posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 1:40 PM
by
swarren
Soft Skill #4: Traction
“Traction” is another one of those Microsoft-speak words (like “rathole” or “dogfood”). It means a person's ability to drive for a specific result. For example, “JoeN has amazing traction right now on getting generics into C#.”
You might also think of traction as “achieving results” or “meeting goals,” but the term - and the perspective - is focused on the process rather than results. And that's a good thing. As individuals there are many factors we can't control that may prevent us from meeting a goal. For example, when your project is cancelled you aren't going to meet your goal of shipping on a particular date. But by developing the soft skill of driving to a specific result, you'll consistently meet your goals when circumstances allow.
There are some simple steps you can take every day to improve your traction.
#1 - Know where you are headed. As George Harrison sang, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.” The catch is, of course, when you arrive 'where ever' you will probably wish you ended up somewhere else. ;-) Know where you are headed, and you will likely to take a fairly direct path to your destination.
#2 - Aim for milestones along the way. If you've ever taken a road trip, I'm sure you can relate to this. Your ultimate destination might be Miami, but you are very likely to stop for food, rest and gas along the way. At minimum you need to plan your next gas station before your tank runs dry. But not too often! If you stopped at every gas station along the way, it would take a looooooong time to reach Miami.
Milestones make reaching a goal more manageable. Choose a milestone, you put your head down and push forward your progress for a bit. When you reach it you can stop, take a look around and course correct if necessary.
Set milestones that let you process enough work to make reasonable progress, but don't scope them so broadly (to an entire project, for example) that your course corrections when you finally reach the milestone are massive.
#3 - Clear your unknowns as early as possible. In our business, it's generally the 'unknowns' that force the really big course corrections. Identify what you don't yet know about your project, and make a milestone to figure it out up front. For example, maybe you are considering using ASP.NET 2.0 for a project. Set knowing the answer to the ASP.NET 2.0 question as an early milestone toward your project's destination.
#4 - Communicate your progress toward your current milestone and final destination. Let your co-workers and client know where you are headed, and how you are progressing. Milestones and destinations are much easier to communicate than your entire “to do” list, and folks often find ways to help you arrive when they know where you are headed. They may even think of tactics and resources that you've missed.
The 'when' and 'how' of communicating your progress is up to your individual style. I personally like the 1-minute “elevator” speech: keep it simple, and deliver it personally to folks you see in the halls or in the lunchroom. By keeping it “bited-sized” folks can probably stash away a couple of important details. And by delivering it personally, you've also delivered a personal invitation for feedback and support later on -- and, in effect, added another part-time member to your team.