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Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

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121–130 of 186 posts

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#121

Most important thing to me, learn the difference between leadership and management. A long time ago I was mentored by some great leaders who taught me the difference, and also taught me when to manage situations or specific people. Management isn't a bad word, but applied the way it is most places it should be. My goal with teams is to inspire them to make good choices, show them the right paths and help them succeed…

> Never vent to your team or other teams.

Could you elaborate on this, why not ?

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#122

Most important thing to me, learn the difference between leadership and management. A long time ago I was mentored by some great leaders who taught me the difference, and also taught me when to manage situations or specific people. Management isn't a bad word, but applied the way it is most places it should be. My goal with teams is to inspire them to make good choices, show them the right paths and help them succeed…

> Never vent to your team or other teams. Could you elaborate on this, why not ?

Not OP, but direct management venting to the team can have a really negative impact on morale, motivation, and inter-team relationships.

Managers who have a tendency toward complaining and negativity can really hurt a team.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#123
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the parent comment here will stay near the top, it is the key thing to keep in mind, the rewards are different. As a line manager (you manage people doing the work) your #1 goal is to have your team be super good at what they do. That means developing peoples skills in their technical specialty, their ability to understand direction and act on it, their ability to communicate where they are with the rest of…

> and when they are being under productive (not challenging their own self perceived limitations) I'm a fairly new manager and I'm working really hard on how to word something like this to my devs. Do you have any advice for that?

Be honest with them, and MUCH more important: Be kind, when discussing this. Something along the lines of 'Hey, I realized that something seems to be off since a while, is there anything I can help or change, because I really want you to be happy and productive' works best for me.

Pretty much everyone wants to be recognized, happy and productive in their lives, and this usually extends in their jobs, so most likely, that person needs help, to recognize or solve the situation.

Sometimes, they just dread for whatever reason the task they have ahead of them, and need someone to talk to. Sometimes it is some time to solve a challenge in their live outside of work - then it might be your job to shield that person to some extent, while also making sure this does not take a toll on your remaining team. Sometimes it is a social problem in your team. Sometimes the assignments for that person dont match what they can and want to do. And of course, sometimes the team, the job, or the company is just no fit, and it is perfectly fine to help there as well.

But again, above all: When talking about this, when trying to help, keep in mind that you are the manager, which always implies a power imbalance, no matter what. Such can easily be perceived as a threat instead of help, and if it is perceived like that, you will make the situation just worse. So be kind, listen, try to coach and help, even if your inner self is annoyed with this. It rarely helps to play the testosterone driven top-down approach, unless, of course, you tried the other ways before with no success.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#124

In the past 13 years have gone from dev -> tech lead -> manager -> director -> VP/CTO at startups (50-250 people). Here are my tips: - Your job is to provide effective technical solutions to business problems via managing a team(s) of engineers, everything else is an extension to that. - Managing is nothing like coding and requires a completely different mindset and skill set. - Authority comes through respect and un…

How do you define 'toxic'? How often do you fire workers for being 'toxic'?

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#125
As someone who went through this couple of months ago.

1. Code by writing utilities to help your engineers.

2. Never code something which is critical for the release, you will end up blocking everyone.

3. Let engineers make mistakes( which are not critical) without blaming them.

4. Facilitate communication not lone wolf culture.

5. Avoid taking decisions without consulting your team, which invloves them.

6. Keep practicing leetcode or puzzles or programming or whatever you do, because you will be replaced sooner or later.

7. Don't get emotionally attached to people, it's not your company. Work hard and fair. But look out for yourself.

8. Manage expectations clearly with upper management, don't let team feel unnecessary pressure from hyperactive product teams.

9. Clearly set expectations, chalk out a plan and work towards it with each Engineer.

10. Relax, it is not a 1 week task, it will take years if not months to see some visible change.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#126
A basic podcast that I’ve found useful is Manager Tooks. It contains a lot of good habits and tools. Listen to it on your commute for a month or two and you’ll get the gist of it.

The Effective Executive by Drucker is a great intro to leadership. He puts the role in the context of getting results.

A couple other thoughts:

1 - Communicate the same message over and over. Do it verbally and in writing.

2 - Have weekly 1 on 1s with all your reports. They should own the first 20 mins. You own the last 10. Take notes.

3 - Make sure Meeting notes go out for every meeting.

4 - Talent is your job, not HRs. It’s up to you to hire and train the good, and nudge out the bad.

5 - Assume you only get your best people for 1-2 years. Plan for succession.

6 - A good relationship is “My top 20% will work for me again” and not “Everyone is my buddy”

7 - Be careful about off work socializing. If you go to a happy hour with subordinates, disappear after the first round. Don’t make these events mandatory.

8 - Keep performance discussions between you and your reports. Don’t belittle anyone to their peers.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#127

A basic podcast that I’ve found useful is Manager Tooks. It contains a lot of good habits and tools. Listen to it on your commute for a month or two and you’ll get the gist of it. The Effective Executive by Drucker is a great intro to leadership. He puts the role in the context of getting results. A couple other thoughts: 1 - Communicate the same message over and over. Do it verbally and in writing. 2 - Have weekly 1…

I will second the podcast recommendation. I listened to it religiously when I first started in management and I continued its suggestions with modification until I went back to development. It was a great crutch to lean on until I got my bearings:

https://www.manager-tools.com/

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#128
I've been collecting a list of things to read about managing humans over the past decade, and finally made the move to engineering manager in 2018. Here's my list:

https://github.com/skyzyx/managing-humans/blob/master/README...

In short, I would recommend subscribing to http://randsinrepose.com and https://blog.knowyourcompany.com and reading (and understanding) every single post. Even if you want to tweak things and go your own way, these are successful engineering leaders that you will want to learn from.

Managing humans is a very different job from managing code or managing machines.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#129

Most important thing to me, learn the difference between leadership and management. A long time ago I was mentored by some great leaders who taught me the difference, and also taught me when to manage situations or specific people. Management isn't a bad word, but applied the way it is most places it should be. My goal with teams is to inspire them to make good choices, show them the right paths and help them succeed…

> Never vent to your team or other teams. Could you elaborate on this, why not ?

It colors the team member's view of other people or other teams, whoever is being vented about. It's contagious and establishes a culture of complaining. It gives those vented to the notion that you might vent to others about them, which you probably do.

I have seen this take over many teams and it always starts from the top of the team.

Re: Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?

#130

A basic podcast that I’ve found useful is Manager Tooks. It contains a lot of good habits and tools. Listen to it on your commute for a month or two and you’ll get the gist of it. The Effective Executive by Drucker is a great intro to leadership. He puts the role in the context of getting results. A couple other thoughts: 1 - Communicate the same message over and over. Do it verbally and in writing. 2 - Have weekly 1…

Weekly 1 on 1s with all reports is not useful or feasible. If you have 8 reports that's 10% of your work week swallowed.
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