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My own observation is that it's more important for managers to be well-organized, remember details, and keep track of things Not sure if that's what you mean b

My own observation is that it's more important for managers to be well-organized, remember details, and keep track of things Not sure if that's what you mean by soft skills, but I generally think of soft skills as things like ability to communicate well, navigate conflict, and apply emotional intelligence to people management The "soft skills" as I understand them are more important for roles like team lead/staff, whereas the organizational skills (and maybe even a willingness to be unlikeable at times) are more important for management. That's why I think a lot of engineers prefer the IC track (I personally think my organizational skills and focus don't qualify me for management, although I enjoy being a lead)

JohnFen 4y ago
I think there are different kinds of manager positions. Some require excellent soft skills, some require excellent bean-counting skills, etc. A bit like how there are different kinds of programmer positions.
mason55 4y ago
> My own observation is that it's more important for managers to be well-organized, remember details, and keep track of things It's interesting, I feel like this applies to a line manager. Once you get beyond that you can just hire to fill in your own weaknesses. If you're bad with organization, just hire a good project manager. I guess that's how you end up with the Pareto principal. Even just moving from being a line manager to being a manager-of-managers is a different job that requires different skills, but the assumption is if you're a good line manager then the next step is to manage managers. There are probably plenty of people who there who would make fine directors but are bad managers so they don't get that chance. And then you have people who are good managers who end up as bad directors.
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago
  Yeah, in terms of actual skills it's weird that you have to climb the ladder because each role is so different from the previous role. I'm sure there's some overlap, but not enough to really warrant the lower role being preparation for the higher role.

JohnFen 4y ago

I think there are different kinds of manager positions. Some require excellent soft skills, some require excellent bean-counting skills, etc. A bit like how there are different kinds of programmer positions.

mason55 4y ago

> My own observation is that it's more important for managers to be well-organized, remember details, and keep track of things It's interesting, I feel like this applies to a line manager. Once you get beyond that you can just hire to fill in your own weaknesses. If you're bad with organization, just hire a good project manager. I guess that's how you end up with the Pareto principal. Even just moving from being a line manager to being a manager-of-managers is a different job that requires different skills, but the assumption is if you're a good line manager then the next step is to manage managers. There are probably plenty of people who there who would make fine directors but are bad managers so they don't get that chance. And then you have people who are good managers who end up as bad directors.

ZephyrBlu 4y ago
Yeah, in terms of actual skills it's weird that you have to climb the ladder because each role is so different from the previous role. I'm sure there's some overlap, but not enough to really warrant the lower role being preparation for the higher role.