WhatYouNeedToKnowToManageAnything

Managers ? with or without a manager title ? are often left to fend for themselves to figure out how to be effective as a manager. What would you suggest as important lessons and skills?

Listen.

SteveSmith 2002.04.26

The success of "Management by Walking Around" probably comes from Listening...

KeithRay 2002.04.26

Yes, I agree. It also increases the number of people that are listened to. SteveSmith 2002.05.01

Trust, but cut the cards. Extend trust to subordinates but follow up to make sure they're not floundering. You can't succeed looking over their shoulders.

BobLee 2002.04.26

We think we have to manage at the organization level. In fact it is often more effective to deal fully with one realtionship at a time. - BeckyWinant 2002.04.26

Becky, I like your thought a lot.

Let me suggest a slight change. I would edit your second sentence to read, "It is more effective to deal fully with one person at a time." SteveSmith 2002.05.01

I find that if I can't manage myself, I can't manage anything else.

EstherDerby 043002

Create a support network for yourself.

SteveSmith 2002.05.01

Encourage people to engage their strengths and manage around their weaknesses. Hire diversity to get better overlap of strengths.

BobLee 2002.05.01

Let people do their jobs. You can't do it for them.

MikeMelendez 2002.05.02

If nothing else, learn the best practices and worst practices of management to avoid mistakes already known.

BobLee 2002.05.02

Bob, Aside from Dilbert any good references for worst practices? - BeckyWinant

As a matter of fact, Barry Boehm in Software Engineering Economics way back in 1981, describes 6 management practices that are each capable of doubling the cost of a project:

Assigning the wrong people to tasks.
Creating inadequate work breakdown structures through poor organization, poor delegation and poor task monitoring.
Demotivating people by poor working conditions or failing to reqard good performance.
Premature staff build-up.
Failing to obtain or prepare necessary resources (such as computers, hook-ups, test data, support software)
Not validating software requirements & design specs, or failing to identify and resolve high-risk elements early.

Jerry Weinberg's QSM Vol. 1, Systems Thinking is packed with stupid management tricks to avoid and why.

I also like De Marco & Lister's Peopleware, 2nd Edition from cover to cover!

Steve Mc Connell's Rapid Development has case studies of stupid management moves and discussion.

Bob Glass's Software Runaways discusses some of the most spectacular fiascos in software project history - why they went south.

Ed Yourdon's Death March details some excrutiating failure patterns.

Simply avoiding the worst practices can put you miles ahead!

BobLee 2002.05.02

Pay attention to your own strengths and weaknesses. Engage others to help you. Write stuff down in a journal or notebook (just remembering how that was a lifesaver for me and my aging memory). When aggitated take a very long walk. - BeckyWinant 5/2/2002

What do I need to know to manage anything? How to manage myself. BobKing 5/2/2002

And understand yourself. Find a sounding board, someone you can bounce ideas off. Vent before or after a meeting, not during it. If you aren't an expert in all the areas the people you manage work in, learn something about them. Which brings us back to "Listen". SherryHeinze 5/5/2002

I think you have to know how to breathe. Thinking helps, too, but not if you're not breathing. I've never met good zombie managers. - JerryWeinberg 2002.05.07

I was thinking about Bob Lee's comment: trust but cut the cards. As a manager, its' my job to acquire data about what's happening from multiple sources. I don't see this as a "cut the cards" solution, but as a technique to acquire the most data I can in a short period of time.

Know the ambiguities you can live with, and which ambiguities you can't. Managing people or software projects requires living with ambiguity, and if you know yourself (thanks Sherry!), then you know where your discomforts are. -- JohannaRothman 2002.05.08 (I'm having trouble fixing on a date scheme here :-)

I once had a manager who's motto was similar to Bob Lee's comment. However, cutting the cards consisted of getting a second person to evaluate his subordinate's work products looking for a different conclusion. I suggest that a manager needs to watch for agendas that he's hidden from himself. MikeMelendez 2002.05.08 (Johanna, we're human and hence can handle all the date schemes used, even simultaneously!)

Was this a good thing (as in more information, second unbiased opinion) Or was this a bad thing (as in allowing others with hidden adgendas or
or competing ideas to comment on someones work)?
I can not tell from your comment which way you saw this used.
KenEstes AsterixDate 2002.06.27

JR's message reminds me of one I put on the Shape forum today. You need to learn never to trust hearsay. Always get to the source of so-called-information. - JerryWeinberg StarDate 2002.05.08 (JR, just think of Star Trek, or think of sorting on a date field. In that case, you want yyyy.mm.dd, of course.

Now me, I have trouble remember which star system we're in. I don't know if that's important for managing anything besides a starship.)

Speaking of starships, a good manager knows where the team is going. It's easy to be pulled off track by some issue or crisis that looks important. MarieBenesh 2002.06.20

And a good manager always needs to know one or two dispensible crew members to put on the Away Team - the ones who will be eaten by the alien. JerryWeinberg 2002.06.20

Oh Jerry, I laughed out loud at this one. JohannaRothman 2002.09.23

Managers need to be able to deal with politics and problems. I've clipped some of the discussion and put it in PoliticsAndProblemsAired. - BeckyWinant 2002.06.27

How to say "NO" congruently (or at least tactfully).

DaveSmith 23 Sep 2002

Dave,

You have the last word here! (or close to it).

Is Nancy Regan's "Just say No" a plea for congruence?

- BeckyWinant 9-23-02

No. It's a plea for incongruence.

There's an art to saying NO and making it stick. Nancy is clueless about that, but so are most people. Virginia Satir once suggested I teach a class on how to say NO - she certainly knew. I would be willing to do a NO-BOF at AYE one evening, if others were interested. See NoBirdsofaFeather. - JerryWeinberg 2002.09.23

Jerry,

Thanks for the affirmation.

I couldn't believe Nancy Regan was asking congruently. I always thought it was a political spin. We could says lots of opinions about Ron, Nancy, Ronald and Patty. But, no need to go there.

Going back to the original management lessons - what might you suggest to this wiki topic about saying NO?

- BeckyWinant 9-24-02

Updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2002