2016 in Review

It’s the first day of 2017. I’m here at a coffee shop using my bluetooth keyboard typing this post on my 5.2-inch Android smartphone. I was thinking of other things to do other than try download some virtual reality games for my smartphone, so I thought I could have my life’s year in review for 2016.

I really cannot do a per month basis, as I know I have rather few things I would like to include here. Let’s get right to it:

• Designed, coded, and put online my personal learning project, the Integrated Performance Management Information System. The online system uses PHP and MySQL.
• Established a small team of colleagues intent on learning how to improve productivity and quality through information technology. The group is called “Everything Goes Club.”
• This is not really an accomplishment, but I would call a shift in appreciation for risk-based decision-making. I would say that, probably, due to my focus on learning, I have made risk-taking more frequently. It started with trying out code even though I was afraid it would not work, just so that I could find out what’s wrong with it and fix it. I hope the initial experience would not be the same for my other decisions with risks, God willing.

I think that’s all. Two actual accomplishments and one shift in behavior.

Let’s see what would happen in 2017.

Performance-Leadership Wall

I don’t really know what the title should be. The idea I am saying is that there is this seeming wall between excellent (i.e., commendable) performance and transition to leadership.

As I mentioned previously, leadership requires different competencies from technical expertise resulting in excellent performance. It must be pointed out, if it is not so obvious, that leadership is performance in itself, and should also be assessed if it is excellent, satisfactory, or below par. Technical expertise will not result in competent leadership.

I am writing this post because my supervisor and I had a heart to heart talk on leadership, as I expressed my difficulty in my role as a supervisor. At the end of our conversation, I was thinking that I was not convinced that I should stay as supervisor.

Our talk began with me sharing to her that I don’t want to be a supervisor. I lost my value added position then that was being able to have a fresh eyes on things that we are doing, and my ability to add value to planning and monitoring work with my competency in information management. I also surfaced the idea that supervising people, which is the key responsibility of being a supervisor, was difficult given my continued role as a technical specialist. Furthermore, all these people’s outputs are contributions to a deliverable of the division.

I concluded that I need a supervisor for myself, and I am more effective as a specialist rather than as a supervisor. I am willing to lose the RATA.

My supervisor’s talk shared that she also experienced a similar stage earlier in her career. To my understanding (i.e., she did not say it this way), she liked doing something more simple and straightforward rather than endure the conflicting perspectives of management that we somehow have to reconcile.

She said other things, but for now, I think the key idea that made me think two days later was that performers seem go through a performance wall transitioning into leadership role.

In running, particularly in marathons and ultramarathons, runners experience “hitting the wall.” This figurative wall is that point of the run when the previously challenging distance becomes impossible. Patrick McCrann describes it pretty well (for me, that is):

"The wall" is defined as that period in a marathon when things transition from being pretty hard to being really, really hard. It is the point where your body and mind are simultaneously tested. It's the perfect intersection of fatigue and diminished mental faculties. Or as you most likely remember it, it's the exact point where all your pre-race plans went out the window. (Source: http://www.active.com/running/articles/how-to-beat-the-wall-during-your-marathon)

If you read my other blogs, you would know that I like joining marathons. Obviously, I join for fitness and not for the race. For this reason, I frequently compare work performance with running (as running is performance in itself).

My problem is when my supervisor role gets in the way of my own performance.

After a brief (but very belatedly, if I may say) assessment of my situation, I “learned” that I have two roles:

1) Technical specialist
2) Supervisor

Someone seems to think that by adding compensation, technical specialists would magically acquire the needed leadership and supervisory competencies needed to effect their respective team’s outputs. Furthermore, it seems that the agency or management is not cognizant of the reality that supervising people takes 100 percent of a supervisor’s time. If this is not so, either the deliverable suffers, or the supervision suffers.

So for people who craft outputs and supervise at the same time, adding P10,000 monthly to a person’s compensation will not make that person an effective supervisor. In case it is not clear, neither is it sufficient.

Going back to the “wall,” I guess I am at that point of my career when I see the wall before me. However, I must step back and think: Is this a wall in one race (transitioning from specialist to supervisor is natural step) or this is the end and I must transfer to another (I have to prepare differently as this is another race, similar to changing from road marathons to trail runs).

And so, I have to really assess this, give it serious time to think about how to go about it.

For me, I see leadership as a tool to effect organizational outcomes, similar to technical expertise. The two go together, and I don’t believe that one is more important than the other. Organizations need both technical experts who do the job and leaders who prioritize what needs to be done depending on the situation.

I probably said this before, already. Leaders, just like any other workers, need to be prepared. Not investing in them will cost the organization more in the immediate and long term.

Note: This post may be updated and refined in the future.

Challenges of a new supervisor

So it’s been like three months in this supervisory position, and I am not enjoying it.

The challenging responsibilities of a supervisor, for me, are addressing performance gaps, delegating appropriately, motivating, balancing management perspective with technical and people concerns, among others. I will just see if there are others.

As much as all supervisors want everyone on their team to be competent for the jobs they are supposed to do, this is not always the case. Competency gaps or misalignment may have been the result of problematic hiring process, age, reorganization, or other reasons. Whatever reasons these may be, and usually these are beyond the supervisor’s control, it is still the supervisor’s responsibility to deliver results.

Trained as I was in classical military training methodologies, my default corrective mechanism is the “sandwich method.” This is done by the supervisor providing instruction on how to address the performance gap, followed by a punishment (usually a physical activity), then the supervisor repeats the lesson on how to do the task correctly.

Of course, this is addressing a performance gap, which is addressing an immediate concern. The deeper concern is the competency gap, which is an altogether different matter.

Although the two may have a common root cause, like motivation.

Performance gaps and competency gaps can be addressed as these can be corrected. However, if the reason is motivation, addressing this is not as straightforward as either of the two.

As listed above, motivation is another difficult of being a supervisor. There are a number of theories on motivation, and identifying which approach to use for every employee’s unique situation is a challenge. Now how about if it is the supervisor that needs motivation, on staying or on delivering according to standards.

Another challenge is on delegating. I read in an HBR article that people who cannot delegate may have some behavioral issues (I will post the link here in the near future), such as trust or conceit. If I have difficulty delegating but I cannot identify which of those two is the reason, are there other possible reasons?

Another challenge of being a supervisor is balancing how to address management prerogative vis-à-vis technical and people concerns.

Depending on the company or organization, supervisors usually are promoted from people who have demonstrated above-average skills and competencies in the skills they are hired for. As such, they have been proven themselves in doing their main work as specialists with wide and deep appreciation of their work and the work’s immediate context.

When they are promoted to supervise people, they are given a new role (note that I used “new” instead of “higher” role), frequently without adequate training. Management hopes that the learned higher technical competency would translate to ability to deliver on broader responsibilities, not considering that broader responsibility usually involves managing people, which was not a key requirement in the specialist role. Thus, high technical competency will be used to address a leadership competency requirement. Unfortunately, in my experience, this can lead to frustration to the new leaders as they are used to delivering results [on their own] while seeing team results, which they see as a reflection of their performance as supervisors, below their self-determined levels.

Also, I question myself: For a limited financial compensation for being responsible for deliverables, is it worth it?

Yes, I am stepping into the realm of extrinsic motivators. Honestly, I do not love being designated a formal supervisor. I would rather be a person recognized for my skills, including relating with people, coaching and mentoring them to help them deliver and provide them with adequate resources and work environment. I realize that all these things can be done with being a formal supervisor, but perhaps the organizational reality that makes this difficult is that one has to do all these things in the context of an organizational environment that has a conflict of philosophy on leadership, responsibility, and abused culture of completed staff work.

I understand that I may be being too hard on myself… I should allow myself some learning curve, and maybe I am just experiencing these difficulties because I am learning… but am I? I am just thinking of what the organization requires of my team…. And that organization does not care about learning and think about learning curve for those below them (in general, I mean).

I miss my previous weekends studying new things that, well, yes, would be helpful for work, but they are really of different disciplines. I like playing the role of a second or third perspective on proposed ideas or activities. I miss learning how to lead people from the experience of others.

My life has become way busier compared with how it was when I was working in my previous employer. But becoming a supervisor changed it from overly loaded to overly vague and unclear, trying to guess what the bosses want without guidance or with conflicting instructions from multiple authorities.

Time to check my blood pressure now…

New Bluetooth Keyboard and New Role

I am now typing this using my new bluetooth keyboard. .This is awesome. What would be the effect if the screen … the Android screen moved automatically to where the cursor is. This is really awesome. It can help me type long documents with my smartphone, which has Google Docs and Microsoft Word.
I can draft my blog posts here.

Now if I could just know how long the battery lasts…. It has a built-in battery which is rechargeable. But it doesn't have specifications in the box.

* * *

About four weeks ago, I have been designated officer in charge of our division. While I talked in the past about leadership, and I have had my brief stint in leadership position when I was in college, I tried my best to stay away from formal leadership designations. My ideal job and character in a bureaucracy was Jack Ryan, who has been described by his Chinese enemies in Tom Clancy’s Executive Order as nothing more than an assistant. They listed his positions prior to the US Presidency as Deputy Director for Central Intelligence and National Security Advisor, emphasizing that he was not ready to take on the role of leading his country and its military at the critical time as described in the book.

Of course, I am not saying I am like Jack Ryan. It’s just that I like the role of someone working behind the people who are seen in the cameras. I like to see the results of my work rather than be seen working. Partly, I must admit, I prefer that so that if I make a mistake, it would not be public as well.

I posted previously about what I expect of a leader. I did not expect that I would be formally assigned to such a position rather very soon. Sure, I thought of being a leader, but those were more of daydreaming instead of visioning.

I don’t want to be a leader. I am more of someone who wants to go into the details rather than thinking of the big things and what the end should be like (though of course, I have been trained that the end should be clear so that the strategy and means will be aligned with it). I thought of myself as a manager than a leader, an operations person than a commander. And between a task-oriented manager and a person-oriented supervisor, I thought of myself as the latter.

But perhaps the real reason I don’t want to be in a formal leadership position is because I have rather high expectations of leadership.

Sure, I also understand that leaders are people, prone to mistakes and every other human frailty. However, it is difficult for me to accept weakness and failure from myself. Sure, I could “forgive” other leaders so long as they do not fail on the more important aspects of leading people. But I feel like I would be a hypocrite if I would fail to deliver on those same critical aspects or dimensions when I get to such a formal leadership position.

You may notice that I frequently use the term “formal leadership position.” That is to recognize that leadership is not always formal. I supported my previous supervisor, who was in the position that I occupy now, by being the informal leader, ensuring that while tasks are carried out, the human dimension of the team is not forgotten. I also tried to be more of a team member rather than a team leader, but leveraging my technical expertise to be a coach and mentor to those in lower ranks.

There are so many new things that I would like to write about, as this new role is teaching me a lot of things – and by teach, I mean in the sense that while I previously know best practices in leadership, I see how different and difficult they could be to implement or execute when you are already there. Still, surely, my previous discussions with my supervisor when I offered alternative perspectives helped me cope with this new role. I hope that I could deliver without losing myself in the process.

Forgive me, this is a very spur of the moment post. I wanted to try the bluetooth keyboard that I bought and typed this whole post in the Microsoft Word app of my Android smartphone. So I have no opportunity to edit this into a very coherent text. I hope I could get back to this to refine this and add more thoughts.

Until next.

P.S. Kudos to Asus Zenfone 3, which I am using now. I switch between Microsoft Word and Chrome in writing this post.

Introvert Recharge - Lessons

I'm here at a coffee shop, supposedly because I want to have an "introvert recharge." It's what I call my quiet time to just be myself, try not think of anything in particular, just letting it go where the randomness of my thoughts take it.

I thought of imagining of how I would try to get the attention of a girl I like, but I have to stop myself as I would probably look stupid to other people. I am at a coffee shop, as I said.

I wanted to code, but that would require thinking, which is not what thoughtless wondering is about.

So here I am typing words, just reporting what my mind is thinking at the moment.

I've tried a brand of coffee that I have always liked. It's coffee shop where I used to work for like four hours or more to create a video of our college.

I am not sure if my retooling sessions are effective, as I have no immediate means to measure the effectiveness. I gave them an opportunity to practice what I've taught them. I'll see the results tomorrow, and I will listen to their way of thinking. I think it is a good way to understand how they look at our work and how their mind responds to (I think) new ideas that they will have to implement.

Supervising work of people is not new to me, but being officially and formally called one is a challenge. It's a learning experience from day 1. The experience I dread the most, I have to receive on my first day.

I really wish she would not go. But there's just nothing I can do. I wish I could. But I can't. I don't have anything to make her stay. If I were in her place, I would probably go, too.

It's unfortunate because I was hoping she would be able to help me with the cognitive tasks in our team. When she goes, I would have to carry that load alone. That pushes me to fast track training the remaining staff to share the load on monitoring work.

I have to study HTML and CSS. I think I could learn it on my own, but I have to admit that having classmates helps me learn faster.

What's the future like?

There is a risk to everything, including when you do not make risky decisions consciously.

I really I could pursue my goal of being a part-time faculty member. I wish I could teach at UP.

I have to review how to teach. I have to improve how to facilitate learning.

I will have to stop thinking now. Just let my thoughts go aimlessly.

I wish she would not go. I need her.

But I know I could go on without her. Just like what happened before.

Every experience is a lesson. I choose to stay and take the hard lessons.