CareerTRP: After I got fit and attractive, people are more likely to do what I say. I work in a field where if I am wrong people die. Need to balance the two.

Olongapo · 2018-08-04T15:32:09+00:00

Fit and attractive is your baseline. This needs to be always running in the background without deviation or distraction. You're also in a field that unfortunately balances the need for redundancy/functionality against profitability. I will recommend two directions to explore in order to do harm reduction and to tap into the phenomenon of crowd sourcing solutions to engineering problems: The first is to engage in more continuing education in the fields of materials science, electronic engineering, and human physiology. Get the company to pay for the coursework if you can. The second recommendation has more to do with people skills. Learn the Socratic method of problem discussion during staff meetings and your with one-on-ones with your staff. Learn to drop hints, ask questions, and guide the discussion so that they come up with the solutions as a team rather than you dictating down. You might be surprised at the quality of the work that's generated. Learn to share the credit. Lastly, you can get buy-off from your boss to take this approach or just do so quietly. Good luck with this. This is a "people" problem, not a tech problem.

bigtuna45 · 2018-08-04T15:37:56+00:00

Absolutely. In a weird way, it makes me question my abilities. Was that really a good suggestion or are they just agreeing with me because I'm strong and confident?

I think it's a good thing though, better than being an overconfident blow hard.

vafka · 2018-08-04T17:53:05+00:00

It doesn't matter how alpha you are, you always need perspective. This can come in the form of guidance, consultation, mentoring, whatever helps you best. You might be frustrated nobody is constructively criticizing anything you say, but this might be the work culture at your company. This is also what mentors are for and everyone should have at least a couple.

Mako_One · 2018-08-04T23:41:26+00:00

I know what you‘re talking about. Don’t know, if I got it right.

Nobody will give you advice? Ever? Good. Deal with it. Make your decisions waterproof. Every fucking time. Be obsessed about Detail. Tell others to criticize you. Don’t hate them if they’re not as detailed as you are. Teach them how you do it, if they deserve it.
Be robust / resilient against failure. At NASA they have the rule that, in case two safety systems fail - there may be no death.
Prepare the Organisation for failure. Always.
Always prepare for the suck. It’s the worst case scenario you have to train for. Never make things easy. Challenge yourself, your system, your equipment, your surroundings.
Calculate failure of others / environment. You may be safe - first position in line - not your responsibility- but still in line - might fail.
Create leaders. Test them constantly. Challenge them. Not everyone is a leader.
Do not expect anyone to see this shit rational. Expect enemies at any time. You are committed to your ownership - someone (who pays the bills) might not agree with your energy, your commitment to solve problems b/c it’s expensive. Prepare to walk away.
Special Forces Agile Management: Find - Fix - Finish - Exploit - Analyze
If you’re not awake, someone will die. Be awake. Always. It will make you blind for the beauty. You won’t enjoy many moments.
Prepare for the worst case - someone dies. What has to happen: Day 1 - Week 1 - Month 1
Lead. Train a deputy. He will do operative business plus 3 days in the future. You think about problems which are coming onto the team in the far future. You are actually leading. Observe. Question processes.
Hire people who criticize you constructively without being asked for it.
Keep your distance to the employees.
Always listen to the guys on the ground (unless you’re the expert).
Don’t show any weakness. They will eat you alive.
There are only few other leaders who are experienced enough to give advice. Find them. It doesn’t have to be in the same field. Watch and listen to all kinds of leaders.
There will be a point, when nobody can give you anymore advice. Older people might be weaker leaders, despite they got more time to train. Do not trust them.
Take ownership for everything. Ownership is undivisible.
Learn to improvise.
It’s better to be quiet and earn respect than to be loud and demand respect.
Prepare yourself for psychological difficulty. You have to be stronger than everyone else

Read Extreme Ownership from Jocko Willink. You may be more specific, so the advice will be less general.

TrenCobra · 2018-08-04T20:52:14+00:00

Get your seniors to issue an org chart. One with solid line of reporting and one with dashed lines for ‘consulting’.

If the shit did hit the fan at least your absolved of some liability.

At 200k+ however the level of responsibility/liability goes up considerably

HurricaneHugues · 2018-08-04T19:36:39+00:00

Send them all back to their makers. Smile as they die.

In a,, seriousness, none lf us here are qualified to help you on that subject. You should speak to someone whos in your field of work and is above you.

VasiliyZaitzev · 2018-08-04T21:43:44+00:00

Yeah, so check your math. And hire a couple of Chinese or Indian guys to check your math, too. Then go out and have fun.

BostonPillParty · 2018-08-04T22:55:05+00:00

Work for a company where you are surrounded by top talent that challenge ideas. Find people that are smarter than you, work with them.

chachaChad · 2018-08-04T17:47:27+00:00

You need to establish a culture of honestly about safety. Talk to them directly. You're counting on them to catch you when you fuck up. It's going to happen. Nobody's perfect. You help each other and you don't bullshit each other. Give them direct orders to question your conclusions and look for supporting facts. Tell them they have to leave emotion and personalities out of it.

voxiqs · 2018-08-04T15:27:57+00:00

You make over 3 million a year ?

Framexemplary · 2018-08-04T15:52:20+00:00

That's heavy. Command people to question you. Tell them you require scrutiny to be the most effective.
Reward false negatives within reason too. If someone doesn't think something is right, well that's great, even if they are wrong.
Just my thoughts on the matter. I'm certainly not offering advice from someone in your shoes

WoodWizzy87 · 2018-08-04T19:00:32+00:00

What kind of medical devices?

Zanford · 2018-08-05T00:00:26+00:00

First, assuming this is a serious question and not a not-so-humble humblebrag:

If the people around you really do whatever you say, as you claim, the solution is simple: you should instruct them to be willing and quick to speak up and question you when their own judgment tells them that you just made a bad call. You could 'make an example of someone' in a good way by, during some meeting, compliment one of your underlings in front of the others by remarking on some recent incident where they had good feedback that corrected you or improved some process or product.

This is what any good leader would do; you don't want to be surrounded by yes-men.

Unless you have reason to believe that you are LESS competent than the people you lead, the attractiveness and natural charisma/leader qualities that you claim are not the issue. After all, if you were unattractive and people didn't listen to you, then mistakes would still happen - it'd just be their mistakes, and not yours. And it's harder to get people who don't respect or listen to you to start doing so, than it is to get people who respect you to speak up and question you when they feel they should. So this is a non-issue.

thenerdderbs · 2018-08-05T01:27:11+00:00

With human safety on the line, make everyone use Fault Tree Analysis. Human lives shouldn't hang in the balance of how you're feeling one day, safety should rely on thorough analysis and excellence.

[deleted] · 2018-08-05T01:46:38+00:00

I can't be of help since I'm only starting college this fall, but just wondering -- what did you major in at university? How does one progress to your position & field?

col_carillo · 2018-08-05T05:27:49+00:00

You're thinking about this all wrong. Whether people "like" you or find you attractive has very little to do with whether they'll speak up. I work in a high stakes field too, and what matters is that you create a culture of safety. I'm sure you know what that means, but here are the basic principles that you have to convince people of:

1) You will not punish anyone for bringing problems to your attention, no matter how trivial

2) You will not be ridicule anyone for proposing solutions even if they're ultimately not chosen

3) Anyone can speak up about anything that concerns them, even stuff that's not formally in their "domain", and you will take it seriously

3) You will change your own mind if you are proven wrong, even if it's by a junior intern.

Inculcating these values in your team is actually *easier* if you're a natural leader, because people will trust you and have confidence that you can and will rescue them from whatever problem they find themselves in. But regardless, the biggest way you inculcate these values is by living them and showing it with your actions. You can put up as many posters on the wall as you want, or go to as many classes or team-building exercises that you want. Nothing will matter if you even once dismiss some guy's suggestion because he's a lowly junior technician, or get upset at someone who points out a problem, or use your position of authority to impose a solution without doing the hard work of addressing everyone's objections and convincing your team that it's the correct solution. Do it once and people remember, and they won't risk their jobs again.

If people don't speak up and contradict you, don't flatter yourself that it's because you're too good looking. It's probably because they either a) think it's no use since you're not going to give their proposal a fair shake or b) they remember you yelling at a guy for doing the same thing last month. That's what you need to correct. When you become a leader that proves he's genuinely interested in feedback from your team members, while creating a safe, supportive environment for them to do so, you'll find most people have no problem giving you their opinions. After all, I doubt you're the only one on your team that doesn't want people to die from their mistakes.

mrHappyPotatoe · 2018-08-04T16:05:49+00:00

With responibility comes authority naturally. Or was ot vice versa? Todays feminism want to take it away from men.

I guess you better get used to it.

Comments