> We have some engineers that are fantastic, but a bit unfocused.
> Looking for feedback on the ideal day for a Sec Engineer.
Have you taken a look at any project management frameworks or tools?
Please don't take any of the following as a negative or a criticism of you; this is not personal -- my replies are process motivated only.
The first thing I would generically suggest is not to be passive/reactive about this, be active. Meaning, if your staff needs focus, if you need to know an ideal day, define it first and then plug the resources into it. Generally, service providers, and you are one, don't have a template day -- that's production speak.
If you've ever read any of the Situational Leadership stuff, recall three basic things about human behavior:
1. All people are motivated.
2. All people are motivated for their own reasons (yes, even slackers are motivated -- see #1).
3. No matter how hard one tries, you can never ultimately motivate people for your OWN reasons.
That, is also, the difference between leadership and management... but I digress.
One way to align a group of high performing but unfocused staff is through team building and accountability.
I have two thoughts for you off hand that are cheap to implement and pay big dividends. As another disclaimer, I understand some of what I'm going to write isn't trivial. Services organizations seem to have more challenges in the areas you mention than production organizations. But if one really looks at the situation without preconceived notions, they can see where parts of frameworks are applicable to their business processes and in turn leverage the cool stuff!
1. One technique you could use is document the work in kanban. It's basically a board which says what work is upcoming, which work is in progress, and which work is completed. Make the board public. Make the team accountable for it -- at all levels. The team should operate as a team and not a hierarchy of pay grades and job titles from a basic service provision perspective.
In kanban, if you have an unfocused employee -- there's no excuse for that anymore; they see the work they need to do (it's publicly posted), their teammates do too, and as staff progresses tasks from in-work to completed, they'll eventually get into the habit going to the upcoming work side of the board and starting a task on their own. They'll do that without team lead intervention and they'll have a lot of pride about it because they are executing autonomously (which is going to free you up for other things too).
An additional benefit is the team sees the work, the entire process is transparent. They will all own it. That's a very powerful motivator.
2. Have you looked at any SCRUM methods?
Implement a morning stand up, no more than 15 minutes and with all team members. During this stand-up, go around the circle and have each team member publicly talk to the team about what they accomplished yesterday, what they plan on doing today, and to escalate any barriers. This is a very powerful tool -- few people want to be a slacker in such an environment where they bring nothing to the stand-up while all their teammates are voicing their accomplishments.
I hope this helps.
