Shifting your mindset can make a big difference in how you view your goals, your ability to accomplish them, and whether or not you are even able to accomplish anything at all. If you aren’t results-oriented in your approach to problems, then there will be no results. If you, a problem solver, don’t make yourself known as such, nobody will tell you about their problems, and you will get a reputation (rightly) as being ineffective. Have the mindset of someone important, and do your job that way. You will be treated accordingly.
Be Approachable
I have worked with IT managers who were not approachable, and it affected the ability of the IT department to do its job. When a user came to this manager asking for help, they responded by disputing the necessity of the function, rather than showing willingness to find a solution. If someone was asking for equipment, the reply would be, “Well, what do you need that for?” Eventually, users simply stopped asking for things, or apologizing profusely when they were forced to ask for something in order to continue doing their job.
At this point, support tickets only come in when users have had the problem in question for a long time. They only report the issue because it begins to irreconcilably affect their workflow, or because their favorite workaround is no longer enough to get them by.
You wonder why nobody said anything sooner, and are frustrated that nobody tells you anything. It is because you are not approachable.
This is where it pays to think at the C-Level. Are you a support technician? You are now Chief Support Officer. Congrats. Now start acting like a leader within the realm of your own job. When an employee has a problem within their department, they talk to a leader about it (their manager, or someone in human resources). When a user has a technical issue, you should be the leader they flock to for help in the technical world.
If you are not approachable in a tech job, you will be the source of stagnation and, ultimately, loss. If you are in a position of leadership, the problem will spread much quicker and be more severe. Users will not report issues, for fear of “bothering” someone, or under the assumption that nothing will get done (and they may be right). You, or your department, will become a pariah without even realizing anything was wrong at all.
Become the go-to guy, not by doing everything for everyone, or even by solving every single problem. Be indispensable by being easy to approach.
Recognize That Your Job Is To Solve Problems
Your job, at its core, is to be a problem solver. If you were writing a mission statement or motto for your position it might be “to make users’ technical lives easier”. Everyone uses technology to do their job, and it is your responsibility to make that as smooth and painless as possible. You are results-oriented. When someone asks what you do, you say “I dream big, brainstorm, then execute.”
So, how do you solve problems?
Set Your Goals
It may sound vanilla, but it gets repeated often because it happens to be good advice. Establish your goals, and work ruthlessly toward them. Write down everything. What problems need to be solved? What are some solutions for each problem? What would it take to reach each of those solutions? Are these things you can do on your own, or something you’d need help with? Answer these questions, put them into a bulleted list, and you’ve already written a few possible To-Do lists.
CraigWritesTech 