My Beagle has (almost) all of the traits of a good SaaS Professional Services person.
I wish I could be as task-oriented as he is sometimes:
- Ultra-focused – (don’t rush me, this blade of grass has a scent that I need to examine, this will take a while)
- Inquisitive (ooh, a new shoe, let’s take it out to the garden to see how the humans react)
- He always has a fresh perspective (let me show you 3 new ways to get this chicken leg from the counter)
- And he is very resourceful (step back, I can reopen that gap in the fence that you just worked 2 hours on)
He is missing one very important skill though, or he may have the skill but not the will – he never listens.
In the list of skills that a delivery person should have, and this applies to delivery managers as well as VP Professional Services – Listening should be one of the top skills.
- Listening to the client, what they are saying and what they are not saying.
- Listening to team members that feel that something is wrong but don’t voice it loudly enough in meetings.
- Listening to QA when they warn that it’s working as designed but the design is flawed.
- Listening to the product person that says – yes, but…
- Listening to the developer that says that it looks possible but they never did something like this before.
Listening matters, don’t be a Beagle.
What other skills is my Beagle missing before he can be promoted to VP of Professional Services?