A common perception among developers - "Managers are only experts in Microsoft products - Outlook." As a developer during the initial years, even I have wondered what my managers do all day - just send mails, then why do we need them at all? But I realise now, people management is perhaps the most difficult part. Mastering a technology for a person with decent I.Q is no herculean task. But managing a team of 100 is something that competes with no technology. With 100 people you get this comprehensive package deal too- each one's way of working, their mood swings, their ability to adapt to others and to the working environment, their tolearance levels, how one reacts to stress and copes with boredom (yes no-work makes people very restless), disorganized yet creative workers, hard workers/smart workers, proactive/reactive workers. Great managers fascinate me. A very good article titled "What makes an effective executive" in the June 2004 edition of Harvard Business Review.
Great Managers may be charismatic or dull, generous or tightfisted, visionary or numbers oriented. But every effective executive follows eight simple practices.
What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight practices:
- They asked, "What needs to be done?"
- They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?"
- They developed action plans
- They took responsibility for decisions.
- They took responsibility for communicating.
- They were focussed on opportunities rather than problems.
- They ran productive meetings - Meetings are often considered an "alternative to work". But I've seen the other side of it too. Not communicating the right thing at the right time with everyone across a table can only lead to frustration.
- They thought and said "we" rather than "I".