Perfect Pitch: Are you the Music Man?

                                

Business success is based on two elements: communication skills and technical competence. Top executives always have at least one of those two elements. Sometimes, very rarely, they have both of them. But as most industries have become more complex, I’m finding that the technical competence of executives is falling behind their communication skills. In other words, we’re getting to be better talkers than doers. The good news is, you can set yourself apart if your technical skills are as good or better than your talking.

Maybe you’ve seen the play called The Music Man. It’s about a fast talking guy who arrives in a small town with the intention of hugely upgrading a marching band. His secret, however, is that he can’t play any instruments, doesn’t know how to lead a band, and doesn’t really have any musical skills whatsoever.

The Music Man is a comedy, but it’s not totally unrealistic. There are managers in the computer industry who don’t know how to format a document. There are automobile executives who could not change a tire. There was once even a vice president who couldn’t spell potato. It’s not a good idea to lack the fundamental technical skills of your industry, and it’s really not a good idea to get caught lacking them. So let’s see what you can do to avoid those problems.

The first step is to ask yourself some revealing questions. If you find yourself answering no to these questions, you need to do some work in this area right away. And even if most of your answers are affirmative, you can use these questions as guideposts. They can suggest new steps for enhancing yourself in these areas. They can call your attention to people you know who are especially competent or otherwise impressive -- people who you can learn from, people you might like to know better. In general, the questions we’ll be asking can help you to do more.

So here are some items to think about regarding technical competence:

Are your ideas and opinions readily accepted? Or are your suggestions frequently challenged and turned down -- often because they’re considered impractical?

To what degree do others call upon your expertise? Are you often asked to make decisions involving technical matters? Or do people seem to lack confidence in your know-how?

Do you keep up with new developments in your business and industry? Or are you inclined to keep doing things the way you’ve always done them?

Give those questions some thought. And as you do so, here are some specific actions you can take for elevating your technical competence, and also for making sure that it gets recognized.

Make sure that you read the trade journals and major internet sites for your business of industry. Learn the names and titles of the executives at major companies. Be able to discuss new products and services from an operational perspective. Make sure you’re comfortable using the industry buzzwords and jargon that the experts use to recognize each other. And most importantly, really make an effort to learn the technical side of your business. If you can do that, you’ll distinguish yourself from the vast majority of people occupying managerial positions today. It’s definitely worth the effort. By being technically competent, you’ll be perceived as hugely valuable -- and as technical competence becomes rarer, you’ll also be seen as a total and unforgettable original.