The Dark Side of Tech Knowledge

One concept totally lacking in this guide appears to be the following:

Making yourself both aware of, then immersed in, the core technologies in your company also has its DARK SIDE. You can get pegged as a technician, rather that a visionary technologist.

Witness: You might quickly become the “resident guru” on the floor capable of making that infamous new software work properly. In doing so, you can relegate yourself to being thought of as a geek or, worse, Mr. Fixit, not to be confused with a leader and mover/shaker of men, so to speak.

This dark side of being the in-house tech expert occurs more often than not in what appears to be a so-called high-tech company, but one, in fact, is only high-tech in certain areas (the Information Systems department, for example), but not so much in Human Resources or Accounting.

In this case, despite all of your homework on technologies, readings of the trade press, study of technologies, and training, others (more power-prepared?) may leave you in the dust. Frequently, the real power players can be those “well-spoken” (having a mere gloss of techno-speak) and “more laidback” guys and gals around you (more gifted in the socialization skills) rise to the near top. They’ve earned it with the massive time and energies spent kissing-up and get well positioned with the boss and distancing themselves from the techies and worker-bees.

Your popularity as the technologist precludes you from the power seat, permanently. In fact, in some companies, you actually might be held back (never promoted) so you may keep your beloved technologies working, and your vision for new ones to be, when those around you just don’t quite “get it.” You see “in technological terms.” They see in the realities of business: Satisfy the boss first, then the customer, then your associates.

So, perhaps, a caveat in this book here might add a corollary to the various rules: In your quest to become an expert and visionary regarding technology in your business, be aware of those toes around you that you might accidentally be trotting upon. These toes might soon be planted squarely on your butt as you fly out the doors. Cases were studied in the book of employees being asked to leave and later becoming smash successes, on their own, when they were calling the shots. Not all of us are prepared to make this transition, or financially prepared.

Obviously, this associated power-corollary, saves you from the fate of the computer geek: A sub-set of all computer presentations which says something to the effect (just as when you take your car in to the mechanic to be fixed and the car won’t do the thing you are complaining about) and here it is. All other things being equal, computers, systems and software RARELY work perfectly, on queue, in presentations to the boss. You’re nervous, you make computer strokes too quickly, or the Internet is slowing than average.

Thus, BEWARE and always have a PLAN B in such situations: Such as having non-interactive PowerPoint slides of the software to be demonstrated or project being discussed. This might just save your project…and, even, your job.

Bottom Line: Putting all of one’s eggs in the tech basket can backfire both horribly and immediately, with terrible consequences for the over-thinking/unaware/unprepared. Link your technology bent with common sense actions, tempered with a knowledge of the personalities and traditions of your business. Go with the flow, as you attempt to steer the ship a new direction (most are NOT rewarded for such radical departures from the norm…until much later in the game, if everything works perfectly, and somebody makes a lot of money). Trust me, as the saying goes.