Stop me if this sounds like you. Somewhere along the way someone put you in charge of something at your job. Maybe you're coaching a new hire, mayb...
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Hi, nice writing. The problems you described are spot on although I'm not sure yet if the solutions are practical for me. Sometimes I have a feeling the actual problem probably me and if I'm not there, they might be performing better. I'm managing a team of ~6 programmers btw as you wrote above, still struggling to get them to the accepted performance level where I don't have to step in all the time to fix issues or get things moving.
Hey Kamal, yeah there's a LOT of information about management out there, and Blaine's got a great addition (nice job Blaine)!
A lot of the management advice out there doesn't apply very well to technical fields or those where we really need people to be highly creative problem solvers. So for me, I think there are four core behaviors to focus on day to day for tech leads or hands on EMs. Do these, and then most of the rest (like the stuff Blaine took a lot of time to document) will snap into place:
(1) get very, very good at listening to the team,
(2) have a strong bias for action (e.g., step into as many leadership moments as possible),
(3) get effective at crafting clear and compelling visions, and articulating them over and over -- even for the most mundane things
(4) get very effective at tracking what the team is doing and be quick to have adjustment conversations
Happy to share more!
Thanks, Kamel. This approach might not be right for everyone but it resonates with me and I thought I'd share it.
Even though I wrote quite a lengthy post, the process is actually very simple. And even if you just do the first couple of steps you'll probably end up better off that just automatically launching into solutions with your team every time someone has a problem.
Cheers.
A few more takeaways:
Thanks, Scott. Excellent observations and advice.
Great article Blaine. I think this will help a lot of people that became managers out of necessity or “natural” leadership without a lot of people management experience.
I think too many people in our business end up in management "naturally" as you described, but they are not, shall we say, natural leaders or managers... if you know what I'm saying!
Trying to do my part to fix it too.
I love this! I sent it to all managers and leads working around me :-). I hope it will help them. Thanks for writing and good luck as manager. Please don't lose your mind :D
As someone who would like to one day manage a team of developers, thank you for writing this (and the book recommendations!)
You're very welcome. The people stuff can be more challenging than the technical stuff.