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Question for HN: If you were talking with someone at a conference and heard him say > The job of management isn't hard (I'm doing it) What signals would you l

Question for HN: If you were talking with someone at a conference and heard him say > The job of management isn't hard (I'm doing it) What signals would you look for to tell the difference between these two possibilities? A. This person has so much tacit knowledge of good management that they don't realise how much skill they are applying day-to-day. B. This person has zero awareness of how their team is burning out underneath them.

bitL 6y ago
Would you consider the possibility that you might have done it wrong all the time and all your previous managers taught you the wrong way?
theptip 6y ago
A well formulated question! I’d ask a few questions about the bits of management that I think are hard. How do you get your team aligned on the company’s priorities as they shift? How do you foster growth? How do you assess who needs to be promoted/given a raise? How do you handle feedback for employees that aren’t doing well, or aren’t meeting your expectations (or even harder, employees who think they should be promoted but you think are just solid at their current level)? And the big/meta one - what do you think the job of a manager is? (Could just be a semantic disconnect on what the job entails).
Aeolun 6y ago
There’s also C. It’s just a small, experienced team, and doesn’t need much management to be successful in the first place.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
lazide 6y ago
I don’t think I’ve seen it ACTUALLY be anything but B in the real world, but theoretically, to answer your question - 1) that’s interesting! What do you consider the hardest people management issue you’ve run across? 2) what is the people management problem you think most people overrate in difficulty? It usually will surface if they, for instance, consider people management easy because they have zero emotional affect and hence never bear any emotional load, or if they’ve been bless by ignorance and don’t see the work their peer and senior managers are doing to avoid them setting everything on fire, or never consider coaching or growth of someone to be a problem - because they never do it.
temporallobe 6y ago
I have concluded that nothing is easy. Being a manager (at least a good one) is definitely not easy; being a good engineer is definitely not easy. They are both difficult in their own district ways. The most important skill to have in the workplace, management or not, is humility. This absolutely does not mean that you’re a pushover, but it does mean that you should never deceive yourself with the notion that you’re infallible.

bitL 6y ago

Would you consider the possibility that you might have done it wrong all the time and all your previous managers taught you the wrong way?

theptip 6y ago

A well formulated question! I’d ask a few questions about the bits of management that I think are hard. How do you get your team aligned on the company’s priorities as they shift? How do you foster growth? How do you assess who needs to be promoted/given a raise? How do you handle feedback for employees that aren’t doing well, or aren’t meeting your expectations (or even harder, employees who think they should be promoted but you think are just solid at their current level)? And the big/meta one - what do you think the job of a manager is? (Could just be a semantic disconnect on what the job entails).

Aeolun 6y ago

There’s also C. It’s just a small, experienced team, and doesn’t need much management to be successful in the first place.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

lazide 6y ago

I don’t think I’ve seen it ACTUALLY be anything but B in the real world, but theoretically, to answer your question - 1) that’s interesting! What do you consider the hardest people management issue you’ve run across? 2) what is the people management problem you think most people overrate in difficulty? It usually will surface if they, for instance, consider people management easy because they have zero emotional affect and hence never bear any emotional load, or if they’ve been bless by ignorance and don’t see the work their peer and senior managers are doing to avoid them setting everything on fire, or never consider coaching or growth of someone to be a problem - because they never do it.

temporallobe 6y ago

I have concluded that nothing is easy. Being a manager (at least a good one) is definitely not easy; being a good engineer is definitely not easy. They are both difficult in their own district ways. The most important skill to have in the workplace, management or not, is humility. This absolutely does not mean that you’re a pushover, but it does mean that you should never deceive yourself with the notion that you’re infallible.