Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

hbr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 247 posts

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#21

Post by mifeng »

midgetjones wrote: post #10
CarpetBench wrote: post #9

The most surprising part about this to me is that this matters at the top. Sure, for a middle manager it makes sense that it matters quite a bit. I'm pretty surprised that it matters much at the top, though. If Elon Musk decided to head a major grocery chain I wouldn't stop to consider whether his lack of experience in retail groceries mattered much. But maybe it does? Really interesting to see the analogy extend to…

Did Elon Musk have a lot of experience in self-driving cars or space rockets before Tesla?

But if you listen to his interviews, it's clear the guy has a nuanced, clear understanding of the technology and business model behind both Tesla and SpaceX. He may not be able to do every job, but he can do the job of his direct reports.

In contrast, there's the "professional manager" archetype, who Musk is definitely not.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#22

Post by TheCowboy »

yomly wrote: post #7
bognition wrote: post #2

>The benefit of having a highly competent boss is easily the largest positive influence on a typical worker’s level of job satisfaction This is one of those great discoveries that is hardly surprising and makes you wonder why it hadn't be seen before. Honestly some of my worst work experiences were getting jerked around by a superior who completely failed to understand the work required to do my job.

I suspect it is a comparatively new phenomenon in the workplace which is in part attributable to the recent surge (5-10 years) in knowledge work. When I worked in bigco as an analyst, the director and even managers were from a different era. The better ones knew excel to some extent but had no idea how to do sql or even excel automation which was a large part of what the analysts were required to do. Part of this is…

Another phenomenon is the development of management as a science. People can end up in positions of oversight where they have a deficient understanding of the tasks people below them are performing.

Study of management and processes is not without merit, and the rants against MBAs can be one dimensional by not recognizing the benefits. But if that was all that it took, then the economy wouldn't "waste" medical doctors or highly skilled engineers in administrative functions.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#23

Post by gt2 »

baursak wrote: post #8

I've had a boss who was very competent technically, but was completely incompetent as a people manager. Somehow he rose to a VP level, but still wanted to micromanage everything down to individual code reviews. It was comical at times. Eventually he was fired.

I had a similar experience but not sure the guy was ever fired. I ignored the soft skill deficit he had and enjoyed the fact that a manager cared about the code.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#24

Post by yomly »

TheCowboy wrote: post #22
yomly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it is a comparatively new phenomenon in the workplace which is in part attributable to the recent surge (5-10 years) in knowledge work. When I worked in bigco as an analyst, the director and even managers were from a different era. The better ones knew excel to some extent but had no idea how to do sql or even excel automation which was a large part of what the analysts were required to do. Part of this is…

Another phenomenon is the development of management as a science. People can end up in positions of oversight where they have a deficient understanding of the tasks people below them are performing. Study of management and processes is not without merit, and the rants against MBAs can be one dimensional by not recognizing the benefits. But if that was all that it took, then the economy wouldn't "waste" medical doctor…

I think that is true, although people have been doing MBAs for a much longer time than the tech boom has been around for: e.g. doing an MBA was viable a route into Finance since at least the 80s.

Though MBAs have certainly been growing in popularity over the past few years.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#25

Post by rc_bhg »

baursak wrote: post #8

I've had a boss who was very competent technically, but was completely incompetent as a people manager. Somehow he rose to a VP level, but still wanted to micromanage everything down to individual code reviews. It was comical at times. Eventually he was fired.

He just needed to learn to let go a little trust the people who work for him.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#26

Post by HerraBRE »

This is very interesting, and rings true on many levels.

For one, it takes a certain level of competence to be able to differentiate between good and bad work. If your boss can't tell the difference between the two, workers will be rewarded/punished/promoted/fired based on some other metrics, which are likely to be unfair or even arbitrary.

Another, is that bosses and managers are responsible for providing guidance. If you have two ways to do something and aren't sure which is best, it's natural to go to your manager for advice. If you get the feeling that the advice you get is worthless (or even harmful), then you'll feel lost and unsupported.

And finally, in many organizations, the boss sets priorities. If he doesn't understand the work, he is likely to have unrealistic or actively harmful expectations. And you'll feel like you're wasting your time.

All of these things are terrible for morale.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#27

Post by wageslave2 »

TheCowboy wrote: post #22
yomly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it is a comparatively new phenomenon in the workplace which is in part attributable to the recent surge (5-10 years) in knowledge work. When I worked in bigco as an analyst, the director and even managers were from a different era. The better ones knew excel to some extent but had no idea how to do sql or even excel automation which was a large part of what the analysts were required to do. Part of this is…

Another phenomenon is the development of management as a science. People can end up in positions of oversight where they have a deficient understanding of the tasks people below them are performing. Study of management and processes is not without merit, and the rants against MBAs can be one dimensional by not recognizing the benefits. But if that was all that it took, then the economy wouldn't "waste" medical doctor…

In my experience who ever makes this argument is incapable of coding and hence went to management. Some are really nice people but still they can be misled due to their I capability to understand he nature of work.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#28

Post by typetypetype »

midgetjones wrote: post #10
CarpetBench wrote: post #9

The most surprising part about this to me is that this matters at the top. Sure, for a middle manager it makes sense that it matters quite a bit. I'm pretty surprised that it matters much at the top, though. If Elon Musk decided to head a major grocery chain I wouldn't stop to consider whether his lack of experience in retail groceries mattered much. But maybe it does? Really interesting to see the analogy extend to…

Did Elon Musk have a lot of experience in self-driving cars or space rockets before Tesla?

He has a degree in physics, which is the fundamental science behind cars and rockets (and batteries and heat management, etc).

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#29

Post by mox1 »

yomly wrote: post #7
bognition wrote: post #2

>The benefit of having a highly competent boss is easily the largest positive influence on a typical worker’s level of job satisfaction This is one of those great discoveries that is hardly surprising and makes you wonder why it hadn't be seen before. Honestly some of my worst work experiences were getting jerked around by a superior who completely failed to understand the work required to do my job.

I suspect it is a comparatively new phenomenon in the workplace which is in part attributable to the recent surge (5-10 years) in knowledge work. When I worked in bigco as an analyst, the director and even managers were from a different era. The better ones knew excel to some extent but had no idea how to do sql or even excel automation which was a large part of what the analysts were required to do. Part of this is…

I would be willing to be those people still knew how to do the job, just without Excel. They fundamentally understand the reason for "analyzing" things and the output generated by that.

It's when you put a recent MBA grad with 0 domain knowledge as the manager of these people where problems start.

And again, with the accountants. The crusty 60 year old accountant will still be able to read a report generated by a fresh college grad. He could even open the books and spot problems. Issues arise when you put someone who isn't an Accountant in charge of the other accountants.

Post reply on HN