The idea of "Managing yourself before managing a team" sounds true to me. I cannot manage myself very well (lack of discipline, not long term target, barely surviving mentally due to numerous issues, etc.) and indeed I cannot really imagine how do I manage a group of 10.
Manager's Handbook (2020)
121–130 of 136 posts
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So, just because it’s not perfect we don’t do it at all? Just because is so far from perfection to a point of being just waste of bandwidth resources, a security risk [1] and an annoyance who force people a certain dress code, others with shows of decorated background and animations, others shows misery of their homes while some show their wealth status as a way to impress etc. > telling people that it will never b…
Quite like this argument - ie it brings up some new points for me that I haven’t considered yet. To just provide a counterpoint to your anecdote (obviously, also nothing but another anecdote): of our team of 30 almost all came back to the office several days a week (despite it being fully optional and also management choosing various models). I think it is very much driven by the fact that the team just had a really…
Some teams surely are also much like an extended family, no doubt, even if I like WFH now (and not just from now) at uni time I've always preferred spend time at the uni just for the social aspects I found there, but how many teams are like that, small and harmoniums enough? IME not near-zero surely, but still not that much in percentage (opinion of course, I have no real data, just too-small scale observation and casual interpolation on that).
Another point is made the environment aside: in a small/medium and spread city, with various amenities, people might like live there not just because it's near the office and once there it's a pleasure going outside. However for instance in my old big & dense city going outside was and still is definitively not a pleasure, too much traffic, pollution, noise, only the social aspect of having a big choice of people to be together instead of just accept some neighbors because there is no much choice in place is actually a pleasure, here now however I have nature around, with countless of activities, no traffic etc, so much of the issue of the city are not worth just the better social/service part. Surely, I'm not that rural, and cities are still just half an hour around...
There are many things shaping life so shaping work preferences though for what I've read here and there (different posts from different sources around the world) and my personal experience much more prefer WFH, at least those who have a voice, who know how to spread their feelings and ideas, witch left me a bit uncertain about how many prefer the office vs how many prefer living in a spread and vast Riviera, WFH... No doubt however about the abundance of advantages vs disadvantages in the short and potentially, with a bit of incertitude, in the mean/long run.
The dream of a less dense society where moving by flying cars is normal as now moving with actual road cars, so a society where a vast riviera is also a dense city since anything is few minutes of fly away is the dream. Potentially can be real in tech terms, but I do not know if / when it will ever be in reality, nor I know how many time, issues etc we will see before having experimented WFH enough to have a new paradigm working and tested enough to made general comparisons.
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Promotions for example are always based on nebulous criteria that are often made up on the fly. The way this actually looks, from the management side, is that people by and large do mediocre work, and fail to ever increase the scope or quality of the work they deliver. The manager has visibility into the work of many engineers, and can see how one person implements major features quickly, cranks out design document…
> implements major features quickly, cranks out design documents, fixes a ton of bugs, helps to organize the work of their teammates, brings people together from different teams to make technical decisions This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody. Yea if this is what is require…
> This is almost superhuman
And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind, who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people on how these folks kick ass. And I've seen this at every company I've worked at. There are the top engineers who deliver the most features and functionality, at the highest quality standards, and done quickly... and then the rest of the team.
> Expecting people to read your mind and wondering why are 'bewildered' is total failure of management.
Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager.
> Your explanation for why people arent performing to your expectations seems to be that they are lazy or stupid or both. I really pray i don't work for someone like this.
I know my statement may offend egos, but again: any manager will tell you that the productivity of engineers --by any metric-- is very unevenly distributed. It's not because of laziness or stupidity. Talent and skills are simply not evenly distributed. Sucks, but that's just how it is.
And then during performance-review season, promotions will go to those engineers who are performing clearly better than their job-level peers.
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> implements major features quickly, cranks out design documents, fixes a ton of bugs, helps to organize the work of their teammates, brings people together from different teams to make technical decisions This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody. Yea if this is what is require…
> This is almost superhuman And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind , who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people…
[deleted]
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> implements major features quickly, cranks out design documents, fixes a ton of bugs, helps to organize the work of their teammates, brings people together from different teams to make technical decisions This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody. Yea if this is what is require…
> This is almost superhuman And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind , who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people…
> Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager.
Curious why people are 'bewildered' on your team when you have to clearly pointed out the to get promotion you have crank out maximum number of features than anyone else ( for example). There was also failure to 'increase their productivity' if they are taking 2 weeks to deliver basic stuff.
I might be wrong here but sounds like management style is that of a passive observer that rewards 'top N' , punishes 'bottom N' and lets everyone else just stagnate.
> I know my statement may offend egos
It has nothing do with ego, you are obviously right, people are different. I just dislike 'fixed mindset' managers. Managers who have absolved themselves of any responsibility to improve or elevate their teams by proclaiming things like
> people by and large do mediocre work
> Talent and skills are simply not evenly distributed. Sucks, but that's just how it is.
There is just no benefit to me working for someone who holds these attitudes about me and my 'talent and skills'. I simply have nothing to gain.
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#126I really like how the book's website is structured.
Does anyone know what app they used to create the handbook?
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> implements major features quickly, cranks out design documents, fixes a ton of bugs, helps to organize the work of their teammates, brings people together from different teams to make technical decisions This is almost superhuman. Basically combines everything from a entry level all the way to staff engineer. tons of , quickly, cranks out, helps, brings together. Sounds like a parody. Yea if this is what is require…
> This is almost superhuman And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind , who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people…
[deleted]
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#128Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is almost superhuman And yet as I wrote this, I had several specific people in mind , who do literally all the things I listed: they design, they code, they help organize the project, they reach out to other teams, etc. I didn't say they do all those things every day! :-) Their productivity stands out clearly above that of most of their peers. It's not just me that notices -- I've get slacks from other people…
> Of course. Goes without saying. Helping people increase their productivity --through clear communication-- is one of the main jobs of an eng manager. Curious why people are 'bewildered' on your team when you have to clearly pointed out the to get promotion you have crank out maximum number of features than anyone else ( for example). There was also failure to 'increase their productivity' if they are taking 2 weeks…
Over the years, it’s really only been a small number of people who constantly push for promotion without stepping up their own game. Their failures are often an inability to finish tasks. Or they ask for more challenging work (e.g., singing up to kick off and lead a new project we all want to see happen) and then they just fizzle out.
Their frustration (and “bewilderment”) stems from the gap in what they want to accomplish versus what they’re able to accomplish at this point in their career. They reject the feedback that they're not performing at the next career level, because from their POV, they're working hard and feel that their own results and deliverables are the max a person can achieve.
While this certainly could be attributed to a communication failure on the manager's part, my experience (and my POV as manager) is that it rather reflects on the individual engineers themselves -- some just naturally get a ton of shit done, some are able to push themselves and grow, and others struggle to grow despite the effort they put in and despite my attempts to coach them.
Re: Manager's Handbook (2020)
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just took the test from their provided link (eclecticenergies.com) and it is 100% woo. Spiritual chakra energy lifeforce crystals woo. That site should not be used, at least not directly, by anybody in a professional managerial setting.
I think you aren’t thinking about this enough. Any human physiology test is going to be somewhat ‘woo’ because humans are complex that way. Just use it as a tool and understand that it has limitations.
I agree there's a gradient for this stuff. This is all the way at the end, beyond the point of uselessness.