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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?

#221

Post by chris_mc »

JepZ wrote: post #98
TimTheTinker wrote: post #48

I'll name the best manager I ever had, since she unexpectedly passed away nearly three years ago to our team's (and company's) great sadness. Margaret Thielemann was a QA manager for nearly 10 years at Esri (she previously headed up QA at PeopleSoft before its acquisition by Oracle), and I reported to her for all of those 10 years, during which I learned and mastered web development by scoping, designing, and buildin…

Most of what you say are qualities I like managers to have too, but 'someone tried to ask us for help with someone else's project without asking her first--she was furious.' is a quality I do not value. I mean, protecting your people is one thing (an essential quality), but being furious because someone in need of help asked in the wrong order doesn't foster cooperation beyond the borders of the own team (causing sil…

Not software, but I supervised QC inspectors at a medical manufacturer. R&D engineers would constantly try to steal their time to inspect some pre-production part, when we were trying to supply the $250k+ per day manufacturing floor with production parts that were backordered and running out on the floor (we had horrible issues with supply, but that's another story). Sure, your "brand new" part needs some pre-production inspections, but not right now since that part isn't needed for a few weeks. Once I got it into their heads that if they absolutely needed a part NOW they should come to me (so I can work it into the schedule) they always got their parts on-time from us.

I'm sure this is similar to a software workflow with QA, where every developer is vying for limited QA time, so I don't think "getting furious" is too far a step.

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

#222

Post by kreitje »

Saw we were generally unhappy working with our biggest client. When the client called for a pricing review with us, and other agencies for their "go to" team, my boss decided to not participate and part ways with the client. Thy were shocked to say the least.

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

#223

Post by JepZ »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #208
JepZ wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of what you say are qualities I like managers to have too, but 'someone tried to ask us for help with someone else's project without asking her first--she was furious.' is a quality I do not value. I mean, protecting your people is one thing (an essential quality), but being furious because someone in need of help asked in the wrong order doesn't foster cooperation beyond the borders of the own team (causing sil…

I think a lot hinges on whether it's truly asking for help vs. telling you you need to do something, and possibly phrasing it as a question. Depending on how the organization is set up and the seniority of the person asking, it can be very hard for a low-level employee to say "No, I don't have time to do that." Having multiple people that can give you contradictory orders about how to spend your time makes for a mise…

The correct response would be along the lines: 'Sorry, but you have to ask my boss if we can push it to the top of our task list as she has the overview over the priority queue'.

That is different than a 'No, I don't have time for that.', as it teaches how to do it right in the future, and your boss doesn't have to get furious because everything that happened was that the team informed the org about the regular process.

I have worked enough time in the midst of a QA team to know that planning is essential to their job. Nevertheless, a team lead which is going to be furious because you didn't use the correct process isn't someone you want to ask for help. So, in the long run, it might cause more problems than it solves.

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

#224

Post by alexhutcheson »

JepZ wrote: post #223
alexhutcheson wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot hinges on whether it's truly asking for help vs. telling you you need to do something, and possibly phrasing it as a question. Depending on how the organization is set up and the seniority of the person asking, it can be very hard for a low-level employee to say "No, I don't have time to do that." Having multiple people that can give you contradictory orders about how to spend your time makes for a mise…

The correct response would be along the lines: 'Sorry, but you have to ask my boss if we can push it to the top of our task list as she has the overview over the priority queue'. That is different than a 'No, I don't have time for that.', as it teaches how to do it right in the future, and your boss doesn't have to get furious because everything that happened was that the team informed the org about the regular proce…

That assumes that your manager has a reasonable process for prioritizing these kinds of requests, which is often half the battle. It also requires a manager that will go to bat for you and defend that process, even when the requester says "This is critical and time-sensitive, I don't have time for that, so can you just do it?"

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

#225

Post by epx »

They pushed the envelope; made me build things that I didn't think I was capable to build.

Made "constant pressure": kicked asses to move things forward but it was not "exponential". If failed to reach a milestone in time, it was ok, shit happens, no big scolding etc. but it was made clear that the milestone would have to be reached one day, so better keep walking.

They were very smart in detecting early signs of burnout and stress. "Go gome and fuck the deadline, tomorrow is another day." In another instance: "It doesn't make sense for you to quit, take some days off and see a psychiatrist" [Diagnosed with depression, took medicine, improved.]

Fought for their commanded, shielded them from politics.

Personal integrity that transcended the job relation.

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

#227

Post by solipsism »

kbar13 wrote: post #84
solipsism wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She never demoed a project or took credit for something she didn't build herself. Like my teammates, I had to demo every product I built That sounds strange. Didn't you ever work on a product with other developers? Who demos in that case? And what would be wrong with a manager demoing a product that was built by a team he/she manages? It seems to imply that the manager should have no sense of ownership, but a good ma…

fairly common. team builds a product that other teams use, so you do a demo. it's obviously better for the engineer to demo their own product. not only does it feel like you have control over your own product but it also gives a face to the project.

it's obviously better for the engineer to demo their own product

Again.. rarely does an engineer create a product in a vacuum. Usually a few disciplines contribute to the project, and a manager can be absolutely instrumental.

And of the various creators of a product should be candidates to demo a thing. The right person certainly depends on the nature of the product, the team dynamics, the audience of the demo, etc.

I for one wouldn't want to work somewhere with some kind of rigid "engineer X owns product Y, manager Z is just a manager" kind of culture.

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

#228

Post by ph0rque »

edw519 wrote: post #130

3 things he said: 1. "I only worry about 2 things: getting our work done and keeping our people." 2. "Every senior dev I hire must have done one of two things: either ran their own business or was a one-person shop. That's how I know that they know how to do whatever it takes to get software built and deployed." 3. "Our customers can buy this stuff anywhere. They buy it from us because of the value we add. That value…

Side note: I hate the phrase "do whatever it takes". No, I am not willing to lose an arm to keep factory production running (as an extreme example). I am not willing to lose my time outside what I am paid for, or my sanity. Sure, I'll try my best within the hours I am paid for, but if it takes more, then temper your expectations.

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

#229

Post by cannonedhamster »

rjzzleep wrote: post #215
ambicapter wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I look at him and say: "What do you want, you don't have a clue about this stuff anyway." I know you specified this was 10 years ago, but I can't think of a single situation where this would not be a douchebag move.

It's great making assumptions when you know nothing about the dynamics between two people, their social interactions, their history and basically anything else isn't it? I mean, you could have just asked. But insulting random people you know nothing about is much less of a douchebag way to deal with it I guess.

I read it much the same way, as a rather insulting thing to say, especially since you didn't go into what was said afterwards and you didn't preface the kind of relationship you had. It's not on the reader to understand what you meant, it's on the writer to write what they mean in a way that the reader understands the intent.

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

#230

Post by mathattack »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #203
mathattack wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s very context sensitive. QA usually needs someone strong to protect the team, as they’re the ones who most frequently get asked to make up for cost/scope/schedule/quality problems that others caused. In other casss, being too standoffish causes local optimization (“look how efficient my team is!”) at the expense of the broader org.

> QA usually needs someone strong to protect the team, as they’re the ones who most frequently get asked to make up for cost/scope/schedule/quality problems that others caused Bingo. That combined with the odd guy from a completely different department coming over and singling me out for help (at the time, we were the team pushing the envelope with what was possible on the web). That being said, (a) Margaret always o…

You should toast her tonight. I haven’t met her, but I will!
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