D’s Manifesto – Part 2
Here is the rest of my manifesto…
4- If you promise, DO IT!
It takes ages to build up trust between individuals, or organizations. Less than a second is usually enough to destroy it though. If you do not deliver what you’ve promised, without any reason, you better quit your job, go home and start watching Dr Phil for the rest of your carrier. Of course, we all are human beings and can make mistakes, but it cannot be repeated on a regular basis. Such habit will most probably lead to mistrust and you’ll lose your collegues' and clients' respect. It may never be restored!!!
5- CARE your company!
Be there for your company and your collegues when they need you. Take care of them! Talk and prove how good you are and your company is, cuz no one else will do it for you. The better your company is, the better you are.
6- COMMUNICATE!
The more we communicate the less we misunderstand. There will be less conflicts. Make sure to confront conflicts as soon as it emerges, with a positive attityd and common sense with no prestige. No matter how much time or how many meetings it takes, you need to understand the expectations clearly to be able to produce good results as a team.
You can of course extent this list with an endless number of habits or skills. But so far, these six leading stars have been the most important characteristics of my perspective on management and cooperation. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Have an awesome day.
Deniz Yildirim
Click here to e-mail me
D’s Manifesto - Part 1
Everybody has a manifesto nowadays. Why can't I have one? Alright, let's do it!
There are some primary skills you've got to have as a growing and driven individual. It's no rocket science. Most people know what they are but here, I'm listing the ones which are the most important to me from my perspective.
I'm only going to mention about the first three of them today. I'll write about three more on my next blog post in couple of days. I hope you'll find it useful.
Here we go:
1- See BEFORE it happens - ACT while you've got time!
Everybody realises a crisis or an opportunity when it happens but it's usually too late. That is not a skill. The skill is being able to see it long before it happens. You can see it by good planning and continious analysis and re-evaluation of the circumstances. Rest is all about working proactively while you've got time to catch the opportunity or dodge the bullets.
2- Don't look, but SEE!
There is a great deal of difference between looking and seeing. Or some used to put it as listening and hearing. The luxury of missing the delicate details on the decison making elements is what drives your team, project or company under. You've got to realise, reflect and react to the input. You've got to hear and see rather than just to listen or look!
3- Talk about the SOLUTION, not the problem!
For some reason, most people love to focus on problems. Maybe because it's easy. But it never saves the day. People expect to hear about alternatives of solutions, how to fix or eliminate the pain rather than re-formulation of an existing pain. Would you like to help? Then do the right thing; focus on the solution.
That's it for today folks. I'll write more about three additional habits that I look for in my everyday colleagues behavior. Thanks for reading and see you in couple of days.
Deniz Yildirim
Click here to e-mail me
Response To My Last Post
It's not the need for different roles or functions I question, but it's the unnecessary hierarchies.
I've received many responses to my last blog post. Many of my community colleagues called, e-mailed or when we met, they mentioned their thoughts on what I wrote. I'm really glad to receive all the comments. It's great to see that it's not that hard to reach out to the community, start a discussion, and cause change.
So, after talking to many professionals handling different roles in our industry, I decided to write some more about my thoughts in my last blog post. Just to make sure that my message is understood clearly, that it's not the need for different roles or functions I question, but it's the unnecessary hierarchies.
We certainly have to handle different functions and roles in a local IT-consultancy firm as well as in all other types of organizations. We have to delegate responsibilities within different areas such as sales, HR, marketing, infrastructure etc. We do definitely need sharp and driven individuals with leadership skills to create results, develop our businesses and take care of our responsibilities to our clients and employees.
On the other hand, what I'd like to change in this type of organizations we work in is the hierarchical pyramids. What I believe is that if you manage to build up a team, as I described in my previous blog post, you will never need a hierarchy where some people are seen as robots with no feelings and others get credit for running the "robots".
Administrative functions have to understand that their role is all about being a service function for our colleagues, clients or other partners rather than being a "power-management". It should never be a "we Vs them" or "the consultants Vs the over-head people" kind of relationship. A team where everybody being part of the success story rather than one single OH is being the hero every time we manage to sign a contract.
That's one of the reasons I like working with people who understand the importance of this concept at tretton37 and see themselves as team players.
Do you wonder who takes the lead if there is no hierarchy? Don't worry; a great team made of great people will make sure that somebody with the right background will take lead to coordinate the team for achieving goals and great results.
Deniz Yildirim
Click here to e-mail me
It’s not business, It’s just personal
I believe that a self-managed team with no official leader can be far more efficient and productive than any other type of team with a well-defined hierarchy.
Complex hierarchies are certainly needed in such organizations as the military or larger global corporations with business models other than what we, IT-consultants operating within the local market, are used to. There's basically a clear need for such structure in these enterprises to be able to handle different roles for organizing global functions, processes and resources.
On the other hand, I don't think that the IT-consultants within the local market, no matter the size, do need executive presidents here and there, business managers, unit managers, consultant managers, vice presidents of this and that to be able to reach spectacular results. This kind of structure in our businesses will not only create unnecessary over head costs in the form of flashy business card types but also kill the passion in the hearts of our people who actually matter in our organizations.
I believe that a self-managed team with even no official leader can be far more efficient and productive than any other type of team with a well-defined hierarchy. Certainly this statement is true in case this team has established norms, goals and everyone is in agreement of the vision and the mission statement. If it also has some very outstanding characteristics such as: trust between team members, team members solve conflicts as they occur, they share commitment, and each member is accountable for results.
If you basically give your consultants increased opportunity to decide on their own courses of action, their commitment will increase and the team's goal becomes personal. By empowering your people, you will have them at the peak of their motivation. With their commitment your company will spread such good word of mouth that you probably will never need a smiley salesman in your company.
Believe me, senior executives with mad planning skills, great sales presentations with colorful pictures, a number of business developers or salesmen with nice suits you've got in your company won't do any better. Don't forget that your consultants meet your clients directly on site, 40 hours a week. They are highly educated and intelligent people with ambitions and goals. I believe that they can create more together as a self-managed team than the loneliness of egocentrism.
Deniz Yildirim
Click here to e-mail me
NINJA Vs CONSULTANT
I’ve got to be crazy to choose a company with a weird name in numbers and crew calling themselves Ninjas. Whaaat?!
Softvision has launched its first partnership with tretton37 a while ago and I’ve now been working there for the last three weeks.
I’m sure many people are wondering why I’ve chosen to join this crew other than the fact that most of these guys have been my very good colleagues for a long time in other organisations before. Of course, they’ve got a point! I’ve got to be crazy to choose a company with a weird name in numbers and crew calling themselves Ninjas. Whaaat?!
To understand this ”craziness”, we should understand the success factors of start-ups in our industry and take a closer look at this company. I strongly belive that building up succesful companies starts with establishing a strong company culture and core values. So first step is to find a team that has already employed these strong core values. If this team is also able to deliver a great quality of its well-defined offerings that the market demands and every single individual in the team is committed to their common cause and vision with enormous drive and engagement I should have been crazy to say no to this assignment!
Ok, now we’ve got the raw material! It’s time to start building up that company where every one of us has dreamed of working at.
A company with no hierarchy and titles but is run by lean management principals with minimal waste where everybody is a piece of the larger puzzle. An organisation where people are interested in and encouraged contributing in decion making and implementation. A supplier where clients do get more than what they just ask for thanks to the craftmanship culture that it promotes. An employer where people are treated as specialists and feel the fact that they work at a knowledge-based company rather than a resource factory. A development house where everybody belongs to this professional team with great accumulated knowledge. A family that is loving, fair and loyal to its children. A playground that creates an atmosphere which stimulates creativity and innovation. A company where everybody is so proud of their brand, the team behind it and the values that this company stands for. And most importantly a company owned by its employees and run by its employees.
Well, now it’s time to show the industry that with the right components, it’s absolutely possible to create great value for the market even with a weird company name and ninja as titles! There is nothing wrong with being a bit of playful. No matter what you call yourself, a ninja or a rabbit or a consultant, when you have the combination of this high quality raw material, well-defined offering with a market demand and good intentions of building up such a company that I mentioned above you can with no doubt create a company that is admired!
Now you see why I’m proud of being the captain of this fantastic team.
Deniz Yildirim
Click here to e-mail me
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