All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
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All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
1–10 of 134 posts
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#2[deleted]
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#3I have lived a life where I have to constantly be taking personal inventory, and when wrong, promptly admit it.
I think that helped make me a decent manager. At least, my employees seemed to think so.
But I could be wrong.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#4I think the problem is that there's a difference between a good manager and a manager who keeps their job.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#5That sounds more like a daycare skill, not a management skill. Good managers don't get distracted by "favors" for other departments or navel gaze after making mistakes. They have a clear vision of what needs to be done and execute on it aggressively, and aren't afraid to make mistakes when pursuing a goal. Good team members love this, and the rest fail out.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#6Implementers are not babies and managers are not our mothers.
I think the management skill nobody talks about is how managers should realize they are part of a team and their focus should be on whatever the team's goal is, not in finding the perfect way to apologize. As the article says: "Your job is to ship working software that adds real value to users, to help your team grow, and to create an environment where people can do their best work."
I couldn't give a rat's ass if a manager doesn't apologize to me in a way that makes my eyes water, admitting his humanity in the process, if that manager doesn't insist on making the same mistake and getting in my way all the time.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#7I think this goes for Engineers as well. In fact, I say the biggest skill I want from a SENIOR developer regardless of years of experience is humility. Someone who "cannot do wrong" and is a toxic about it will poison the rest of the team with their toxicity. But the seniors who are more open to feedback even from Junior developers, those are the ones everyone else follows to hell and back because they're there with you through it all so you're there with them through it all too.
We are all humans, not robots. Heck, even the LLMs mess up.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#8As a former teacher / coach this is definitely the approach I took to build strong relationships with kids. Too often such relationships are all about "I'm the infallible leader...you are the flawed pupils" and that doesn't support really connecting and understanding their unique needs.
In any situation, I've always believed it is better to let people we're all human and it's ok to take risks and make mistakes.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#9The title is misleading.
It's not about management skills.
It's also impolite to use "nobody" in it.
Re: All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair
#10I think the problem is that there's a difference between a good manager and a manager who keeps their job.
The incentive is more strongly aligned with the latter one than the former one.
I'm going through a bit of a phase at the moment, so I'm biased. It's "show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome".
I used to find that an interesting idea, not sure if true or not. Nowadays a few years later, I'm almost hyper focusing on it, because I'm noticing that it is mostly true. Like, there's some room for individuality but when things _matter_ (e.g. livelihood, etc.), then the incentive seems paramount for most people.