CADDManager on April 29th, 2015
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series A CAD Manager's Demeanor

Bring Energy and Enthusiasm 

When you take on tasks and projects, do it with gusto.  Truly enjoy your work.  Make your efforts in some way… fun. We all like to do the things that we naturally have talent in.  We love the things that fill us with pride and accomplishments.  Getting things done is enjoyable.  Enjoying things while you get them done may not always be easy.

When working with others, make sure that you are not putting out negative vibes that bring everyone down.  Not every task is exciting, but every task can be done with some measure of vigor.  And when you approach each task with a positive outlook, it is contagious.  People will like working with you.

Working on exciting new projects gets everyone invigorated to do their best.  It is not hard to get people involved in the fun, new and exciting efforts.  A CAD Manager needs to move every project forward in such a manner as to make them inviting to others.

No one likes to slog through boring tasks, but you can find ways to make them more enjoyable.  Not every task expands your horizons.  Not every project is a ground breaking effort. Here are a few tips that might help make boring into a blast and routine into rambunctious:

Make each step a success.  Even when you have a large amount of redundant work, you can celebrate the milestones of getting 10% done.  Then shoot for 25%.  Then make the next 25% get done quicker.

Find ways to automate.  Look for ways to make something that is drudgery into dynamics by automating some portion of the work.  See how much you can script out or program into the software.  See who can come up with the best idea for making things run faster.

Make it a contest.  Divide the work among the team and make it a race (but don’t sacrifice quality). See who can move toward the goal in less time.  See who can find and fix more errors.  See who can duplicate successful methods on the grandest scale.

Start conversations about the future.  When you get this job done, what can you do next.  What is this fix or modification going to open the doors to? Can what you are working on actually boost your technology curve by opening other doors to high tech?

Transfer the knowledge.  Define lessons learned and see how you might apply them to other areas of your work.  Document the best of the best. Tell others what you are finding that might improve processes elsewhere.

 

Series Navigation<< A CAD Manager’s Demeanor – Part 6

One Response to “A CAD Manager’s Demeanor – The Final Installment”

  1. Thanks for the article. I thought all pages had great advice that we should take into consideration. I think these are the skills that we all tend to lack at times. As a training organization, we invest most of our time teaching folks how to actually perform the tasks with the software but lose sight of these types of skills.

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