If you are looking at some really good discourse on management and software practices, then please move on to http://www.joelonsoftware.com/Archive.html.
This post is from a yankee who landed in the industry in 2004 right out of college looking for some really challenging techie work. Must say that my career here so far has provided me with lots of those, but interestingly, it has also taken me through a roller coaster ride on how exactly do you lead a bunch of people.
Even though at college, we had learnt the principles that make a single guy at the top to manage an extremely large organisation with thousands of employees under him - Hierarchy and Delegation. All that sounded very nice when we learnt it, but once in the industry, the reality bites you hard. How I just wish delegation just meant transfer some of your responsibilities to a person below and get the work done. Probably, it might work fine in software design where-in high-level modules delegate their work to low-level modules. But it is just not the case when individuals are involved.
To get to the point, Management, in short, is about,
- Respecting the individuals under you.
- Trusting the individuals under you.
- Caring for the individuals under you.
This post is from a yankee who landed in the industry in 2004 right out of college looking for some really challenging techie work. Must say that my career here so far has provided me with lots of those, but interestingly, it has also taken me through a roller coaster ride on how exactly do you lead a bunch of people.
Even though at college, we had learnt the principles that make a single guy at the top to manage an extremely large organisation with thousands of employees under him - Hierarchy and Delegation. All that sounded very nice when we learnt it, but once in the industry, the reality bites you hard. How I just wish delegation just meant transfer some of your responsibilities to a person below and get the work done. Probably, it might work fine in software design where-in high-level modules delegate their work to low-level modules. But it is just not the case when individuals are involved.
To get to the point, Management, in short, is about,
- Respecting the individuals under you.
- Trusting the individuals under you.
- Caring for the individuals under you.
[probably I reiterate the term "individuals" often as against "people" but that more goes to say the stress am laying on it]
Management is in reality all about relationships with individuals. Management is personal. In another sense, management is about listening. The more you listen, the more you understand the individuals under you and the better you can care for them.
That is why, people, ahem, sorry, 'individuals', more often don't leave their jobs; they leave their managers. So the key to building a great place to work is not about having great paychecks or great perks for employees. It is just about having a mechanism in place that ensures that managers care for those under them. Any organization that achieves this, whether it be a mammoth organization with thousands of employees or any run-of-the-mill organization with half a dozen employess, is sure to be a great place to work.
Another common misconception in many employees mind's is that once you rise to management levels, all you need to work around with are schedules and deadlines. So when it so happens that such employees do permeate to higher levels, the life becomes tough for those down under.
I would like to sign off for now with the role of management as defined on this site (http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html), [the CEO of this company is the guy who writes the JoelOnSoftware blog (link in the first line of this post), it is one of my favorite sites, so please bear with me if I keep getting back to this site in my future ramblings.]
That is why, people, ahem, sorry, 'individuals', more often don't leave their jobs; they leave their managers. So the key to building a great place to work is not about having great paychecks or great perks for employees. It is just about having a mechanism in place that ensures that managers care for those under them. Any organization that achieves this, whether it be a mammoth organization with thousands of employees or any run-of-the-mill organization with half a dozen employess, is sure to be a great place to work.
Another common misconception in many employees mind's is that once you rise to management levels, all you need to work around with are schedules and deadlines. So when it so happens that such employees do permeate to higher levels, the life becomes tough for those down under.
I would like to sign off for now with the role of management as defined on this site (http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html), [the CEO of this company is the guy who writes the JoelOnSoftware blog (link in the first line of this post), it is one of my favorite sites, so please bear with me if I keep getting back to this site in my future ramblings.]
" ... management, not coding, is the support function. Management is not here to make decisions, but to get all the furniture out of the way so that software developers can do great stuff. ... "
4 comments:
Awesome!
The definition that management is not here to make decisions is really a revolutionary thought. All claps to Joel.
And atleast some claps to ji (Hemanth, for others) as well . Nice post ji and while I myself have read something similar before, don't know why but when you said, it went deeper inside! I am sure those who work under you will have a great time! Keep rockin'. As always ;)
nice one ji :)
--Sampath
Nice write-up Hemanth...would love to work under you some day:).
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