Back when I was a baby engineer I had a lab that I had to take for fabrication of my senior design project. I got to work with this amazing machinist named “Bill”. Of all the things I took from him teaching me the stuff that mattered and that I carry to this day was about discipline. What I learned about machining was F’ all. But that was on me, not “Bill”. Every semester “Bill” would come with his truck and drop off his tools. His tools were immaculate. Those two statements encompass the first two words I mention in the title. His discipline to bring his own tools and not rely on anyone else was deliberate. He had refined his jigs, gauges, calipers, blocks, and everything else had to meet his standards. His behaviors were based on standards, meaning quality.
His expectations of himself were what he taught implicitly. You brought your tools, you knew how to use them, you valued them and took care of them. I took this teaching and extended this through out each portion of my career. Here is what I did with those basic but elegant teachings.
Behaviors (I will add more as I think of them):
Have an ethos about what you do and how you fit into the communities you participate.
Always remember you have a responsibility to your community, even when that means upsetting the norm.
Ensure everything you do has a process. If you need to, write it down, or better yet draw it.
Have the integrity to say you don’t know how to do something when asked; that does not mean anything about you. It is a learning opportunity.
Be graceful in your professionalism, always lift people up.
Always ask yourself why you are fighting for something; is it just to be right?
Never be afraid to fail. Be cautious to fail, don’t run into failure. But go eyes wide open. Learn from your failures when you do. Ask other people’s opinions on why you failed. Seek wisdom from those you respect to find out lessons you may not see yet.
Write things down, in a single place.
Be okay with not being okay. True leaders can be vulnerable and they can be respected.
Embrace that change is necessary, but do not forget who you are.
Be kind. Empathy is key.
Remember integrity is the voice that keeps you up at night and helps you like yourself.
Decisions need to happen, be okay with making imperfect decisions but be cognizant of imperfect information. Do the math. Listen to people worth respecting.
Surround yourself with people you respect.
Be respectable.
Read.
Take time for you both professionally and personally.
If you intend to build a legacy, do not make it deliberate. Just do the right things and legacy will work itself out.
Ask questions that matter to you. Learn to ask questions the matter to someone else, you will be surprised at how that can lead to magical places.
Tool:
If you do not have a library, build one
If you do not have a set of people (network) that you get a wide view of answers from, build one.
Establish a standard for communication of a process, either a narative or process flow diagram method
Be able to find your files by establishing a file system hierarchy.
Name your files per a standard
Have a methodology for recording your tasks and projects. It can be analog or digital. I have found digital to work best.
Carry the stuff you need to be effective and comfortable so that you remove stress, carry your tools.
Be paperless as much as practical; scan everything and OCR (optical character recognition) it.
Be seen and heard. We are in a technical world so being seen is profesional and being heard via a good microphone reduces the potential for not being heard.
Backup your files.
Learn programs that make your life easier; take a class if you need
Peripherals that help with shortcuts is key.
Have your office setup be the place of focus with the right monitors, comfortable with the right mouse and keyboard.
Subscriptions should serve your productivity.
Value your time; do the economics and invest in tools that preserve your time.
Track your time; think about a program that automates that tracking.
Build templates
Have an agenda for each meeting, the template for that agenda should also serve for the minutes.
Learn how to calendar; have a fantastic calendar program
Use a mindmapping software
Develop a system for personal knowledge management (akin to your library)
Refresh your sources for often; build links and bookmarks into a system, I suggest using a reader program
Checklists can really help. Use them sparingly.
Training:
Podcasts are critical for keeping up to date on exposure to the right behaviors and tools; choose good ones and stick with them
Books (audio) are clutch; find your sources and keep them. Talk to people you respect with the behaviors you think work with your ethos; ask them what they read.
Professional journals are good;
Conferences can be good; be selective
Talk to people in your network. Find or be a mentor
Eventually I will add more and there may be things I missed that I am going to smack my forehead and say, “oh crap I forgot”. There are some things I purposefully did not add items from a techncial side including choice of websites, software, providers. I would be happy to do so but I don’t want to advocate for anything without understanding the use case.
As you create a behavior, build the tool that helps it take hold. Teach yourself how to use the tool more effectively. Look for tools that may already be there.
I spoke at Berkley once at an ISPE conference a while back. I was asked to speak on how young professionals attain regulatory knowledge. I wish had this message more refined than I did then. For those of you who may have attended that talk, this is what I likely should have told you. And my last behavior, admit when you did not meet your own standards and try to do better.