TWHS#074: Be successful. Doing "the right thing" is not enough.
Apr 15, 2025
Doing "the right thing" is not enough.
To be successful in the tech world. To get those rewards. To get that recognition. Just doing the right thing is not enough.
I've had to keep relearning this lesson throughout my career. There's a big part of me that feels that if you do the right thing everything will be good. But that's my naïve and optimistic side, it just keeps coming out.
I have a tendency to believe that everyone will see what I've done. The results will speak for the themselves and success will flood my way. But sadly it doesn't work that way.
- You need to do the right thing.
- You need to manage the metric that shows the success.
- You need to tell people about the success.
What's the right thing? Well I`m going to leave that to you. What is a good way to solve a challenge you have? That's different for everyone reading this today.
What's the metric that shows success? How can people objectively look at the work you've done and see that things have got better? You need a way to measure your success.
How are you going to share that metric? Just because the metric changed, doesn't mean people will know or care. You need a plan to communicate that result to your key stakeholders and sponsors.
Let me give you some examples:
Customer Support
I spent years working in support. Now, there's loads of KPI's that support leaders use to look at the effectiveness of their organisation, but a really key one is customer satisfaction. How happy were customers with the support experience you gave them?
I initially thought that just solving the problem would mean I got great customer satisfaction scores. Oh how wrong I was. I soon learnt solving the problem wasn't enough.
There were loads of levers to get good surveys as well as solving the problem. I needed to answer their support ticket as soon as possible. I needed to communicate to them as effectively as possible. I needed to convince them to actually bother to fill out the customer satisfaction survey at the end. And loads of other things.
Some engineers thought of this as fluff, not part of the "real job" and didn't bother. Some engineers took the metrics seriously. Those that "did the right thing" and managed the metrics got the rewards and recognition.
Leading Teams
Part of successfully leading teams is managing up. Lots of people hate it. But regardless of your feelings, it's essential.
Imagine you successfully come up with a plan to do the right thing. Brilliant! You even think about how you're going to measure the success. Thumbs up!
Now imagine you've done the thing, and the metric has shown you've been really successful. Rewards and recognition rush your way, right? Wrong!
In today's world every senior leader has 50 different plates they're spinning. Are they really focused on your plate? Often they are not. So you need to tell them.
People hate the term "blow your own trumpet", but again it's essential. You need to do the right thing, measure it and share that success with your stakeholders. If you don't do all three parts you won't be successful.
So if you feel you're not getting the reward and recognition you deserve, ask yourself this. Are you doing the right thing? Are you measuring it? And are you telling people what you've achieved?
Hope this helps
Ben
-------------------------------------
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
- Leaders In Tech: Raise the impact of your team. Make them more influential, memorable and successful. The Technical Storytelling Professional Program enables them to create clarity, generate energy and drive the results you need.
- Individuals: Accelerate your career and build your reputation. Develop the skills to help you present, influence and explain in the tech world. Check out the Technical Storytelling Essentials or Tech Community Speaker courses.
- Tech World Human Skills Podcast: The latest episode is "The Startup Mindset: 5 Lessons That Level Up Your Life" with Alex Casalboni. Check it out on the Elevated You website, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or Amazon Podcasts.
