Feedback can be hard to take but it’s important to remember that you will always be biased towards yourself. Trust others to have your best interests at heart when they’re providing you feedback. Similarly, you must have the best interests of others when you’re giving them feedback.
Importance of Story-Telling:
An SE must convince/influence their audience that their solution is best. The audience is most likely to be convinced if they feel something, and the best way to incite emotion is through stories.
You must show the vision of your solution, you have to bridge the “Gap of Unknown” that prevents any skeptic from buying. Stories are a great way to bridge this gap.
Remember the power of “imagine…:”
Customers won’t always remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.
Build up your repertoire of customer stories. The more applicable a story is for a given situation, it’s likely to be more effective. If you have a limited number of stories in the meantime, restructure how you tell the story while still getting your point across to keep things from getting stale.
Diana’s tips for an SE looking to become a Manager:
- If you think you may be interested, try it out. Ask to be a “team-lead”.
- Make sure your roles and responsibilities are well defined.
- Get a feel for if you’re ready for it, you must be prepared to deal with the burdens of others as well as your own.
Importance of Radical Candor:
- Know how and when to say what you need to say without jeopardizing the relationships around you.
- Importance of “being human”.
Not So Fire Round:
- What do you love about being an SE/SE Manager?
- Being able to be a problem-solver (of all types).
- What would you change about your role?
- Would like to travel more; get more face-to-face interactions with customers/prospects.
- Books/Tools/Resources Diana recommends:
Diana’s LinkedIn
Diana’s Scholership to GirlsClub was paid for by www.proactivate.net.
