Shit, I’m A Manager
An introduction to the soft skills of
people-management for the
previously proudly unmanageable.
Tom Dolan
tom@sparklefluff.com
Current version at: www.sparklefluff.com/siam
Becoming a Manager is Cack
Because…
•
•
•
•
•
This is a new job
It is harder than the old one
You are answerable and taking blame
You’ve probably had no training for it
Your confidence may be shot
So What Is This ‘Management’?
•
•
•
•
Working out what you want staff to do
Telling them it so they can do it
Making sure they are still doing it
Working out how to do it better next time
Who measures your success?
(and at what?)
Managing Team
Previous Skills
Your
Staff
80%
5%
Your
Boss
15%
0%
Corollary
When the going gets tough
the LAST THING
you should do
is your old job
The General Traps
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Doing what you pay your staff to do
Managing your staff’s staff
Being the weak link in the business chain
Having to win
Slagging off other teams/managers
Sticking to your own (new) kind
Wanting to be liked
Too much email
Myths of Management
•
•
•
•
•
The perfect manager
You can’t ask for help
You must have the solution
Geek knowledge isn’t power
Budgets are hard and scary
Empowering Staff
• “That’s unfortunate. So what are you going to do
about it then?”
– (Jon Lewin 1959-1999 RIP. He was fab.)
• “You have to give producers something to
produce”
– (Anthony Pugh)
• “If you can let people do the thing they really
want to do, they will do a good job”
– (Mark Cossey)
Feedback
•
•
•
•
•
Behaviour not people
You are giving the feedback
Stick to facts
Avoid ‘the praise sandwich’
Empathy: Drill down to root causes,
weaknesses and interests.
• Is it actually you?
• Start small, and do it immediately
Communication
• Team meetings - for team-wide info only
• Routine meetings - for each staff member, not
you
• Task-setting meetings - do your homework!
• All other meetings - is just chatting?
Hire, Fire, Sire.
•
•
•
•
Don’t hire in your own image
Prepare your staff for moving on
Appraisals
Training requirements
So what can I do?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Acknowledge it’s new
Stop buying technical books
Develop your skills
Talk to other managers about the process
Ask your staff where weak spots are
Debug your management
Lead by example
The Payoff
•
•
•
•
This starts off hard
Remember what your job is
Improve your skills one day at a time
One day, you’ll stop missing your old job
Any Questions?
Some further reading to write down while other people are talking
• For negotiation, skim the first few chapters of
–
–
Willam H. Ury - Getting to yes
Susan Jeffers - Feel the fear and do it anyway
• Borrow from your parents/boss
–
Blanchard & Johnson - The one minute manager
• Be inspired by
–
–
Andy Law - Experiment at Work
Eddie Obeng - The Project Manager’s Secret Handbook
• Get your life in order with
–
–
Mark Forster - Get everything done and still have time to play
Mark Forster - Make your dreams come true
• Admire the extreme machiavellianism of
–
–
Andrew Rawnsley - Servants of the People
Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon - the Epiphyte strand.
• Perhaps buy (I’ve got no idea if it’s any good)
–
Paul Glen - Leading Geeks