Relationships Matter
I have had a long career in the IT area and I have met all kinds of people during that time. My interest in computers grew out of a hobby and gaming. By constantly fixing, upgrading, and maintaining my gaming rig, I learned quite a bit about computers in general. Enough in fact, that I decided to make it my job. Which after enough time and varying positions, turned into my career. One of the universal truths I learned, is that relationships matter.
Whenever you start a new position, to be effective in your role, your goal should be to start building trust with everyone. With your peers, your manager, other teams, and well basically anyone that you come into contact with. In order to build these relationships, you have to build trust. Trust is the currency of being a great professional. Trust is the cornerstone of being a DBA.
Trust Matters
To build trust, a person has to be reliable, make people feel good about wanting to work with you, and knowing that they can depend on you. Typically, the longer the relationship, the more trust is acquired. Trust is such a difficult commodity to build and maintain, and it is so easily lost.
When you are sitting in meetings, on the phone, or just hanging out with co-workers, remember that the things you do and say matter, as wells as the things you don’t do or don’t say. Remember, you want people to feel relaxed to come to you for help and you want them to feel like they can depend on you.