The story of two engineers.

One engineer was about to be fired. He could not deliver on his tasks. 

The other engineer was very productive. He was so busy and popular it was difficult to get 30 minutes of his time.

How many engineers are we talking about?

The correct answer is - one.

It turned out that the same person can be a weak and a strong performer.

This is a story of his transformation.

I did not know this guy very well. The only thing I've heard is that he was about to be fired. I asked his manager to give me a chance to talk to him.

We spoke and it turned out that this engineer indeed had a weakness in one specific skill. This skill was "asking for help". His technical chops were not a problem. He was relatively new. He had challenges navigating the organization when it came to resolving infrastructural issues or connectivity to underlying components. Thus the projects he was working on would not move forward.

I told him that from now on I would be his only point of contact. If he needed something, he can come to me and we would resolve the problem together. We did solve a couple of problems together and, from this point on, he soared. He became very productive.

Three months later I was looking for some help. I asked a few people, who would be the best person to help me. Everybody pointed to the guy, who used to be that "poor performer".

I came to him and he was glad to see me. Yet, he was so busy helping other people, he had some challenges finding time for me. Ultimately, it was great to work with him again as he helped me to move further towards my goals.

This story helped me to learn an important lesson that engineering productivity is a function of the environment.

The culture of empowerment and support is critical for success.