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Leitura de 15 min

Crafting Your Work By Your Strengths

Summary

This episode challenges the common self-improvement narrative that focuses on fixing weaknesses. Instead, host Jonathan Cottrell advocates for a strengths-based approach to career development, encouraging listeners to identify and build upon their existing strengths rather than constantly trying to improve their shortcomings.

The discussion introduces the concept of job crafting - shaping your job responsibilities around your strengths. Cottrell explains how to distinguish between core skills (where you should aim for excellence) and ancillary skills (where being adequate is sufficient). He emphasizes that trying to become excellent at everything spreads your efforts too thin.

Practical advice includes mapping your skills against job requirements, collaborating with others who have complementary skills, and having conversations with managers about focusing on strengths. The episode also touches on the psychological benefit of being more forgiving with yourself about areas where you’re not naturally strong.

Cottrell uses the T-shaped skills model as a framework - developing broad competency in supporting skills while achieving deep expertise in core strengths. This approach allows for more sustainable career growth and better team collaboration.

Recommendations

Books

  • 20 Patterns to Watch For in Engineering Teams — A free book from GitPrime based on data from thousands of enterprise engineering teams, covering work patterns and team dynamics with prescriptive ways to improve software development processes.

Tools

  • GitPrime — Engineering analytics platform that helps debug development processes using data, mentioned as the episode sponsor offering insights into team patterns and performance.

Websites

  • spec.fm — Platform hosting various developer podcasts including React Podcast and Tools Day, recommended for additional learning content.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to self-improvement pressure — Jonathan introduces the common feeling among developers that there’s endless room for improvement and constant pressure to fix weaknesses. He sets up the episode’s premise: shifting focus from weaknesses to strengths as a more effective approach to career development.
  • 00:03:28 — The strengths-based approach — The host explains the fundamental shift needed - moving focus away from weaknesses and toward strengths. He discusses how investing in existing strengths yields better returns than trying to improve weaknesses, using the analogy of placing bets on what you’ll become great at.
  • 00:06:35 — Core skills vs ancillary skills — Cottrell distinguishes between core skills (where you should aim for excellence) and ancillary skills (where adequacy is sufficient). He advises mapping your natural strengths against job requirements and making strategic decisions about skill development based on this analysis.
  • 00:10:11 — Job crafting and collaboration — The episode introduces job crafting - shaping your job responsibilities around your strengths. Cottrell emphasizes the importance of collaboration and complementary skills within teams, suggesting that you don’t need to excel at everything when you can work with others who have different strengths.
  • 00:11:47 — Self-forgiveness and conclusion — The host concludes by encouraging listeners to be more forgiving of themselves when they encounter areas of weakness. He reinforces that everyone has shortcomings, and the key is not to neglect existing strengths while working on necessary improvements.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2019-05-24T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:13:22

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] One of the things that you may do if you listen to podcasts often, if you read a bunch of

[00:00:10] business books or even books about programming, you may think that you have a lot of work

[00:00:19] to do.

[00:00:20] You may think that you have a lot of room for improvement and that there’s just this

[00:00:25] endless hill in front of you.

[00:00:27] And you may believe that you have to break yourself down to really become the engineer

[00:00:36] that you want to become or the manager that you want to become.

[00:00:40] And in many ways, this is true.

[00:00:43] We all have a lot to learn and we all have shortcomings.

[00:00:47] In today’s episode, though, I want to help you focus on something a little bit different

[00:00:52] rather than looking at self-improvement as a long and arduous task.

[00:00:57] Where you are faced with your weaknesses every single day, I want to help you shift

[00:01:04] to a different point of focus.

[00:01:07] My name is Jonathan Cottrell and you’re listening to Developer Tea.

[00:01:10] And my goal on this show is to help driven developers find clarity, perspective, and

[00:01:15] purpose in their careers.

[00:01:17] And if you care about your career, that’s why you’re listening to the show.

[00:01:23] Not that this show is the only thing that’s going to help you in your career, but it’s

[00:01:27] If you care about your career, you’re looking for resources.

[00:01:32] You’re realizing that you have work to do.

[00:01:36] And if you have a direct manager or someone who is honest with you on a regular basis,

[00:01:42] you’ve probably gotten some direct feedback.

[00:01:45] Some representation of your shortcomings has been given to you.

[00:01:50] If you’re in close relationship with anybody for very long at all, then you’ve certainly

[00:01:54] had this kind of feedback.

[00:01:55] Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a situation where you’re not able to do what you’re

[00:01:57] doing.

[00:01:58] Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a conflict with another person where they point out your

[00:02:00] weaknesses and all of your flaws to an uncomfortable degree.

[00:02:05] And while it’s true that all of us have these weaknesses and shortcomings, what’s also true

[00:02:11] is that if we focus only on our shortcomings and weaknesses, we’ll likely miss out on major

[00:02:18] opportunities.

[00:02:19] For example, if you’ve listened to this podcast, then you know that one of the things that

[00:02:25] we preach is that you’re breaking the rules.

[00:02:27] You break down your assumptions, that you try to find the core problems, and you try

[00:02:35] to build focus.

[00:02:37] And so an unintended effect of this show may be that you have taken the time and the energy

[00:02:42] to beat yourself up when you’re not focusing, or to feel bad when you think you haven’t

[00:02:50] broken things down, when you think you’ve made an assumption.

[00:02:53] But the truth is, all of these ideas that we present…

[00:02:57] on Developer Tea, and that you’ll find in business management books, process books,

[00:03:03] books about software development, all of these things are not intended to fix all of your

[00:03:10] broken parts.

[00:03:12] Instead, they’re intended to be building blocks, foundational, to help push you up rather

[00:03:22] than break you down.

[00:03:24] It’s kind of a different way of thinking about your skills.

[00:03:27] So let’s get right into it.

[00:03:28] So how does the skill set work?

[00:03:29] Well, the skill set requires a fundamental shift in focus, away from your weaknesses,

[00:03:34] and towards your strengths.

[00:03:35] We’re going to take a step away and talk about today’s sponsor, Git Prime, and then we’re

[00:03:39] going to come back and discuss a way that you can focus on your strengths, without totally

[00:03:45] sabotaging your job.

[00:03:48] Today’s episode is sponsored by Git Prime.

[00:03:51] Have you ever noticed that some of the best engineering managers are also the best at

[00:03:56] debugging problems?

[00:03:57] And it’s not just code, it’s also interpersonal issues.

[00:04:02] They view their teams as complex systems with inputs and outputs,

[00:04:07] and they approach problems with curiosity and a relentless pursuit of the root cause.

[00:04:13] Our sponsor, GitPrime, has published a book, it’s a free book,

[00:04:17] called 20 Patterns to Watch For in Engineering Teams.

[00:04:20] It’s based on data from thousands of enterprise engineering teams.

[00:04:24] In it, they dig into various work patterns and team dynamics,

[00:04:28] that we can all relate to, with prescriptive ways to identify and improve

[00:04:32] how we build software together.

[00:04:34] It’s an excellent field guide to help debug your development with data.

[00:04:39] Go to gitprime.com slash 20 patterns, that’s two zero patterns,

[00:04:44] to download the book, and you’ll get a printed copy mailed to you for free.

[00:04:48] It’s a totally free book about making your team better.

[00:04:51] Go and check it out, gitprime.com slash 20 patterns,

[00:04:55] that’s the number two zero patterns, all one word.

[00:04:57] Thanks again to GitPrime for sponsoring today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:05:02] Hopefully this isn’t the first time that you have been encouraged to focus on your strengths.

[00:05:08] If you think about it, it makes sense to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses.

[00:05:13] If you focus on everything that you are weak at,

[00:05:16] it will take a very large jump to go from weak to strong.

[00:05:21] So if you’re placing bets on yourself about what you’re going to become great at,

[00:05:26] what you will excel at,

[00:05:27] then the bet is probably going to be placed on something that you’re already pretty good at.

[00:05:33] And so if you invest your time into something that you’re already good at,

[00:05:37] then you are likely, more likely, to become great at that thing

[00:05:41] than if you invest your time into something that you’re not very good at.

[00:05:44] Now there’s an obvious tension here, and it’s one that is difficult to parse out.

[00:05:49] If you hear this episode and you just take away the message that

[00:05:53] you need to stop focusing on your weaknesses and only focus on your strengths,

[00:05:57] well it’s very possible that you’re not going to be able to do that.

[00:05:57] It’s very possible that you’ll lose your job.

[00:06:00] And the reason for that is some of the tasks,

[00:06:03] some of the skills that we have as requirements in our jobs

[00:06:07] don’t necessarily line up with the things that we’re great at.

[00:06:11] Now in a perfect world, we would all find jobs that only ask us to do things that we are

[00:06:17] excelling at and then never ask us to do the things that we’re not very good at.

[00:06:22] But more practically, we’re likely to have duties in our job

[00:06:27] that require us to go from that kind of weak standpoint to at least acceptable.

[00:06:35] So what can we do about this?

[00:06:36] And how should we be thinking about this?

[00:06:39] Well first, we should dispel the idea that your skills are all in their own little vacuums.

[00:06:47] One skill may support another skill.

[00:06:51] So maybe you are very good at creating UIs,

[00:06:56] but you’re not very good at creating UIs.

[00:06:57] Or you’re not very good at testing.

[00:06:59] Well as it turns out, testing and becoming very good at testing

[00:07:03] may naturally bleed over into your ability to create good UIs.

[00:07:11] And so we shouldn’t evaluate these things that we see as separate as necessarily separate.

[00:07:18] Sometimes the things that we’re not very good at

[00:07:20] could actually be the things that unlock a massive amount of growth in another area.

[00:07:28] So that’s kind of the first step here is to dispel the idea

[00:07:31] that our skills are somehow entirely disconnected or live in their own little vacuums.

[00:07:37] The second idea is to understand what your core skills are for the job that you’re doing

[00:07:43] versus the ancillary skills.

[00:07:47] So it’s likely that you have a handful of tasks that are required in your job that are ancillary.

[00:07:53] In other words, if you are able to perform,

[00:07:56] in the first place,

[00:07:57] in those particular skills to an acceptable degree,

[00:08:01] then you can still excel in your job.

[00:08:03] Whereas the core skills for your job,

[00:08:06] you should be performing at a higher than acceptable,

[00:08:09] in other words, an excellent level.

[00:08:11] Of course, when we say should,

[00:08:13] we mean if you want to continue progressing

[00:08:15] and doing as good of a job in that role as you can,

[00:08:18] and that is kind of the whole idea behind driven developers for this show,

[00:08:23] then those core skills are the things that you should be good at

[00:08:26] and becoming great at.

[00:08:27] Now, the critical work that you need to do in whatever position you are currently in

[00:08:33] is understanding what those core skills are

[00:08:36] and then mapping them against what you are already good at.

[00:08:39] If you have a major disconnect between those two things,

[00:08:44] then you have a decision to make.

[00:08:46] You have to decide that you’re going to invest the time necessary to develop that skill,

[00:08:53] especially if it’s a core skill,

[00:08:55] or you’re going to need to

[00:08:57] think about

[00:08:59] what you want in your career.

[00:09:01] Perhaps your skills are not aligning to the job that you have,

[00:09:05] and more often than not,

[00:09:07] this mismatch is not the main problem that people face.

[00:09:10] Instead, the main problem that people face

[00:09:12] is that they focus heavily on those ancillary skills,

[00:09:16] and they try to make them as good as their core skills.

[00:09:21] Think about that for a moment.

[00:09:23] If you become incredibly good at your ancillary skills,

[00:09:27] then you don’t have time to invest in your core skills.

[00:09:32] You can imagine this as a T-shape on a graph.

[00:09:36] You want your ancillary skills,

[00:09:38] your supporting skills,

[00:09:40] to be enough that it’s adequate,

[00:09:42] but then you want your core skills

[00:09:44] to really kind of go to the extent of expertise.

[00:09:48] It’s important that you discuss with your manager,

[00:09:51] or if you are a manager,

[00:09:53] that you discuss with your direct reports

[00:09:55] what those skills are,

[00:09:57] and to what degree do you want to invest in them.

[00:10:01] How much of your time and effort

[00:10:04] should be spent on improving something

[00:10:06] that is ultimately not your highest leverage of value.

[00:10:11] One of the most valuable and important things

[00:10:14] that you can do for your own career,

[00:10:16] and that managers can do for their direct reports,

[00:10:20] is something called job crafting.

[00:10:23] The idea here is to look at that skill map,

[00:10:26] what things are you already good at,

[00:10:29] and try to wrap your responsibilities

[00:10:33] in your job around those skills.

[00:10:36] This is kind of what you are trying to do

[00:10:39] on the job hunt.

[00:10:41] The problem is that we often

[00:10:43] have the pressure of unemployment

[00:10:46] causing us to adapt our acceptable skill map

[00:10:52] to whatever is available to us.

[00:10:55] Now, if you are in a job

[00:10:57] and you have the opportunity to do some job crafting,

[00:11:00] then a critical sorting phase

[00:11:02] will eventually be in front of you

[00:11:05] where you have to decide,

[00:11:07] is this a skill that I need to improve on,

[00:11:09] or is it something that I can delegate

[00:11:11] or otherwise fulfill

[00:11:13] by collaborating with another person.

[00:11:15] This is something that we often don’t think about.

[00:11:18] We approach our careers

[00:11:20] as if we have to stand alone,

[00:11:22] rather than like a team.

[00:11:24] Where one person’s skills

[00:11:27] complement another person’s.

[00:11:29] It’s important to recognize that

[00:11:31] if you have complementary skills

[00:11:33] with other people,

[00:11:34] then you can focus more on the things

[00:11:36] that you are already good at,

[00:11:38] rather than trying to become better

[00:11:40] at something that someone else

[00:11:42] is already very good at.

[00:11:44] Ultimately, I want you to be

[00:11:47] a little bit more forgiving to yourself.

[00:11:50] When you make mistakes

[00:11:52] and when you find things

[00:11:54] that you’re not very good at,

[00:11:56] these are things that we all share as humans.

[00:11:59] We all have shortcomings

[00:12:01] and we all have requirements on us

[00:12:04] that we’re not necessarily ready to meet.

[00:12:07] Give yourself the space to learn

[00:12:10] and give yourself the space to fail

[00:12:12] and ultimately,

[00:12:13] don’t neglect the things

[00:12:15] that you are already good at.

[00:12:17] Thanks so much again to Get Prime

[00:12:19] for sponsoring today’s episode

[00:12:21] and for writing a free book for developers

[00:12:23] to learn more about their teams,

[00:12:25] head over to getprime.com

[00:12:27] slash 20patterns

[00:12:29] and that’s two zero patterns,

[00:12:31] all one word,

[00:12:32] getprime.com slash 20patterns.

[00:12:34] Thank you so much for listening

[00:12:35] to today’s episode.

[00:12:36] If you liked today’s episode,

[00:12:38] then I encourage you to do three things.

[00:12:40] The first one is subscribe to this podcast

[00:12:42] and whatever podcasting app

[00:12:43] you are currently listening with.

[00:12:46] The second thing is to leave a review in iTunes.

[00:12:49] This drastically affects our visibility in iTunes

[00:12:52] and helps other developers like you find the show.

[00:12:55] And the third thing is head over to spec.fm

[00:12:58] because there’s a ton of other content

[00:13:00] from other wonderful podcasts,

[00:13:02] for example,

[00:13:03] React Podcast and Tools Day.

[00:13:05] Go and check it out, spec.fm.

[00:13:08] Thank you again to today’s producer,

[00:13:10] Sarah Jackson,

[00:13:11] and thank you so much for listening

[00:13:13] to today’s episode.

[00:13:14] Until next time,

[00:13:15] enjoy your tea.

[00:13:22] Thank you.

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