Milan stared at the screen and wearily clicked NEXT. One more online class. This one was about network applications. He had three more sections to complete tonight.
I didn’t choose to go into computers, into IT. IT picked me. (Back Where It All Began) I always seemed to move from one job to the next, WordPerfect, Microsoft, consulting. But, I have to admit there was no grand plan.
The problem I ran into was the training. I guess every job has it, but computers and networks change so fast that like trying to go up the down escalator, if you are not constantly learning, constantly trying to get ahead, you are falling behind.
During the time I spent working for a large non-profit, I assumed I had found my last job. The company was incredibly stable. They had a pension, they were so old school. I focused on the job and didn’t worry about certifications or keeping up on the latest technology.
Getting laid off was a surprise. And I realized that I’d stood still on the escalator. I was several steps back of my peers and no competitors for the job openings. For the first time in a long time, I started to focus on my career. I did three things to try to catch up.
First, I started to read. While I love business books, I also started reading blogs. I started to try to identify technology leaders and follow them. I started to research technologies, security and servers.
Second, I started to write. It was during this period that I started this blog. I wrote every chance I got. I wrote research papers. I wrote white papers just because I had an interest. And writing led to more reading.
Third and finally, I looked at the certifications that existed in my field. I identified three and put them in priority order:
Project Manager Professional (PMP)
Six Sigma Black Belt
Certified Scrum Master
I started one the first one. I had the experience but I took a class to help me with the exam. After two months and a lot of coursework, I sat for and passed the exam. Next, I looked at the Six Sigma certification. I was just starting it when I went to work for my current company.
Over the coming year, I have several goals related to work. I still plan to get the Six Sigma. I also plan to write for more places. I’ll also be turning some of the better blog entries into a longer format. And of course, I continue to read voraciously.
I don’t think IT is that unique. My brother is a CPA. He goes to school every year to learn the new tax laws. He’s becoming an expert on the Affordable Care Act since it will impact taxes so much.
Never think you are done learning.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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Magdalina. That was her name. And she was four months old. I met her and her slightly stressed mother in Minneapolis. I had seat 8A. Mother and daughter were in 8B.
You’re welcome to have the window if you’d like.
You don’t mind?
Not at all.
Magdalina didn’t really say much. Well, she was vocal, but I think it translated as “Feed me!”
Some people stress a lot about babies on planes. And it’s not always the baby’s parents who do. I’ve never been a nervous traveller. And I like to think that I have a more than usual share of empathy. Having survived traveling with 13 children will do that for you.
My wife and I travelled to India ten years ago to bring home a daughter. Our daughter was 18 months old at the time. She was fine if my lovely wife held her, but would absolutely howl if I held her, or even if my wife put her down. It’s easy to understand why. Two strangers who speak a different language and look different from her show up and take her away from everything she ever knew.
The trip from New Delhi, India to Seattle, WA took nearly 36 hours total. The longest leg in the air was 15 hours. Think about that. Fifteen hours with an infant that will not allow you to set her down. We flew Singapore airlines who provided a bassinet that attached to the bulkhead. Our daughter wanted nothing to do with it.
She finally fell asleep after several hours and we were able to lay her very carefully on the seat next to us for a few hours of rest. So the prospect of sitting next to Magdalina for a 2 hour trip from Minneapolis to Richmond, VA didn’t bother me a bit.
The Twin Cities to Richmond was actually the second leg of my trip. The first was from Salt Lake City to Minnesota. As we were queuing in the jet way I overheard another passenger,
I’m terribly allergic. I cannot believe they allow it.
Well, she’s typically no trouble and. . .
Well, I’ve been on other flights and it’s caused an issue!
Imagine my surprise when I ended up as the middle seat between these two women. And the point of contention? A cat. One woman was transporting her cat.
I’ve never seen a cat on a plane. Even today, I still haven’t seen it. The cat never left the duffle bag carrier. I barely heard the cat.
So, do you drug her before you fly?
I used to, but then I forgot to one time and she acted exactly the same.So I quit.
The allergic lady ended up switching seats with someone further back. I like cats, but it wouldn’t have mattered since the woman could have been transporting a bag full of books on cats for all the fuss the actual cat made. The guy on the aisle asked her about the cost.
So, do you have to pay extra to bring a cat?
Yes. Actually it’s quite a bit more. It used to be $75, but they recently raised it to $100.
Apparently she travelled with the cat quite a bit.
The dog last month wasn’t nearly as inconspicuous. I was coming back from my friend’s wedding in Seattle when a guy came walking down the aisle with a dog. This wasn’t a “pocket dog.” It looked like a Chesapeake.
(Photo credit: dogbreedinfo.com)
He and his owner had the seat behind me. There were plenty of bumps on the back of my seat as the dog got comfortable. I thought, “Oh, boy. This is going to be a challenge.”
Nope.
It’s 90 minutes from Seattle to Salt Lake. That dog didn’t make a peep. He didn’t seem to move a muscle. As we touched down in Salt Lake and taxied to the gate several of us commented on what a good traveller he was. Looking over my shoulder I added,
I rarely lean my seat back any more. But, today especially there was no way I was going to.
I can’t raise my hands right now. But, if I could, I’d high five you.
Travel is stressful enough. When someone needs to take their baby, be they human, feline or canine, the least I can do is try to make it a little easier for them. Especially since it doesn’t cost me a thing to be a little accommodating.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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Hey Mark, want to get some dinner?
Yeah, I just need to finish up this payroll processing.
Okay, let me know when you want to go.
Three hours later I was still waiting. But, we were headed to a really nice restaurant. The Brick Tap House in Louisville, Kentucky.
I’ve been to Louisville several times and eaten at the Tap House, or is it Brick House? (I’m never sure.) I could never get past the steak and ‘shrooms to try the rest of the menu. But, today I was really looking forward to the drunken chops. I was clearly going to have to wait a while longer.
Another hour went by while I thought about the fact that I was really happy I didn’t have to do payroll processing.
Why was I even waiting? I could have gone by myself, right? Four hours is practically enough time to have eaten and been ready to eat again. But, still I was cooling my heels in the lobby waiting for my coworkers. Because good as it was, it wasn’t really about the food.
When I travel, I love to stay in Residence Inn by Marriott. Part of it is rewards points and free breakfast and stuff, but more importantly is the kitchen. Food isn’t that important to me. Even really good food. Given my choice, I’ll stay at my hotel and cook frozen burritos.
So why was I waiting to go to dinner?
Finally, at 9:30 it was time to go. We had a wonderful dinner. The drunken chops were everything I was promised they would be. But, it was the conversation that was the real treat. The people I was having dinner with were men that I’d worked with to get our Louisville site set up and running over the past several months.
No talking about work during dinner.
We spent the evening talking about many thing. We talked about being poor. We each discussed where we were in 2008 when the economy crashed. One man lost two businesses. One lost his job. One ended up living in barn. One had a good safe job. . .where everyday people were trying to kill him.
We talked about growing up. One man picked vegetables every summer from the time he was eight until sixteen, for $50 for the summer. One man grew up in a home with no electricity and no indoor plumbing. One man had 7 different step dads growing up.
We talked about professions. Two men were former Marines. One had never been in the service, and I’m not sure about one. We talked family. One man had 13 kids. Two others had no kids. And the other one I’m not really sure of. We talked of music and friends. Cars and coworkers. Food and vacations. Politics and religion.
No, the food wasn’t the point. The real value of the evening was a bonding that only happens when you break bread with people.
The pork chops were good, the company was better.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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Do you know what the most popular ice cream flavor is?
Yeah, it’s vanilla.
I like vanilla.
Many people don’t.
Yesterday I got to return to one of the coolest museums and factories in the world, Hillerich and Bradsbury Co,
It’s also known as the Louisville Slugger museum and factory.
Regular readers know that I’m kind of a baseball nut. This was my second trip to the museum. (That’s A Really Big Bat) When I visited the museum back in October I was all by myself. That was fun. But visiting a historic site all alone is not nearly as much fun as sharing the experience.
Yesterday we were attending as part of a team building activity. My company and some of our clients were going together. I was really excited, but it quickly started to become obvious that not everyone shared my enthusiasm. Brad and I were the first to arrive.
Rodney, if you start talking baseball trivia, I swear my eyes are going to glaze over.
I attempted to resist the urge to spout baseball stats to him.As the rest of the people started to arrive it became clear that Brad wasn’t the only non-fan.
Do you like baseball, Kent?
Not really.
Are you a fan Sara?
Not much.
At one point we walked past the wall that displayed the Major League players who signed with Louisville Slugger and were now in the Hall of Fame.
Alex got excited,
Wait, is this the Hall of Fame?
No, Alex. No it’s not.
When I was here months ago I wandered through the museum for what seemed like hours. This time we spent less than 5 minutes inside. I really had to resist the urge to let my baseball geek show.
It occurred to me that It’s okay that some people find my favorite past time a complete waste of time. It happens.
Coke vs Pepsi
Ford vs Chevy
iPhone vs Android
Microsoft vs Apple
Google vs Everybody
Mariners vs Yankees
Okay, maybe it’s just me on that last one.
Taking the baseball example, I realized that if everyone supported the same team, it wouldn’t make for much of a league. The diversity is a strength. The same is true in businesses. We all have stories of “Yes Men” style bosses. But, a strong leader will surround herself with people who are willing to disagree. Don’t pray for lots of people to agree with you. It’s much more interesting to have worthy detractors.
And occasionally try the chocolate ice cream.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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I should have noticed. Of course I should have. The weight was wrong. That’s the best indicator, but for whatever reason I grabbed my computer bag and headed for the car.
I have a 40 minute commute on most days. I was just about to the halfway point when a nagging thought that had been kicking around the back of brain finally fought it’s way to the front of my consciousness.
Did you forget something?
Ah. . .who are you?
That’s not important.
It sort of is to me.
Okay, I’m your conscious. . .your GUILTY conscious!
Is this about that red light on State street? Because that was the shortest yellow light on record!
No, this isn’t about the red light. . .or the rolling stop on 400 East. . .or the fact that you seem to be saving your blinker for some future emergency.
Okay, this is getting a little crazy. And I’m not even sure you’re not just some manifestation of that chili I shouldn’t have had after midnight. What did I forget?
I’m not sure I’m going to tell you now.
What? I offended my conscious?
I may just let you deal with the consequences. It would serve you right.
Oh, pul-leze. Just tell me what I forget.
Apologize first.
I’m not going to apologize to my own conscious.
Suit yourself.
Okay, fine. I’m sorry I compared you to after-midnight chili.
Laptop.
What about my laptop? . . . Oh no!
Told you.
I was headed down the freeway moving away from my laptop at 70 MPH. What to do? I was halfway to work. Turning around now would add 45 minutes to my commute. I tried to figure out what those consequences were that my conscious warned me about. I had my phone and my iPad. I could get email. Both devices had email. The same for the calendar. I didn’t have any critical documents on my laptop that I couldn’t do without for a day.
Seriously, I don’t need my laptop for an entire day? I went back through my task list again.
Hey, Conscious.
Yes?
I think I’m good.
Oh, I can assure you that’s not true.
No, I mean on the laptop thing. I think I can survive without it. Thanks for the warning though. Next time maybe a little earlier would help.
Don’t push me.
Why not?
Cell phone.
Yeah, sorry. We good?
Well, one of us is.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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(Photo Source: LOLSnaps)
It sounded like a reasonable enough radio commercial that I heard yesterday.
Hi, Jenna?
Yes.
This is your insurance company. Have you made any recent big purchases?
Why, yes I have. I just bought a gorgeous diamond ring.
We can help with keeping it safe.
Who wouldn’t appreciate an insurance company that proactively reaches out to you to help remind you to keep your possessions safe? What a wonderful thing.
Except it’s not. This is exactly the type of information that thieves would want to find out about you. If anyone calls me and asks me if I’ve recently bought any nice expensive, stealable stuff, I’m going to hang up on them and then possibly change my password.
It’s called Social Engineering, which sounds like a science degree you might get from a Liberal Arts college. But actually, it’s a method for separating you from your money/information/diamond ring by calling you and pretending to be someone you trust.
Like the billboard at the start of this column that talks about texting for more safe driving tips, an insurance company using a social engineering scenario has a certain irony.
Social engineering is especially worrisome in the IT world where passwords are king. If someone can get you to hand over a password via a phone call, or via an email (where it’s called phishing), no amount of anti-virus, anti-malware, firewalls or strong networks is going to keep your information safe.
Microsoft or Google or Yahoo or any computer company will never ask you for your personal password. If there is a problem, reputable companies will not even send you an email with a link that they want you to log in with. That’s what the bad people launching phishing attacks do. Instead, they will say, “There was a problem. Go to your bank’s website and change your password.”
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past six months thinking about security, especially cybersecurity. I’ll be coming back to it in the coming months. In the meantime, if someone calls and asks about any recent expensive purchases, unless it’s your mother, it’s probably best to just hang up.
Oh, and despite the billboard advice, don’t text and drive.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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Did you hear that Roger went to work for W E England as a PM?
Really? That’s seems an odd switch.
Not when you consider that Robert is the new VP of Technology at W. E. England.
You see it all the time, right? Someone gets a job not because they’re qualified for the job, but because they knew someone. I was that guy once. I was the one who got a job “because I knew someone.”
I started at Microsoft Corp in their support department. My product was Microsoft Mail Gateways. I enjoyed it. I was thrilled to work for Microsoft. But, support has a pretty high burnout rate. Every call is a mini-crisis. No one calls support to say, “Everything is working great, just thought you’d like to know.”
The beauty of the job was that you got REALLY good at what you did. Either that, or you went to do something else.
If you want to know how a program is supposed to work, ask a programmer.
If you want to know how a program actually works, ask a tester.
If you want to know how people are actually using a program, ask a support engineer.
But, support is not a long term career. And after a year or so, you start looking elsewhere within the company. A position came open in training; an instructional designer. Those are the people who create training courses. I had helped create a software course prior to coming to Microsoft. I’d also written numerous whitepapers.
The interview went better than well. I brought in the course manual for my previous course. It had definitely been a collaborative effort but I could speak to every aspect of the course creation and give examples from teaching the course. The guy doing the interview had to finally say,
I got it Rodney. You don’t have to show me anything about the course your wrote.
So, why am I saying I was “that guy”? Because of my good friend Jerry White. Jerry and I had worked together in Support when I first started. Jerry was in charge of the Microsoft Exchange course development. He had the final say on who was hired. Jerry liked me. We were friends.
I got the job.
This might not have been noteworthy if it weren’t for Shawn. Shawn also worked in support. Shawn was interested in moving to training. Shawn actually burst into my interview because we went too long. Shawn really wanted the job. Shawn wasn’t friends with Jerry.
Shawn didn’t get the job.
Support is a pretty tight-nit group. Shawn knew that Jerry and I were friends. Shawn felt he was more qualified for the position. He never got over it. He told anyone who would listen that I only got the job because of Jerry.
Fast forward a couple years. Shawn is still in Support. I’m still in the Training Department. I wrote a course called “Microsoft Exchange Advanced Topics.” It was a course that taught experienced Support folks to troubleshoot network communication between a Microsoft Exchange Server and client. Despite it’s weak name, it was the most popular course ever created for Microsoft Exchange, and probably for any Microsoft technology. We taught the course to all our Support engineers, both at Microsoft and at vendor locations.
Eventually the day came that Shawn was in my class. I wasn’t a fulltime trainer, but I still got to do a lot of training. Shawn didn’t sabotage the class, but he was less than enthused.
After the 3 day we asked the trainees to voluntarily complete an anonymous survey. And for your security experts, Yes, it was truly anonymous. It was paper based. my job wasn’t dependent on the survey scores the way our fulltime trainers’ reviews were. But, I still liked to collect the survey’s, especially on the Advanced Topics course. The scores were consistently high tfor this course. 3-4 on a 4 point scale, with an occasional 5 written in to the right of the printed responses.
As I collected the survey’s after class it became obvious which one was Shawn’s. He rated the material barely a 3 and the instructor as a 2. His handwritten comment was,
Obviously all Rodney did was copy the work of Geoff, the escalation engineer who came up with the material in the first place.
What would you do? I went to my manager and explained the situation.
So, Staci, what would you recommend I do?
Can see the survey he filled out?
Here you go.
And with that, she tossed the survey paper into the trash. I started to laugh.
I could have done that. You’re supposed to wait until I leave your office before doing that.
As far as I know, Shawn never left support. And to the day I left the company, he was convinced that I didn’t deserve the position I had in training.
The next time you are convinced that someone got a position simply because they knew a guy, realize that sometimes, people really are qualified for a position and just happen to know a guy.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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I admit I was a bit of a jerk in high school. I probably wasn’t any more of a jerk than most teenagers, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t a choirboy. My biggest problem was that I was smart but undisciplined.
It drove my teachers crazy. I had one teacher, Mr Kerrihard, who managed teach me some really important things without me really realizing it at the time.
Kerrihard taught International Relations. It was the only required class I needed my senior year to graduate. Had I not needed that class I would have gone to college a year earlier and who knows how my life would have turned out?
Anyway, I was this bratty know-it-all. We had weekly quizzes in Kerrihard’s class. The quizzes were about current events. Even at 17 I was a news junkie. I loved reading newspapers. There was no such thing as the internet yet. We had to get all our news from the paper, the radio or the TV.
I don’t remember exactly, but I think I probably aced Kerrihard’s quizzes pretty easily. And I probably wasn’t too humble about how easy they were. But, Kerrihard was a lot smarter than a 17 year old kid. At least he was smarter about teaching.
Okay, Rodney. Tell you what, why don’t YOU write next week’s quiz?
Seriously?
Sure. I will administer your quiz to the class next week.
This was going to be great. I was really looking forward to the chance to show Kerrihard how much smarter than him I was.
I scoured the paper all week. Initially I had 25 questions, but I had to narrow it down to 10. I agonized over which ones to cut. Ultimately, I cut the ones that were too easy.
Friday came and Kerrihard passed out my test. The reaction from the students was immediate and vocal.
What?
Huh?
Who would even know that?
No one liked my test. I couldn’t understand it. Kerrihard let me help grade it. The results were a disaster. I remember one question was
What historic milestone did the stock market hit this week?
I remember the question because it was the only one that anyone got right. The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 1100 for the first time that week. (1983) That was the only question from my test that the students knew.
I had set out to prove to Mr. Kerrihard how much smarter than him I was. But, what he knew and I later learned was that the questions on the quizzes weren’t some mano a mano competition between us. He was writing quizzes for the rest of the students. He was writing for the guys who didn’t read the paper. For the girls who never watched the news. For the kids who only listened to the Top 40 station on the radio and turned it off when the news came on.
I’m reminded of this story often. Yesterday the stock market closed at 17,907.87 yesterday. I think about what $1000 invested back in high school would be worth for one thing. But, I also think about a lesson that Mr Kerrihard taught me without me even knowing it.
I didn’t stop being a jerk. (The Day I Found Out I Was A Jerk.) But, it did two very important things.
First, it shook me to my core beliefs a little. I was so sure that the class was going to do well on my test. I still remember 30 years later what a shock it was when they didn’t.
Second, it planted the seeds of empathy. I’ve been a teacher or trainer in some capacity or other for my entire adult life. Last week I was teaching some 12 year olds boys how to play basketball for the first time. My older son kept wanting to add nuances of different rules.
We’re focused on basic dribbling and passing. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
It’s been easy for me to look at a lesson and strip it down to it’s basic elements. I vowed to never misjudge a class that badly again.
The lesson for us as business leaders is easy, right? We need to set our expectations for new employees to their level, not our level. We need to realize that the areas we find interesting might not be as interesting to our employees or our students.
And we need to remember that investing in the stock market when you are young pays HUGE dividends.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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We don’t see support as a income generator. Our goal for Microsoft Support Services is cost recovery. We’d like to have it be revenue neutral.
That’s a reasonable goal wouldn’t you think?
It struck fear into our hearts. We all groaned. (Softly, so management wouldn’t hear, of course.) It was 1995 and I was supporting Microsoft Mail Gateways. I’d been with the company about a year.
Microsoft was trying to be open with employees about how the departments were run. Even as support engineers we had access to the financials of the Support department. A support call cost a customer $75. Some customers thought that Microsoft was intentionally putting bugs into the software so they would have to call support and Microsoft would make money on the deal. What we knew, and they didn’t was that it cost Microsoft on average about $110 per call. So, every time the phone range we lost $35.
And that’s where we ran into our problem. A problem that was a direct result of the company sharing too much information.
We looked at the budget and it’s various categories.
1. Salaries
2. Equipment
3. Lease
4. Employee Morale
They told us they wanted to balance the budget. We looked over the expenses category and arrived at only a single area to cut.
There goes the morale budget!
Having more experience in running companies and teams, I now understand our mistake, but at the time it seemed pretty clear.
What do you do? Do you overshare and have to correct these types of misconceptions, or do you undershare and get accused of hiding bad news? Sometimes there is no right answer.
Management had no idea that stating their goal would cause concern in the support teams. When they figured it out they quickly sent a follow up email to all the support engineers.
They explained that the goal of cost recovery was a long term goal and it would be achieved over time by improving the product, better documentation and gradually raising the price per call.
No, they did not plan to balance the books by cutting the morale budget.
The message from that experience that I’ve carried with me over the years is that you need to communicate early and often. And when you think you’ve made yourself clear, go over it again.
Unless you really plan to cut the morale budget.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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The new comic was beyond nervous. After weeks of practice and months of “thinking about it” he was finally going up on stage at an Open Mic. Three minutes to be funny or die trying.
Admittedly he rushed through a couple of the jokes. He forgot, or didn’t know not to stomp on the audience laughter. And when the light came on at two and a half minutes he wrapped up with his closer and left the stage to solid applause.
He’d done it. . . and it felt GREAT! The adrenaline rush was still with him after the show when one of the senior comics, a guy who’d been performing for years came over to offer a word of congratulations.
That’s was pretty good for your first time.
Thanks. . .wait. What?
How often have you attempted to offer a word of encouragement and ended up doing the opposite? When you phrase a complement like the senior comic did, it’s actually no complement at all.
By tying your feedback, even positive feedback to a qualifier like “for your first time” you are already limiting the scope of anything you say. We expect that people are not going to be good at something the first time they try it. So, those doing something for the first time are as a group not going to be as accomplished as those who’ve been doing it longer.
I’ve launched dozens, probably hundreds of projects over my career. I still remember the first one. It was a training course for Microsoft. I named it “Microsoft Exchange Advanced Topics” because I wasn’t experienced enough to know what a terrible name that was. It should have been named, “Microsoft Exchange Client/Server Network Analysis.” The course looked at the network traffic between a Microsoft Exchange server and an email client.
The content was good and the topic was something that our support teams were clamoring for. However, my rollout was less than stellar. There were numerous details in the labs and the manual that I hadn’t completely nailed down by the time we launched. Still, it was reasonably successful and it went on to become the most popular Microsoft Exchange course that we ever created.
As my manager and I reviewed the launch I asked her for some very direct feedback.
So, how would you rate the course launch, Staci?
It wasn’t too bad for your first time. Of course, if the next launch has the same issues, I won’t be as understanding.
Not bad for your first time. That was accurate feedback, but it wasn’t a compliment. She was both acknowledging that I was new at this and acknowledging that there were issues with the launch. And she was doing it in an affirming way that I could build on rather than a negative way.
Last year we launched three new call centers at my current company. I was the IT Project Manager. The president of the company sent me an email after we launched.
Nice job. A very smooth launch. It’s great to have you on the team.
She didn’t include “For your first time” and if she had, I would have felt disappointed.
If you are going to complement someone for a good job, don’t weaken it by tacking on qualifiers. In my first example with the two comedians, I think the senior comic really did mean that the new guy had done a good job. Not that he was simply better than most first timers. If that’s what he meant, it would have been better to simply say,
That was a good job. You killed it.
THAT would be a complement that any comedian would like to receive.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and one grandchild.
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