The Retrospector

This post is a continuation of the Integrity Series, which is a series of posts that stemmed from a few things I think are crucial to anyone wanting to maintain a healthy trustworthy standing with their peers, managers, and subordinates. This particular post follows up on a post on how to Avoid Taking Undeserved Credit.

What I’d like to elaborate on concerns something nobody likes to really think about. What happens when things go horribly wrong? Well, when shit happens…there’s no point in polishing a terd. Someone has to shovel it up and get rid of it while the company has to figure out how to still end up with a jewel. (Or just a pretty rock will do. Some of us will take what we can get when things aren’t as they should be.) Regardless of what went wrong, if you were involved in any way with the problems…the best thing to do is to just suck it up and take what comes. The rest of the post will concentrate mostly on the what-to-do and what-not-to-do action items you should remember if ever caught up with an awry situation.

Take responsibility

Be as informed as possible. If you’re caught in the middle of a bad situation, looking stupid is about the last thing you want to happen. Collect as much information as possible on why things went wrong, the source of the problem didn’t just happen out of thin air. Even if you weren’t expecting something and didn’t account for it, do your homework and find out as much information as you can as fast as you can so that when you’re in the room trying to explain what happens…you at least look and sound intelligent enough to be speaking on the subject.

You most certainly don’t want to get into a meeting to talk about this and not be able to defend facts just because you’re unaware. Even if you aren’t to blame, looking unprepared is just as bad as being guilty because you didn’t help prevent it by being prepared in the first place.

Be honest. If you’ve got your facts straight, what have you got to hide anyway? If the problem was your fault, at least you have a fighting chance at saving yourself by explaining what most likely went wrong and having evidence for it. On the contrary, if you try to lie your way out of it…and get caught…you’re just an idiot and probably deserve whatever comes your way.

Don’t blame anyone else

Don’t mention names. This is probably the most difficult thing to do, but unless directly asked for a name just don’t throw them out there. Marching into your boss’ office and blaming the entire thing on someone else can be just as bad for you as it might seem good depending on the situation.

1. Pointing the finger shows cowardice, irresponsibility, weakness.
2. Burning bridges may gain you a short term way to save face, but sometimes bridges don’t get rebuilt. You may not have the support of your peers in the future.
3. By not blaming others, you show that you are a strong team player willing to take responsibility for your actions and everyone on the team…especially if you weren’t really involved to the point of deserving blame.

Keep it to simple facts. Don’t let any biased opinions creep into the discussion just because you’re angry or flustered. Stick to what’s fact, and let the evidence take care of itself when dissecting a problem.
Have a plan of action ready

Now what? If you messed up, you better be ready to fix it. Being prepared is as good as you can do at this point. If you just shrug the entire thing off, your company may consider you an unnecessary expense. Who wants to hire someone who just messes stuff up and won’t even try to make things right? I sure wouldn’t. If I screw up, you better believe I’m in there pulling double-time until I make it right. Having other people dependent on me to do my part is pressure enough. Forcing teammates to dive in and bail you out all the time just sucks and makes you look incapable.

Regardless of whether you were really to blame or not, be ready to assist in making things right. The only people that are remembered more than screw-ups, are the people that can fix things. If one of your teammates royally goofs up their component and you’re reliant on it being successful, roll those sleeves up and get your hands dirty in solving the problem. You’ll gain so much more respect as a team player and key versitile resource. Just being able to help with brainstorming ideas and fresh perspectives is sometimes enough to push a group effort over the edge to a successful path.

No plan? Find someone who can make one. I don’t care if you’re just some new grunt right out of college, if you can’t make a plan you better find someone who can and be proactive enough to get something going or you could be putting your job on the line as well as your reputation.

Everyone has to learn the hard way, and you’ll probably get some leniency the first few times. Don’t even let it come to that. Being proactive is about the best thing you can do in a situation unless your directed to focus your attention elsewhere while the disaster recovery crew takes over.

Going forward

Obviously being in this scenario isn’t fun. But knowing at least where to start and what direction to head should give a good advantage over the deer-in-headlights-type people in the end. Be informed, hold your head high, and have confidence that you did everything you could…and are going to do everything you can to make things right.

Most important of all, learn from your mistakes AND the mistakes of others. Your experience is gold for your career. If you ignore things that have happened to you and everyone around you, you may as well be a fresh college graduate your entire life. If you plan on moving up in the world, make sure you pay attention to how things happen around you.

What do you do in situations that just don’t go right? How do you react to make sure things can smooth out over time? (Well, besides starting a new job-hunt )

Next posts in this series:

• Avoid Exaggerating
• How to say you don’t know

Tags: integrity, blame, accountability, mistakes, planning

One of my recent articles on Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks has gotten some good attention lately and driven quite a bit of traffic to the site. I’ve had some interesting “opposites” approaches show up in comments regarding the things that do NOT motivate geeks. I’ve also stumbled onto some other pages that hit the some of the same points I have. Some good thought and effort went into these, and I think some of the points made are things I had in mind when coming up with my own geek motivation list.

The links:

• Top 10 Ways to Demotivate Geeks
• How to make IT Staff Less Angry (series)
• What Makes People Unhappy at Work
• Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation

I’m not one to normally post things without something unique to add, but I felt inclined to share a little “link-love” with others that have hit the topic of motivation in a similar manner. I think this also establishes that I’m at least on a somewhat correct track with my own list seeing that many others out there not only agree with me, but have also been posting their own perspectives which aren’t far from my own.
Feel free to add any attitional twists to the geek-motivation topic. I’ll keep my eye out for some more interesting and unique takes on the matter.

I’ve decided to write a little about integrity, and I just didn’t feel like it was something I wanted to do entirely in one single post. As I was wrapping up one topic, I would too quickly stumble into another that was lengthy enough to be it’s on post. So I’ve split my draft into a few pieces that I’ll reveal over the next couple weeks.

Integrity is something I think is very underdeveloped in many corporate cultures. I’ve seen some pretty shady stuff happening behind the scenes and am much more comfortable in the environments where pretty much everyone is an open book without much to hide. What I’ll start out with in this series is the topic of taking undeserved credit.

Avoid taking undeserved credit

Something I learned a long time ago from my uncle, who was an executive for fortune 500 companies for years, was that “making it” in a corporate environment sometimes meant dealing with people who learned the art of taking credit and deferring blame. I was fascinated by this while thinking that it just couldn’t be that easy…until I worked for one of the largest companies in the world for a few years.

I just couldn’t believe how easy it was for some people to take credit and defer blame without the slightest hesitation. I soon realized that participants in this method may get ahead in the near term with praises from above, but in the long run their credibility is shot by many peers around them making it more difficult for them to do the same in the future.

What I’d like to point out in this series are some things to watch out for. The what-not-to-do things that will get you labeled as a credit stealer. In simple terms, the dishonest prick with potentially no spine. (Though I can’t say everyone can be honestly labelled this way as they just don’t realize what they’re doing. Thus the article to help you avoid such labeling.)

The “we” factor

One of the easiest ways to get some credit for not really doing anything is using the term “we” often when describing a project that was completed or some task that was done by others in the group. I’d say this is probably the most over-used method of getting credit for being involed with something, even when being involved just means you’re up to date with what’s happening in the project.

The kick in the tail here is, not everyone does this to intentionally gain more credit than they’re due…but it happens to work out that way sometimes. Saying things like “well, we’re working on that and hope to have it done by tomorrow” even though you really only are a stakeholder that signed some dotted line because you were invited to participate in discussions about some project can really make it look like you’re down in the trenches to some clueless executive.

Some managers are able to decipher all the “we” factor out of conversations by being involved enough to know who’s doing all the work, but some aren’t. If at all possible, encourage your team to take responsibility by being more specific about who’s doing what. The accountability in some components is amazingly avoided by using “we” instead of individual names. If you’re barely involved, give full credit where it’s due by mentioning the names of the “grunts” that are pulling all the weight on the project. Certainly let others know you’re involved by keeping tabs on the project, but don’t allow people to create a picture in their minds of you doing a large portion of the work.

Of course some would say that you want to look like you’re more involved than you really are, but the point of this article is to let you know that such practices are noticed by your peers. You really need to make sure you’re spreading the “credit wealth” as much as possible, and people will be more than likely to work with/for you again. A point in one of my posts for motivating geeks mentions giving full credit when it’s deserved. Avoiding the “we” factor is a good way to do just that.

Not mentioning the people doing the work at all

When talking about a project or tasklist, just not talking about who’s actually doing the work implies that you have a much bigger role than you really do. Make sure to mention those doing the work so they have the proper credit for doing it. This kind of overlaps with the previous point so I’ll keep this brief.

My father once taught me the meaning of “lying by omission” in a probably well-deserved lecturing when I was caught misbehaving and didn’t fess up. This is probably a weak analogy, but it’s what came to mind, so bear with me. By not telling my dad exactly what happened, I was indirectly lying to him about being involved with some of my buddies in the mischievous event. I like to compare this to discussing progress on a project with upper management without ever mentioning the people that are working on it. When doing so, I think it’s somewhat like “taking credit by omission” because you’re not really giving the full picture of what’s going on.

Flat out lying

Ok, this is just stupid. Anyone that flat out says “that piece I completed” for a component that was done by someone entirely different deserves whatever evil look they get from management when they’re called out on the lie. This is an extremely risky move on anyone’s part. I do not recommend lying as a tool to get credit for any work done to anyone. For those that don’t listen, I laugh at your stupidity and gladly stand in line for your paycheck next time I’m on the job hunt.

Conclusion

Taking undeserved credit is just something we all have to pay attention to. Not everyone is doing this on purpose, but I’m sure there’s many out there that are doing it without even realizing it. The classic example is the project manager that presents the product and acts as a liason to the rest of the business for the team. The PM has every opportunity to look like a major contributor without ever revealing the opposite truth. I’ve seen few intentionally do this and look good to everyone around while doing it. Actually, I’ve not really seen anyone pull this off. So be warned!

How about you? What qualities about your peers and managers do you notice where they get undeserved credit? What other methods have you seen where people get praises for work that they didn’t even do? Was it intentional or not? Share with us your frustrating or humorous views on the matter.

Other posts in this series:

• Don’t Defer Blame
• Avoid Exaggerating
• How to say you don’t know

Tags: integrity, credibility