Forging Alliances
Technology workers, specially programmers, do not consider forging alliances as important at work – it’s almost not in their DNAs. The ones who do build alliances do see positive outcomes. These alliances result in outcomes like someone asking you to join his team in a new initiative they are starting or saying nice things about you in a room when you are not present. Engineers must come out of their comfort zones and develop these relationships. These relationships will be organic and sometimes deliberate. One could do several things to deliberately develop these bonds:
Reach out to Engineers or Engineering leaders on other teams for lunch or coffee.
Talk about what their job entails and also what you are passionate about. Do not fear rejection, no one is thinking negatively about you – in reality it’s quite the opposite. Reaching out to someone is a positive trait representative of your leadership skills. Build Relationships
Mentoring.
Make sure that if there is a mentoring program at work, join it and mentor someone. Also, if you can find a mentor – it’s always a good idea to get a mentor. Ask them for advice and make them your sounding board. Keep in mind that you can change the mentor if its not working out for you.Events sponsored by leaders
If your group head or a senior leader is organizing an event make sure to attend it and take this opportunity for an informal chat with them.Compliment
If you really like someone’s work (code or a piece of software they wrote) make sure slack them a line of appreciation (‘cool work’ would suffice).The target is to have someone who knows about you and your work to support you in a room where you are not present!
Remember it takes effort to forge alliances and build relationships, but if you do you are sure to succeed!