Of course Fred was unhappy that he was not given the job. It should be his reward, after all, for having a great body of technical skill and knowledge and for having done such a good job for so many years.

Or so he thinks. He will ignore the fact that, to his co- workers, he is a jerk.

Fred will either listen and learn and prepare himself for the next job possibility, or he will move on. Either way, you profit by his choice.

Did you flunk the test? Not at all! You communicated to the entire organization (not just your shop) what you felt was important in the help desk.

Good for you! Keep it coming.

Pete M.

Dear Pete:

Never let it said that I don't learn from my readers. It should have occurred to me that I was sending a message to the entire organization as to what I felt was important. I was so focused on Fred's f eelings that I missed the fact that some good would come out of the situation. What is surprising, in retrospect, is that I did not think about it when I frequently tell everyone that people pay far more attention to what you do than what you say.

I thought your article on hiring practices was great. It should be a primer for anyone with hiring responsibilities. By the way, you didn't flunk -- you felt bad because you cared for everyone involved (a rare trait in today's management).

I was in a worse situation once where my management promoted someone (over my objection) who eventually worked for me (ditto). Not only did he have poor communications skills and suffer fools poorly, but he also irritated a lot of folks in the process.

I was shackled with an employee (we were consulting mechanical and civil engineers) who was rude to clients, didn't follow through on commitments -- and then quit in the middle o f a big project he had screwed up.

I enjoy your column.

Jeff

Dear Jeff,

Wrong promotion decisions cause havoc. When people are put in the wrong jobs, most of the time they know it, and it is not surprising when they leave. Unfortunately, when they do, they frequently leave a mess in their wake. Of course, you ran the risk that the boss who insisted on the ill-advised promotion would blame you for it turning out the way you predicted. Remember, many bosses believe that in blame, as in gifts, it is far better to give than receive.

Your recent article ["Why Did You Promote Him"] is very appropriate. Currently, I am taking an "Issues in Management" class at the local university. As an IS professional, it becomes clearer every day that our communications skills are often more important than our technical abilities. We have to be able to effectively present to technically advanced and technically challenged individuals the information they need to perform their tasks successfully. We cannot afford to continue to separate our technical expertise from our management and communication abilities. They are intricately tied together and we have to be effective in our implementation of them. Keep up the good work.

Mark S.

Dear Mark:

The more I see, the more I believe that communications skills are extremely important. Or, to put it another way, technical skills are the "must-haves" that permit us to be considered for advancement; communication skills are what separates the finalists in the selection process for promotions.

Your column in the March 10 issue really hit home -- I had to comment on your situation with Fred.

You see, I probably fit into the same mold as Fred although I am not in management. I am a "techie" and I am not always the best with my customer-relation skills (i.e., any end users in the company are ultimately my customers) so maybe you could consider me a "Fred." There is one difference between Fred and myself though -- I would understand why you didn't give me (Fred) the promotion. I know that my communications skills are lacking at times and I'm sure that this is a mark against me at my own company. Fortunately, I do not have any desire for promotion at this time so I have not had to face a situation similar to Fred's.

One other comment I would like to make is that I don't think people can learn the communication skills you talk about. I think either you have them or you don't. I know you can take courses (which I have) but they only are effective for a very small percentage of people. Most people, including myself, take these courses and forget everything that was covered within a week. The only way to improve your skills is to really work at them, and that is hard! It is also time- consuming, which makes it even more difficult for people to stick with the program.

I think that it's easier dealing with outside customers. You just do the task you are assigned. When dealing with inside customers I am not so willing to be easygoing. I work very hard at what I do; unfortunately, I expect the same from my co-workers and they often don't meet those standards. Therefore, I make no effort to be easy to get along with. If I get a task handed to me where my co-worker(customer) has not completed his part of the job or has tried to dump his work off on me, he gets a negative reaction! I have become so frustrated with the bureaucracy and politics that I no longer care to try and present a good image, or try to use my communication skills to get a positive result.

Sorry to take so much of your time but I don't think you flunked in communicating to Fred. If I had been in his place, I would have known why you picked Bruce. Fred does not have those skills, does not recognize their importance, and will probably never learn those skills, even if he takes a hundred courses.

Thanks for the interesting column.

David

Dear David:

You seem to have a good understanding of those things that you do well and how you come across to people. That's valuable both professionally and for your own peace of mind.

With respect to whether people can change or not, it is hard, as you say, but I think it can be done. The real issue, as you've identified in your last paragraph, is whether a person has accepted the importance of having strong interpersonal skills. Once a person understands the value of good communication and the fact that it is difficult to learn how to communicate, he has the basis for making significant improvement.

Of course you were right to s elect Bruce over Fred for the promotion. But now, what about Fred? For that matter, what about all the "Freds" in your department? The computer field is absolutely teeming with people who aren't so good at social interaction. If you have access to "The Dilbert Principle," try reading chapter 14 -- Engineers, Scientists, Programmers, and Other Odd People. These "odd" people shouldn't be put in situations where they have to do a lot of interaction with other people; it would be bad for the company and bad for them. So what do you do about Fred? You need him, and right now he's probably feeling quite unappreciated.

Perhaps if you had explained to Fred that he wasn't well- suited for the position, and had emphasized that he wouldn't be happy there, it might have helped. After all, it's likely that what Fred is really after is recognition, not necessarily a promotion as such.

I'm one of those odd people and I've learned the hard way that I'm no good at social interaction. My kind of people are differe nt from everybody else. I think of myself as sort of a back-room kind of guy. You wouldn't want me at the front counter working with customers, but I'm invaluable in back doing repairs and such. Just give me your sincere appreciation (and recognition, in its various forms) and I'll do just fine.

John M.

Dear John:

I spent a significant amount of time with Fred comparing his track record with the job requirements. Fred just did not agree that communication was as important to the job as I thought it was. I did not say to him or try to convince him that he would be unhappy in the higher-level job. I felt it would be demeaning to him to try to tell him what would make him happy. Fred has terrific skills which we appreciate very much -- and say so to him. The problem is that he thought those skills entitled him to get a job for which he was not really qualified.

I just read your article "Why Did You Promote Him." The points are well taken, but your closing paragraph I felt was wrong. Agreed, the responsibility for communication rests with the sender, however if the receiver (Fred) is not willing to listen, there is no way to get the message through. If this is a true story, and I think it might be, perhaps the best method is to contact an outside service such as Covey Leadership, or Dennis Waitley's group and see if they might be willing to work with Fred. This is a very costly route, but unless Fred makes the needed changes that will make him promotable, I suspect he will not remain long at the company.

Just a thought from an old nerd.

By the way, your column is the first thing I read in InformationWeek.

Thanks.

Dave P.

Dear Dave:

Fred seems to be spending more time working on getting along with people. He has become a little more tolerant of others and he is also getting involved with some of the activities that we do with the community which help to build team spirit in the organization. He soon will be going to a class on personal interactions which is expensive, but if it helps, will be worth every penny. I am cautiously optimistic.

Oh, I'm glad that my column is the first thing you read in InformationWeek.