Signs of a Fearless Engineer: Unlocking Creativity

To many of us, especially those who grew up in third world countries like India, the sole purpose of going to school was to get high grades so we can make a living when we grow up. You don't question the authority (your parents and teachers) as you will be punished if you do so. As an example, when you were in school, teachers give you home work and you get it done. No questions asked. While it creates discipline, it also creates limitations in your professional career as we will see in this article. 

Teachers/parents punish when children make a mistake. In India, my teachers used bamboo sticks and my dad used his readily available belt when I broke the rules. When a child is subject to punishment, a fear is initially created which over time permanently registers as a formula "don't question the authority or you will be punished." Little did you know that this formula dictates the rest of your life.  

Fearing authority is especially true for many Indians. It is not your fault because many of us have been told that there is only one right thing to do in the world which is to go to school, get a job, pop out kids, buy land, save up for your kids and die. If you don't follow these rules, you will be punished. 

Many of us enter the workforce with the same formula, "don't question the authority or you will be punished." Your boss gives you work, you get it done. He asks you to work over the weekends, you work. He gives you a negative feedback, you do everything to please him. In all these scenarios, your life revolves around how your figure of authority treats you. Your boss treats you well, you are happy. He doesn't treat you well, you are sad. 

Respecting authority might in fact help you climb up the technical ladder initially but won't work in the long term. As you climb up the ladder, it is less about putting your head down and executing instructions than it is about using your non-technical skills and creativity to address the challenges. 

If you are focused on your long term growth, it is critical to get off the hamster wheel and take a chance at questioning the authority. Great things happen outside of your comfort zone. Say no to extra work a couple of times and see what happens. Say no to the design your manager proposed and see what happens. Ask a question in a company wide meeting and see what happens. In many cases, engineers tend to make an assumption that you will get fired if you break the rules or the chain of command.

However, in reality, it takes a lot for a manager to be able to fire his team member. He is answerable to the HR on the reasons behind firing the team member. He will be questioned on his lack of judgement on hiring an incompetent programmer. Our team once had a programmer who has been caught snoring several times by my manager. My manager in order to save himself from being questioned by the HR went above and beyond trying to motivate the programmer. After nine months of constant frustration, he started giving him warnings of putting him on performance improvement plan. After a year, as he is about to put him on a performance improvement plan, the programmer gave a resignation letter. The programmer, in essence, drew a six figure salary as a reward for snoring his head off at office.

All this to say, most of the fears we have about being fired are completely baseless and unreal. It comes from a self limiting formula from childhood that "disrespecting authorities will get you into trouble." Many of us don't know that the formula exists and those who know never overcame the formula. 

To be fearless at your job, step out of your formula and start saying "no" when you mean "no." You will notice that you will not get fired. As a side benefit, you will have more time for yourself which unlocks creativity which is the very thing required to help you go to the next level in your career faster. 

Would love to hear your experiences in the situations when you said "no" with great discomfort and something magical happened.