
Ask and It Shall be Given  - peter123
http://steveblank.com/2009/07/27/ask-and-it-shall-be-given/
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tonystubblebine
I remember when I had my version of this lightbulb moment. I was the sole
developer on a project that was chronically late. It had been passed off to me
with the description of "there are three things left to do, do you think you
can do them and launch at the end of the week?"

Of course, three more things popped up every week and the project slipped by
months. I spent the entire project feeling guilty. Then one friday it dawned
on me that there was a world of un-finished requirements that had never been
captured. I had never done anything "manager-y" so I went to Borders, bought
Rapid Development by Steve McConnell, and read it over the weekend.

When I showed up that Monday, instead of getting to work on the "last
remaining three things," I hid out in an abandoned office and started specing
and estimating the remaining parts of the project. Then I went to my managers
with a full re-estimation that was months out. Of course, they weren't happy
with the projection, but having data gave me the back-bone to stick with it.

Until that point I had thought my career was entirely dependent on being
smarter, on developing programming chops like the gurus that I read about on
Slashdot. Afterward I thought of it as being extremely dependent on what I
consider "personality traits" but which seem to be trainable. For example, the
initiative to fix something that's broken rather than just complaining about
the status quo, or the calmness to stick to my guns without taking it
personally that the people around me were wrong.

~~~
mediaman
Great comment. I often wonder why my own employees frequently don't do
something like this. I can think of many examples where one of our reasonably
intelligent employees could get way ahead by just asking me for more
responsibility in some area where it's clear that we're lacking, instead of
focusing on their precisely defined job. I try hard to give everyone
developmental projects and new responsibilities, but regardless it is true
that I would be very susceptible to giving new and additional growth
opportunities to people who ask for it.

~~~
gcheong
I think a lot of it comes down to people just not knowing this is an option,
not having many examples of how to go about it, or not having much success in
trying. We are trained to stick to the job description, not to rock the boat,
etc. and we are good at doing that but it tends to blind us to the bigger
picture, and so we are not very good at taking initiative. However I would
expect most people, even if they knew how, would not suddenly start asking for
more responsibility - some just do not want that - but a small minority would
and those are the ones you would want to focus on.

~~~
swixmix
A lot of people know it's an option, but there is no reward for doing so.

Why make my job harder without getting anything for it? Only management
benefits from it.

~~~
tonystubblebine
I think there's almost always a reward, especially for people in the tech
sector. Either you get a raise and/or promotion at your current company or you
get a stronger resume and better relations with coworkers who may be looking
for jobs elsewhere. Plus there are non-financial rewards that can range from
increased job satisfaction to your manager stops yelling at you.

But the other thing I wanted to point out is that a lot of time taking the
initiative makes your job easier. Granted in the story above I did read a 300+
page book over the weekend, but after that I was able to do more of the work I
wanted to do in the same amount of time I'd already been giving.

~~~
mediaman
I agree -- and I've personally tried to create those incentives, whereby those
people who have gone out of their way to improve things get the promotions and
raises, and I make sure everyone knows why they're getting paid more. They see
it going to the quiet guy who just kept tackling things he saw needed to be
fixed, and then asking for more, and it certainly helped open some eyes. But
not as much as you might expect.

~~~
tonystubblebine
One thing I did recently was go on a two week vacation where I was barely
reachable. When I got back my company was in better shape than when I'd left
and all of the people working for me had stepped up to do the things I had
been doing. It was really eye opening for all of us.

~~~
mediaman
This seems to be a common experience. Felix Dennis mentioned the same thing in
his book - earlier on in his career, he'd just 'flip out' and go somewhere
remote for a couple weeks, without even telling people ahead of time (more
quirky and unplanned than your vacation!). But the same thing happened; he
found that rather than adding tremendous value every second he was there, the
company did much better when he got out of their way.

It's probably a good thing to do.

------
unignorant
Great article -- and its lessons need not apply only to companies and
entrepreneurship.

From the rather limited perspective constituting my own life, I have found a
proactive attitude (coupled with a healthy disregard for "rules") tends to
beget a considerable payoff.

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michaelfairley
This reminds me a lot of a part of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
(<http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/>). One of his biggest pieces of advice was
basically "if it's worth having, it's worth asking for". This is something
that is surprisingly hard to live out, but the few times that I've consciously
gone out of my way to ask for something I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen his
lecture have paid off very nicely for me.

