Beginners are not stupid, backward, or slow. Beginners do, however, lack knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, while it is vital to ultimately decrease the importance of methodologies (see Pawel Brodzinski's blog that explains why --> http://blog.brodzinski.com/2007/12/clue-of-project-management.html), the beginner requires strict orders to follow.
Ken Blanchard calls this the directive stage of situational leadership. You need to tell the beginner exactly what to do and when to do it. The beginner only wants to hear what they need to know and not endless rhetoric about the background of a problem. The stricter and tighter you make the instructions to the beginner, the faster they will get to the point where they want and need to know more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
When I think about beginners I see two kinds of people.
First group will wait for tasks to be given to them and then will try to complete them. No questions asked. Just trying to do whatever was given to them. Even when it ends with hitting the wall.
Second group will ask. Much. They will be curious if someone had the problem before and how he dealt with it. As far as there will be someone who will answer their questions they should learn quite fast.
When talking about strict instruction for newbies, well, it depends who you deal with. The more people of the first type you have the more formalized help for them you need. On the other hand when you hire a person of the second type, the only thing you really require is just a bit of information to give her a kick-off and a supportive atmosphere in the team to allow her to grow quickly.
Post a Comment