Useful Phrases

I'm not a manager. I don't have a bunch of people who report to me, for which I'm thankful. I have an uncanny ability to speak my mind without properly filtering it. I also enjoy being technical in nature without having to get bogged down in bi-directional translation. I'm thankful for many, many of the managers I've had - I've had some exceptional ones. The ones I appreciate the most are the ones that got better at their management.

But people do look to me as a source of information. I have a bit of specialized knowledge and a smaller bit of knowledge on how to apply the former. I'm able to look at a problem and formulate a solution. I think that people seem to want to know what my take is on particular problems and how to solve them.

So if we're going to work together, I promise to respect your ability at what it is you do for a living, if you respect mine. But there are a few phrases that you should have in your vocabulary that will get you far. These might be contrary to what you've been taught in a self-help book. I'm sorry. I'm not a self-help book author, so their catch phrases don't work on me. I'm a worker - these phrases work on me.

"I don't know, but I'll find out"

This is a particularly useful phrase to have in your pocket in an interview. I often ask questions that I know the person being interviewed doesn't know the answer to. If you lie to me or make up an answer, I will recommend against hiring you. Admitting you don't know something is not a failure. Lying is a failure. And telling me you don't know, but not being willing to learn or follow up on it is a failure.

I don't know everything. If it's something that I need to know in order to do my job better, or something I need to know in order to serve you better, I will find out. Help me learn it.

"I made a mistake"

I don't know who started this whole notion that it's not acceptable to be anything less than perfect all the time. Somebody started this whole wave of people who refuse to believe that they did anything incorrectly. The only way work will get done is to be able to identify defects, and then quickly remove those defects. My job is to find defects that you probably don't know how to find.

I make mistakes from time to time. I take that back - I make mistakes often. If I make a mistake, help me to understand the mistake I made - I will try not to make the same mistake in the future.

"I'm sorry"

I was once told in a professional capacity "never say you're sorry". It was told to me in an email - I don't know if that was a professional development recommendation or if it was a compliment (never say you're sorry for doing the right thing, for example). But it seems nobody is willing to ask forgiveness for making a mistake. Certainly a part of that is the previous statement - that nobody will admit they made a mistake. But beyond making a mistake, sometimes that mistake costs time and money or somebody to do extra work.

I'm sorry if I've made a mistake that caused you to have to make additional effort or to have to repeat yourself to me. Again, I make mistakes - help me know how to do better.

"The documentation is at location <X>"

When you learn something new, write it up so others can benefit from it. In my field, that's particularly important. When you learn to do something you didn't know how to do before, if it will benefit others, it needs to be in a place where they can benefit from your knowledge. That's all there is to say about it.

My personal stories and rants are on this blog. My Bible studies are on my personal wiki. My professional notes are in a top secret location. My personal professional notes are slowly being migrated to my personal wiki so I can export them and give to anybody who needs those.

"I'll have it to you by <Y>"

I shouldn't have to ask you more than once for something. When I ask, let me know when the task will be done or when the results will be delivered. By putting an estimated time of delivery on it, I know that it's important to you. It's important to me, which is why I asked you for it. I also asked you because from the information I had at the time, you were the best source of getting the task completed or the best source of more information. If I ask you for something, you should probably take it as a compliment - I have confidence that you'll be able to deliver it. If I have to ask you a second time, I've lost a bit of that confidence. If I ask a third time, I'll be sure to let your manager know this is the third time I've asked.

When you ask me to do something, let me know when you need it done by. I'll do my best at estimating when the task will be done. If I won't complete the task in time, I'll let you know that I don't know the answer and am stilly trying to find out, or that I made a mistake and that I'm sorry, or that I'm still putting the documentation somewhere that you can get to it.

Speaking of which, I'll have this list together for you right about...

now