Submitted by jmaala on
in
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Hi everyone, I've been stalking the boards for quite some time and find many of the posts truly enlightening. I have a question which I'm sure the community can provide great insights.
[b]BLUF: How do you go about defining your own role?[/b]
To provide some background, I was hired with a fairly solid role two years ago. However with the ongoing turmoil, my primary role to manage and grow a new team of programmers has been scrapped. (My team has been absorbed in various areas now)
Luckily, I have been making myself useful in other areas to a point that my manager has found me , and I use the term very cautiously and loosely, indispensable at this time.
The challenge is that I have been pushed into an ad-hoc all-around supporting role that does not allow me to gain depth of knowledge in any particular area especially specific to the business.
To add to this, the team is currently going into several new technologies that adds to the steeper learning curve as an individual contributor for all the areas.
While my being able to step in the trenches before as a technology manager has been a lifesaver to avoid a layoff, I feel with the current role or ambiguity of it, is really spreading me thin.
going back to the question, any thoughts on how to get back on track or should I just bite the bullet and ride the wave till the crisis passes.
sorry for the long post and thanks in advance
John
ps. congrats to Mark and Mike on the podcast nominations (http://www.podcastawards.com/)
Re: Defining your own role
[quote="jmaala"]The challenge is that I have been pushed into an ad-hoc all-around supporting role that does not allow me to gain depth of knowledge in any particular area especially specific to the business.[/quote]
Whom are you supporting? Do you how you can best serve them? I would strongly suggest finding out, and the Jumpstarting Internal Relations ([url=http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/11/jump-starting-internal-customer-rel... 1[/url] and [url=http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/12/jump-starting-internal-customer-rel... 2[/url]) podcasts give great advice on how to do this.
Welcome to the forums!
BJ
Defining your own role
Thank you BJ. Your comments had me thinking.
While my mandate requires supporting the entire division, there are specific departments in the division that are of higher value than others.
I'll definitely review the internal relations casts.
Defining your own role
Find something that would add value to the company (drive revenue or reduce costs) and that is not currently being done.
Propose doing it.
Focus on the goal, not the role. If it adds more value than your current role, you have a case.
You are wise to be wary of your current role. Being an "ad hoc" problem solver may make you indispensable to your boss today, but you can become disposable very quickly in the eyes of folks a few levels up.
John