I currently work in a position where I feel like my incentives are not as I want. Here is a blog post on what I believe in incentives for myself.

1. I think my primary incentive is to be customer-focused. I believe that if you keep your customers' interests as a primary focus, all other incentives flow from that, in the priorities that I value. A caveat to this idea that I recognize is that I would not put my customers' interests such that my company's interests are in the negative, at least in the long term. In other words, the balance of the customers' interests and my own internal company's interests should at least be a net zero. It shouldn't be negative, as in the customers' interests mean that my company is at a loss.

2. Whatever it is that we are delivering has to have the highest integrity possible. Integrity, to me, has several connotations including quality, cost, schedule, and I guess characteristics like technical rigor, accuracy, and full system lifecycle design roll-up under quality but I would call them out as primary values also.

I think that other benefits, such as sales, will follow from 1 and 2. This is not to disrespect the sales process nor the professionals who are a part of that, but I believe I don't think of it as my primary incentive.

Time

The title of the song is actually "Hazy Shade of Winter" but the lyrics earworming in my head this morning:

Time, time, time see what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Quality of life vs the weather

Yet another winter storm is hitting New England and i'm reading more FB chatter about how great the Silicon Valley weather is. I'm just thinking, though, about how that supposedly lousy New England weather was a component that made me what I am today. Lots of weather to stay inside, read books and develop my mind. And this "great" San Francisco Bay area weather is meaning no rain, lots of pollution and an awful winter for me with regards to allergies and breathing. At least in Boston you'll have water to drink.

"Power over" vs. "power under"

I was listening to KQED's Forum show this morning and, in the discussion, they were talking about new workplace design and whether that means that supervisors/bosses/managers have less power over or control of their workforce. I was struck at my reaction in that I was thinking I wouldn't want to work in a place where my supervisor/manager had "power over" me. I know they do but if that is the primary relationship I have with my supervisor, I would not want that. I would almost want to have a relationship where my manager expressed "power under" me and I try to express that when I supervise or manage people. What I mean is that I use my position to support the people I am managing but more from "underneath", not dictating what needs to happen but literally supporting them in being better at their job or helping them to determine for themselves what they need or the path of their career.

I was thinking today that, if had the chance to rewind all the way to the beginning of college, MIT, 18 years old, I would probably not study what I did, ending up getting my bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. I was thinking that, over the years, time has shown that I have probably loved economics and mathematics more than I have loved science and engineering. I do love physics and science in general, but, even today, I love to read wonky economics articles. I just seem to understand and even resonate with economic arguments, microeconomics, macroeconomics, finance, and even the mathematics and statistics basis.

I was just thinking this morning that societal groups (schools, companies, etc.) that self-define themselves as "meritocracies" usually have a very limited definition of "merit".

Some interesting thots

If you don't have shadows, you aren't in the light.

You can't count on your clients (or students) to know their needs or boundaries.