July 14, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item From “One of the Pack” to “Top Dog”
[font="Verdana"]Justin Hostettler-Davies[/font]
www.databaseexpertise.com
July 15, 2010 at 2:02 am
I'm in almost the same kind of position, but with more complications.
Until 2 weeks ago, i was an external consultant, moving across to the client employ discretely so as not to advertise that the consulting company was letting this happen.
A few people in the team here know what's happened, but there are few who don't. The new position puts me as a team leader, not a developer, so i've also been promoted from grunt to boss.
The coincidence is that at around the same time, more work came in that required me to take a step back and manage it as a whole, and use my knowledge and expertise to take a supervisor role in projects i wouldnt normally have had anything to do with.
While i can get away with not seeming like the boss until i get permanant (not consultant) bodies in the team who will know what's going on, i will be keeping my eyes on how you deal with your transition and hopefully learn a few tips that will help me in the time to come.
Best of luck!
July 15, 2010 at 3:12 am
This is a brilliant subject for a series of articles. Good luck with the transition.
I'm a techy, but was recently given the opportunity to attend a 2-day course about project management. It was a real eye-opener and has altered my perceptions about managers and the work they do. It also helped me with my own day-to-day work. Anyway, the point being, that too often techy people think they are the only ones that know anything. And, clearly, that's as far from the truth as the oft-repeated mantra that all managers are bad.
July 15, 2010 at 3:22 am
Another "Good luck" from me. I'll be following the series with interest.
Semper in excretia, suus solum profundum variat
July 15, 2010 at 3:29 am
You'll always be 'one of the boys' to us.
Looking forward to future editorials.
Moe
July 15, 2010 at 4:09 am
I've always found that the main issue of IT Departments (whatever sphere you work in) is that techy/geeky guys like to be just that. They're happy to be at the "coal face" day-after-day coding/maintaining/administering, utilizing tools at their disposal whilst learning new ones. For some it is our raison d'etre - it's why some of us spent all those years at Uni/College/training courses.
Then you get non-techy people who usually (although not all cases) become the Project Managers/Tech Sales/IT Directors. And of course they work "above us". In many cases they don't have a definitive grasp of IT issues. Some know nothing, some understand a lot, some understand a little (these are the dangerous ones IMO) Some like to say "yes" all the time to clients without consulting the techy guys if a request can be accomplished. Some just don't understand "all that technological clap trap" and have no desire to understand which is where problems can occur.
Of course you rarely get techie people moving up the corporate ladder as (like the editorial touched on) your not one of the boys any more, you spend more time in meetings and less time at the coal face and learning new technologies. You drift away from what you started out doing. Some might like this and some might not.
Being a SQL DBA contractor for over eight years I've seen this is many places, although not all and that's the better places where I've worked is where it takes some "give and take" - an appreciation on both sides of what each techy/developer & manager/PM does each day and how they should work together to get things accomplished. I have actually worked in places where a manager of a development team would never talk to his team face to face and rarely sent emails to them. He felt intimidated by them, but they lacked any team cohesion and direction. Needless to say project deliverables and accomplishments were rarely achieved.
Great editorial.
qh
July 15, 2010 at 5:55 am
The most important thing about becoming a manager, is to remember that companies are not kingdoms. You do not "rule" people - if you're good, you inspire, motivate and shepard them.
Although I have a Bachelor and Masters degrees, my greatest "training" for management came from my years of playing semi-pro ice hockey. There you learn that although you may have some great skills - lets say shooting the puck - someone else has to make the great play to pass you the puck to shoot. And someone else had to make the great defensive play to turn the puck over to your team.
Business is something like that. If you try to "rule" like you are the only player on the ice, good luck. You will be very ineffective in a short matter of time. On the other hand, if you learn that the members of your team will do great things, merely part of the greater whole, you will come to realize that you, and your team are a unit, and no one of you (you included) is any better than anyone else. Its the complimentary skills on your team that make the team, and the members great.
Look at any team sport you like - and look at any hero - he or she is only as good as those around them. David Becham could not score a goal without teammates to pass him the ball. Kobe Bryant does not play on the court alone - he needs teammates to feed him the ball.
Never let your head fall into the "kingdom" concept of management, because that simply becomes a "dictatorship" in a short time and we all know what generally happens to dictatorships.
July 15, 2010 at 6:01 am
[font="Arial"]A relevant topic for any career progression!
Before my move to IT I had progressed from Saturday Boy through to Dept Manager at a retail outlet.
I found that the further up the management structure I moved the less 'truthful' communication you seemed to have with your co-workers. People say what they think you want to hear rather than the truth, leaving you to tease the real information out. You also have to act as a filter, shielding the team & higher management alike by passing information up or down, weeding out unhelpful comments, filtering the meaning of frustrated/angry comments into something you can pass on and letting the buck stop with you as the team leader.
However the most difficult thing I found was disciplining (in any form) members of your team that once worked alongside or even above me. People sometimes feel that you don’t hold the authority or expect favours/special treatment that you can't give because you now have to look at the whole picture, and all the knock on effects.
People skills replaced knowledge at the top of the skill set, yet that knowledge is still a massive part of the job as the respect given to you by your staff revolves around both abilities.
In short it was a constant balancing act and a steep learning curve, the success of which only being measured in productivity; the happier people are the better they work.
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July 15, 2010 at 6:06 am
The last poster noted that the job was to inspire and shepherd. The challenge in taking on these roles is figuring out the right way to motivate.
As a contractor, I have a very easy motivation - getting paid. But I also approach it with a "I don't want to be draining this company's funds" mindset (even when working for the government). But FT employees may not share that approach.
For the other poster, coming in as a contractor and then moving into a leadership role, what a great opportunity to really be able to see if you are getting bang for your buck. Be prepared to step on some toes, though.
As an employee, what is their motivation? Especially with those who have been working for so long, they don't WANT to learn more.
July 15, 2010 at 6:37 am
I have taken management positions but never over a group that I had belonged too. I think that's a disaster in the making. If you're too intimate (in a workplace sense, of course ;-)) with those you're managing, you'll have trouble dealing with the others' expectations. Some will view you as a jerk where they once viewed you as a friend. Others will expect favors from you because they have viewed you as a friend. Friends take care of friends, and, now that you're in a position to play favorites, you'll have that to deal with.
It's much easier to talk charge of a group where you don't know the players very well.
I don't envy your task ahead. Best of luck.
July 15, 2010 at 7:41 am
The "Peter Principal" by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter should be required reading for anyone being promoted from a technical position to management in any industry. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
July 15, 2010 at 7:58 am
During my 36 years of software engineering/DBA I have been promoted twice to manager and being a manager is not for everyone. While engineering software or being a DBA I felt like this 😀 and while being a manager I felt like this :w00t: After being a manager for a couple of months I went to my boss and asked to be returned to my engineering position. Spending all day in meetings and having my career based on the performance of others was ludicrous to me. It is unfortunate that in many companies the way to get ahead financially is to stop doing real work and to just manage. Fortunately I have worked for companies that recognize that good engineers don't necessarily make good managers and which have instituted a parallel path for financial success with engineers making as much, and sometimes more, than managers. Job satisfaction is more important than making a little extra money and being miserable.
July 15, 2010 at 8:01 am
I would suggest that you read in the area of Sociology (foreign to most, if not all techies) in particular "small group theory". It will illustrate how and why small groups naturally select a "leader". Better yet if a local institution of higher learning has some night courses you should consider taking one or more, so as to be able to discuss your real world activities/problems with a qualified individual.
Having been and still somewhat of a "techie", and being appointed as the production manager of a manufacturing facility with some 100 employees, let me state that understanding "small group theory" has been for me a life saver.
July 15, 2010 at 8:30 am
What a great topic! I have had several management positions throughout my career and decided to take a step back a couple of years ago into an "individual contributor" role at a new company to refresh my skills. Management is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you have the issues that you describe in the article with being liked and being "one of the boys". You also have the issue of taking the blame for others' mistakes (my least favorite part of the job).
Perhaps what I like best though is being able to influence change very quickly. You are no longer just another voice in a series of voices making a suggestion. You are the decision maker and if you are a capable DBA at the same time, you can right a whole lot of wrongs very quickly.
Looking forward to the next article.
July 15, 2010 at 8:30 am
I tend to agree that it is usually not good to manage a team that you were once part of. It creates a strange dynamic where your subordinates might not feel that they trust you as much as they did before, and any personal relationships that you may have had become strained. This is not always the case but I have seen it happen to others in tech positions and in other jobs. I have had it happen to myself at past jobs as well, technical and non-technical. I wasn't terribly successful at this transition but I have seen others pull it off. I think it is usually best to come in as a manager from the outside instead. Then there is no confusion about how your employees view you and you can build from a clean slate.
The only recommendations that I have on how to handle this transition are to let the employees manage their own work as much as possible so you don't come off as a micro-manager. Give them insight on what your new responsibilities are and what you are working on so they don't think that you have just dropped all the work on them and you are living the easy life. Be there for them when they need you and be sure to delegate work. If you continue to take on development tasks because they are the things that you used to do, you will quickly become over-worked and stressed out. Easier said than done, of course!
Good luck!
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