Lessons From My Supervisor 🗒️

A couple of months ago I was privileged to be brought on to a team of really smart lads. I was the youngest and at a point I wondered what I was doing there but it was an exciting one to be involved in and I really appreciate Jane for bringing me on board.

You’re the IT guy, John will be your supervisor — Jane

I had met John only once before and we had a great conversation about software development in general. He had been around the world and done so many professions. He seemed like a cool guy to work with but I’d never had a supervisor whatsoever so I couldn’t really tell.

This is a story about John, the lessons I’ve learned and why it’s important to have a supervisor in your career.

Produce Quality Work ✨

John couldn’t stress this enough, he wanted everything done to the highest standard with no excuse whatsoever, nothing but the best.

When I thought I was done, he would double check and often spot something that wasn’t done right and wouldn’t let me go without getting to the bottom of it. If it was an explanation he wanted it thoroughly researched and all options explored. He would get his hands dirty and make sure what you were saying is right.

Honestly he was right, it is the little things that get noticed and in the long run the little things magnified. He wasn’t taking a chance on anything and didn’t want any surprises.

Quality over quantity a statement I’d heard and used for ages but it sounded different when it came from him because he always put action to the words.

Learn To Communicate 📢

I had spent a couple of days putting together a report, I finally got it done. I asked a couple of guys to have a look at it and it was signed off as great so I emailed it. It was my day off the next day, I had an appointment and I really needed the rest.

I got a call that morning from John; “Where are you? There are errors in the report that you sent. What did you do yesterday? Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be away?” My response didn’t matter at this point. I didn’t communicate that I’d be away the next day nor fill him in about what I had done the previous day. He was green about everything, I made him look bad.

He was fuming, I could feel it from miles away as I listened. I had messed up and dragged him a long with me. He told me he’d fix it and hang up. I came back later in the evening and had a chat with him and set things right.

I was not used to this way of work, the hierarchy, the reports, someone to sign off etc but every system is setup differently and I learned the hard way. With time I started to adopt, honestly I still got it wrong at times but usually I was spot on.

This was one of the unpleasant moments, I still look back to the mistakes and make sure I don’t do make them again. It turns out there was more to communication than I thought.

Be Knowledgeable 🧠

John would share so many stories across various domains, he would relate to the news on BBC or on the local channel. He know a thing or two about almost everything that could come up whether it was history, science, economics, law or technology etc

I always try to be as knowledgeable as I can such that I do not feel out of place in conversations and through all the time I spent with John I just couldn’t keep up. It was really challenging but equally a great experience about how much knowledge he’d gathered over the years.

I learned that one should be able to have a conversation with the lady at the shop, the nurse, the cleaner, the judge and the lawyer with ease. It should be second nature, so many doors open from having to relate to so many denomination.

It’s at this point that I rekindle the urge to learn another language, rather a couple of more languages to be freely able to communicate or understand various ethnicities. I want to learn about law, history, psychology, science, herbs and so many more domains.

I want to travel more, not for the vibes but to learn what’s beyond the scope of my own.

Don’t Give Up Too Soon Man 😣

One evening as we were closing for the day, someone walked in and wanted to print something, unfortunately our computers were not connected to the printer. I had tried connecting the computers before but I couldn’t quite do it. We explained that we couldn’t help but John later said we have to figure this out. He walked to the printer and got the printer IP, with this I was able to connect the PC to the printer and print a test document.

Don’t give up too soon man, he said as he had always told me after we persevered and got a solution to a problem.

Persistence is everything, I had so many encounters where I had thrown in the towel but I always kept these words at the back of my mind.

I’ll tell this to you too, don’t give up too soon.

Learn To Improvise 🕯️

When there was no right way to do something, that was it for me. It can’t be done I would say but John always came up with something and something that would make sense whether it was a placeholder or a dummy model or template even using paper.

I would walk back home and question myself whether I could do better to handle such situations. John was creative and it’s not something we can all have but we can surely take notes and have a way to replicate it.

DIY 🛠

John would go about his business over the weekends. There was a construction project he was doing, this one time he came back tired more than usual. He explained that said the engineers didn’t show up that weekend so he got his hands dirty since the work had to be completed. It seemed like tedious work judging by how he was speaking but he managed to finish the work and save his cash. This brings me back to being knowledgeable and knowing various fields.

When NASA landed a robot on mars, John got so disturbed that we couldn’t even create a simple plane to fly from one place to another. You could see the disappointment on his face. We are so many bright minds but we are not able to come up with some basic automobiles.

Later that evening he sent me a video of teenagers who made a plane that flew to from SA to Cairo. In my head I believe he was asking, whats so special that you cannot do. it is unacceptable

I still think to my self, there’s nothing I can’t learn to do, I will learn to do more things by myself.

Follow Up 🧾

John would always follow up on all channels, email, phone and in person. He’d always ask and make sure a message or communication was received.

When it comes to reports people have a billion things going on and they need a close follow up to make sure your email is not forgotten or to make sure you sent to right email before it’s too late.

This probably goes back to communication but in a different angle and deserved to be a section of its own.

I learned that I should watch what I eat, I should take exercises regularly. I learned to talk to people and be confident among so may other things. Thank you for the stories and lessons John.

At 50+ John plays soccer, he is up at 3am studying among other things. When I am 80, I want to do most of the same. I don’t really look far much in life but he made me think of another angle to life.

Originally published at Stue’s Brain 🧠 on July 12, 2021.