Why technical specialists often fail to progress in their careers, and how you can avoid this trap

900 Greenbank Road
Suite 531,
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Canada K2J 4P6
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Letting go of the Familiar:

By Wayne McKinnon

Technical specialist rise to the top of their field by demonstrating their ability to get things done. Pride in craftsmanship drives them to write cleaner code, or configure systems faster. Their level of technical knowledge is pitted against their co-workers in an ongoing challenge of one-upmanship. The goal is to be the best.

Unfortunately the best is not good enough. Being the best is too one dimensional to allow the specialist to see the important business issues at hand. Being the best is like putting on blinders that shield other important issues from your view (like the fact that a well-designed system is worthless if no-one can use it, or it doesn't provide the flexibility to support changing business goals or customer priorities). Being the best also means that the insight of others who do not measure up to the same level of technical expertise is often dismissed as irrelevant. That insight may have been valuable in ensuring that the system also provided the flexibility necessary to support the business goals now and in the future, but it was not considered.

The greatest tragedy that results from being the best technically, is that it imposes limits on ones career. It could simply be that the specialist is so indispensable that promoting them out of their current position is almost impossible. Alternatively, this single focus has prevented the specialist from gaining other skills necessary to move forward. Time management, project management, communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership qualities and decisiveness are all victims of over-focusing on the singular dimension of the technical specialist.

The value of the technical specialist is relatively easy to measure in terms of the speed that problems are solved, or the degree of reliability that is achieved from one's design. But the value of a manager's work is less specific. It is not as quickly measured in the eyes of the specialist, so there is little incentive to accumulate the skills necessary to make this transition. When the specialist does make the transitions, they often focus on the familiar, rather than adapting to the new challenges. This is easily identified in the manager who focuses on demonstrating how to do the job of a technical specialist better, rather than focusing on the strategic aspects of the job.

In order to make the transition effectively, the specialist must feel comfortable leaving the specialty behind and relying on others to do this work. To feel comfortable, old measures of success must be replaced with new ones such as the degree to which business goals are achieved. All technical specialists interested in enhancing their career potential must realize that good managers are paid for their judgment and influence, for it is these skills that are necessary to get things done in order to achieve the business goals.

Wayne McKinnon. 900 Greenbank Road Suite 531, Nepean Ontario Canada K2J 4P6 phone: (613) 860-1384 Fax: (613) 825-4895
e-mail: info@ITcoach.com

Reprints of these articles are allowed providing that: 1) Wayne McKinnon retains full copyrights. 2) The byline and phone number or e-mail address is included as written here. 3) Wayne McKinnon is contacted and sent a copy of the publication in which the article appears

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