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Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

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Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#11

Post by examancer »

He tore down barriers and made sure interactions with other parts of the organization or external parties were as frictionless as possible. He would take any non-technical chores off our plate where possible. He would give clear and frequent feedback, good and bad, and really cared about where I wanted to go with my career and what kind of projects I wanted to work on. He trusted me when I said I would do something and would just make sure everything was out of my way until I asked for help or deadlines were being missed.

He was a shield for those of us who worked for him.

Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#14

Post by ken »

I don't have a single "most favorite" but I worked for someone a couple weeks ago who began by saying "I just want you to get the job done right and I don't care how long it takes you".

I knew right away I was going to love it there. That's the way to my heart.

Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#16

Post by tehlike »

chrisaycock wrote: post #6

He actually cared about making money. (I'm amazed at how many bosses care about everything except making money, even at hedge funds.) He gave me total autonomy to build whatever I wanted as long as I made money.

My manager gave me that autonomy too, but he cares less about making money - which is surprisingly common.

Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#17

Post by examancer »

coolandsmartrr wrote: post #10

On a side note, how likely is it to encounter a good supervisor in your career?

I was lucky that my first technical role was where I found the best manager I've had. He was my 2nd supervisor in that first role.

After that I got to be pickier than most about where to go next, so my results might be rosier than others. In total I've had 7 "supervisors" in my technical career. 2 of them were amazing and I would take a (small) pay cut right now to work with either. 2 were good, mostly hands off, and easy to work with. The other 3 were nice people with good intentions, but significant managerial shortcomings. None of them were bad or insufferable.

In one case, an extraordinary mentor almost entirely made up for shortcomings of the manager. Working with great people alongside you often makes the incompetency of the people above a little less relevant, or at least more tolerable.

Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#18

Post by zeusk »

ken wrote: post #14

I don't have a single "most favorite" but I worked for someone a couple weeks ago who began by saying "I just want you to get the job done right and I don't care how long it takes you". I knew right away I was going to love it there. That's the way to my heart.

There has to be a middle ground somewhere, pursuing technical perfection for eternity will not make you money.

Re: Ask HN: What made your favorite manager/supervisor/CEO so great?

#20

Post by scarface74 »

ken wrote: post #14

I don't have a single "most favorite" but I worked for someone a couple weeks ago who began by saying "I just want you to get the job done right and I don't care how long it takes you". I knew right away I was going to love it there. That's the way to my heart.

I would think that’s the worse kind of manager. One of a manager’s job is to manage resources. There are always trade offs between doing things “right” and delivering. If you look at the old Joel quadrant of smart / gets things done (delivers value to the business), someone who “doesn’t care how long it takes” runs the risk of gold plating features instead of delivering. A deadline is a great focusing mechanism.

And no I’m not a manager.

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