141–148 of 148 posts
This kind of EM-focused articles often mention "coaching" and "career growth" -- I always wonder what does this concretely mean. Are they all managing teams of juniors straight out of college? What can a career EM, or even an engineer-to-EM convert who has been out of the coding game for more than a few years, teach a non-junior engineer on their team? I understand we can talk and exchange our concrete life experienc…
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Honestly, I’m not sure. If I know what was going on transparently I am stressed. As an ordinary employee, I don’t need to know everything and therefore don’t need to worry about it.
Knowing more about your company and how well your employer is doing allows you to plan your exit strategy. If you get stressed about that, imagine finding yourself redundant by close of business today, and job hunting from tomorrow.
> A good manager is more like a transparent umbrella. They protect the team from unnecessary stress and pressure, but don’t hide reality from them. I'm absolutely going to steal this metaphor going forward. Being a "transparent umbrella" does require knowing the personalities of your reports, some people do get distracted when they think higher-up decisions or unhappiness are going to affect their team. Most people,…
I think this an underrated quality.
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I recall hearing that Google had a term similar to this: A "shit umbrella" was a manager who protected the development team from all the politics, blame, and mismanagement coming from above. A "shit funnel" was a manager who directed all the shit coming down, directly onto the team.
Yeah, I've been using "shit umbrella" for a long time. But the "transparent shit umbrella" is an even more powerful, albeit more disturbing, metaphor.
A shit umbrella is great to have if the alternative is a shit funnel. But how are you gonna appreciate the shit umbrella if it's pitch black, blocks everything at all times?
You're not gonna appreciate it. In fact, you might think some of the things your manager does are the "bad things", when in fact, it's just the umbrella bowing under all the shitload.
If the umbrella is (somewhat) transparent, you, as the manager, gain some legitimacy through transparency. You're no longer the manager that "sits around on his ass all day doing nothing". You're actually doing something for the team and they can "see" it, even though it doesn't affect them.
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When I was in the Marines, we had a rule of thumb that every Marine needed to know their own mission and the mission of units two or three echelons above them. So individual Marines needed to know their mission, their platoon's mission and their company's mission. Company commanders needed to know their mission, their battalion's mission and the division's mission. More specifics for echelons closer to you. This is c…
As a former Naval Flight Officer, it's somewhat ironic how the private sector is more "sir, yes sir" command and control than the military ever was, and they're the ones who stereotype servicemembers for being drones who can only follow orders. The other thing I've seen incredibly less of in software than in uniform is a bias for action at all levels. Combined with understanding the mission, a mentality that "in the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I’m not sure. If I know what was going on transparently I am stressed. As an ordinary employee, I don’t need to know everything and therefore don’t need to worry about it.
Knowing more about your company and how well your employer is doing allows you to plan your exit strategy. If you get stressed about that, imagine finding yourself redundant by close of business today, and job hunting from tomorrow.
I want to be aware of enough to be productive, yes, but not so much that I get bogged down in the minutiae of corporate politics and can’t focus on my daily work.
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Knowing more about your company and how well your employer is doing allows you to plan your exit strategy. If you get stressed about that, imagine finding yourself redundant by close of business today, and job hunting from tomorrow.
I humbly disagree. I want to be aware of enough to be productive, yes, but not so much that I get bogged down in the minutiae of corporate politics and can’t focus on my daily work.