Post on 02-Jun-2018
8/10/2019 Being a great Engineer
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Engineers from th e b est companies helped researchers t o d ispel the myth s abou t
star perform ers and uncover th e surp rising secrets of stellar achievement
HOW
TO
BE
ST R
N
1985,
WAS ASKED
A SERIES OF
QUESTIONS,
AND HAVE
been
trackin g down th eir answers ever since . Bell Laboratories (the n part of
AT&T
Corp.
and
now mostly belonging to L ucent Technologies Inc.) was perplexed.
It hired the best and the brightest from the worlds most prestigious universities, but only a few
lived up to the ir apparent potential for brilliance. M ost deve loped into solid performers of mo stly
average productivity wh o did not substantially further
Bell
Labs' contribution to
ATaTs
competitive
ROB ER T
E.
KELLEY
Car egie
niversity
Me on
Idvantage in the marketplace.
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W ha t the l abs wanted to know was : what s epara t es t he s tar
from the average performer?
Is
it innate or can star performance
be learned? Could a program to improve productivity be designe d
that would help turn average performers into stars?
No t jus t companies are asking these quest ions . Since 1985, I
have me t few professionals wh o do n ot want to be m ore produc-
tive. In their own minds, mo st engineers believe they can b e stars.
Th ey dis like being outshone by
a
co-worker a nd strive constantly
to d o bet ter than before. In the workplace, they are being forced
to d o more with less . Global compet i t ion, m ergers, and dow n-
sizings have lef t them w ith gre ater responsibi li t ies and fewer
resources. Wh o amo ng us is not working longer and harde r today
than f ive years ago? W ho does not have more work pi led up in
the in-basket or long lists of unanswered e-mail and ph one mes-
sages? Wh ich of us is not afraid that if we are not m ore produc-
t ive , we might get t he ax next? Wh o does not want more con -
trol over thei r lives-a bette r balance betwe en work and personal
lives? Everyon e
is
being told to work smarter, but no o ne seems
to know wh at that means.
My colleagues and
1
have been w orking
on
these corporate and
personal productivity questions ever since. Ove r a thousand en gi-
neers f rom Bel l Laborator ies , 3M, and Hew let t -Pack ard con -
t r ibuted to th e or iginal research as both col laborators and sub-
jects . To discover the secrets of s tar performance, we used
pape r-and-p enci l tes ts , di rect o bservat ion, work diar ies , focus
groups, an d individual interviews, drawing u pon statistical analy-
ses, content analyses, and iterative model building as appropriate.
Man y othe r companies took p art, from those reliant on electri-
cal engineers-such as Analog Devic es, Fore Systems, and Air
Touch-to tho se like Shell
Oil
and Kimberly Clark that are involved
in other kinds of engineer ing. They have used our product ivi ty
improvement program to turn their engineers into higher performers
and
in
s doing have also contributed to th e growing body of know l-
edge on star performance.
The path to stardom
Lai and He nry w ere hired at Bel l Laborator ies with s imilar
credent ials : 3 . 8 CPAs (grade point averages) f rom top -ranke d
undergraduate programs in electrical engineering; summer intern-
ships a t computer companies ; and glowing r ecommen dat ions
from professors. Yet they to ok d istinctly different appro ache s to
the ir first six-mo nth assignment. Mo rnings, the y took classes in
telephone technology and the methods Bel l Labs uses to con-
duct its work. A fternoons were spent on break-in projects-work
that ne eded to be d one but t hat w ould not j eopardize crucial
projects
i f
don e badly.
He nry ho led up in his off ice as i f writing his dissertation or
studying for a law bar exam. H e collected volume s of technical
doc um ents to acquaint himself with th e latest ideas, surfacing only
for a bathroom break
or
a ma ndatory staff m eeting. "What's going
to count ," he remembered thinking at the t ime, iswhether I can
prove to my co-w orkers how technically smart
I
am."
Lai set aside 3 hours each afternoon to work on h er assignment
and to sharpen her technical skills. In whateve r time w as left of
her workda y, she introduced herself to co-workers and asked ques-
tions about their projects.
If
one of them needed a hand
or
was
facing schedule pressures, she volunteered to he lp. Lai was new
to th e work place culture, but even s her colleagues warmed to
her willingness to p itch in, especially given th at their problems
were no t hers.
O n e afternoon , a colleague was struggling with a recalcitrant
program for a software project due the next week. Lai had picked
up a new programming tool
in
an advanced course, and she thought
i t could handle the problem. So she offered to work on the pro-
gram while her colleague focused on the larger project. O n an other
occasion, some sophisticated software tools had to b e installed on
everyone's office PC. Standard practice w as for each PC user to do
the job b y trial and error. Having run into the sam e cumbersome
procedure d uring an internship, Lai though t it more sensible for
on e person t o install th e tools in all the mac:hines, and s he offered
to d o the job. But the ins tal lat ions proved unexpectedly tough,
requiring two weeks rather than the four days she had planned. Lai
could have backed off but sh e saw it through, even though she had
to com e in early and stay late
for
several days
s
that neither her
work assignment nor her class work would ,suffer,
After six months, Henry and Lai had finished their technical
classes and their first assignments. Th eir projects w ere success-
ful and judged technical ly competent . Indeed, Henry's work m ay
have been slightly more technically proficient than Laii.
But in the work place, He nry came up sh ort. While kno wn as
a nice guy, he was also pegged as a loner. H e was seen as techni-
cally adept, b ut his ability t o share his skillr with co-workers was
quest ioned. He carr ied on as i f still in schoo l, where the individ-
ual's performance is what counts .
But Lai came across as someone w ho to ok ini tiat ive, who saw
several problems and step ped forward to solve them even thou gh
the y were not her respon sibility S he had created the impression
of being in the lab group for far longer than s ix months .
Managers of course not iced she was showing t he character ist ics
of a s tar engineer and al ready were viewing her as a candidate
for fast-track assignments.
As seen in the quiz
on
"Understanding s1.u performers" [p. 581
most people (like Hen ry) have preconce ptions about what causes
star productivity, and m ost of their notions are as wron g as can
be. Over th e pas t
14
years , we have debunked many comm on
myths a nd m ade som e startling discoveries .ibout the outstanding
engineer . O n e of our f i rs t f indings was that workers an d their
bosses tend to disagree on w ho th e star performers are. We first
asked managers to list their choices. We then suggested narrow -
ing the list to those persons the y would turri to if they h ad t o staff
an important new project, if they h ad a crisi.; that n eed ed a SWAT
(Special Weapo ns and T actics) team, or
if
they were going to hire
for their own business. W hen we showed the list to a gro up of star
performers , they poo h-po ohed th e managers ' selections . "How
did
Joe g et on th e list?" h ey asked incredulously. 'Toe hasn't d one
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IEEE
SI'ECTRUM
OCTOBtR 1999
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much for years. And where's Maria? Everyone turns to her whe n
the y hit a brick wall or n eed new ideas."
Th e difference in their reactions gave us pause. We took
a
step
back and asked managers an d brain-powered w orkers to name
those people who great ly outproduced and outperformed their
peers, especially i f t hey did
so
with methods others admired. We
.were after the cream of the crop -w e wanted to weed out the high
producers wh o bul ldoze their way to greater product ivi ty but
who se wake of destruction swamps any positive contribution.
The resul t of this exercise was only a 50 percent over lap
between the two groups. Brainpowered workers
and
their man-
agers disagree half th e time on wh o the stars are.
For our original research at Bell Labs, we refined our sample.
We included only people on both managers' and co-workers' star
lists. (In later work with
3M,
we added th e requirement that the
s tars receive customers ' approval , as wel l .) We
also
t ook in to
account th e numbe r of awards, hono rs, and performance bonuses
won, as well as patent or publication credits where applicable.
The se undisputed stars were the group we studied and whose per-
formance was the basis for our research.
To pin down how star performers and solid middle performers
differ, our research team asked top executives, middle manag ers,
engineers, and othe r researchers for their opinions. We a ccumu -
lated
45
factors that managers an d star performers close to th e action
believed led t o o utstanding performance. T he four main categories
were: cognitive factors, such as higher IQ, logic, reasoning and cre-
ativity, personality factors, such
as
self confidence, ambition,
courage, and a feeling of personal con trol ov er one's destiny; social
factors, such as interpersonal skills and leadership; and w ork an d
organizational factors, such as the worker's relationship with th e
boss, job satisfaction, and attitudes toward pay and other rewards.
Next , to f igure out which of the 45 factors differentiated
between the gro ups, we put hundreds of s tar and average per-
formers in meeting room s across the cou ntry and ad ministered a
two-d ay battery of tests. We
also
did surveys, developed detailed
case histories, and interviewed employees and th e managers who
hired them. Engineers and managers also supplied us with bio-
graphical information and person nel file material.
Perplexingly, after two years, our data show ed no appreciable
cogni t ive, personal or psychological , social , or work o r organi-
zational differences betwee n stars and n on-stars. For each tradi-
t ional measure, alone or in combinat ion, we had come up e mp ty
We compared the number s a dozen ways , s t r e t ched computer
analyses to their l imits, and with eac h run, found th e com puter
spitting back what we then thoug ht was the result of some terri-
ble methodological mistake: there were no quantifiable differ-
ences. between mem bers of the two groups.
Yet, by recognizing this, had we no t discovered some thing crit-
ically important? That the four factors we presumed were vital to
star performance-cognitive, psychological, social, and organ i-
zation al characteristics-were not the real drivers at all?
Th e lon g- term value of o ur effor t was that i t
laid
to res t the
cloud of myths around star performance [see quiz, p .
581. And
i n fact, over the n ext years of ou r research, we learned that oth er
factors were at play. Most engineers come to the workp lace with
more than enough potential to succeed splendidly, but most end
tip
a s
run-of - the-mi l l .Th e s tars were n ot s tandouts because of
wha t they had in their heads but because of how they used what
they had. T he product ivi ty mystery lay in learning how to t rans-
form their talents into high productivity--much like turning pot en-
tial energy in to kinetic energ y Stars, we saw, are made, not bo rn.
Nine work strategies
So, f
you are an engineer searching for
a
productivity boost to
your intel lectual capital , wha t must you d o to dazzle everyone?
Prior to our work, an answer did not exist. Th e star work strate-
gies were taught nowhere, no t in school or on th e job. For the
K E L L t Y OW TO HE A ST R ENC.INCEII
most part, it was
a
matter of trial and error. But many technically
com peten t engineers make too many product ivi ty errors to end
u p as more tha n average. For example, they fai l to take initia-
tives or take initiatives of no importance to the organization.
W e f ound t ha t you need t o change how you do you r w ork
and h ow you w ork with others . Star performers in fact do their
work q ui te dif ferent ly f rom th e pack. T hey weave their s tarr ing
strategies into a consis tent pat tern of d ay- to-d ay behavior . But
any eng i nee r w i th t he neces s ar y s m ar ts and m o t i va ti on can
acquire their power .
All th e same, no Big Bang revelation unleashes this kind of pro-
duct ivi ty No magic pill or silver bullet will blast you to the top.
Instead, stellar performance is based on a set of nine interlock-
ing work strategies. Th cy are rank ed
in
order of importance and
synthesized into an exper t model .
1 Blazing rails
W h a t did you think of Henry and
Lai?
Did you see Henry's
emphasis on jus t technical comp etence
as
undervalued or Lai as
being rew arded for, well, schm oozin g?
Average performers, like Hen ry, imagine initiative is coming
up with ideas for doing their job better o r volunteering for little
extras in th e workplace, like planning the annu al picnic or rccruit-
ing people for the blood dr ive. Indeed, Henry bel ieved he was
taking initiative. I gathered up the latest technical information
and learned abou t the lates t sof tware tools
so
t ha t I could do
a
bang-up job on my as s ignment . Nob ody to ld me to do any of
that," he told us.
W h a t
Lai
understood, and Henry did not, is tha t only certain
action s earn the initiative label. Star-qua lity initiative me ans:
Seeking out responsibility abo ve
and
beyond job description (as
when Lai installed the
PC
software), while still com pleting yo ur
core assignment.
Und ertaking e xtra efforts for the benefit of co-workers or the
larger grou p, as when
Lai
offered to he lp fix the software program
on her co-w orkers' project.
Stepping willingly into the gaps between job descriptions where
important work often pops up, grabbing you r share of it, and doing
a bang-up ob on i t .
St icking tenaciously to an idea or project and fol lowing i t
throu gh t o successful implementation,
as Lai
did
when sh e worked
the ex tra days necessary to install the new office software.
Ma ny average performers suppose the only worthwhile ini -
tiatives are on the o rde r of inventing
a
comm ercially successful
new produc t, like the ob ject-oriented Java language. If something
will not m ake th e front-pa ge of
The Wall StreetJooumal
under
a
head-
line proclaiming
a
steep climb in b ottom -line profits, the n it isn't
worth the effort.
Star performers in our s tudies were adama nt that whi le the y
are always looking for roof-raising initiatives, th e small, day -to-
day efforts had the same imp act over time. Moreover, they note d
that th e whop per initiatives tend t o follow
a
lon g string of lesser
efforts.
I f
the work cl imate you create do es not value smal l ini-
tiatives, they will dry up and the big o nes will never g et a chance
to happ en. Lai's h elping -hand ini t iat ive, for ins tance, may have
given a co-worker the breathing space needed to make a mean-
ingful breakthrough.
Th e stars also believe that expe ctations about the initiative you
may take hing e o n your level of expe rience. As a new employee,
Lai was not e xpected to take big initiatives, but her record of taking
smaller ones pleasantly surprised her co-worke rs and soon e stab-
lished h er reputation as a productive engineer. As she gains more
experience, Lai will be expected to take on higher-level initiatives
of greate r difficulty an d riskiness.
Ou r observations of Henry, Lai, and hundreds of other engi-
neers show that any newcomer in a unit of professionally skilled,
compe titive workers must dem onstrate initiative. Su ch behav ior
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impresses managers, but m ore im portantly, it impresses your c o-
workers and customers. Co-workers look for people wh o d o not
lock themselves within a r ig id job descr ip t ion . Th ey want col -
leagues , l ike Lai , who are wil ling to s tep into the gaps between
jobs because they know that i f the new worker does less than
her o r his share, the rest of them will have to ca rry more of t he
load. The y need people who extend themselves-whether i t be
to their colleagues, to the custome rs, or to th e chang ing needs of
the marketplace.
Custo mers are also looking for these character is t ics in the
employees they encounter . A new hire w ho falls sho rt of these
expectations will be relegated to the pack, labeled, perhaps like
Henry, as compe tent but n ot product ive in ways that benef i t
t he g r oup .
2. Knowing who knows
Average performers think networking just means building a
grapevine for learning the latest office gossip, or socializing with
people in their field and with execiitive head hun ters who ca n help
them
in
future job hunting.
Star producers engage i n addi t ion ' in a more important type
of networking. As they realize, the information ove rload of todayS
society means that few people know
all
they need to know
to
get
their jobs done. The y know m aybe 50-80 percent, and until they
can make up the deficit, they are stuck. Wha t helps the stars get
unstuck is effectivc networking.
A star know s it is vital to develop ah ead of time de pend able
two-way streets to th e experts, who will help eac h other co mplete
the tasks critical to the b ottom line. Th e goal is to minimize t he
knowled ge deficit that every engineer discovers as she or he mea-
sures up to a new job.
Stars' networks differ from typical workers' networks in two
important respects. Th ey have the right people
in
them, and they
are faster.
Th e people in their networks can provide th e right answer the
first time. Average performers get wron g answers more frequently
either because th ey ask the wrong people o r because the experts
with th e right answers are not
in
their networks.
So
they spin their
wheels or go down b lind alleys.
Th e faster networks get the stars unstuck and back on the task
sooner than the rest.
I f
it takes
a
s tar a half-day to ge t
a n
answer,
i t takes the others on e to two days to get it and often it is wrong.
Ov er time, these extra days add up.
Better-connected an d faster networks allow the stars to turbo-
charge their productivity,
so
that they outpace th e average per-
formers, who might h ave similar talent, but go it alone.
Claudio, an information techno logy con sultant working for the
international consulting firm, Andersen Consulting, was assigned
to wri te
a
contra ct proposal to a t igh t deadl ine. At s take was a
500
000
contrac t for providing information tcchnolog y support
for bio-assaying processes we d in biotech nolog y firms.
Claudio remembered a n undergraduate classmate who
had
gone
to work for Genen tech Inc., the industry leader, and called her. In
turn, she put him
in
touch with the scientis t wh o
had
pioneered
the assaying process. In just two afternoon phon e calls, he g ot the
information critical for his report.
Con trast what befell New t, an Andersen colleague of Claudio's
wh o needed the same informat ion. Instead of t h inking through
his network, Newt fol lowed the company's recomm ended pro-
cedure an d posted his quest ion o n th e in-house electronic bul-
let in board. W he n he logged into his com puter the next work-
day, 40 l eads were wai t ing , a l l of which had to be p lowed
throug h. Many of the messages contradicte d one anothe r , but
as he knew none of the people w ho r esponded, he could not
to judge the quality of their answ ers. He was e ssentially still at
square one with 40 potent ial leads to t rack down.
Th us, while New t was still stluggling with his information ove r.
5 4
load, Claudio ha d al ready used his s tar network to m ove fas ter
and far ther ahead.
The cur r ent r age in many upper management ci rcles is to
embrace computer intranet-ing
as
the high -tech solution to know l-
edge deficits. Mana gers spe nd millions of {dollars
on
additional
computer hardware and software, believing workers like Newt can
e-mail their way out of such quand aries. Bu t successful ne twork-
ing
is
most often accomplished
in
one- to -one interact ions, not
in
the impersonal, one-to-m any format of com puter technology. Star
networking entails building, maintaining, m d operat ing within
a group of ex perts wh o share knowled ge for mutual benefit. It has
little to do with techno logy.
3. Proactive self-management
Average performers believe self-man ageme nt means m anaging
t ime and projects bet ter.
I f
their work is dune within schedule,
budget, a nd specifications, then they must be good self-managers.
Star producer s know that much more than t ime or project
management
is
at s take. Th ese requirements you are expected
and paid to meet . The ir work s t rategy helps them proact ively
create op portun i t ies , di rect work choice:. , perform extra wel l
o n t h e j o b , a n d ca r ve ou t a c a r ee r pa t h . It enab l e s t hem t o
develop
a
por t fo l io of t a l ent s an d work exper i ences that
increases their value to th e comp any.
Elena worked in the R&Ddepa r tmen t of a n advanced mate-
r i a l s ceramics company supplying the auto indus t ry . She
requested t ravel funds to at ten d a product ivity a nd qual i ty con-
f erence . As i t was not d i r ec t ly r e l a t ed to her work, he r bos s
could not see the point; besides travel funds in the budget were
low. Elena was undeterred. Since she bel ieved the conference
would make her m ore valuable to the corn pany, she took vaca-
t ion t ime and p aid her own way.
Wh ile she was there, she learned about Europe's upcoming qual-
ity standard, I S 0 9000. The goal of these bidding requirements
was to ensure higher-quality raw material.; , products, and pro-
cesses-all to give Euro pean com pan ies a greater competitive edge
in world markets.
If a
supplier comp any, like hers, could not m eet
them, it would not be allowed to bid on Eu:.opean projects.
Elena cam e back all jazzed up.
On
her own t ime, she got up to
speed on I S 0 9000 requirements an d explained them to her work
group during
a
brown bag lunch . Pretty
soor
her co -workers were
exci ted , t oo , enoug h to go to thei r management and per suade
them of the benef i ts of get t ing ahead of the learning curve on
Europe's IS0 9000 bidding specs.
Upp er managers were
a
harder sell. T h t y were skept ical that
the Europeans would ever agree on these n ew standa rds, let alone
enforce them . But Elena kept w orking the decision-makers, sending
them articles and writing memos about the benefits of being first.
Finally, the top executives saw some con crete advantages an d go t
behind th e idea. Europe is now the cornpan); ; biggest customer and
the com pany's improved quality is attracting U.S. busine ss as well.
Th e compan y's increased siiccess spran g from Elena's self-m an-
agemen t. She took it on herself to enhance h er value despite her
unsupport ive manager . Sh e was also spot i ing opportu ni t ies to
increase th e comp any's value. Finally, Elena'a; action s point up the
interconnectedness of the work strategies. He r self-manage ment
also involved initiative-a willingness to move beyon d her narrow
job description, bey ond even the boss, to rr-ach a goal that ben-
efited everyone. To top things off, she refui.ed to give up .
4. Getting the big picture
Average performers suffer f rom tunnel vision. T he y see the
world from their viewpoint on ly and keep pushing th e same points
over and over again.
Stars, in contrast, step outside their own viewpoint
and
adopt
a variety of perspectives: "Ho w do my customers thin k abou t this?
Wh at d o my compet i tors think? How about my col leagues? What
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abo ut top m anagement or the shareholders?" Because they can
evaluate the relative importance of a variety of viewpoints, they
are able to improve on the product or develop bet te r solut ions
to problems.
Star perspect ive grows out of get t ing enoug h exper ience to
develop pattern reco gnition. Sarah took a software developm ent
job in Silicon Valley after completing her master's degree i n com -
puter scicnce. During school
and
on her sof tware designer job,
she kept a noteb ook of observations on the solutions to comm on
problems. Every night, she would review the notebook, looking
for clues and patterns like another Sh erlock Holm es.
With her comb ination of practice
and
experience, sh e certainly
kept up with th e oth er new hires, but what ev entually separated
her from the pack w as her internalized grasp of software and co m-
puter logic. Co-worke rs were quick to recognize her insighthil-
ness , seeking her help in surmo unt ing their br ick wal ls . Such
encoun ters gave her valuable exposure to problems she would not
have faced
in
her own work.
After her first year, Sarah stunned her colleagues by requesting
a transfer to software testing, an assignment often mistakenly con -
s idered second-class , a career dead-end. The tes ter checks on
other s 'work, t o det ermine
i f
the sof tware does what i t should.
There is scant personal satisfaction
of
t he kind that comes from
creatin g new products. Software developers tolerate testcrs, albeit
reluctantly
and
usually defensively,
as
thc necessary bearers of bad
news-identifying bugs and checkin g for quality.
But Sarah saw the tester jo b as a cha nce to un derstand her work
from a fresh and crucial perspective. Sh e would be com e familiar
with a wider range of problems that could make software fail. She
would gain years' worth of experience
in
just a year or two. She
would col laborate with top customers on bui lding tes t ing pro-
grams of relevance to their pcrspective.
In the process, Sarah would avoid mistakes of substance an d
perspective in her own future software designing. Testing also
opened a window into the perspect ive of her col leagues . She
learned techniques h er co-workers used in writing software a nd
correcte d flaws found du ring the testing process.
Wh en Sarah returned to software development two years later,
the testing stint started to pay off. He r colleagues were soon refer-
ring to her as the Ze n M aster of software, and she becam e known
as
a
leading software guni, helping propel her com pany to the to p
in
Silicon Valley.
Star perform ers, like Sara h, who have mastered the nuan ccs of
perspective, were no t born to thc a rt of it . Th ey seek it out and
cultivate its benefits.
5 The r ight k ind of fo l lowership
Average performers believe that followership-that
is,
the rela-
tionship with people having organizational authority and power
over them-means show ing managers and co-wo rkers that they
know how to toe t he line, take orders without q uestion, and not
threaten Ihe leader.
Star producers lcarn very early the impo rtance of a more pos-
itive form of followership, of being a good No. 2-that it
is
often
more imp ortant to make the assist than the score. Th ey are actively
enga ged in helping the orga nization (an d usually the leade r) suc-
ceed, while exercising inde pend ent, critical judgment about wh at
needs to be don e and how to d o i t . Star fol lowers work coopera-
tively with a leader to accomplish the organization's goals even
when there are personality or workp lace difference?.
Th is f inding was surpr is ing s ince it contrad icts what many
peo ple think-that a star is always a leader or the cen ter of atten-
tion. Often star followers support the leader by alerting him or
her to trouble spots, by sewing as a thoughtful sounding board,
or by c hallenging the leader's decisions.
I n
many tec hnolo gy co mpa nies , a f ine line must be walked
between wha t the com pany believes the customer wants and what
KELLEY H O W TO
n
A
STAR
E N G I N E E R
the knowledge workers think is best. I often hear bosses complain
that their engineers are building a Rolls Royce when the customcr
only ne eds a Do dge . Enam ored of their ability to build the best,
workers want to attach all the latest bells and wh istles, even thou gh
this can lcad to delays or budge t overruns.
In one such exchange, a star engin eer at Bell Labs had t o con-
front the boss's nagging about his extra efforts. T he boss w anted
to ship a s t r ippe d-dow n cal l -rout ing feat ii rc for the tclepho ne
switch
in
order to come
in
ahead
of
schedule and win points with
the customer .
"Forget about all the extras. The c ustomer would rather ha ve a
basic model today than the greatest model one mon th rrom now,"
she said.
Not necessarily, said the star performer,
and
sat down w ith her
to review the product's short- and long-term goals for this cus-
tomer and others in the marketplace.
"Sure, there might be short-term gains with this customer," said
the follower, "but there are risks, too. Th ey may relegate us to the
low end of the line when we have staked out the high-en d market.
Also, if we do the extra work on this customer's product now, we'll
save on product de velopmen t time for other customers already
in
th e p ipeline . But let's find out w hat the cuqtonier prefers."
Ou r star as follower understood the b o s s immediate concc rns.
At the same time, he tried to shift her perspective to the larger
overall goals they shared. W hen possiblc, such followers temper
their own efforts so that they fal l
in
the range of comp any objec-
tives-or the y find
an
organization that is a bet tcr m atch.
6. Teamwork
as
jo in t ownersh ip o f
a
project
Average performers think teamw ork means working coope ra-
tively with others on a project or problem and doin g your part
on
the team.
Star producers take it to
a
highe r levcl. Th ey see it as a com -
plex series of skills that involve taking join t "ow nersh ip" of goal-
setting , grou p commitmen ts, work a ctivities, schedules,
and
group
accomplishments. It also means being a positive contributor to
the group's dynamics-helping everyo ne feel part of the team,
dealing with conflict, and assisting o thcrs in solving problems.
A medical equipment supplier formed a crisis team because hos-
pitals were furious over recen t failures
in
the compa nies'latest crit-
ical care monitors. Th e equipm ent gave off em crgcncy warnings
at random, distrcssing both patients a n d the hospital staff who
would rush into triage alert only to find nothing w rong.
Th e team consistcd of professionals from five departmen ts,
including product ion, research, and ci is tomer service. Of t h e
group's seven m embers, the on ly star was Aiden, an enginee r who
had
moved into customer sewice to learn more abo ut that side
of
the business.
During th e third hou r of the first team meetin g,
a
heated debate
erupted ov er what action sho uld be takcn immediately. Ewing,
a
j3-yea r-old product ion engineer with 25 years of exper ience at
the com pany, argued for continu ing to send repair people to the
disaffected hospitals to fix the ma chines o n site. ButJulie, a rece nt
hire
in
the research department, argued for followingJohnson
John son's lead from the Tylenol disaster-recall all the machines.
Th e discussion dragged on, with Ewing andJulie getting more
heated and less civil. Aiden noticed that he a nd others were get -
t ing f rus t rated a n d f idgety. Rather than let the mat ter go
unchecked, he m ent ioned i t , and upon get t ing nods of agrecrnent
from several
of
the others, he suggested, "Why don't we take a 10-
minute break, so that we can all take a breather and maybe find
a way around this?"
W hen the meeting resumed, Aiden thoug ht he could break the
impasse by asking Julie to present an d argue for Ewing's app roach
and ge tting Ewing to argue heru. Although bot h Julie and Ewing
were wary, t he t ac t ic d eh sed the mou nt ing t ens ion and anger .
Th en o ther group mem bers startcd to bat ideas aroun d. Eloise, a n
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exper ienced but shy designer who sat i n the corner and had not
said a word all day, spoke tip i n a soft voice: "Since not eveiy ho s-
pital is comp laining, shouldn't we first find out wh y these partic-
ular machines are malfunctioning? Either they're broken to start
with, or something is going o n in the hospitals thcy're in
So,
rather
than pull all the m achincs, maybe we should pull only those hav ing
problems and gathe r information on each setting to see i f somc-
thing there is causing the problem, like a high magne tic field."
No one commented on her idea and the discussion resumed.
After a few minutes, Aiden joined in, saying, "I'm not surc every-
on e he ard Eloise's suggestion. I think that she might have a way
out of this for
us.
Wou ld you inind repeating it for us?"
With that, Eloise made her point again. Aiden ohaervcd that
it demonstra ted custom er responsiveness but was less expensive
than a total recall. T he rest of the g roup th en su pported Eloise's
suggest ion to get through the group impasse, and moved o n to
other topics .
Without Aiden's intervention, Ewing and Julie might still be
f ight ing, Eloi se might never have been heard , and thc group
might ha ve floun dered indefinitely. By going b eyon d his role as
the custom er service rep LO the tea m, Aiden was able to improve
its effectiveness.
7.
Small I leadership
Average performers are fascinated by Icadership with
a
big
L: Big Vision, Big Charisma, Big Success. To thcm, leadership
seems
a n
in-born t rai t whose ow ners can f launt their egos by
being in charge, having the pow er to make most key decis ions ,
and delegat ing whatever does not interes t them.
Star performers, on the other hand , view leadership
as
a work
strategy that builds on expe rtise and influence to conv ince a group
of people to uni tc on a substant ial task. Th c under taking can
involve a range of cfforts-helping the group create a clear vision
of where they want to go along with the high com mitment
and
trust necessary to g et there; finding the resources to acco mplish
the task; and shepherding the project to successful completion.
We al l know very smart people wh o couldn' t lead a one-ca r
funeral. Oth er critical skills besides intelligence are involved
in
leadership with a small I Small-I leaders understand th e human
relationships that link peop le to ea ch oth er, whereas Big Ls are
much too focused on their own ideas, thcir own work styles, their
own goals. Small-I leaders know they need to take into acco unt
the needs, skills, aspirations,
and
power
of
their co-workers on
a
project or team.
This focus outside the self is productive because of a work
place reality that Big
Ls
often overlook. Small-I leaders seldom
have formal authority ov er those they w ant to lead. Peers will go
along only
if
they believe a member of t he group who want s to
lead
is
acting in their interest as much as his or her ow n. Bringing
them around requires the kind of interaction that Big Ls believe
is a waste of preciou s leadership tim e. Th e small-I leader wh o
bon ds with co-worker followers by s logging through the dai ly
project grind and sharing late-night pizzas while meeting dead-
lines earns more loyalty and credibility than even the most charis-
matic Big
L
boss.
Th e big secret here from our star pcrformers-the secret that
separates them from Big Ls and other avcragc-performing lead-
ers-is their rehisal to assume they know everythin g about othe r
people. Most Big
L
hype portrays the lcader as omniscient. The
Leader knows what's best for the followers and for the situation.
Ou r s tar performers make
a
habit of asking first, even wh cn
they think they al ready know . Anithia, a U.S.-bas ed sof tware
designer for a Germ an-ow ned business, rarely begins a new pro-
ject without testing h er assumptions about her co-worke rs. Wh en
assigned to lead six co-w orke rs in a project to dev elop a new soft-
ware program for the Internet, she took time out from the first
meeting to ask abou t work roles and assignme nts.
5 6
'yohn , during our last project together, y01.1 aid that yo u wanted
more hardware expericnce. Is that still the (case? Because this p ro-
ject has a s t rong hardware comp onen t to i t .
Like a percept ive psychologis t , Ani thia suspended her own
assumptions and asked empowe ring, opei i .end ed quest ions that
go t people talking about what skills each b rought t o the table and
what each on e wanted from the project.
As
a result, sh e was able
to m atch work assignments LO individual skills and interests more
closely. She wanted to avoid pigeo nholing lier co-workers,
in
the
way Hollywood producers do when the y ype-cast actors .
Of course, employees canno t always get 'zverything they want.
But with th e sincere offcr to listen an d the attemp t to meet some
needs
a
small-l leader with out form al authoiitv wins a lot of influ-
ence . Th ose efforts also provide the firm platlorm need ed w hen th e
inevitable stresses hit during the project's crunch times. Demon-
strated superiority in a technical area may i n any case justify some
small-Istars in becoming an interim leader, But they kn ow that h ier-
archy doe s not extend to th e interpersonal side, where instead, they
try to creatc a we re-all-in-the-trenches-togctherttitude,
To software designer Anithia, the Internet project in which she
acted as small-I lcader prov ed a huge hit with customcrs. At the
annual awards banquet, thc prcsident of the N orth Am erican divi-
sion praised it as being"vin tage Anithia." Inviting her to th e stage,
he comp ared it to othe r successful projects 4n ithia had led in t he
past.
If
t he company had 500 more like her, he said, domination
of the U S arket would be assured. Th en , he summ oned her
to the podium to speak.
Like
so
many self - important actors cl i tching th eir Oscars ,
Anithia could have nished throu gh the standard nice words about
her boss and project membe rs . Ins tead, she invited them all on
stage with h er and asked one of them to in..roduce each m ember
of the group. Then she stepped to the m icrcphone and said, "This
project was the result of our effort, without each person's contri-
bution, it would not hav e been the success it is. We were proud
of it , and glad that you are, too ."T hen the y took a collective bow.
8.
Street smarts
Average performers locus overly on inlcratiating themselves
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as the surest way to get ahead in the workplace. The y also pay
obsessive attention to office politics or patronizingly ignore it.
Star produccrs know that an y large organization has legitimate
comp eting interests, Organizational savvy enables he m to steer
their way amid these clashes , to prom ote cooperat ion, address
conflicts, and g et things d one . It can involve expertise in man-
aging individual or group dynamics, understanding when to avoid
confl icts and when to meet them h ead on , and knowing how to
make allies out of potential enemies.
Remember Sa rah, the sof tware-developcr s tar int roduced in
Strategy No . on perspective [p.54] who vo lunteered for a stint
in the tes t ing sect ion, though her co-workers thought her crazy
to do so. She
also
identified people with whom shc would inter-
act in the future and began building working relationships. These
organizational bonds not only raised her standing i n their eyes,
but also smoothed the way for future interactions.
Elena, the star performer from Strategy No. 3 , on self -man-
agement [p.54], used extensive organizational saw y to focus her
company on I S 0 9000 and the o pportuni t ies presented by thc
European m arket. First, she held a brown bag lunch for her col-
leagues to tell them what she had learned al a professional c on-
ference. Wh en she became more adept, she offered detailed tiito-
rials. Meanw hile, she sat down w ith her bo ss to exp lain the heneiits
to the c omp any of the special standards, and quietly lobbied upper
manage ment by se nding them relevant articles and short mcmos
on the sales and profit potential. Of course, she made sure to ask
her boss' s bless ing before c ontact in g top execut ives . She the n
trained others in her company in how to bid for European ciis-
tomers. So while trying to promote her ideas, she was tying them
to the company's critical path an d paying atlention to organiza-
tional protocol.
9 Show
and tell
Average per former s th ink Show-a nd-Tel l means get t i n g
noticed by upper management through slick presentations, long-
winded m emos, and publ ic displays of affection for their own
work. Th ey focus pr imari ly on their image and their m essage,
not on the audience.
Star producers use a series of skills involving selecting which
information
to
pass on
LO
which others and developing the most
effective, user-friendly format for reachin g
and
persuading
a
spe-
cific audience. At its highest level, Sho w-an d-Te ll involves select-
ing either the right message for a particirlar audience or the right
audience for the particular message.
Th ere is no getting around it. Th e economy of the 1990s is a
tough place for professionals who ha ve trouble presenting their
ideas to groups, especially in personal presentations. For most
knowledge workers, we're not talking about big productions, like
Bill Gate s or Billy Graham addressing thousands i n cavernous con -
vention halls endowed with modern multimedia tools and com-
puter-gen erated special effects. Instead, Show -and-Te ll deno tes
small end -of-th e-ha ll confe rence room presentations to groups of
five to 20, with an occasional auditorium presentation thrown in.
Th e audience is co-workers, or uppcr-level managers, or ciistomers.
T he con t en t
s
usually technical and product-related .
In
the realm of the star producer, thou gh, th e process is more
sophis t icated. From our research, we observed a l in e- tuning of
Show-and -Tell-from mere transmittal
of
informat ion points
to the s culpt ing of t he message. Th e s t ar s we observed
had
mastered the abi l i ty to del iver a mcssage to a t a rgeted audi -
enc e , t o per suade l is t ener s t o accep t t he m essage, and to be
proact ive in deflecting criticism.
Where average performers fail most often is in making the
leap from the basic dispensing of informa tion to the hi gh level
of us ing the message to inf luence. Their s tyle and f ramework
of
del ivery remains the same even tho ugh their audiences can
differ a l o t
i n
makeup.
KELLEY ~ H O W TO
WE
A S IAN E N G I N C t R
A labor relations manager for a Fortune
500
corporat ion did
it the right way when he had to reduce health care costs i n a new
contract to be negotiated with the company's unions. The plan
he developed
had
to be acceptable
LO
both the top officers of the
company and the unions.
His app roach was to fashion the same informat ion in radi-
cally ditferen t ways, first to a small group of lower-ranking union
officials in bile-sized cliiinks over a week of m eetings on their
home turf. He provided them with clear, easy-to-read handouts
that could be duplicated and handed out to rank-and-f i le mem-
bers with a reasonable cha nce of being undc rstood quickly. Th e
presentation's high point was the message that the union's agree-
ment to switch over to a managed care program would be bal-
anced by the company's promise to use the cost savings to mod-
ernize outdated plants , making them com pet i t ive and reducing
the risk of closings an d job losses.
His earlier prcsentation to the company's chief executive offi-
cer (CEO)and top vice presidents containe d fundam entally the
same inform ation, but it was pack aged q uite differently. First, the
t ime window for his presenlat ion was much shor te r than that
allowed by the iinions. The bulk of his message was delivered in
a
no-nonsense, well-docum ented, and detailed reporl with
a
per-
suasive section o n recon lnlendations for acceptance. H e was able
to reinforce his basic message in person i n a I -hou r meet ing on
the company plane with the
CEO
and the company pres ident .
His position was that ii management deman ded changes
it1
health care benefits without any creative incentives, the iinions
would balk and inake negoliating a new conk act near ly impos-
s ible. He noted that the company was just enter ing on a per iod
of iniprcssive gro wth and that s tockholders would hardly take
kindly to a protracted strike.
While there was criticism of his plan within both camp s, the
star labor negotiator had laid his groundwork well. In t he cnd ,
both management and the rank-an d-file approved the h ealth care
benefits proposal with only m inor change s.
Of the m any star Show-and-Tell lessons to be learned from this
example, the mosl im portan t is the on e that differentiates between
Show -and-Te ll tars and average presenters: know your audience
and shap e your message to it ,
Mea ra designs soilwa re for the transm ission of images-X-rays,
clcctrocardiogram readings, and live closed-circuit
TV
shots-
over phon e lines to and from hospital emergency o perating rooms.
She wed a short video clip to start a presentation to emcrgcncy
room physicians and hospital directors of her team's latest solt-
ware design. Th e clip showed a car slamming on screeching brakes,
the whine of the ambu lance siren, a small child being rushed into
the emergency room,
a n d
a doctor f l icking on her company's
equipm ent saying they on ly had minutes to save a young life.
"Ou r work can make th e difference
in
saving this childs oryolrr
child's life," Meara to ld her au dience . "Throughou t our projec t,
we played this video clip to remind ourselvcs of the importance
of giving it the hest we could. Now let me share it with you."
To compare her software's cffcctiveness with that of previ-
0115 vers ions , Meara used an electron ic timel ine accompanied
by the th ump of a heartbea t as heard in emergency rooms. First,
she ran th e old software, but as the audience waited for the puls-
ing images to come up on th e screen, the t imel ine reached i (s
end, the heart stoppe d beating, and the emergency room alarms
went off . With thc new sof tware, the images arr ived fas ter and
beat the t imcl ine.
The n M eara took th e audience through the ups and down s of
the pro jcct ay they tried various solution s to shav ing time off th e
process-what wo rked , wh at failed, and why. She wovc techni-
cal points into the human drama of health professionals working
to save people4 lives.
Meara hooked her audience by getting them to identify with the
terror of their child's being i n a medical emergency and needing he r
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companyk product to work. Then, she dramatically
dem onstrated the value of the new product.
Becoming a star
We conducted a long- term s tudy evaluat ing
how productive engineers werc before and after
they had learned s tar work s t rategies by go ing
through our productivity improvement program
Currently called Breakthrough, this program has
been taught for the past seven years to over 1000
people in many companies not only in the U nited
States but in Europe
as
well. It
is
licensed to pro-
fessional training companies
and
is being used in
universities both
i n
the classroom an d for staff
development
As a basi s for our ev aluat ion, we met wi th
managcrs , s tar performers , and average work-
ers, asking them to list the factors indicative of
increased product ivi ty
in a
person working in
thei r de par tme nt s . Severa l i t e r a t ions ensured
that people who rated highly on these factors
were indeed hig hly product ive.
The n we asked di r ec t manager s to r a t e 300
participants and
300
nonparticipants
on
this list
of productivity factors, once before th e training
sess ions began and a second t ime eight mo nths
after finishing the program.
On the basis of these managerial evaluations,
program par t icipants were found to have
increased their rate of productivity improvement
s ignificantly. Th e engineers wh o went through
the program solved problems fas ter , produce d
higher-quality work, and con sistcntly impressed
their customers.
T he star strategies program is not a remedial
course for poor performers. About
30
percent of
the participants taking part i n our productivity
improvemen t programs a l r eady were wear ing
the star producer label. The ir productivity gains
have be en similarly impressive.
Th e most dramatic changes were
in
the ranks
oE
women and minorities, according to thcir bosses'
pre- and post-evaluat ions . Their product ivi ty
improvemcnt rates shot up 400 percent on average.
Th e success
of
these groups underscores a key
finding in our work. Becoming highly productive
does not require magic. When engineers produce
at undistinguished levels, it
is
seldom because they
are less capable-it is becau se they never learned
the work s t rategies that lead to high product iv-
ity. Once these engineers are given access t the
star strategies, their produ ctivity takes off.
About the author
Robert E. Kelley teaches a t Carnegie Mellon
University's business school, in Pittsburgh. His How to
Be
A
Star at Work: Nine Breakthroug h Strategies
You
Need to Succee d (Times Books, 1998, 1999) has just
been updated and released
in
paperback. His other
books include The Gold Collar Worker: Harnessing
the Brainpower of the New Workforce.
H e
can be
reached by e-mail at Robert@Kelleyldeas.com.More
abo ut his ideas is accessible on th e World Wide Web
a t
www.kelleyideas.com.
Spectrum editor: Tekla 5 Perry
5 8 I C L t I P E C l R U M
OCTOHFR
1999
http://kelleyldeas.com/http://kelleyldeas.com/http://www.kelleyideas.com/http://www.kelleyideas.com/http://www.kelleyideas.com/http://kelleyldeas.com/