Management
by Robert King
When you first ventured into the tech writing ranks, marketing the department was likely the furthest thing from your mind. You already had work to do, so marketing was somebody else’s job.
But now that you’re in a position where you are reading newsletters like TechCom Manager , you probably have some concern about marketing. You might even need to be a tech comm marketer to ensure your documentation department survives. To have internal and external customers solicit your services is not always a given, even within the same corporation. At the company where I am Tech Comm Manager, we have a decidedly free-market economy, where the business units can either use our services to provide manuals to their end customers or not. Consequently, marketing our department is actually in my position description. How we market our services to our internal and external customers is the focus of this article.
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by Christy Simard
At first glance, technical communication (techcom) and technical marketing communication (marcom) appear to be very different genres. Where traditional techcom strives to help people use products, marcom seeks to make people realize they need products. Techcom instructs, while marcom persuades, and this distinction affects everything from the genre’s focus, to its content, and medium.
On the other hand, when executed well, these two genres share important similarities. They both deal with technical, complex subject matter. They both pay close attention to their target audiences, and they both benefit from a concise, accessible writing style.
Given these similarities, it makes sense that many organizations get technical communicators involved in marketing work. But what are you getting into when the marketing department looks to your techcom team for help? And what do you do when a writer on your team expresses an interest in marcom?
In reality, it can be tricky to distinguish the opportunities from the risks. This article examines two challenging situations for techcom managers, pointing to the risks you are likely to face and the opportunities you might realize.
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By Kerri Harris
Effective communication is a manager’s greatest tool in rallying groups toward a common cause. From the annual department address to daily email, careful audience consideration is vital in determining how accurately audiences receive messages. Even the most engaging statements lose meaning when barriers to effective communication foster misconception and confusion.
While many managers typically hold listeners solely responsible for how they receive or interpret information, true leaders are more cognizant about potential communication barriers. As a result, leaders often question their assumptions about the “right” way to communicate and strive to better understand the ways their subordinates interact with one another.
For many years, scholars have studied barriers to effective communication based in simplified terms, putting culture and gender among the greatest inhibitors. While no individual is bound to set generalizations, specific characteristics can impact personal interaction and business objectives.
Through this article we’ll examine:
- Global Communication Barriers
- Gender Communication Barriers
- Tools for Managers to Overcome Barriers
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by Kerri Harris
Today’s business climate of outsourcing, in-sourcing, virtual teams, and ROI-driven objectives can leave a manager at any level feeling powerless. Yet, we often see examples of those who can elicit unwavering support from their teams, driving highly effective projects, and getting the best performance from employees despite ever-increasing workloads. What is it about these individuals that makes them stand out as great leaders? Generally, the answer is the difference between a strict management model and one that includes basic principals of leadership. There are recognizable characteristics in great leaders and simple strategies anyone can adopt to improve employee performance and change the work environment for the better.
Experts have long studied the subtle differences between general management, leadership, and truly great leaders. Thomas Cronin, author of, “ Thinking About Leadership ” observes, “Managers do things the right way , while leaders are more concerned with doing the right thing. ” A focus on managing projects and deadlines leaves little room for leadership activities, but it can be done in a step-by-step approach beginning with awareness and a little common sense.
The remainder of this article addresses the following areas:
- Personal Evaluation
- Creating a Shared Vision
- The Collaborative Process
- Communicating the Vision
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by Aparna Datta
With our economy still on the down slope, it is difficult for technical managers to justify keeping an excessive amount of technical writers on their staffs, let alone hiring new ones. In many cases, managers feel they don’t even need writers, arguing that everyone has writing ability. Of course, today’s technical writers not only write, they also perform many other tasks: programming, web development, training, and so on. Add to that the fact that many are also highly trained and certified in other areas besides writing.
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by Karen O’Keefe
The technical communications profession involves a unique mix of technical and communication skills, which is not easy to find. Most managers have had the experience of interviewing and subsequently hiring a candidate who later turns out not to be the right person for the job. This situation begs the question of how to identify which candidate is a good fit for a given position. The answer is that there are five key activities that make the difference between a successful hiring decision and a not-so-successful one. We have all been on both sides of the interview, and this article will attempt to make you, the interviewer, more successful.
This article covers five key activities, including:
- Writing a Detailed Job Description
- Making Sure the Setting/Environment is Conducive
- Conducting a Programmed Interview
- Using Multiple Interviewers
- Considering Testing
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by Margie Yundt and Sherry McMenemy
It’s in the numbers. Creating documentation is not an exact science, yet as communication leaders, we are expected to provide real estimates for how much time we need to document a project, or what we can produce given a predetermined timeline.
Using a simple Planning Tool, you can improve the accountability of your team and accurately plan documentation projects to gain:
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by Kerri Harris
Conflict is characteristic in any situation that brings diverse groups together to manage tasks and obstacles. Nowhere is that more apparent than in business environments based on hierarchical structures where teams are inherited and divergent objectives create barriers to effective teamwork. Conflict resolution is among the many tasks delegated to managers, yet it is often the most difficult to master.
From individual performance appraisals to an all-out assault within a project team, managers are expected to not only have the wisdom of Solomon, but also the patience of a saint. Yet often, this skill is not cultivated, leaving many managers unable to adapt to instances that can bring even the best performing machine to a screeching halt. To help avoid this from happening, there are various tools and tactics that an organization can adopt to not only diffuse immediate threats to productivity, but also alleviate potential issues in the long run.
To support these ideas, this article addresses the following:
- Objectives as a Navigation Tool
- Diffusing Conflict in Teams
- Identifying Barriers
- Tactics for Motivating Change
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by Whitney Potsus
Whether the documentation department has a staff of one or a team of 12, visibility within the company is a frequent concern. The reasons for this concern range from personal to professional. You want to be remembered when promotions and bonuses are handed out. You want new challenges to add diversity to your workload, and new projects to add skills to your resume. You want to defend your turf against budget cuts and layoffs during lean economic times. And you want to be more than an afterthought that lives in the back 40 of the cubicle farm.
You’ve probably come to this article looking for specific ideas of what you can do in your organization to raise the technical communications group’s profile. And there will be some of those. But trying to provide specific recommendations for raising your group’s profile in your company is a little like giving someone else marriage advice. Unless you’re sitting in the thick of things every day, participating in the maintenance of the relationship, it’s difficult to offer ideas that are compatible with and cognizant of all the variables in personalities, skills, strengths, and weaknesses, communication styles, schedules, aspirations, and so on.
In here, you will find suggestions to mull over as you try to determine the best ways to expand your influence throughout the company. Because when you talk to other technical communicators and documentation managers, what you often hear is “ Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it .”
Following, we’ll address:
- Taking Time to Focus
- What Solutions Do Customers Need?
- What Twirls Your Beanie?
- Mapping Your Goals
- Cited Readings & Resources
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