What They Don’t Teach You
in School
Yen-Ping Shan Ph.D.
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 1
Revelation
After almost 30 years out of college…
Managed thousands of people
Hire, promoted, and fired some…
What I wish
People I hired already knew…
I had known…
Opportunity to think by the sickbed
What is success?
▪ Fame, money, power, number of people, or lasting contribution…
Most of us don’t think about the meta process
▪ We are programmed to study hard, get a degree, work hard. Why?
▪ Wife…
▪ Your life style has little to do with how much you make…
My own discovery. Yours will be different…
Big differences out of school
Same books, assignments, tests
Necessity: efficiency of teaching and grading
Graduate students start to diverge
How many
work on the same subject area after grad.
school?
coworkers have exactly the same assignment?
Knowledge vs. How to get things done
Ultimate goal: enhance stake holder value
▪ For you to find out: who are the stake holders
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 3
Working in a team
Most successful projects/products are long- lived and involve many people
E.g. Windows (45M loc), AutoPay (15M loc), front end (2.2M loc), ERA (5.5 loc)
+10 years in the running
More users, more profit, more enhancements
Almost never develop anything from scratch
Another big difference from school
Even if you are a lone developer, still
interact with people to be successful
Working in a team means working with PEOPLE
Before you can be a leader, learn to be a good follower
Argue vigorously before the decision
Once a decision has been made…
Be dependable
Know if you are on critical path
Inform people ASAP when you are behind
Build in ‘slack’ when asked to estimate
▪ When is the last time a software project came in ahead of schedule?
No hero on a sinking ship (Brooks)
Most importantly people skills…
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 5
Communication skills
Get the point across most efficiently
Know people’s preferred mode of communication
Learn how to give effective presentations
Put yourself in audience’s shoes
Get attention
▪ Unique
▪ Real substance
▪ Unexpected
Body language (Albert Mehrabian)
Tell stories, use pictures and videos
▪ E.g. crisis management and PR: Taylor Guitar, Calton Cases, UA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
Overcoming the anxiety is a big part of the battle
▪ Rehearsals help
▪ my first time…
Expect the unexpected and be quick on your feet
E.g. Xian
Magic of Threes
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 7
Holy Trinity
Comedy
Not just in communication. E.g. Ken Kragen
• Morning basket
• Afternoon roses
• Evening Champagne and tab
Timing is important: concentrated
impressions
Networking
70% of jobs are found
Your network helps way beyond job hunting
Keep a genuine interest in other people and help them whenever you can
What’s in it for me?
▪ You never know when it will come in handy
▪ Feel good just doing it
Overcoming inertia
Choice between watching TV and interact with others..
If you are not an extrovert, ask others about their interests
Keep up with the network you already have
Schoolmates are precious (no hidden agenda, no conflict of interest)
Reach out especially when they are not flying high
Negotiation
It’s a necessity in life and in work
Don’t do it for the sake of bargaining
Not dealing with street vendors here
A few tips
Know your own
▪ What can you afford to lose
▪ How unique are you
▪ Know your best alternative
Know the other
▪ How much freedom does he/she have
▪ How much do they want/need you
Look for win/win
Exercise: you just got an offer… What should you do?
Using intermediary (later in your career)
We are not experts, don’t spoil the relationship
Fisher & Ury “Getting to Yes”
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 9
What is a company?
A structure to maximize stake holder value
In the case of for profit: share holder
Note that employees are not mentioned
What are job grades/levels, titles
Motivations for you to keep working hard
Title: encourages customers to pay attention, cheapest way to make you feel good
% of bosses put company interest ahead of personal?
Not necessarily bad; how Capitalism trumped Communism
Most jump in pay doesn’t come from internal promotion
Job change
Starting something
Know when to hold them and when to fold them
Find your right tree or branch
▪ You work for your boss more than your company
When you don’t feel right (not doing the right thing, don’t appreciate you, not learning anything): move
▪ Much easier to find a job when you have a job
Ideal Employee…
What kind of employee a boss would love?
Do as told
Get paid nothing
Never complain
Never leave (unless let go)
Not! It’d be slavery
Knowledge based work place (and good boss)
Get jobs done right ahead of time under budget
▪ i.e. Beat the expectation
▪ Keep up with the latest (e.g. 40 hr’s and 2 conf’s)
▪ Highly sought after in the open market…
Make boss look good
▪ Understand what boss’ standing and values
▪ Take initiatives and be accountable
▪ Oriental workers tend to check with boss too often…
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 11
Luck has a lot to do with it
Guess where the #1 students be after 30 years
Academic ability not everything
Luck is a major factor (you still need to be good)
Take chances:
story of Soong
Try new things when you are young
Try something big and impossible in your lifetime
▪ E.g. Apache
Handle setbacks
Movie: Company Men
It’s not your fault but need to be prepared
▪ Resume always updated, network activated (if nothing else to help others find jobs)
A change may be the best thing happens to you
EQ
Goleman’s model
Self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship management
Both workplace and life
Who would you like to be around?
Who can get more done?
Work to live not the other way around
Make it easier to look at things in perspective
Wish you’d spent more time at the office on your deathbed?
Find your mirror (Snow White)
You have to be proactive
One of Gallup Q12 is “Do you have a best friend at work?”
Easily forgive and quick to ask for forgiveness
Keep yourself healthy
Yes, it helps EQ!
Life long exercise habit. Lower stress, sleep better
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 13
Office Politics
Not necessarily bad
Process of allocating resources
▪ Promotion is a kind of resource too
Often no choice whether you play or not
▪ Part of getting the job done (for you and your team)
Try to understand the power structure and the network of influence
Since politics are played through people, most basic:
Dale Carnegie
For defensive measures: Machiavelli
Mentoring
Senior and outside of your direct organization
Sometimes you need to look for it
When given a chance to shadow, jump on it
Finance
Company and Personal both
Know how to read a financial statement
Know how investors value your company
That’s what drives your CEO and eventually your boss
You can tell where company is going. E.g. shed a division, buy a business, start a new initiative…
When you can talk both business and technology….
Fight greed
Smart people can make stupid decisions. E.g. Multi- tier scam. Chain letter. Email health tips.
Think about retirement early
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 15
How much difference?
Respect for Military
Two years not in vain
Extremely large command and control system
Deep human psychology
▪ How do you make people charge that hill?
▪ Take away then give back
▪ When you are in it long enough, you stop thinking
Most importantly, appreciation for
the sacrifices
civilian life and opportunities
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 17Characteristics of a good leader
Clear vision and communicate effectively
Listening vs. talking
Care about, attract, and develop people
Drive hard for exceptional results
High integrity and honesty
Much easier to relax then tighten. E.g. travel expense
Optimistic but realistic
Fair
Humility and constant learning
Flexible
Technically savvy
Developing into a leader
Focus on strengths not on weaknesses
Build a personal support team
Mentors, trusted coworker, family members
Seek tough challenges
Sharpen your judgment
Use others’ cases
Take care of your health
The most important habit of highly effective people…
Read and attend classes
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 19
Helpful references
Zenger, Folkman, Edinger, “The Inspiring Leader”
Brian Tracy, “How the Best Leaders Lead”
John C. Maxwell, “Leadership Gold”, “The 360 Degree Leader”
Bill George, “True North”
Kouzes and Posner, “The Truth About Leadership”
Tichy and Bennis, “Judgment”
Martin, “Touch Management”
Various books by Peter Drucker
360 learning
Ask all around you for feedback
Even Especially if you are the boss
Extra curricular activities
Most helpful and still useful over the years
Volunteers vs. paid employees
Try a new initiative and learn from it
Look for opportunities to learn formally and informally after school
E.g. company trainings, Conferences, exec ed
Ask questions when you are among experts
Teach
©2011 Yen-Ping Shan All rights reserved 21