Give It Your Best

I have been on both sides of this. And I've been a manager to people on either side of this. You would think that trying to do your best should be obvious. If you want to progress, if you want to grow, you have to give it your best shot. You won't discover anything particularly new in this post, but since I've witnessed different perspectives, I wanted to share my experience.

As an IC I always took pride in the work I did, from the small projects to the large ones. That doesn't mean that my output was always the best I could deliver, it had to start from a few iterations that would get me there. Delivering projects that, at the time, didn't feel would be impactful, played an important role in my career. Peers noticed, managers noticed, and even across teams, people noticed. In one of my early experiences at a startup, I enjoyed creating tools that would allow us to move faster and streamline internal processes. In this case, I started with a small POC to create representations of rooms from a library of digital assets (e.g. a wardrobe, a bed, a chair). The goal was to understand if it could bring a measurable improvement. I prototyped with care not knowing that this tool would become a crucial part of all of our internal operations. It left a mark at the time, on our CTO, our CEO, and other coworkers that ended up using it daily, 9 to 5. This helped me set the tone for what I could accomplish and I leveraged it to gain trust on larger projects.

As a manager, I see and notice the type of effort people put into the projects they lead. Some don't realize the impact it can have on their career. In one instance we had a very large refactoring effort, with plenty of unknowns to discover. It was a challenging project because missing a smooth delivery meant disruption for every customer we had. The project lead at the time took the effort very professionally (as you would expect). The great surprise came when due to internal changes, that refactoring effort would have become less impactful. Instead of dragging their feet, or lowering their standards just to get it done, the project lead drove that to a conclusion beautifully. He coordinated with several teams, had to navigate a large codebase, and did all of that autonomously.

Anyone else could have "withdrawn" and lowered the effort, demotivated by the change of direction. This is where sticking to "giving it their best" was a career-making moment. This large effort, and the quality of its delivery over a year (yeah it was that large), put the project lead in a position to build a very solid case for a promotion. He was able to demonstrate he could deliver above his current seniority role consistently. The reward in the end was worth every drop of sweat. He got promoted and has been rock solid ever since.

Thoughts

It's easy to fall into the trap of not looking at the bigger picture. Sometimes you might believe things you're working on are not worth your effort. You're going to miss out! Talk to your manager to understand the impact a project and its delivery can have on your career. Either way, you should not be playing the guessing game. Any time you are given a chance to shine, give it your best. People notice. If you find yourself wondering if it's worth it or not, dig deeper. Why do you think that's not worth it? Discuss that with your manager and stay aligned.