I enjoy golfing. It’s a good thing too, because I’m not very good at it. I always feel like I could do better. The personal challenge to want to do better is motivating.

The other day I happen to see a highlight (actually a lowlight) of Tiger hitting a shot out of a 3 foot high rough onto the side of a hill for a raised green, into another 3 foot high rough. It was probably one of Tiger’s worst shots in his professional career. I’ll bet when Tiger hit that crappy shot, he didn’t say, oh darn this titanium shaft, or bugger-all my 100% leather shoes. He said, I’m going to practice that shot on the range tomorrow until I get it right.

There are a thousand different golf skills to master. As a rule, I practice 3 golf skills at a time, master those, and move onto the next 3. If I can get down a dozen skills in a year, that’s goodness. The same goes for being an SE. There are a thousand different skills to master. Master a few at a time, and then move onto the next few.

We as SEs spend 90% of our training time learning product features, tools, bits and bytes, speeds and feeds, knobs and dials. As SEs, do we need to be technically competent? You bet. Do we need to be obsessive about it in order to achieve fast and efficient solution decisions? Absolutely Not! Yet, the corporate powers that be continue to throw tons of technical training at us, and barely a lick of soft skills training.

Do you know who Hank Haney is? He is Tiger’s coach. Yes, Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer ever, relies heavily on his coach and tirelessly practices his technique to continually improve his game. He doesn’t obsess over the technical specifications of the equipment he uses. As an SE, why should we be any different?

Like Tiger, we should spend 90% of our time learning how to swing, how to hold the club, how to stand, how to pivot, how to, how to, how to — and practice the heck out of those skills so we hit 90% of our fairways and two-putt 90% of our greens.

Of course, let’s make sure we understand and use the right equipment, but much more importantly, let’s make sure we learn and study and practice how to be the best SE that we can be. For an SE, this means a) there is always room for improvement, and b) the large majority of our training time should be for soft skills improvement, not understanding equipment features.

Put in a word with the corporate powers that be — perhaps they should re-assess their training priorities for SEs.

Good SElling!

We are in the business of providing impact-the-bottom-line skills to teams of SEs. Operationalizing a new skill is one of the hardest things for a manager to implement.

We worked with an SE organization awhile ago whose managers had been promoted from within. Many had not received formal how-to-manage training. The culture for these managers was to still want to be buddies with their teams, “If the SEs like it, they’ll use it”. They were Laissez Faire managers — hands off, let the SEs do what they want to do. Heed my warning — This is a recipe for failure.

When new skills are presented to any individual, their first reaction is often, “Gee I hope this goes away. I’m too busy to do this new stuff. I’ve been doing fine as an SE for 10 years, leave me alone.” Despite all the explanations of benefit to the organization and themselves, SEs will often resist change. Change is viewed as a waste of time.

Change will only happen through routine, persistent, repetitive practice. Especially for a new soft skill, this can take 3 to 6 months before the practice begins to become accepted and routine. Change will not and cannot happen with a hands-off management style.

My fellow SE Managers, to operationalize a new soft skill, we must put the “manage” back into “manager”. New procedures and policies must be defined and rigorously implemented. Executive management needs to strongly and vocally support the change. Contests and rewards are needed to motivate behavior. Those of you who believe in MBOs, leverage the heck out of them for at least two quarters.

Executive managers, you will need to lean on your line managers. Consider weekly or bi-weekly reviews of team behavior through technical opportunity reviews of critical deals. Insist that your managers have the quick crisp answers to questions like “can this deal come in any faster?” “How will we overcome the risks in moving forward?” “Show me the performance measurements for the new skills since the last time we met.” Insisting managers have crisp answers will ensure they are staying on top of their people for the answers, and that their SEs are involved in similar regular reviews and practice.

So, when operationalizing new skills, it is important to put the “manage” back into “Manager”.

Good SElling!

What’s on your mind regarding career path or skills development? What could you use in the way of soft skills development? What vendors are out there who you’ve had success with?