Do you find yourself begging others to
follow the standards, comply with project guidelines or use
the software correctly? Your approach may not be
outright begging, but you seem to always be negotiating with
others to get them to follow company policies. You
also have to constantly ask for budget funding.
Negotiating skills are a must for any
CAD Manager. You have to know how to ask for things,
who to ask and how to work through the back and forth
negotiation process when resistance comes your way.
Sharpening your negotiation skills is invaluable. But
sometimes the negotiating may look like begging.
Sometimes the process of asking can become a challenge.
Solution:
Stop begging people to follow the
standard and make it part of the culture of your firm.
Positive peer pressure works wonders. Have those who
embrace the standard talk with those that don't. Let them
know how it is hurting the firm to not follow it. Make
statements of fact and not pleading remarks.
Asking for funding should be a formal
process that happens through the budgeting process. If
your firm has no CAD budgeting process, create one.
That way people know that you have planned and prepped and
need finding to get things done. Always precede your
funding requests with justification documenting the existing
situation, the solution, the cost and the impact of doing
nothing. Well planned budget requests go a lot farther
than pleading or impromptu begging.
Do you keep too much information to
yourself? Do you fix peoples problems without telling
them how you did it, or what was wrong? Is you desk
piled high with paperwork and your "to do" list too long?
Gaining knowledge in the tools that you
use got you to where you are now, but locking that knowledge
away from your users can cripple your advancement now.
The point of CAD Management is to pass as much know how to
the front line cad'ers as you can.
Gathering and prioritizing your work is
a must. Deciding what to do and when to do it is
pivotal in sifting through the myriad of tasks that come
your way. By organizing you can define what is best to
work on. But what about the secondary tasks that often
site on your list for weeks. Moving them forward is
also your job.
Solution:
Share with others and they will share
with you. Make it a habit of giving away information.
Data, facts, tips, tricks, and more. By sharing you
actually increase your worth and not devalue it.
Keeping things to yourself will eventually lead to being
thought of as a techno miser. People will stop asking
you for solutions.
When you fix someone's problem, tell
them what you did. Tell them how you got it to work.
Even if you just fiddled and it snapped into place.
Let them know that is what you did. CAD Managers
should seek to enable others through the passing on of
information.
If you hoard your work or tasks then
look for ways to get others to help out. Delegating is
often a difficult thing to do. You have to trust
others with your deadlines, quality control, efforts, and
more. And what if they fail? Oh well - you can
always pick up the pieces. But having an overly long
"to do" list causes a backlog of tasks. Each of your
tasks is important, or it would not be on the list.
Getting the tasks done in a timely manner is also important.
By keeping them all to yourself, you slow progress.
They all need to get done, but you are not the only person
that can do them. Managers get things done through
other people. Give away your lower level task and
focus on the big ticket items. If you have staff, then
let them do some of your work. If you have not staff
then look for eager users who would love the challenge of
helping out.
Do you say that you will make something
happen and then not deliver? Are you failing to
convert your words into deeds? Is there a problem when
people check in with you on your deadlines and you have to
change them?
This may be a follow on from the last
conversation. Not getting things done when they are
needed or promised may be the kiss of death if not
corrected. Meeting deadlines and keeping your word are
demanded of the position. Mess up on this one and you
could see the negatives real quick.
Solution:
Under promise. That is one method
of keeping things running smooth. Do not make promises
you cannot or will not keep. Do not promise or
guarantee unless you are absolutely firm that you will
deliver. When asked for a deadline, work in a little
wiggle room for the unexpected delays that always happen.
If you think it will take until Tuesday, then promise it on
Wednesday. Always promise delivery to capture some
buffer time, like right after lunch. IF you get in a
pinch, you work through lunch. Never promise anything
at the end of the day. Make it early morning the next
day so you can work all night if demanded. Don't
promise delivery on Friday. Make it Monday instead,
then you have the weekend buffer to work when a major delay
comes up.
Over deliver. Get things to
people before the deadline. Set appropriate deadlines
as outlined above and then get it to the early. By
doing this you are seen as a person that can be depended on.
getting things done early always improves your worth to the
company and to the people who are depending on you.
These are some of the personality
perspectives that you might fall into. We will cover more
of these through the summer. Stay tuned - no reruns here!
