FUEL for Your Brain: On Focus, Usefulness, Execution, Learning

I hate acronyms. My dad used to use them far too much, the kind of guy that was more smart in retrospect than the kind of boy I was understood at the time. Kind, thoughtful, quiet, and invested in people around him.

My current thought product is an acronym, "FUEL", based on a few key practices that I find are valuable to my current line of work as a Change Agent. These practices take time to develop and are only truly useful when used in parallel.

• Focus: ability to right-size activities to close the task(s) currently underway
• Usefulness: ability to gauge effectiveness of work and reprioritize based on new ideas/objectives/activities
• Execution: ability to match skill to task, collaborate the plan, and resolve blockers as they arise
• Learning: ability to observe outcomes and refactor them into useful ways to improve all of the above

Real-time Example of FUEL

Last night after a meetup, I had a beer with someone I'd met before at a local conference but hadn't dived into. The opportunity presented itself, so I stayed a little later than I normally would. They are a CTO for a 50-person startup in town. Net-net:

Paul: "What's weighing on you right now man, work related?" (L)
Them: "Kind of glad someone asked...we have people issues." (E)
Paul: "You're not alone...what kind?" (E/F)
Them: "There are a few 'senior' engineers that don't produce like others." (U)
Paul: "What's your plan for them and the rest of your team?" (U)
Them: "We just laid off one after giving him a path, but the other two, I don't know...maybe add metrics, visibility...they're kind of SPOFs." (U)
Paul: "...so you can quantify what you already know? How did we arrive here?" (U/L)
Them: "They were here at the beginning, hence 'senior', but one guy hasn't committed code since Sept (5 months)!" (E)
Paul: "Got it, they don't 'git' it. [laughs] How are you and the leadership team  helping to coach other junior engineers?" (L)
Them: "Well that's the problem maybe. We don't exactly have a culture yet, but our C-level relationships with each other are solid." (U/E)
Paul: "I once heard that great leaders define their success by fostering other leaders. Do you know who your real 'senior' engineers are?" (F/L)
Them: "Well I kind of already know who deserves the chance to step up." (E)
Paul: "That's good, but not enough. People often hesitate on new things simply because they haven't experienced how it works yet. Your coaching needs to help those people get over any blockers to proving one way or the other if they can do the job well/right/better." (FUEL)
Them: "I'm going to talk to our CEO about this. Can I get your card?"
Paul: "Only if you intend to use it."

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Good enough exercise and learning for me for one night.