[3/8] Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager (How to Manage Intellectuals: I'm Nerds & Geeks) (Category Management)

Continue the first two posts about this book (1 and 2)I'll end with a story about the managerial skills that Michael Lopp generously painted in the first part of the book, which is called "The Management Quiver."

11) Anatomy of the head's mandate A chapter on when and how to exercise your right as a decision maker. It is cool if the people in the team can agree on their own without the intervention of the manager, but if this does not happen in an acceptable time, then the leader should dive into the details and make an informed decision himself and communicate it to all interested parties. 12) Information hunger The author tells how to work with information: to broadcast relevant information to the team and fight rumors. In general, you should not practice “mushroom” management, where managers keep employees in the dark and scramble them. 13) Delicacy, ingenuity and silence - a chapter about what it is necessary to be delicate in communication, to show ingenuity (circumvent) and silently listen to interlocutors, collecting information for analysis 14) "Original Language" - a chapter on the bird language of managers, which they use among themselves, but with engineers you need to talk in ordinary human:) 15) You're not listening! A chapter about active listening that helps build trust. Advice like this.

• Look straight at you.
• Be a curious fool. Pay attention to inconsistencies and check different versions of stories Pause and listen to the interlocutor. 16) Fred hates offsides. - a chapter on exit meetings that can be used if
• We need to figure out who we are. Start a new direction of development or solve a problem
• Hold a launch meeting The author gives practical advice on how to organize such meetings. 17) Another type of DNA An idealistic story about the horizontal organizational structure, as well as about the design and architecture meetings, which are reminiscent of the arch review, where not managers, but cool engineers come. 18) Engineering mentality An engineering manger should remember how to be an engineer and develop software (You have to write code.) 19) Powder them. Here the author gives a classification of leaders.
• Leadership, focus within the team (tactician) Leadership: Focus on horizontal connections within the organization (mix of tactics and strategies). Links the levels together. Companies are based on these middle managers.
• Director, focus out. (strategist) 20) Jobs are toxic - chapter about career ladders and the harm of positions and grades. The author’s position is that they do not reflect the real possibilities of people who are all different. He doesn’t offer a clear alternative, but he says he might use some sort of badge with skills that describe people. (I don't think that's gonna work.) 21) Saying no! It is important to involve your team in making decisions, rather than making them alone. You should always monitor your adequacy and not fall into the mode of the boss.

In the next post, I'll talk about Michael's advice on the processes he gave in part. 2"The Process is the Product"

#Management #Software #Engineering #SoftwareDevelopment #Processes #Leadership