Smithology

So you thought this blog was going to be about computers and engineering and stuff right? So why have I titled this post People Skills? Well as it turns out I’ve learned over time that people skills are very much a part of good programming and engineering.

My engineering career has had many high times and low times. The best times have been when I’ve done something really cool and not only do I get the sense of fulfillment that comes from seeing your creation come to life but also the praise and admiration of colleagues. I’ll never forget demonstrating the laser guided fine positioning system for an overhead traveling crane the morning after we pulled a 3am-er debugging and ironing out it’s deficiencies.

But there have been plenty of low times and almost all of them have been because of an interpersonal problem with my boss or a colleague. In every job I’ve been in, I eventually run into problems with my boss – I feel like my boss doesn’t respect or understand what I do and usually my boss tries to micromanage me. I’m not an aggressive or assertive person so I’ve tried all kinds of passive-aggression and avoidance to try and solve these kinds of problems. I’ve left many a good job just because it got to the point where I loathed being in the same room as my boss.

Meanwhile, I have been thinking that one solution might be to become a boss myself which is why I found myself checking the bookshelves at home for texts about leadership and project management. My wife who is a social worker recommended People Skills which was used as a text in her degree.

What I wasn’t expecting was that People Skills pressed a lot of buttons for me when thinking about problems I’ve had in my workplaces. The book describes a lot of different behaviors which has made me more aware of my own behaviors and responses at work.

I’m about halfway through the book now in the part that deals with assertiveness (having finished the ‘listening skills’ part). As I’m reading I’m thinking more and more about how important all this stuff is when it comes to workplaces and how deficient I’ve been in communicating with my bosses and colleagues over the years.

So once I’ve mastered the art of assertive communication I can move onto the last part of the book which is about handling conflict. Perhaps I can write a post sometime in the future about how I was able to have conflict with my boss and not need to go home and spend the night on seek.com.au afterwards.

[tags]management, people skills,communication,workplace[/tags]