being a great engineer

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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EEE

IEEE

SI'ECTRUM

OCTOBtR 1999


3/8

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

55


6/8

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

IFEL

SI'C


7/8

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

5 1


8/8

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 [email protected]

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/

being a great engineer

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