Over the years at IBM, Yahoo and in other jobs I had my share of managers. With them came different management styles. Some of them were good managers, some of them were medicore and some of them plain sucked. I had very old guys as my manager and I had managers that were my peers and my age and then "moved on" to have their manager bit flipped. When I read
Joels series of posts on management styles it reminded me of some of my previous managers and the way they interacted with me and my peers. There were the guys who felt they had to make a decision simply because they were the manager, ignoring the fact that they had no background or in-depth knowledge to even make such a decision. Then there were those that were afraid to make a decision. Or maybe not afraid to make a decision but rather afraid or scared to stick up for it. I admit it's probably not easy managing programmers because a lot of them have a self perception problem and think they are better than they really are. But what happened to "common sense"? I think if some managers would start thinking how they would like to be treated as a managee they would do things differently. So along those lines, here are some things a manager of a programmer should avoid:
- Don't make decisions based on traditions. Hearing "This is how we used to do things" drives me nuts. Listen to your people what they have to say.
- Don't treat everyone the same. Some people like to be told directly what's going on and others can't handle the truth. I don't suggest that lying should be part of a managers repertoire but it always drove me nuts hearing managers beating around the bushes and saying the most brutal things in such flowery words that it was almost impossible to figure out what they wanted to say. Let's face it, work is no kindergarten and if someone can't stand being told how things are they should find a different lien of work.
- Becoming a manager for the wrong reasons. You shouldn't become a manager because it is the natural advancement on the career ladder. If you are kick-ass programmer, researcher that doesn't mean that one will be a great manager. I for one hate to deal with all the personal BS and I can't see myself becoming one soon. However, if one becomes a manager they often stop to think like a programmer because they have to fit into the management chain.
- Not givning people some freedom. Micromanagement sucks. Constantly breathing down someone's neck sucks too. There are times when things like that are justified but again, these tools shouldn't be used in general but rather based on the individual managee. Some of them need the daily dose of manager interaction, others can go a week without it.
- Not sticking up for your people. I once had a manager who seemed threatened by me and the work I was doing. Don't know why but we never hit it off. When evaluations rolled around he wrote a one sentence evaluation like this: "Joerg did outstanding work!" What's wrong with that you may ask? Well, sounds pretty good but it was just an attempt to hide the fact that he did not want to push upper management for also giving me the best rating which really mattered in terms of recognition (by upper management and through compensation). So I talked to him and it turned out that he never even tried, had no idea what my contributions were. So I told him he sucked, went to his manager and told him what I had said. Now, don't try this at home. You should be very certain to do such a thing. I probably owuld have done it anyway even without being in very good standing. But it does raise the point why some people become managers when they truly suck and how they remain in that position for so long.
There is certainly more and I do want to add that I did have some good managers. The ones that I considered good were usually very direct, straightforward and demanded a lot. But they were also giving back a lot. So, whoever is a manager or becomes a manager, remember the times you were fed up with your manager and try to avoid exactly those things. That's the best way of becoming a great manager.
