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Geeks in Management?
The Other Side of the Coin asks: "I've been doing a relatively interesting job until now, but they've pushed me into management recently. Although the new position is pretty boring (I manage normals), I do still have time for all the geeky stuff I used to do before. My problem is: I have no formal (or any other, for that matter) management training. Sure, I'll read a lot about it (and take some education), but what are your experiences as geeks in management? For example, I naturally started to use Borgish management methods, and this wasn't received well by people, to say the least. What are the most difficult hurdles for a manager geek to jump, and can our personality be used as an advantage in management?"
Treat your "normals" as you would like to be treated if the positions were reversed.
Will solve a lot of problems that way.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
It is absolutely crucial to read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. That will turn anyone into a good manager. Best manager I had was an analytical type like us back at GE. He read lots of books and practiced what they preached. The Carnegie book is the most important!
Employee hammocks!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
if you can do the job of the people you're managing, you have an advantage. I cannot count time times where I've been in a job and the pinhead that was hired to be manager was just that - a manager... a manager that had absolutely no idea how to do the job I was doing. They were just a buzzword spouting talking head.
For me, the toughest part of getting "bumped up" was giving up control. Let people do their jobs. Let them make their mistakes. Yes, as management, you are responsible. But you are also building a team for the long term. Encourage and correct, don't micromanage.
My problem is: I have no formal (or any other, for that matter) management training.
Everything I ever needed to know about management, I learned from Dilbert.
Now, granted, I don't actually have a job. . . .
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
You are likely to be better at something if you enjoy it. If you feel like you were "pushed" into management and don't want to be doing it, then find a role as a technical lead, architect or similar where your primary responsibilities are still deeply technical, not managerial.
Nobody wants to be managed by somebody who doesn't want to and doesn't know how to be a manager or a leader. You don't need formal training, unless you want to advance to higher ranks, then it might help. But for most purposes, you just need a willingness to listen and to talk and to think about things from a non-technology-driven perspective at times.
I am not sure what "Borgish" management methods are (you must be a graduate of Starfleet Academy's MBA program?), but it certainly sounds like something that nobody would enjoy being subjected to. Not everybody is as smart as you, but if you go around treating people like they are a different species ("normals" from your own post) don't expect to develop a good working relationship with them. If this is what you mean by your "personality", then no, that won't be an advantage in a management role, period.
I think of myself as a "geek" in certain ways, I enjoy understanding and creating technology, I like to take things apart and hack on them, and I can spend hours focused on a task intently. But I realize that when I'm operating in a management role, decisions are driven by the best long term interests of the business and the team, not by technology in isolation. And you reap what you sow with the people who work for you. If your team respects your intelligence AND likes you, there is nothing they won't do for you. That's a strong, loyal team. If they think you are a smart geeky asshole and they shit on you regularly behind your back, don't expect them to achieve very good results for you, and don't be surprised when *your* manager realizes how ineffective you are and gives you the boot.
How about you stop calling them "normals"?
Think about what you like most in the managers you've had over the years. You probably did your best work under those who didn't "manage" you at all, who just tried to help you to remove hurdles.
Try to emulate that.
I asked the same question to a former manager of mine and his reply was that managing a business or people is a lot like managing complexity in software design. Of course you can't treat people like objects(pun intended) but principles of modularization, etc. still applies. Just as you don't put all your logic in one method, function, or object, you shouldn't do everything yourself. Delegate stuff out and have some people concentrate on certain things. The old *nix philosophy of doing one thing and doing it really well still applies. Trust your employees to do the right thing without you micro-managing it. In the end, you become the thing that brings all these pieces together.
Good programming practices/philosophy goes beyond CS. It's all managing complexity after all.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
That will affirm your dominant position and noone will question your authority.
Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear.
For starters, I'd get rid of the geeks vs. normals mentality. Look at the individual characteristics of the people you're managing. Figure out what parts of the job they like and what parts they don't like. Figure out what they like to do outside of work, as that will give some insight into what makes them tick. Think about what you have in common with them. Basically, just treat them like people.
5. Learn "br" html tag. :)
I've moved into Project Managment myself, voluntarily. What I've found is this:
1) Remember all those things that managers did that you hated? Be open to the discovery that some of them actually made perfect sense but you didn't see it. Your Geek perspective may have been more limiting than your realize.
2) After you get through #1, take the things that still don't make sense and don't do them. Your Geek perspective can also be liberating.
3) People skills, people skills, people skills. If you can schmooze, talk, flatter, cajole, comfort, query, and chat - and get results, good. If not, start working on your people skills. You will need them.
4) Business perspective. Stay informed of business issues, policies, plans, and news. If you did previously, good.
5) Your Geek past is a great building block. You have an area of strength, start with what you learned in that.
You will have to change, but coming at a job from a different perspective is also a great advantage.
A fantatic technique I was taught - go to people you respect and ask them to list
1) Your two best traits.
2) Your two worst traits.
3) The two best traits of a manager.
4) The two worst traits of a manager.
You need to query at least 4-5 people, but it'll give you a perspective on yourself, on management, and what you need to do to do it well.
Will you get widely differing answers? Yes. But reconciling those answers is part of the learning process.
Good luck.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
And you may hate yourself.
After being part of the "mobile work force" for more years than I can remember, the biggest problem encountered in larger companies are people that have been promoted to management based on seniority as opposed to training or skill.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to start a flame war, because I've worked for some people that have no training that were great, and conversely I've worked from BComms where I wanted to go postal.
Managers who are technical sometimes have the tendency to still poke their fingers in where they can. DO NOT POKE. Delegate. Otherwise you are discounting your minions and taking on more than you can chew.
The best manager is the one that recognizes accomplishment, delegates, and rewards. Micromanagement is a trap many fall into - so remember what it is all about: facilitating people who work under you to feel empowered, and be empowered to do the work. The day you complain some guy is always 5 minutes late, when he is twice as productive as the guy next to him, is the day you need a smack upside the head.
I've worked for so many clueless managers that either have sales backgrounds or technical backgrounds... the sales guys always promise more and the client, not the worker, is their priority. The technical guys usually have stale skillsets and think they can do everything better with PowerBuilder.
Remember - work your people skills. Some people shouldn't be management. Some belong in the trenches.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
My official advice for all of you is to refuse the management position. I realize that with management comes more money and more influence/power, but I've seen FAR too many good geeks, engineers, techies, etc. go to management to die. They cease being involved in the actual work of their department and progress more and more deeply into politics, paperwork, and meetings. Every one of them has moved gradually away from being a geek with a management position and more and more toward just being a manager who used to be a geek.
Remember this: Management is where geeks go to die.
"Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
I am lucky in that I have capable and self motivating staff. And you would be amazed how rare that actually is . . . Communicate, don't dictate. Talk to people about where they are and what problems they are having. Stress that there is no blame for problems and that you want to catch them quickly to correct them. Reassure and praise where appropriate. From dealings with other companies and departments I am aware that competency is not necessarily the minimum level that you can accept. Tell people when they do things right. Praise them when they do them well. Understand and appreciate what your staff have to do and what their job likely entails. Being able to do their jobs is actually a bonus as it means you can train them if necessary, and dive in if their workload is too much and needs redistributing.
I was a geek 6 years ago than became a manager. I would say the most important thing to do is understand the difference between being a manager and a leader. The key difference is a manager will tell you to do something. You will only do the action if it is in your best interest. A leader will convince you to do something that isn't necessarily in your best interest and you will do it. I haven't read any management books and I wouldn't recommend any. Just treat your people with respect and remember that they are always watching you .
Coincidence != Irony.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
It's kind of funny, but our personalities do, generally, suck! I have finally given up fighting it, though, and realize that by becoming a decent manager I can actually improve my people skills and better my life in general.
If your company is behind you and realize you are a geek but have intelligence, they'll help you. See if they can give you a psychological profile. It sounds worse than it is, and you need to be open to it. they'll tell you what you are like (although you should already know) and what is desireable in a manager/leader. But most importantly, they'll tell you what to do to go from here to there.
I also reccommend reading the books by Geald M. Weinberg, such as "Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach" and "The Psychology of Computer Programming: Silver Anniversary Edition." Good luck, you'll appreciate the effort and so will your boss.
My user name was a mistake. Input wasn't restricted, my bad.
Also:
The meetings will continue until we find out why nothing gets done around here.
(This really was the case where I worked years ago, I was found to be a very useful person to invite to meetings as my analytical nature cut to the chase quickly and resolved issues, sometimes in as little as five minutes even, though the meeting was scheduled to last hours. Problem was, I got invited to so many meetings I couldn't get done all my work and other things from other meetings.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
better than you. Ask them for input. People generally are interested in making themselves more productive, and almost always know better than management what is holding them back in their job, or where they can improve their efficiency. If you think you know best how they can do their job (and therefore, don't listen to their suggestions), you will most likely end up hurting the company.
Oh, and also, watch Office Space.
-=Lothsahn=-
"Surround yourself with the best people and you will succeed as a manager."
And here are some other principles I learned while managing and being managed:
As a manager, you cannot succeed without your employees succeeding. Any of their major accomplishments are shared with you inherently...broadcast these accomplishments and sing their praises to the masses. Recognition is a great incentive, and when your employees get credit for something, YOU get credit as a good manager.
When they do something wrong, defend them to the hilt...even if it was something stupid. Then behind closed doors let them have it and make it clear that you put your butt on the line for them. Be willing to take a personal hit on their behalf...NEVER sell them out.
Realize that to be first, you must be last. You are there to facilitate their performance as someone who works for them.
For cryin' out loud...never micromanage anything. All employees are different, but for the most part you can measure them by results and not stupid timeclock things, etc.
And I stress that all people are motivated by different things. Money, recognition, who and what they work with....learn and listen. If you reverse engineer their motivation you have very important information in your hands.
Be very careful of minority groups--and no I don't mean the legal minority groups--whoever the smallest group is in your team be they white male or indian female. The smallest subgroup tends to fight amongst themselves, or unite to destroy the rest of the group. Watch those situations carefully.
"Remember this: Management is where geeks go to die."
Or perhaps it's where they grow up. Who cares about being a geek or not? All that matters is that you're yourself and you're happy. Personally I feel no need to belong to any cliques, whether it's geeks or not - who wants to be labelled in any walk of life?
1) be secure enough in yourself that you aren't threatened by your underlings. It is perfectly fine that people under you are right or know more than you. Accept it and treat them with respect.
I was a teacher at a University and I was also a student in the 4th year. I taught first year students. They never challenged me and I was a great teacher (or so I like to think). I also taught 3rd year students. These students challenged me in every way they could. They tried to ask me questions to show that they knew more than me. In this scenario I was a terrible teacher (until I realised what I was doing) because I would either, if I knew the answer, react by putting them down or if I didn't know the answer, I reacted defensively.
2) Don't base your self esteem on knowing more than everyone else about technology. You have to accept that you now are expected to be good on something else.
I am a geek and was promoted to a manager. And I really love the technical side. I was secure in myself but after a while there were inevitably situations where people knew more about the parts of the system that we were building, and the technology we used. I started loosing the platform from where I had previously gotten my self esteem. This can be a bit painful.
3) Don't be a detail fascist, unless you really have to. You'll have people under you which are good. Don't lean over their shoulder and tell them how to do things. You should however oversee that interfaces between people work well (unless you have a guy that is responsible for that).
If you are a fascist about details, then you will have to be one forever. Noone else will step up and take responsibility for good designs.
4) Management by walking around.
There are different ways of managing people. I don't know which one is best, but I know what I prefer, both to use as a manager, and for my manager to use. Make a habit of walking around and have little informal talks with people. Talk about the NY Yankees or some interesting problem, or an actual management issue that you need to discuss with this person. The upshot with this is that you'll always stay very aware what is going on and if someone is brooding over something they will let you know before it becomes a big issue.
Well, that's what I can think of straight off the bat. Good luck. And if I had to summarize all of the above and give you one advice, then don't let your insecurity lead you to react defensively.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
The best boss I ever had focused on results. I was the project manager for a team of 5 smart young developers. I did the project management stuff to keep my developers working on what they want to do -> programming not meetings. We showed up for work at 2pm and worked till 12am. It was pretty crazy but we were all night owls. Somebody approched my boss about our weird schedules. My boss went to the CIO about it. The CIO basically said, "What he is doing is working. I'm not going to ask him to change a thing." During my 2+ years there my team finished several large enterprise-wide web apps (using Java & DB2). /.ing too much. Tell them that you completely trust them. If you can't, why not? Address that problem on a person-by-person basis (don't revoke everybody's freedom because of one lazy bum). Have clear goals that you expect them to accomplish.
The CIO was praised. Why? Because he and I focused on the important stuff. Don't worry about your guys coming in a little late. Don't pester them for
You get paid to produce results and so do your "normals". Focus on getting those results and not all the other crap that makes employment such a game. Your employees will love your flexibility and will know that you appreciate them when they meet their development schedules. Your bosses will love you because you make them look good (by getting stuff done).
I moved up into management a few years ago and have found 2 basic rules to follow. 1) Take care of your people. 2) Get the job done. If you don't take care of your people, you will NEVER be able to get the job done. -Doug
If growing up is being involved in corporate politics and endless meetings, then I want absolutely no part of it. I'm very happy being a geek/techie and working on technical things. All of the real geeks I've known that accepted a management position did so because of the bigger paycheck, and all of them ended up slowly but surely becoming corporate slaves who were disconnected with their employees and the real work of the department.
I wasn't implying that I have to belong to a certain clique at all, or even have the need to be labeled as a geek. You could call yourself a flaming queer for all I care. What I'm saying is that a lot of these people lose their happiness as they're moved away from doing the things they love and toward bickering and politics and increased unhappiness, all in the name of a bigger paycheck and more power.
"Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
Honestly the best managers are those that SERVE their employees. and that truthfully is your job.
you are not to reign over them, you are to serve them so that they can be more productive and in return generate more money for the company.
managers that rule with an iron fist and micromanage are those that DO NOT know how to be a manager.
Step 1 - if your employees are having trouble meeting their goals, it is your fault as a manager.
Step 2 - you employees are the experts of what they do, not you. Do you listen to them on how their job can be improved?
Managers NEVER know the best way to do something they hired a specalist for. you only hinder their job by butting your nose in, steering is acceptable as well as getting updates, telling them exactly what to do is highly unacceptable in all cases except for fresh recruits.
Oh, NONE of this can be learned in a classroom. Leaders are born not made.
You couldn't be more completely wrong. The best manager I ever had, had no idea how to do my job. He didn't need to know that, there were senior engineers who did know how to do the job that he turned me to when I needed technical leadership. However he did an excellent job of running interference for me so that I could work. I didn't have to worry about went on over my head because he did all the political fighting, and reported back to me what happened. He was smart enough to find out what would be an issue in the future, and start the political process to solve them now, before they became a big deal.
While working under him I was under some of the worst upper management I've ever seen, but my day to day job was a pleasure because I was only vaguely aware of how bad things were.
Management's job is not to get things done, it is to get others to get the job done. Sometimes management must jump in and hands on get things done, but even then the manager must never forget that the first duty is to get the others to do the work.
1) Know your peoples capabilities and never ask them to do anything they are incapable of.
Its OK to challenge them a little, but never give them more than they can chew. You will be confronted with this when senior management gives you tasks that your team are incapable of meeting. The easy thing to do is simply delegate the tasks and put your head in the sand, but this will lead to unhappy workers, the job won't get done, you'll discipline your workers for their failure and kill morale, and you'll look like a failure to your superiors. The harder thing to do is tell your senior management upfront that you can't do it. But that's what gets you respect. If your senior management won't listen to reason, tell your team frankly what the situation is, tell them you don't expect them to be able to achieve the impossible, but that you've got to do your job, so can they do the best they can and let you make the excuses later.
2) Know what is going on.
Your manager is going to ask you things like "How long will this take" and you're going to go and ask your people the same question to enable yourself to answer. Don't make the mistake of giving people questions that they cannot answer and expecting them to do so. I don't know how many times in the past I've had a dumb manager ask me how long this task will take, and refuse to accept "I don't have enough information to answer that and here is why" as an answer. Work with your people to get the real facts, and instead of presenting a number pulled out of your teams respective asses, present a break down of knowns, unknowns, mitigating factors, etc so that you're not promising something you don't know if you can deliver.
3) Manage your planning.
You don't want to micromanage, but you do need to juggle a whole bunch of different peoples estimates and manage to coordinate peoples working together. Typically managers will either make the initial plan then let things go and remain in the dark, or they will have way too many meetings to ensure that they are up to speed. If you have too many meetings, only the few will have something to add, and it will be irrelevant to most present, with the result that everyones time is wasted and people percieve meetings as a waste of time. Not a good perception to engender in them. Instead, help each person involved understand what the red flags are that you need to be notified of and make them feel safe and welcome bringing them to you. That way you don't need to micromanage but you will always know what is going on and will know where to reallocate resources before its too late.
I'm sure I can think of more things than this, but I'd say these are the most important points.
Oh, and I don't have any formal management training whatsoever, so I don't know how this holds up with conventional wisdom. I just know it seems to have worked for me.
BTW: Don't read those books on Making Friends and Influencing People. You're not there to make friends, you're there to make shit happen. Try looking for How To Make Enemies And Infuriate People instead. Much more useful.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
And then there are those of us who are normal and consider all the rest of you weird!
;)
WRT being a manager. I own 2 companies, and also work a FTJ for a major corporation. Becoming a owner has made changes, but I have not lost my "geekness", only refined it.
As an employee, I find that I try harder to get things done and work to get others to do the same. As a manager, I find that I am having to balance the carrot and the stick, so that I can get the job done, but without killing my people.
Take a look at books like "One Minute Manager" or anything by John Maxwell and/or Zig Ziglar. For a real expensive but rather really informative way, join a successful MLM. The really good ones have excellent self improvement and management training systems. Just don't spend all your money on their products.
Here I come to save the da... *thud*
I gotta get me a shorter cape.
I have no formal (or any other, for that matter) management training.
I think you should hang motivational posters everywhere and put a big sign above your desk that reads "The floggings will continue unitl morale improves!"
Also talk behind peoples backs. Say one thing and do another. Promote paranoia and backstabbing. Fire people who make you look bad. And start asking people "Did you get the memo? It's just that we've started using these new cover sheets for our TPS reports."
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Ehh, depends. If someone is using geek to describe their ideal state, like christian, I agree. On the other hand if they are just using it to be descriptive, the same way I might say I'm an american or otherwise describe my cultural background.
Furthermore, while I agree with you about what everyone thinks some people really are more abnormal, or at least less accepted by society, than non-geeks. Sure, there are some very charming socially conciouss geeks but the very fact of their interests does put them at a disadvantage (talking about technical details does not make for good chit-chat). Also many geeks have very limited social skills (still not sure why that is...some suggest apsergers).
Now many people do decide they are geeks in a very self-limiting fashion, they realize they are not accepted by society at large and retreat and only interact with other geeks. This I agree is to be avoided. However, others may realize this and use this knowledge to change their behavior and try talking about something else than chip design at the next party. Also some people really have gone out and seen the world and decided they like hanging out with geeks best and this may just be a sign of maturity, everyone should reach a point in their life when they realize who they enjoy and stop wasting their time trying to get others to like them.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
Some advice...
1. You will loose some of your technical skills over time. You're spending less of your day on that sort of skill. Knowing this, identify what you cherish the most and what will make you a valued staff member at another company and keep those up-to-date.
2. Recognize that when you take manager as your title, you've walked away from some mobility opportunities. Managers aren't keen to hire former managers to staff positions and there are less manager jobs around.
3. Recognize that not everyone is as productive, smart, or responsive as you are. You'll have to set a standard of performance for the positions you manage and judge your staff by that standard and not you. Keep it in perspective, if they were as good as you; you'd be doing their job.
4. Make the workplace fun. Carnation used to put on their milk "Content Cows Give More Milk". In other words, happy people are more productive.
5. Learn to let the little things go. Just because someone brings an issue to your attention doesn't mean you have to follow through on every one. Learn to establish a split between when people see you to vent and when people see you for action.
STFU & GBTW
I've read a bunch of management books, of which I highly suggest a few:
Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed. by Lister and DeMarco -- probably THE book you want to get
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Buckingham -- based on extensive surveys of what makes employees happy with their jobs and bosses, and what they need to do their job effectively
and I've heard good things about Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach by G. Weinberg and How To Win Friends And Influence People (seen both cited by numerous successful entrepreneurs) but haven't been able to read them yet.
(BTW, those are all non-referrer links, I'm not link-whoring.)
I suggest reading a bunch; you'll start seeing overlap and will understand the basics after the first few. Good luck!
-fren
"Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"
For example, one chapter is dedicated to smiling. You should smile often, because it makes you seem happier, more approachable, and a nicer person in general.
Okay, we know the "why", but what about the "how"? I never was good at faking smiles for photo sessions. How does one learn how to fake a smile over long stretches? It is really tough to be happy around people who you would zoom away from at warp speed given a choice.
Table-ized A.I.
Follwing up on the "protect your people" admonition, never, ever, sell out your staff for your own benefit. Never give that impression.
If your staff thinks you've offered them up as sacrificial lambs, your are dead meat. If you've actually done that, your deserve to be dead meat.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Military leadership and overstucturing is COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE for the vast majority of jobs. Consider it. Military leadership techniques are designed to allow people to perform a finite range of tasks with zero chance of screw up, redundancy when necesary, and replacability. If you treat an employee like a soldier, you get minimal efficiency because you're discouraging creative thinking and self-direction. Perhaps more importantly, soldiers have something that employees lack: absolute dedication. If a solider hates the job he toughts it out, that's why they call it "service." You can shoot him if he flips and decides to leave. If an employee hates it, she will quit, or at least do the absolute minimum excepted and bitch about it. And you sure as hell can't cap her for it. "Normals" aren't really that different from geeks, they like to be treated with respect too, and work harder for bosses who "get it" and respect them (or at least seem to).
The parent does make one good point: ask why you were selected. Because if you're such a far-gone geek that you belive that all "normals" need "a firm structure," then clearly your bosses just f*cked up in a big way promoting you. You're a geek, that means you have great technical skills and perhaps a unusual point of view. That menas you have some skills to apply to management, but it doesn't mean you're some sort of Neitzchian ubermenche entitled to treat everyone like idiots.
Sorry to pounce all over that post, but my god did I have a bad experince with a manager who may as well have taken that exact same advice.
Smartest thing I have read all day.
:
:
... best fit according to the developer.
The job of the manager truly is to serve his employees, structured along the lines of 'what do you need in order to accomplish these goals that I have outlined and expect you to finish?'
I only want to add that in a well structured business a manager has goals that are generally driven by the business needs - and the manager's job is to see to that those business goals are met. Even a manager of 'techie geeks.'
What business goals are
Reliable email services
Reliable network file and print services
Business processes that facilitate working with some business client (ie, process claims or payroll, or put a space shuttle into orbit.)
A business goal isn't
More RAM in a server or in your developer's desktop
A new laptop or LCD for the developer
Run Linux
My boss comes to my team with business goals and asks us what we need to accomplish them, and keeps the lines of communications between the tech and business teams. Also keeps the business folks from hassling us (aka administrative overhead or politics.) She wouldn't dream of telling me how to write an SQL statement or which language to write the application in - we have driving standards for most of that and the rest
Want to be a good manager?
Define what you need to get done. Someone above you has probably already done this for you.
Get your people together and explain what the business goals are for this time period.
Explain that they are going to do the work.
Come up with a working phrase book that accurately defines the difference between 'I want' and 'I need'
Ask them what they need in order to succeed.
Get them what they need in order to succeed.
Ask them what they want.
Get as much of what they want as you can. If a 20" LCD really is that big a deal, fiscally ($600 delivered), consider a 17" LCD at less than $250 delivered. Hell, give them the option for two 17" LCDs that they can put side by side or a single 20" LCD. To a developer spending 2500 hours a year in front of it - it is one step away from saying 'this company loves you.' That's about five cents an hour, if it lasts five years.
Stay out of their way.
Hold weekly one-on-ones so you don't get surprised.
Praise in public / bitchslap in private.
Work on their behalf. Accomodate their needs both personally and professionally.
If the work isn't getting done, ask why. Don't accuse or blame, just ask what is it going to take to get this done?
I have a boss that does this, and I love my job.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
May as well.
I've got no management experience, but I've worked for enough people, good (rarely) and bad (mostly) that i've identified what i like.
The superhero of middle management is my former boss, Ron, at a now-utterly-defunct embedded linux vendor.
Ron was Not A Programmer. He wasn't even technically speaking a geek, except in the strict jargon file definition. He was an old HAM operator and a former QA manager for various semiconductor fabrication facilities. He was managing a bunch of software QA people, me among them.
So, this was the basis of his attitude:
"As your manager, I am a man who is not competent to do your job, someone who, in fact, has only a cursory understanding of how you do your job.
What i need from you is for you to get your work done. How i intend to make that happen is by making sure:
a: You know what your job is
b: You know what your priorities are
c: You have everything you need to get the job done
d: Nobody will get in the way of your doing it, even if i have to jump in front of the bullet for you."
It was great. If people from other departments interfered with my work, Ron got on their case for it and hasseled their supervisor about it - so people from other departments rarely hassled me.
I knew exactly what my #1, #2, and #3 projects were, when they were due, and what was expected from them.
This rocked. If you've ever caught flack for not delivering something that you were never given any sense of urgency about, you can appreciate this.
If i needed anything - a particular cable, a memory module of a certain type, more clarification from marketing or engineering exactly what they wanted from me, an OK to take the rest of the day off if i was getting nowhere fast, heck, a sandwitch, Ron was on it.
I probably could have asked to take his daughter out to dinner and he wouldn't have said no right away.
Ron wouldn't make me work late unless he was working late too. Often this meant that he was in the office doing nothing important, so he'd fetch dinner and send flowers to the significant others. I'm serious.
If Ron was cutting out early before a holiday, he'd send me home first.
So, it was like this. I was certain - absolutely certain - that Ron would do whatever it took to make sure i could do a good job at what he'd asked me to do.
And, lets face it, that's what job satisfaction is all about.
I was entirely sure that Ron wouldn't ask me to do something unless it honestly needed to be done. That he would never bullshit me or sell me out.
I had no doubts about the fact that if upper management asked him to have us do something that he felt was unreasonable, he'd do whatever he could to talk them out of it.
So, whatever Ron wanted, Ron got. He treated us like princes and in return we exaulted him as our king. I'd work for him again in a heartbeat.
I'm not sure I'd even ask what the job was.
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
The best sound-bite description I've heard of the responsibility of a manager is: "Eliminate uncertainty." A lot of the advice given here falls into this (clear goals, "run interference", "select good people" etc). It runs both ways: make things clear and unambiguous for your staff and ensure you provide consistent results for the company.
Don't "manage" -- "accomplish." I believe John Walker said that managers do just that: they manage a problem in perpetuity rather than make it go away which is what an engineer would. Don't fulfil his stereotype.Don't try to be the friend of the people reporting to you. Respect them, of course. Be friendly, by all means. But you are not their friend, and if they have a problem you can't cut them slack you wouldn't cut anyone else (and likewise when they're awesome, don't take them for granted but let them know you know).
Keep your perspective. I once worked for a CFO who referred to all the developers as the "direct contributors." Her biz-school point was they were the ones whose work our customers wanted. The rest of us (except for the sales guys) were overhead.
I've been told in the past I was a great manager and I also know that at times I was a dreadful manager. It's a skill like any other and has its own disciplines, problems and rewards. As long as you don't crash the plane along the way you can get better at it. Good luck.
Depends on the context... You could throw the employees a carrot, and then beat them with the stick
There's a story about Bob Metcalfe, the man who invented Ethernet, that may be apochryphal but illustrates the a similar point.
He was showing some young engineer around his gianormous mountain-top home, and the young engineer looked at everything with ever-increasing awe. Finally the young engineer bursts out, "This is incredible! And you got all this just from inventing Ethernet!"
Not so, said Bob. "I got all this from selling Ethernet." Point being, geek skills are great, but by themselves they're not necessarily all that great. It helps to know marketing, or management, or some other people skills if you want to apply your geek skills to the world you actually live in.