Our today’s coffee break has been broadcast from the IT Services and User Support Quality Department. Anna Isaeva, Support Group Leader, and Konstantin Agapov, Senior Specialist, from the Naumen company, have discussed their attitude towards errors, and what the most important aspects of their work are.
You can read about this in our article below.
Konstantin: Hello, Anna! I would like to start with a mundane but very interesting question. What attracted you in the field of IT? What is the most interesting thing when working with these systems?
Anna: Hello, Konstantin. It was not me who chose the IT, it was the IT that chose me. I am interested in delving into nuances and understanding the logic of work, understanding how processes are structured internally and in interaction with related systems, finding logical chains, organizing knowledge. It makes me happy when a correctly executed setup works as intended.
Konstantin: How important is love for work in your opinion? Confucius once said that if you find something you love to do, you will never have to work a day in your life. Can this be said about you? What do you think about such philosophy?
Anna: Of course, every person wants to find something they love to do, but no one is immune to difficulties and crises, because our world is not perfect. It is important for me to see the results of my work, when I manage to implement what was planned, I feel satisfied, and motivation for new “feats” grows. From such small achievements, a general picture of understanding is formed: whether I like what I am doing, or it is not my thing at all. We were taught before that smart people learn from other people's mistakes, now they talk about their own experience and the impossibility of understanding anything without it. What do you think? What mistakes on your path helped you get to this point?
Konstantin: Both are true, in my opinion. However, we are made in such a way that we often do not learn from other people's mistakes, only from our own, because we probably think: “I will do it differently and will not make a mistake", but we still make mistakes. Sometimes you need to study the mistakes of others, act wiser. For example - before, I always did the work alone, thinking that I myself will definitely do it! But such an experience always led me to negative results. I began to understand that it turns out that in order to get positive effects, you can and often even need to work with someone. For me, this is a matter of trust: after a series of failures, it was difficult for me. But I learned to trust people, colleagues, and now I have an easier and simpler stage in my life.
Anna: If it weren’t for IT, how would your professional career have turned out? What would you have been doing?
Konstantin: When I was going to school, I thought about two professions - IT and directing, but it so happened that I chose IT. At the same time I found my hobby - music. I cannot imagine what would happen if I chose directing. Everything went as it should have done. What’s next? Possibly, I will continue my development in the current field, but maybe my previous ideas/desires will spring to life. Only time will tell.
Today one of the megatrends is self-development and self-motivation, and the related literature has become quite popular. What do you feel about this trend? Are there any books that you would recommend to your employees and other people? Does this trend influence your choice of people for your team?
Anna: I am not a supporter of any mega trends, the choice of books to read is usually determined by what is needed: what do I want to get from reading? The pleasure of reading a good interesting book, learning something new, reading a book with good reviews to form my own opinion, etc. Books on self-development are worth reading when you clearly understand that you definitely want to put their advice into practice, otherwise the point is lost. Well, each person has their own motivation. If I would like to recommend one of the last books I read, I liked the book "Emotional Intelligence" by Oleg Kalinichev, it is easy to read, there are interesting practical tasks. In general, I recommend choosing books by Russian authors, because, in my opinion, the advice of foreign authors is not entirely applicable to the mentality of our people.
As for the choice of employees for the team, it is determined by the presence of a person's desire and interest in a common cause and achieving common goals.
Konstantin, do you have a personal development plan, not only professional, but also personal? Could you share your top three goals for the next year or two? And why are you striving for these goals?
Konstantin: I want to fully explore the field of working with projects. My goal for the future is to become a project manager myself, to know the "pitfalls" by studying real-life cases as an example, to learn how to look for solutions and also to use them in my future work. The second goal is to achieve success in my hobbies, alternative activities, for example, music, and the third is to relearn English. It may sound trivial, but this is important for me at the moment.
Anna: Konstantin, that's great, thank you for your openness. As your manager, I have the following question: What non-trivial things are you learning from me? Is there something secial that others could not give you?
Konstantin: First of all, it is a vision towards difficult situations, the idea that you can find a way out of any of them. If something goes wrong, you need to be able to keep yourself together and solve the problem. If you make a mistake, somebody will give you a hint how to fix it. To answer the second question, you taught me to be humane. You often help me, listen, support me, and thank you very much for this!
Anna: Thank you, Konstantin, it is heart-warming to get such feedback!
Konstantin: A "female manager" - what does this mean for you? What features of the role of a manager would you highlight?
Anna: A female manager is a person who has the ability to lead and inspire her team, create a comfortable working environment. In the modern world, management requires flexibility and the ability to understand people, different approaches to different employees, the ability to choose the right words so that the employee achieves maximum performance.
These features have always been the strength of women, I try to use them in my work. And what human qualities help you develop professionally throughout your career?
Konstantin: Responsibility for the result, courage, the ability to find common language, helping other people, honesty, trust, the ability to accept your mistakes, and also the ability to listen to people.
I have always been interested in how thinking is transformed when you become a manager? What changes first: the position or the mind-set?
Anna: When a person becomes a manager, not only does the position change, but also the mind-set is transformed. The manager begins to focus on achieving long-term, strategic goals, coordinate the work of the team in accordance with these goals, and begins to think about how his or her actions affect the team or the organization as a whole.
In this context the topic of the “pillar of strength” is quite relevant. What about you, Konstantin, what would you name as your “pillar of strength”? What helps you to not give up or not become disheartened in any difficult situation both at work and in life?
Konstantin: It’s hard to say exactly. Different times of life - different “pillars”, also in work it is that same feeling of responsibility for the result, and in life it is the desire to have the opportunities to help my family. To conclude our conversation, Anna, please share your credo with us.
Anna: My credo is to live my life in peace with myself and the world around me, to be open to development and change, to accept life with all its infinite possibilities and find joy in any moment. Such an approach lets me move forward and grow, find and use all that is best, valuable and unique in different situations.
Thank you for this Coffee Break!
Konstantin: I thank you for this exciting conversation, too.