at the user manual when I buy a new video game. I like to have an idea what I'm getting myself into before I am blown away by some polygonal-based villain.
So my question is how often do you refer to the manual? Do you look at it before you start using the product or service? Do you use it only when something is not working right? Do you only look at it to give someone a call or shoot them an email detailing your struggles?
The other side of the question is how often after you discuss with someone at the company that provided the manual have you found the answer was in the manual itself? I am very curious about this. It's really not meant to be a rant even though I guess it came out this way. Are any self-starters out there?
HOW TO: Scale the proverbial “brick wall”
My wife will be the first to tell you at times I take on too much. I am one of those people that can easily fall into the trap of being too busy. My mind goes a million miles per hour, and sometimes I conveniently forget where the brake is and go full speed into an organizational nightmare wall. Luckily I'm usually perceptive enough to know when I've actually hit that wall.
For me a lack of organization causes anxiety in my personal life and career. I like to have focus. I like to be able to look at an objective and almost "see" the path I need to take to reach that goal. Sometimes chasing too many objectives causes the paths to cross or even worse become lost in all of the hustle.
So what do you do when you have hit the brick wall? What do you do when you realize that you've taken on too much? Here's what I've done in the past:
- Slow down! Take things one day at a time.
- Slim down! Organize your goals into smaller groups or specific time lines. Don't try to do too much at any given time.
- Focus! In your career or even family life it's too easy to try to multitask to make sure that everything gets done. Sometimes it's okay if today something does not get done while the other things you do are actually getting accomplished. It's better to have one or two goals met than six unfinished goals.
I'm at a point in my life where I need to step back, re-evaluate and lay the groundwork to topple that "brick wall". I need to focus on one career goal and one family goal for the time being. Once I accomplish those I am going to move on. In my day-to-day proceedings I will be doing the same but on a much smaller scale.
How do you know when you've hit your wall? What do you do to scale it or topple it over?
Have my blog sent to you
Social Media Tools
Categories
- Blogging (13)
- Business (15)
- Career (22)
- Family and Life (44)
- Internet Browsers (1)
- Internet Marketing (16)
- Leadership (3)
- New Media (1)
- Parenthood (2)
- Politics (3)
- Search Engine Optimization (1)
- Social Media (23)
- Social Networking (20)
- Teamwork (1)
- Web Based Strategy (5)
- Web Development (6)
Archives
- March 2010 (4)
- February 2010 (8)
- January 2010 (6)
- December 2009 (4)
- November 2009 (4)
- October 2009 (7)
- September 2009 (26)
- August 2009 (14)
- July 2009 (3)
- June 2009 (3)
- May 2009 (5)
- April 2009 (7)
- March 2009 (7)
- February 2009 (4)
- January 2009 (4)