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Yup, when I was early in my career I wondered why management had so many meetings. Then when I got more senior and closer to the decision making, I realize jus

by refurb 4y ago

Yup, when I was early in my career I wondered why management had so many meetings. Then when I got more senior and closer to the decision making, I realize just how hard it is to keep large organizations on track. I've worked at companies that do it poorly and it's a mess - everyone is busy, but the company is just spinning it's wheels. Everyone with an oar is paddling in a different direction. I've worked under leaders who are really good at providing direction. It's a very valuable skill when done right.

ZephyrBlu 4y ago
I'm starting to realize this and it's a really interesting realization. My first taste of this was leading a small project of myself and 2 other devs, and wondering how the hell you're supposed to get other people to do what you want. Doing a good job of leading a large number of people seems extremely difficult, and I'm glad I don't have to deal with that yet. Your explanation of companies doing this poorly sounds exactly like the example I gave in a comment I just wrote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34295803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34295803.
- refurb 4y ago
  I worked in a 1,000 person org doing a product launch and leadership did a great job aligning everyone. Launch goals? There were 3 short ones and not fluff like “drive sales”. Everyone on the team knew what the goals are and why. What should you be working on? Just look at the 3 launch goals. And leadership constantly reinforced them and empowered people to stop doing things that didn’t work towards them. And I’ve worked in smaller teams where everyone had their own idea of what needed to be done. Leadership would keep changing goals (or they were so vague that anything fit them) or making exceptions. None of the pieces fit together and it was a total disaster. People got frustrated when they did great work but other critical parts weren’t done because something shiny or “cool” distracted other teams. Effective leadership makes a huge difference.

by refurb 4y ago

ZephyrBlu 4y ago

I'm starting to realize this and it's a really interesting realization. My first taste of this was leading a small project of myself and 2 other devs, and wondering how the hell you're supposed to get other people to do what you want. Doing a good job of leading a large number of people seems extremely difficult, and I'm glad I don't have to deal with that yet. Your explanation of companies doing this poorly sounds exactly like the example I gave in a comment I just wrote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34295803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34295803.

refurb 4y ago
I worked in a 1,000 person org doing a product launch and leadership did a great job aligning everyone. Launch goals? There were 3 short ones and not fluff like “drive sales”. Everyone on the team knew what the goals are and why. What should you be working on? Just look at the 3 launch goals. And leadership constantly reinforced them and empowered people to stop doing things that didn’t work towards them. And I’ve worked in smaller teams where everyone had their own idea of what needed to be done. Leadership would keep changing goals (or they were so vague that anything fit them) or making exceptions. None of the pieces fit together and it was a total disaster. People got frustrated when they did great work but other critical parts weren’t done because something shiny or “cool” distracted other teams. Effective leadership makes a huge difference.