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I never wanted to be a manager until I experienced one of the worst managers I had ever run across and decided maybe I should revise that particular opinion. I

by zaphar 4y ago

I never wanted to be a manager until I experienced one of the worst managers I had ever run across and decided maybe I should revise that particular opinion. I'm now a VP and I make it my goal not to be that kind of a manager. I do still sometimes wish I were just a regular coder though. There is a lot of stuff about being a manager I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

pbronez 4y ago
Are you me? I also miss doing the individual contributor stuff. But… I know the business. I know the team. I know the pain points, why the exist, and the organizational dynamics that allow them to persist. Now that I have moved from informal to formal leadership, I try to focus on: (1) adroitly executing the approvals and things where I could screw up the team by being slow (2) coaching individual team members to build on their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses (3) improving our corporate processes, tools and culture to systematically make it easier for the team to do the high value stuff we need from them (4) recruiting excellent people who bring new perspectives and experiences to broaden our horizons… ideally coachable people ready to participate enthusiastically in #2 (5) crafting a team strategy that guides individual team members to work that utilizes their skills while combining with their colleagues to deliver more than we could individually… all in line with the overall corporate direction and communicated in a way that is congruent with the current political winds. It is so. Much. Harder!
- Aeolun 4y ago
  Now imagine trying to do the same thing as an IC :(
  - marnett 4y ago
    ICs can gain high levels of leadership leverage, not via teams and people (thought possible), but via the technical projects/designs/paradigms they implement.
yodsanklai 4y ago
> There is a lot of stuff about being a manager I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Could you expand?
- doktorhladnjak 4y ago
  Not the above commenter, but these were things I experienced as a middle manager that really sucked: - Having to always sell the company message. No promotion because the system is fucked? Sorry, you gotta say “better luck next time”. No raises because the company is being cheap? Sorry, gotta say “the cost of labor has not gone up even though inflation is through the roof”. Say what the company tells you, not what’s personally right. - Certain kinds of politics where you have to screw over other teams or people in order for your team or reports to not get screwed over. Many companies are very dog eat dog. - Layoffs and firing people. It’s not as bad as getting laid off/fired but firing someone or trying to keep the rest of your team focused when a team member got laid off is not fun at all. - Overall, managers almost never get credit when something goes well but are always blamed when something goes wrong. It’s a really thankless job.

by zaphar 4y ago

pbronez 4y ago

Are you me? I also miss doing the individual contributor stuff. But… I know the business. I know the team. I know the pain points, why the exist, and the organizational dynamics that allow them to persist. Now that I have moved from informal to formal leadership, I try to focus on: (1) adroitly executing the approvals and things where I could screw up the team by being slow (2) coaching individual team members to build on their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses (3) improving our corporate processes, tools and culture to systematically make it easier for the team to do the high value stuff we need from them (4) recruiting excellent people who bring new perspectives and experiences to broaden our horizons… ideally coachable people ready to participate enthusiastically in #2 (5) crafting a team strategy that guides individual team members to work that utilizes their skills while combining with their colleagues to deliver more than we could individually… all in line with the overall corporate direction and communicated in a way that is congruent with the current political winds. It is so. Much. Harder!

Aeolun 4y ago
Now imagine trying to do the same thing as an IC :(
- marnett 4y ago
  ICs can gain high levels of leadership leverage, not via teams and people (thought possible), but via the technical projects/designs/paradigms they implement.

yodsanklai 4y ago

> There is a lot of stuff about being a manager I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Could you expand?

doktorhladnjak 4y ago
Not the above commenter, but these were things I experienced as a middle manager that really sucked: - Having to always sell the company message. No promotion because the system is fucked? Sorry, you gotta say “better luck next time”. No raises because the company is being cheap? Sorry, gotta say “the cost of labor has not gone up even though inflation is through the roof”. Say what the company tells you, not what’s personally right. - Certain kinds of politics where you have to screw over other teams or people in order for your team or reports to not get screwed over. Many companies are very dog eat dog. - Layoffs and firing people. It’s not as bad as getting laid off/fired but firing someone or trying to keep the rest of your team focused when a team member got laid off is not fun at all. - Overall, managers almost never get credit when something goes well but are always blamed when something goes wrong. It’s a really thankless job.