Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers
Funny that this issue came up, I recently took a class in Interpersonal Communications, which are essential in the "New Workforce", I highly recommend such classes to everyone, makes life so much easier, since it impacts every aspect of how the world perceives you, and how you foster perceptions and validate other people and their issues.... -Henry ----- Original Message ---- From: R. Irving <rirving@antient.org> To: Bill Nash <billn@billn.net> Cc: Kim Onnel <karim.adel@gmail.com>; NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 3:36:17 PM Subject: Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Proof read, and corrected. * sigh * time to call it a day. :-\ R. Irving wrote:
Kim Onnel wrote: <snip>
In my humble experience, i have came across people that i just feel they are not right for such technical jobs, people would act and take their golden fingers to the devices without logic and others who has more of a structured approach to solving problems and thinking, some that will crank under pressure and just loose it and others who will act rationally.
The Executive Summary:
You know those techs that are easy to understand, and communicate so effectively, almost always seeing things your way ?
Those are the sycophants, Jungian type "E's".
You know those techs that always seem to be talking over your head, and telling you things don't work the way you think, always screaming caution ?
Those are your *real* techs, Jungian type "I".
Why can't most managers figure this out ?
See: Alpha Male Syndrome, by our friends at Monster.com (Kate Ludeman, PhD, and Eddie Erlandson, MD)
http://www.alphamalesyndrome.com/
:-P
</noise><signal>
Henry Linneweh wrote:
Funny that this issue came up, I recently took a class in Interpersonal Communications, which are essential in the "New Workforce", I highly recommend such classes to everyone, makes life so much easier, since it impacts every aspect of how the world perceives you, and how you foster perceptions and validate other people and their issues.... Yes, so much so, sycophants are as old as civilization itself. :-D
Yet, while anyone can learn a lesson and benefit from the ways of the courtesan, very few -really- want to be one.... ;-) Looking for tech's that are "person" people defies the root demographic profile. Person people are extroverts, good technicians more often than not, are introverts. Seeking the Courtesan with the genuine heart of gold, as it were, is not only one of the oldest failings, but probably ranks among the most common... (At least in HR departments :-P ) . I find staffing help desks with "person" people, and having them front and buffer the -real- technicians in a team fashion, produces outstanding synergistic results... compared to trying to make a round hole fit a square peg. Of course, I wouldn't race my Blue Point hunting dog at a Florida race track, either. I also have some doubts as to how well a Greyhound can hunt and track... But, I have absolutely no doubt that both can learn from one another, don't get me wrong. By all means, learn from the ways of the courtesan.... But, in the end, you must keep in mind which you -really- need, a courtesan, or a technician ?
R. Irving wrote:
Looking for tech's that are "person" people defies the root demographic profile. Person people are extroverts, good technicians more often than not, are introverts. Seeking the Courtesan with the genuine heart of gold, as it were, is not only one of the oldest failings, but probably ranks among the most common... (At least in HR departments :-P ) .
I throw this out there to the rest of the techs on this list: The problem there is that someone that is a good really tech and even a really good people person eventually learns to hate people, or they end up going insane. Probably both. This is because they perceive the people they deal with all day long are idiots that don't actually want to be helped. Or more often than not, don't want to hear what the real problem is, nor do they want to take the effort to help themselves. Being a tech that also has decent people skills, I have this "going insane" problem myself. When someone asks me to help them solve a problem, and asks "what's wrong" and I answer with "It could be about 1000 different things. It's impossible to tell until we narrow it down. So let's get started so we can figure it out," a significant percentage of people (certain personality types) hear "I don't know how to fix the problem. [ I'm an idiot]." They become hard to deal with because they don't want to listen to what their perceived idiot of a tech has to tell them. Why would they want to go through troubleshooting techniques that some idiot is telling them to do when that idiot just said that they don't know how to fix it? Some of those types of people actually want to be lied to. "Oh, I know how to fix that... do this... oh, didn't work? Ok, do that instead.... ok, I know how to fix this... try this now...." Some people like this. Some people hate being lied to. They'd rather hear the first approach. It entirely comes down to the interpersonal communication version of impedance mismatch. As long as the tech and the customer have a similar impedance, all is well. But when they're not matched up right, the transmitter (the tech) transmits harder, and more signal bounces back from the transmission line (the person on the other end). Eventually, it burns out the transmitter. Impedance mismatch. Figuring out what kind of person you're dealing with before fixing the problem is the issue. And it's hard to do. Matching up the right "problem haver" with the right "problem fixer" is the crux of the issue. That's why having a front line of "people person" types to sort out the chafe solve the easy problems, and adapt their impedance to match the customer, and be smart enough to forward the hard ones on to better techs works so well. It applies to all techs. Computer, car mechanics, doctors, etc. Imagine a doctor that is so tired of dealing with patents that don't want to take the effort to help narrow down a problem, that they just prescribe 6 different pills in a shotgun affect to make that person go away and quit bothering them. :-) -Jerry
participants (3)
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Henry Linneweh -
Jerry Pasker -
R. Irving