Contents
Describe your governance or leadership philosophy, skills, and experience. Provide an example of situation where your applied your philosophy to answer a challenge, and the result.
My leadership philosophy can best be summed up by the word consensus. A colleague who I deeply respect recently told me that I’m good at creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable and free to succeed.
I can promise you that I don’t know all the answers to the issues that face STC and the Technical Communication profession. But I can create an atmosphere where everyone can work together, do some creative thinking, and blend their skills and their knowledge for the good of the whole group.
And while I don’t know all the answers, I do know a few things. Having almost thirty years’ experience in the profession, I have a keen awareness of the successes and the disappointments that we, as a professional community, have experienced through the years. And I have a good sense of what makes technical communicators tick.
I try to go into any new situation with an open mind, not with a preconceived idea of how everything should work out. By doing this, I find that I can learn a lot from the other people on the project, and I usually come out of it feeling like I’ve received far more than I’ve given. I treat people with respect, and I take pride in my ability to get people talk with, and listen to, each other.
In a volunteer organization like STC it’s especially important to create an atmosphere where leaders and other workers feel that their work is worthwhile and their contributions are important.
My first project at my current job (Systems Documentation, Inc., or SDI) presented some special challenges: we were tasked with updating a very large documentation library for a complex, technologically sophisticated software product. Most of the team members, including myself, were new to the product, the writing tools, and the processes and procedures for doing the job. Meanwhile, the project was already in full swing: the first day that I and the other team members arrived, the engineers were already writing code and planning how they were going to test it.
The team members found themselves in a predicament, faced with learning such a large amount of technical information, processes, and tools, in a very short time. I understood their predicament, because I was in it myself. I tried to be as helpful as I could in practical ways—showing my colleagues where to find information and telling them who they needed to talk with—and in tangible ways—encouraging, commiserating, sometimes just listening. And sometimes we just stopped and laughed together at some absurdity or other.
I let everyone do things in the way they felt most comfortable: one guy was a night owl who might not show up until after lunch, but who could produce an amazing amount of material working into the wee hours. Another had a writing style almost completely the opposite of mine—and while sometimes it almost killed me not to rewrite his stuff, I made sure not to force my style on him or the others. Provided that they met basic requirements, like conforming to the corporate style guide, I tried to give the team members as much freedom as possible. Treat them like professionals, and they’ll act like professionals.
As a result, the team felt confident that they could do their jobs in the ways in which they were most comfortable. They also found a knack for discovering better ways to do things, and we all learned as a result.
Finally, I worked as hard as I’ve worked on any project, both because the project was that hard and because I wanted to set an example of hard work. I applied my experience and expertise to helping the team see what was important and what was just urgent.
More than six months after it started, we reached the end of the project with everyone still sane and still speaking to each other. The client was pleased, and our work product represented a huge step forward than the one we’d been handed at the beginning.
What positions have you held that involve the responsibilities of the office of STC second vice-president? Describe your specific responsibilities and the results you achieved.
I’ve served on the board of directors for two different societies: STC and the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Both of these roles required me to consider how the organization could position itself for long-range success (strategic thinking) while dealing with current issues and situations (day-to-day operational management).
While on the STC board I served as Assistant to the President for Professional Development, a position that put me on the front lines of issues like defining our profession, how to formulate a body of knowledge, and whether STC should undertake a program of certification for technical communicators. These very issues will be in the forefront for STC over the next five years. We have to understand them and come up with creative answers, if we are to continue as a strong and healthy organization.
I’m also privileged to have had an integral role in developing and shaping two different Technical Communication certificate programs in my local community: one at Durham Technical Community College and one at Duke University. As a member of the advisory boards for both programs, I’ve worked with colleagues to develop programs that would appeal to, and prove beneficial to, prospective students while they enriched the pool of professionals in the area.
As an instructor in the Duke program, I’ve honed my presentation skills and applied some of the principles I learned while working in Marketing—such as providing value and tailoring messages to a specific audience.
My recent stint as president of the STC Carolina chapter president resulted in the chapter’s winning a Society-level Community of Excellence award. My predecessors built an extremely foundation for me to stand on, and the award reflects the skill and effort of a terrific group of volunteers. But I like to think that I had something to do with motivating the chapter’s volunteers and creating a climate in which they could succeed. I also like to think that the rank-and-file members received good value for the investment they’d made when they paid their STC dues.
Why do you want to serve as STC's second vice-president (and ultimately as its president)?
STC stands a crucial moment in its history.
Our profession is changing, but our profession has always been changing, and STC has always kept up with the change. What’s different today is that the marketplace is also changing. If a professional society defines itself as an “information resource,” what does it do when information is freely available on the Internet to anyone who wants it?
After decades in a steadily growing job market, many technical communicators in the North American now face the reality that their jobs are heading offshore. Meanwhile, technical communicators in other locales find themselves in need of the kind of education, resources, and community that a professional society can offer. How does STC provide value to all of these different constituencies?
Technical communication becomes increasingly important in the world economy. Businesses understand that they need good technical communicators—yet, ironically, they don’t know how to tell whether a prospective employee or contractor has the goods. Ours is a profession desperate for leadership—desperate for a set of core values, an agreed-on body of knowledge, and perhaps a credentialing system. STC is uniquely positioned to provide that leadership.
The choices that we, as STC leaders, make in next three to five years will determine whether the Society becomes the pacesetter for an exciting profession or simply becomes a relic of the past. By motivating and encouraging STC members to come together and generate creative approaches, I can help the Society assume a leadership role. I’m excited at the prospect at being a part of that.
I really believe in the technical communication profession. I think very highly of what we do, and of the people I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with. It would be an honor to serve STC: to have a hand in moving our profession forward, in guiding STC to a position of leadership and prominence, and in helping my colleagues succeed.