The Manager's Path

The way that we have been managed in the past forms the basis of our own management philosophy. Unfortunately, many people have not had good experiences in this area, and this is often even more true for tech team members, who are often left to work independently by bosses who consider people-management to be an ancillary part of their actual job. 

Tech managers rarely have an exclusively managerial role, as they are also usually an active member of the development team. This means that whenever they have to focus some of their time on being a manager, which should be often, it takes their attention away from their technical tasks. If a manager considers writing code to be their only real job, they may decide to spend little time managing people, so their team ends up with just a couple of meetings a year with their manager, an annual review, and sometimes a promotion that is not even justified.

Then, on the other end of the spectrum, are micromanagers, who believe that their experience makes them the very best in their field; they minutely discuss every single detail and refuse to let people in the team make their own decisions.

Being a good manager takes time, commitment, and consistency. One-to-one meetings are key, because they create a personal relationship with employees, and this connection makes people feel respected. They also create regular opportunities to talk privately and directly about issues that need to be discussed. It is important to prepare for these meetings, because it is a waste of time to sit down with our line manager, for example, without a clear list of what we want to talk about: the key objective of the meeting should always be feedback, which must go both ways.

The only thing worse than receiving unreliable feedback is not receiving any at all. If certain tasks have not been completed effectively, we need to know about it as soon as possible. Similarly, we have to make sure that we clearly express our appreciation when a task is completed well, in order to build on the strengths within the team. Keeping track of feedback, whether it is good and bad, is crucial to measuring growth and tracking the evolution of working relationships.

Interestingly, feedback changes with an employee’s seniority, moving from smaller details to strategy and overall vision. Every manager directly contributes to the career development of their team, but this is not their only responsibility. It is an extremely delicate role, because a good manager can make a real difference if they are able to develop the potential of the people in their team.