Also, there are different kinds of projects / areas to manage. Sometimes it's keeping the engine running efficiently, tuning the engine in a way that focuses on stability while delivering incremental improvements. Sometimes it's delivering a radical new design for an engine. Different skillsets, different sources of joy. The former is often not recognized for its brilliance and value.
I wonder if you spoke to any manager who gave you the candid feedback on their struggles and when they felt that they were being a really bad manager :)
A lot of times a person ends up being a "bad" manager because of not being able to align their team execution with the leadership expectations and then either they go or someone in the team goes. A manager with strong morals and spine would let themselves go and will standup for the team. A manager with weak support system will throw the team under the bus.
Just one of the perspectives. So the the good and bad execution is a lot of time how managers are handling the external pressures.
There is definitely something to this. Sometimes when managers are criticized by their staff because of the things they do, I point out that we often don't know what mission they have gotten from _their_ managers.
One of my favorite articles so far Jos. I completely agree that we do not do enough to train our managers - they usually have to learn through trial by fire.
Often times managers also forget that, first and foremost, we are people managers before we are (at least in our specific case) engineering managers. Part of our goal should be to focus on the people first and creating a good atmosphere for them to do their best work, adding to the goal of solving the problem space the team owns.
I'd add something to your list... Managers who are humble can be coached and mentored actively by their reports. But humility is rare as well. I agree (as always ;) ), the biggest contributor to bad management is that they're there for the wrong reasons.
Also, there are different kinds of projects / areas to manage. Sometimes it's keeping the engine running efficiently, tuning the engine in a way that focuses on stability while delivering incremental improvements. Sometimes it's delivering a radical new design for an engine. Different skillsets, different sources of joy. The former is often not recognized for its brilliance and value.
Controversial opinion alert!
I wonder if you spoke to any manager who gave you the candid feedback on their struggles and when they felt that they were being a really bad manager :)
A lot of times a person ends up being a "bad" manager because of not being able to align their team execution with the leadership expectations and then either they go or someone in the team goes. A manager with strong morals and spine would let themselves go and will standup for the team. A manager with weak support system will throw the team under the bus.
Just one of the perspectives. So the the good and bad execution is a lot of time how managers are handling the external pressures.
There is definitely something to this. Sometimes when managers are criticized by their staff because of the things they do, I point out that we often don't know what mission they have gotten from _their_ managers.
One of my favorite articles so far Jos. I completely agree that we do not do enough to train our managers - they usually have to learn through trial by fire.
Often times managers also forget that, first and foremost, we are people managers before we are (at least in our specific case) engineering managers. Part of our goal should be to focus on the people first and creating a good atmosphere for them to do their best work, adding to the goal of solving the problem space the team owns.
I'd add something to your list... Managers who are humble can be coached and mentored actively by their reports. But humility is rare as well. I agree (as always ;) ), the biggest contributor to bad management is that they're there for the wrong reasons.