Agreed. That makes me think back to the following story.
It was my first job as a programmer. The PM would ask me questions about whether X is doable for me or how long it would take me to do Y. I would give my honest response, which often would be that I can’t do it without help or that it would take me a while. Then one day the tech lead sat me down and said that it’s important for me to project confidence. It frustrated me a lot because in theory the best thing to do for the company would be for me to provide accurate information and then try to make the best decision based off of that accurate information. Now I realize that the tech lead probably wasn’t thinking about that and probably was just trying to look out for me, knowing that my lack of confidence would end up hurting me.
I’m curious, after your work experience since then, if you still think the tech lead’s comment was about the information you were conveying, or in your tone and specific wording choice. Like if instead of, “I can’t do it without help or that it would take me a while,” he knew you’d do better rephrasing it as something like, “In order to do that, I’ll need to allocate X days/weeks, as well ad [any other resources or people you expect to need, for how long, for what parts],” followed by (depending on the company’s practices) “Would you like me to write up a proposal for that?” or “How should I prioritize that relative to my other projects?”
In my experience, “Projecting confidence” can also often be achieved by speaking clearly and precisely, stating things in the affirmative more than the negative, and claiming enough status to be worth the investment necessary to do what’s asked of me, without compromising the informational content aside from emotional valence. It also makes it easier for my bosses to act on my answers without putting in planning work themselves.
I feel pretty confident that he was referring to the information I was conveying. Ie. that it should be “yes” instead of “no”. I think he was trying to protect me, because if I don’t tell people what they want to hear I’ll develop a bad reputation.
Thanks for explaining how you would rephrase it/go about it. That makes a lot of sense and I feel like something clicked for me after reading it.
Agreed. That makes me think back to the following story.
It was my first job as a programmer. The PM would ask me questions about whether X is doable for me or how long it would take me to do Y. I would give my honest response, which often would be that I can’t do it without help or that it would take me a while. Then one day the tech lead sat me down and said that it’s important for me to project confidence. It frustrated me a lot because in theory the best thing to do for the company would be for me to provide accurate information and then try to make the best decision based off of that accurate information. Now I realize that the tech lead probably wasn’t thinking about that and probably was just trying to look out for me, knowing that my lack of confidence would end up hurting me.
I’m curious, after your work experience since then, if you still think the tech lead’s comment was about the information you were conveying, or in your tone and specific wording choice. Like if instead of, “I can’t do it without help or that it would take me a while,” he knew you’d do better rephrasing it as something like, “In order to do that, I’ll need to allocate X days/weeks, as well ad [any other resources or people you expect to need, for how long, for what parts],” followed by (depending on the company’s practices) “Would you like me to write up a proposal for that?” or “How should I prioritize that relative to my other projects?”
In my experience, “Projecting confidence” can also often be achieved by speaking clearly and precisely, stating things in the affirmative more than the negative, and claiming enough status to be worth the investment necessary to do what’s asked of me, without compromising the informational content aside from emotional valence. It also makes it easier for my bosses to act on my answers without putting in planning work themselves.
I feel pretty confident that he was referring to the information I was conveying. Ie. that it should be “yes” instead of “no”. I think he was trying to protect me, because if I don’t tell people what they want to hear I’ll develop a bad reputation.
Thanks for explaining how you would rephrase it/go about it. That makes a lot of sense and I feel like something clicked for me after reading it.