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So you're a manager now

scottkosman.com

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Re: So you're a manager now

#31

Post by virgilp »

flashgordon wrote: post #19
Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

This is really nice. I've been doing this for quite a while (and also ping pong ic-em and back). Oh and I've also been "the" poor performer. A couple of observations: 1. Performance management is never easy and I don't think it should be. I don't mean the technique or process of it bit the mental weighing of it. You are affecting a person's livelihood so you don't want to approach it robotically always (despite what…

> I guess the solution is to just join executive leadership ha.

It's really... not? I guess, it probably depends on the person too. But at some level, you have both a lot of power to influence things accidentally in a bad way if you're not careful, and at the same time absolutely minimal power to actually get stuff done (you always need to rely on others for the "doing" part, oftentimes several levels deep/ with a lot of potential for miscommunication).

Those opaque decisions? You _have to_ take decisions, because not taking decisions is very often worse than taking a bad decision. And you don't have the information, you can't have the information, you need to work at a high level of abstraction because it's impossible to know all the details. Unless the relevant details are being communicated to you just in time (spoiler: they won't be), you won't know them. If you actually care about how well you do your job and what is your impact on others, it's not a walk in the park, at all.

Re: So you're a manager now

#32

Post by MobiusHorizons »

wiz21c wrote: post #7
Aurornis wrote: post #3

Some good advice. It’s missing one of the most difficult topics: Performance Management. Most first-time managers have already read a lot of advice about being humble, delegating, celebrating your team’s wins, and the other feel good topics. If you want to write internet advice that gets upvoted and shared you almost have to avoid the difficult conversation topics and assume that the team is full of perfect people th…

Yeah, went down that road too. It's really emotionnally difficult/grinding. And I still don't have a clue: you have to find how each person behaves. Lots of talk, influence, repeating the same thing every day, etc. Unfortunately, I've never taken any pleasure in doing that, it was just difficult and exhausting to me...

Jim Keller did a talk somewhere on YouTube about his experience at AMD on the zen project, and one of the things he highlighted in that process was figuring out what was going on with people that was preventing them from working well on the project. Getting at the deeper causes made it easier to try to find mutually beneficial solutions even if those were the employee moving on from the team. People problems are messy though, and you will definitely feel like the bad guy in some cases, even if you are trying to do what is best for everyone.

Re: So you're a manager now

#33

Post by skeeter2020 »

Nothing here is wrong; some of it good, but it's missing the foundational piece that - if you get it right - helps with everything you need to do and mitigates the countless mistakes you are going to make: you need to genuinely care. How you show your team you care is going to be different, but once (ed: if!) you do you get a pass on the little mistakes, they won't jump to the least charitable interpretation when you don't communicate clearly or fully, they will want to help you because you want to help them, and you will win together.

So how do you demonstrate caring? For me (YMMV) I prioritize relationships over everything else at the very start; you will be dropping the ball somewhere but can recover from technical gaps, product knowledge, etc. I get in the trenches with the team, not to do their work but to try and make it easier; the important but non-core stuff that nobody wants to tackle. For each direct I continually ask "where is this person heading and how am I help them get there?".

One tactical tip: too many managers - especially new ones - focus on mentorship, and then maybe coaching but neglect sponsoring. This is so important, very passive but probably takes the most energy because you need to keep your receiver power at 11 and then connect the indirect dots. The act of recognizing and connecting an individual with an opportunity is deceptively hard, but the returns for everybody dwarf any advice you can give.

Re: So you're a manager now

#34

Post by sneak »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #12
b3lvedere wrote: post #5

"Be Clear. Painfully Clear. You think you’re being obvious. You’re not. Spell out expectations. Over-communicate. Set goals in plain language." Lots of managers i had the pleasure of working with, missed this memo entirely...

This is a really tough one isn't it? On the other hand I personally don't like when leaders or managers are over communicating (contrasting to this article). Of course I never say it, so the author can claim that nobody has criticised managers for over communicating, but I do despise too frequent check ins, meetings that are going too long, people who talk for too long when I just want to get started already. Manager…

The article also forgot: don’t make communication synchronous when it could be sent as text. People generally can read faster than you can speak.

Lots of people speak instead of write for no reason other than they are bad at typing.

It’s not that annoying or burdensome to be repeated to in text.

Some people don’t read, but those people can be special cased with meetings and talk.

Re: So you're a manager now

#36

Post by skeeter2020 »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #12
b3lvedere wrote: post #5

"Be Clear. Painfully Clear. You think you’re being obvious. You’re not. Spell out expectations. Over-communicate. Set goals in plain language." Lots of managers i had the pleasure of working with, missed this memo entirely...

This is a really tough one isn't it? On the other hand I personally don't like when leaders or managers are over communicating (contrasting to this article). Of course I never say it, so the author can claim that nobody has criticised managers for over communicating, but I do despise too frequent check ins, meetings that are going too long, people who talk for too long when I just want to get started already. Manager…

sounds like they have a hammer (the sync, in-person meeting) and go around looking for nails. I don't think the key is simple repetition, but reinforcement. This means the appropriate channel, content and timing - all influenced by the situation and clear understanding of what exactly is the motivating problem for the communication.

Re: So you're a manager now

#37

Post by ramon156 »

dizhn wrote: post #24
swader999 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repetition is critical.

People will start to tune out things you don't repeat enough very quickly.

Leople will also tune out repeated things because they're often unidirectional conversations.

Cool that you want this done today, but "we" are not doing that. Tell the client it's going to take another day instead of planning a scoping meeting and interrupting my dev time

Re: So you're a manager now

#38

Post by jghn »

xnx wrote: post #30
alphazard wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people. It's important to understand that actually removing someone from the organization is a totally separate problem from managing the performance of the team. People who don't contribute or cause problems need to be sequestered as much as possible. Don't let them bring down the rest of the team. I think "managed out" is the term that's being us…

> In today's corporate world, it can be difficult or impossible to fire people Really? In the US you can fire an employee for any reason at any time (aside from a few illegal reasons: union activity, racism, etc.).

> In the US you can fire an employee for any reason at any time

On paper, yes. In practice, especially in a larger company? It's often a long journey that involves a lot of energy on the part of the manager. And then of course you may not get a backfill rec. So then one needs to ask themselves: is this person truly a net negative when compared to the energy that'd be required to jettison them *and* replace them with nothing?

Often the answer is no.

Re: So you're a manager now

#39

Post by mewpmewp2 »

sneak wrote: post #34
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really tough one isn't it? On the other hand I personally don't like when leaders or managers are over communicating (contrasting to this article). Of course I never say it, so the author can claim that nobody has criticised managers for over communicating, but I do despise too frequent check ins, meetings that are going too long, people who talk for too long when I just want to get started already. Manager…

The article also forgot: don’t make communication synchronous when it could be sent as text. People generally can read faster than you can speak. Lots of people speak instead of write for no reason other than they are bad at typing. It’s not that annoying or burdensome to be repeated to in text. Some people don’t read, but those people can be special cased with meetings and talk.

Fully agree. Instead of verbal repetition, put things as a DM or in a doc in order of priority, organize textual information well and you don't have to verbally repeat this. That is how I consume information the best, but could vary from person to person.

Re: So you're a manager now

#40

Post by mewpmewp2 »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #36
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really tough one isn't it? On the other hand I personally don't like when leaders or managers are over communicating (contrasting to this article). Of course I never say it, so the author can claim that nobody has criticised managers for over communicating, but I do despise too frequent check ins, meetings that are going too long, people who talk for too long when I just want to get started already. Manager…

sounds like they have a hammer (the sync, in-person meeting) and go around looking for nails. I don't think the key is simple repetition, but reinforcement. This means the appropriate channel, content and timing - all influenced by the situation and clear understanding of what exactly is the motivating problem for the communication.

Instead of repetition I would prefer written information organized well by priority. You don't have to repeat if I can revisit the information, easily find it when I need it, if I was to forget it. And with text I am happy also with overcommunicating as long as it is done once, not frequently to break my flow. When you ask me to do something always mention priority and the expected due time, do I have to drop other things or no. If you have a question, tell me by when do you need the answer.
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