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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?

#31

Post by y0ghur7_xxx »

I work for someone who I can trust when he says something, he does what he can to get it done. He tells me the goal we need to archive, and asks me how we can do it. Then he does everything he can to make sure I have all my stuff ready to do it. If there is a problem he helps me fix it. If something goes wrong he blames himself. If the project goes right and the customer is happy he tells everyone it's my accomplishment.

We are a team and we trust each other. I feel he knows I am good at what I do and he let's me do it, and I feel he is good at what he does and together we can accomplish great things.

We are friends, and we like each other. We disagree sometimes, but we work it out by making compromises.

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

#32

Post by zapita »

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #31

I work for someone who I can trust when he says something, he does what he can to get it done. He tells me the goal we need to archive, and asks me how we can do it. Then he does everything he can to make sure I have all my stuff ready to do it. If there is a problem he helps me fix it. If something goes wrong he blames himself. If the project goes right and the customer is happy he tells everyone it's my accomplishm…

> I work for someone who I can trust when he says something he does what he can to get it done. He tells me the goal we need to archive, and asks me how we can do it. Then he does everything he can to make sure I have all my stuff ready to do it. If there is a problem he helps me fix it. If something goes wrong he blames himself. If the project goes right and the customer is happy he tells everyone it's my accomplishment.

What if your boss is a woman?

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

#33

Post by jetset15 »

My manager goes out of his way to allow people who have passions for things onto smaller teams that work on those passions. Our company and our products are built because someone wanted to fix a problem and were given the time to do so. Playing to our strengths and helping us work on our weaknesses. No micro-manging involved, just trust and encouragement. Will lay the hammer down if needed in edge case situations but will also defend the team to the death from outside pressures and obstacles.

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

#34

Post by planb »

zorked wrote: post #28

At a previous company, I joined a team that had to deliver something a year before I joined. All previous teams assembled to deliver that had failed and had been fired. That the company didn't have that feature was deeply embarrassing, the competition mentioned having it in the first line of their marketing materials. The most influential engineers on the team didn't give a damn about deadlines and thought that being…

Really interesting story. Was she a "good" manager, or just the "right" manager for that dysfunctional team?

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

#35

Post by messit »

zorked wrote: post #28

At a previous company, I joined a team that had to deliver something a year before I joined. All previous teams assembled to deliver that had failed and had been fired. That the company didn't have that feature was deeply embarrassing, the competition mentioned having it in the first line of their marketing materials. The most influential engineers on the team didn't give a damn about deadlines and thought that being…

> She told us she didn't care about any of us. Revoked everybody's little privileges, would literally come see if everybody was on their keyboard and typing all the time. Didn't force overtime on anyone but was adamant against people arriving late or leaving early or missing meetings. Started openly taking notes of everybody's failures so she would have ample documentation of who failed what.

That sounds pretty horrendous to me, I would wish her all the best and leave.

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

#36

Post by factorialboy »

planb wrote: post #34
zorked wrote: post #28

At a previous company, I joined a team that had to deliver something a year before I joined. All previous teams assembled to deliver that had failed and had been fired. That the company didn't have that feature was deeply embarrassing, the competition mentioned having it in the first line of their marketing materials. The most influential engineers on the team didn't give a damn about deadlines and thought that being…

Really interesting story. Was she a "good" manager, or just the "right" manager for that dysfunctional team?

Part of being a good manager is to adapt to the situation and do what's sensible. This was an example of a good manager. Conscientiousness is always a great trait.

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

#37

Post by ken »

scarface74 wrote: post #20
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…

This was a single repeated task with a high cost of failure. There was zero possibility of "gold plating". I was working at a speed I thought I could maintain without killing someone. Telling me to think about a deadline would have simply added stress. I was plenty focused already.

We finished the week's work more than a day faster than planned.

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

#38

Post by scarface74 »

kerng wrote: post #30
scarface74 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One big demotivating factor is forcing people to deliver mediocre stuff. That's the way to loose the best. Many folks are motivated by delivering high quality, higher even then the market wants/desires. No need to push or force them - just letting them build the best does a lot of good. There is a book called Peopleware, that discusses that aspect.

It’s even more demotivating to not have a job to come to because you aren’t delivering value to your paying customers or you didn’t have a product that convinced your investors to keep pumping money into your business.

There has to be a balance. The company can’t exist without both customers (either internal or external) and employees.

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

#40

Post by hvidgaard »

messit wrote: post #35
zorked wrote: post #28

At a previous company, I joined a team that had to deliver something a year before I joined. All previous teams assembled to deliver that had failed and had been fired. That the company didn't have that feature was deeply embarrassing, the competition mentioned having it in the first line of their marketing materials. The most influential engineers on the team didn't give a damn about deadlines and thought that being…

> She told us she didn't care about any of us. Revoked everybody's little privileges, would literally come see if everybody was on their keyboard and typing all the time. Didn't force overtime on anyone but was adamant against people arriving late or leaving early or missing meetings. Started openly taking notes of everybody's failures so she would have ample documentation of who failed what. That sounds pretty horre…

For pretty much all teams I'd agree. But if it comes to the point as described, you pretty much have to revert to treat everybody at children and gradually build it up from there. Privileges is something you work to get.
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