elle
commented
3 years ago The making of a manager
1: What is management?
- Genius are not born genius
- Question is: how far this concept of "learning to become a manager" can go? how much do people fit to become managers?
- Self-selective based on purpose rather than existing skills
- She works on an assumption that the role of the manager is not necessarily to make decisions and calls all the time, but to support the team to do better work
- Traditionally, a manager manages people and tells the team what to do, whereas a leader leads the team by inspiring them and giving them a purpose.
- Good way to think about a manager as an "output multiplier"
- Having a good idea and dictating a course of action did not get the team to do the work. She did not take them on a journey, or sold the team the idea, and why it is a good idea.
- On responsibilities of a manager is shielding the team from blockers
- A manager that is selective in sharing information with the team, and when they leave, it is hard to catch up on context
- A manager as a shit umbrella: praise to go through to the team, admonition stays with the manager.
- Contributing "additive" value vs "multiplicative" value
This is the crux of management: It is the belief that a team of people can achieve more than a single person going it alone. It is the realization that you don’t have to do everything yourself, be the best at everything yourself, or even know how to do everything yourself. Your job, as a manager, is to get better outcomes from a group of people working together.
How do you tell a great manager from an average manager?
- Evaluation of a good manager suggestions: turnover and retention, team pulse surveys, skip-level one:ones
- Example from Atlassian: higher up rostered weekly lunch with a smaller group of people that are not direct reports
- You can't demand that people believe in your vision
- A manager should define the outcomes of what should be built without getting into minute specifics.
- Shopify: "we want to be a 100-year company, think about that when you make decisions"
one should look at “the output of the work unit and not simply the activity involved. Obviously, you measure a salesman by the orders he gets (output), not by the calls he makes (activity).”
- "Time, however, always reveals the truth"
- What happens if the manager is great but the designers are very average?
- Evaluating a manager by looking at team outcomes, as well as is the team set up for great outcomes in the future
Manager as IC
- Once you have enough reports, consider not to contribute to actual work
- JB reckons that even a CTO should contribute and keep on the tools, maybe not on a critical path but still...
- Richard's experience of CTO code is outdated and not good enough. However CTOs are most effective in planning meeting where they have all the context and history information (we tried this before and it didn't work because...)
- CTO is usually the least defined role because it is different in every company
- How involved should a manager be with the work? How perfect should you aspire to? You should be involved enough so the standard is kept up...
five conditions that increase a team’s odds of success: having a real team (one with clear boundaries and stable membership), a compelling direction, an enabling structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert coaching.
- Real team: belonging to a team and feeling psychological safety
- compelling direction: purpose
- enabling structure: freedom and autonomy
- supportive org context: is very hard
- expert coaching: supporting team growth
She defined this as:
- Purpose: why
- People: who
- Process: how
--
Can a manager earn less than ICs on the team?
- Career ladders and a path that splits promotion for people management and technical expertise, where ICs and managers can earn the same at specific levels
- Sometimes to solve this conflict is pay scales, a staff engineer ends up reporting to the CTO. It also addresses the issue that such knowledgeable engineers don't have as much respect for managers that know less than them.
- Culture Amp have a different system: junior or mid level devs can lead a team because of communication and time management skills, rather than coding skills. They have:
- Team lead: for people management
- Tech lead: usually the most experienced technically person
- Mentor: someone that has more professional experience to help you grow personally and professionally
- Skills guilds with one person leading how for example front end is approached across the company
How do you know if you'll be a great manager?
- A new manager was drowning for a year and then she left
- We decided that we are pro the approach of a manager going back to becoming an IC but the reality is that most people then just move companies. Might be shameful but this is all about the culture.
- Questions to ask:
- Do I find it more motivating to achieve a particular outcome or to play a specific role?
- Do I like talking with people?
- Can I provide stability for an emotionally challenging situation?
- Why do you want to be a manager?
- promotion?
- freedom to call the shots?
- I was asked to be a manager?
So to be a great manager, one must certainly be a leader. A leader, on the other hand, doesn’t have to be a manager. Anyone can exhibit leadership, regardless of their role.
2: Your first three months
Four paths:
- Apprentice
- Fewer reports
- Support from above manager
- Inside knowledge and context
- Might be awkward establishing a new reporting dynamics
- IC vs manager dilema
- Pioneer
- Knowledge of what it takes
- Build the team you want
- Not a lot of support around
- Tricky to balance IC and management responsibilities
- New boss
- Time to ramp up
- Start with a blank slate
- Takes time to adjust to new norms
- Need to invest in building new relationships
- Not knowing what the job takes
- Successor
- Like an apprentice but without the mentor's support
- New responsibilities might be overwhelming
- Pressure to be like the former manager
Next book is The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo (Readings or Amazon)
Aiming to read/discuss: Intro + CH1 + CH2
MC: @HashNotAdam Notes: @elle
See you 12 pm Tuesday, March 9th @ https://whereby.com/blackmill
Ping gday@blackmill.co if you want a calendar invite and access to the low-volume Slack beforehand.