The time of Spring growth in the garden is a happy one: the roses are budding -- trying to burst forth their colors and aromas; the first strawberry was harvested yesterday and some of the seeds of beans, corn, peas and radishes have germinated, waiting for the moment I have time to transplant them, so another batch can then be started.
But while we help nature on its way, and wonder whether the apple trees have done their own thing and properly pollinated, how often do we sit back and ponder how our own professional growth is doing?
I remember it as being a very natural process when I was much younger; you leave college with your bit(s) of swankily-embossed paper, having been measured and measured over the previous years. And then you are in a world where someone will still be measuring you to see what pay raises you might get; what promotions you might be offered. But the people doing that job, you find, are rather perfunctory at their duties and you cannot be sure they actually know you, your capabilities, or your future direction.
As a case in point, I was given one of my annual interviews at a BBC transmitting station by the EiC (engineer-in-charge) standing next to me at the urinals in the men's' room. It consisted, basically, of an, "Everything all right then?" -- which elicited a positive response from me -- followed by a "Great!" from him. And so my annual raise duly came along…
I learned to take measure of myself against others performing roughly the same task, and comparing capabilities. I changed jobs when I had to; but also when I felt the need to reach further, more quickly. Competence grows and, hopefully, the responsibilities grow alongside.
I went back to my old college to teach, and was the youngest lecturer in the system; I very cheekily applied for, was proposed for and passed a professional competency interview for the coveted UK Chartered Engineer status before I was thirty -- one of the best measuring processes I have ever gone through.
Later in professional life, most of us try to compare our management style, and success, against those we admire for their ability to get things done smoothly and to get the most out of the talent pool that they had. And we tried to ensure that we did not become one of those managers who rule by humiliation, fear, and voice level.
If you get to the top of a company, and most of us do not, the characterizations that you instinctively check out are your financial returns to the owners, the relationships between your different heads of department, your retention rate of employees and, most importantly, the willingness of any employee to approach you at any time without fear.
My present measurement system is challenging in a different way in that I have no one to report to and no targets to match, other than my responsibility to you as readers to be fair, direct and accurate. Over the years in the corporate world I have not allowed myself to restrain my "pointy end" (for example, at a department staff meeting, I persuaded the president to admit his general uselessness and to award himself a pay reduction, which the CFO eagerly wrote into the meeting minutes). Hiding what you believe to be right is not in my personal lexicon. But here, in analogZONE and the EN-Genius Network, I still don't hold back my pointy end; I cannot afford to be any less direct, and honest, as I analyze the products that are in my purview.
Different measurements at different stages, all toward the goal of bringing a satisfying career to fruition. But as you plant, water, harvest and prune your own personal career yard, I'm sure I don't need to remind you that there are always weeds trying to use your nutrients. Always. And often there are wasps, too.
