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You're an engineering leader, reading the latest anonymous survey results and you come across the feedback: "I don't really know what you do". For your entire
by jdwyah 3y ago
You're an engineering leader, reading the latest anonymous survey results and you come across the feedback: "I don't really know what you do".
For your entire career you've been making things. Every day you stood up and said what you did yesterday and today. It's been so clear what you do for years, but then you end up in a leadership position and it got murkier.
Should you go back to stand-ups? Do an expose? Hire a film crew to record your day to day? There can be a real urge to share these details and validate your existence.
But it's a trap.
Communication is your job now and communicating these details is going to do you a disservice. You need to double check your motivations when you communicate and make sure it's really the most effective way to achieve your larger goals.
- pipo234 3y ago> "I don't really know what you do". Maybe, that translates to "I don't really understand what you do"? And the fact that it surfaces only in an anonymous survey might be a sign that they don't care. :-( [EDIT] Perhaps, a good question to follow up with is: What would you like to learn about what I do. The answer might be nothing, but in any case communication can only work if one is listening and trying to understand the other.
- jdwyah 3y agoTotally. The difference between the statement "i don't know what you do" and the request "I think it's important that you spend time explaining to me what it is you do" is vast. But it's easy to read the first and hear the second.