Re:Meta to Ask Many Managers to Become Individual Contributo...
by urthor on Tuesday February 07, 2023 @11:29PM
(#34704146)
It's remarkably easy. For some reason it's simply not taught at schools.
1. Psychological security.
2. Crystal Clear targets, planning, goals, written down. To paraphrase this, a top manager will write their ICs an 8-12 week JIRA backlog. Obviously, these goals will iterate. However, the ironclad clarity is essential.
3. Positive, effective, coaching and feedback at the principle skill the IC performs. Aka, coding.
4. Lead by example. Conspicuous, hard, effort, devoting majority of time and energy to managing down and shielding.
The issue is simple. All of the above requires sweat from the manager.
Managers are lazy, and nobody is watching them manage their ICs.
When I was younger I thought maybe that's what business schools did, but they produce a completely different kind of manager who's probably worse at managing people than they would've been had they not gone to business school in the first place.