So I've been thinking about management a lot lately, and reflecting on my experiences with enterprise tech over the last 30 years. And I want to talk about that for a minute.
I think good managers are rare. It's a hard job. A manager in any group sets the tone for morality and professionalism within the group, and their attitude and state in life reflect everything the team does, and how they operate. Getting the right people there is essential.
I think a good manager understands how to correctly balance personal vs team accountability. As in, understanding that there's more to team building than filling an office with chairs and people.
Good teams are collaborative, interactive, and agile. Here, a manager insulates their team from documentation that's unrelated to the job of the team, while making sure that good documentation and process is observed. Since AI, this part of the job has become incredibly easy, all things considered, and there's no valid reason not to do it.
Do you remember college, or high school? That one teacher or professor that got you excited to wake up in the morning because you knew you would be in one of their classes?
That.
A good manager is equal parts facilitator, architect, coordinator, mentor, task scheduler, and feasibility stopgap. They see team building as organic, collaborative, interactive, and they love every minute of what they do.
Every bit of that trickles down. And the effect is human relationships, healthier well documented, correctly orchestrated products, balanced accountability, and transparency in these groups.
And what's more is that it's the only way to scale an operation, reliably.
It's so obvious that it looks invisible when it's done right.
Do it wrong, and it also shows.
Like I said, it's not something just anybody can do.