Aug
28
Be A Good Manager By Letting People Learn And Grow
Filed Under Career, Entrepreneurship, Motivation & Purpose, Relationships | 40 Comments
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The Road To Becoming A Manager
Many managers start out in a technical position, especially in engineering fields. In the beginning, he starts out with no knowledge of what to do and depends on other people for advice, help, and motivation. Then, as he gathers experience, he begins to carry his share of the load. He manages his own stuff, so that a supervisor doesn’t need to constantly look over his shoulder. Eventually, whether from other people leaving, or his own experience expanding, he knows more than the average person around. Other people now come to him for advice and direction. Naturally, he gains some leadership status as others value his opinions highly. At this point, he may become promoted to the position of a manager, where he starts managing other people.
Being A Manager And Being Managed
While this seems like a natural progression, there is a huge jump in the skills required between a technical lead and a manager overseeing the project. I know this because I am currently in both positions. I work as software engineer at BEA Systems, in charge of my own code base. Having to deal with a supervisor and manager every day, I know how it feels to work under someone. I also feel extremely privileged to have the opportunity to observe how a manager deals with problems effectively without demoralizing the group or hurting people’s feelings. On the other hand, in my spare time, I have a few investments in relatively large forums. In a sense, this is managing a community of people, having to coordinate promotions, fix problems with the website, expand the content, etc. In this role, I am the manager, and need to motivate people to contribute towards the site, especially since they have no monetary incentive.
The Skills Of A Manager
Unfortunately, the most important skill of a manager is vastly different from that of a technical lead. The technical lead’s primary responsibility is to act as a source of information for other people in the organization. He knows tons of stuff, so other people come to him if they have any questions about “what to do now” or “how to do it”. He also helps by giving input into the overall plan (from a technical perspective) or may even be responsible for the direction that the company takes. However, he does not have to worry about the most important skill that a manager needs: the ability to motivate people. Without this skill, all his other skills are completely useless. I think an old saying applies very well here: “A plan is useless if there is no one to follow it”.
Transitioning Into A Manager
One of the greatest mistakes in transitioning from a technical person to a manager is the failure to develop this very important skill. I have personally experienced the effects of a lack of motivation from both perspectives. At work, I had a manager who was the most competent person I have ever seen in terms of technical ability. However, working under him, I was always made to feel inadequate. Whenever I didn’t know something, my opinions were generally not as good as his and hence not listened to. I always felt rushed, and felt uncertain whether to ask for clarifications on things I wasn’t clear about. All the time, I felt like I needed to have an answer right away, and wasn’t able to think at my own pace.
Similarly, when we bought a forum as documented in Seven Mistakes In One Day, I made similar mistakes by telling the current members that we bought the forum as an investment and to make money from it. That statement, combined with other factors, de-motivated a great deal of the people on the board and caused about 25% of them to leave and start a competing forum.
The Effects Of A Lack Of Motivation
As a result of feeling not as adequate as my supervisor, my natural instinct was to “check with him” before I do things. If I have problems, I would ask him for solutions on what to do. I would be afraid of making a mistake because that would make me seem incompetent in front of my peers. All of these factors add up to an employee who, instead of being more independent with his work, becomes more and more dependent on the supervisor.
When employees don’t feel free to make mistakes, they can no longer effectively express their opinions. We can see from My Partner’s Not Doing Enough Work that these ideas expressed by employees, even if wrong most of the time, can result in dramatic increases in productivity for the company. By making employees afraid, their creativity and growth is stifled. Not allowing them to make their own mistakes will make them more and more reliant on the existing resources, further taxing them.
For example, let’s say because I feel inadequate, I am extremely afraid of being fired. Now, say some problem comes up, which may be kind of important. Had I been feeling confident of my abilities, I would have gone right ahead and tried to fix it myself. Then, if my supervisor finds that there are a few minor mistakes, I’ll just make a few tweaks and everyone is happy. We would have a good product, I would have learned from my mistakes, and my supervisor wouldn’t have had to spend much time on it. However, afraid of being fired and being wrong, I may instead directly go ask my supervisor for a solution. Not only does this take up more of his time, I wouldn’t have learned anything! Next time this problem comes up, I’ll have to ask him again.
How To Be A Good Manager
First, realize that nobody has to be there working for the manager. Sure, maybe they may stay because they urgently need money in the short term, but they are able to leave relatively quickly, taking along all the experience and training that will take years to replace! They can go elsewhere where they can get paid and enjoy the work / have fun. Therefore, a manager’s first job is to make the employee as comfortable as possible. Find out what motivates them, what they’re excited about, and what they’d like to accomplish at work.
Then, use this knowledge to motivate them as much as possible! Schedule events that allow the team to bond. For example, the current manager of the group at BEA Systems bought us a Wii. Normally, I wouldn’t stay late on Friday afternoons. However, given the opportunity to kick my coworkers’ butts, I sometimes don’t even go home on Friday nights. Stuff like this helps tremendously with instilling feelings of being on a team, making people unafraid to voice their opinions.
When it comes to work though, a manager should make his expectations clear. For example, if he expects someone to finish some portion of the project, he should assign it and then leave the person alone to work on it. That means even if that person doesn’t do it as well as the manager! That’s probably the biggest caveat from going from a technical lead to a manager. Being the best technical person on the team, it is easy to want to constantly fix every detail because everyone isn’t working up to the manager’s standards. However, this constant fixing not only increases the insecurity in the workforce (since it shows a lack of trust in people’s skills to produce a good product), it also does not allow the person to learn the reasoning behind this mistake and grow as a person.
People will be making mistakes. As a good manager, we should let them, even though it is at our expense. That is the only way they’ll grow in the long run and gain the necessary skills and motivation to work effectively within the company. After all, haven’t we all made mistakes and learned from them to get where we are?
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Good article. I recognize my past in this post. Of course the job of a manager is to get things done through others. An entirely different proposition from doing it yourself. The one thing I learned over the years was to surround myself with the best people. I would never compromise on that.
very informative need more details
thanks
Is it even legal to post in a public area of the office a list of mistakes made by a named employee or employees?
[...] Covey’s 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People reflects exactly what I have experienced in Be A Good Manager By Letting People Learn And Grow. In it, I had concluded that to manage effectively, the manager really needed to allow his people [...]
[...] many ways, this is almost the same problem as being the recipient of the complaint. In Be A Good Manager By Letting People Learn And Grow, the manager’s criticism makes the employee feel afraid to voice his/her opinions and take [...]
GREAT POST – maybe a small-but-significant typo?
Hi Warren,
I found your posting very valuable, and have read and re-read it numerous times this morning… enough such that I may have sense a minute typo in the following sentence – one you may wish to correct:
”
When employees don’t feel free to make mistakes, they can no longer effectively express their opinions. We can see from My Partner’s Not Doing Enough Work that these ideas, even if wrong most of the time, can result in dramatic INCREASES in productivity for the company. By making employees afraid, their creativity and growth is stifled. Not allowing them to make their own mistakes will make them more and more reliant on the existing resources, further taxing them.
”
Did you really mean “increases”, or in this case did you mean “decreases”?
Very best regards,
- Mark
Hi Mark!
Thanks for the compliments and letting me know about that sentence. I think it’s kind of unclear
I’d meant to say that the opinions expressed by the employees can result in increases in productivity if we let them take root!
I’ve changed the sentence to make it more clear.
Thanks!
Warren
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I work at a menial job but this information just goes to show how bad management is were I work. Looking for new job!
A very impressive and practical approach to management where financial motivations dont come easily
Hi Warren,
This article is great & you have no idea how relaxed I am after going through it.I have been adsigned a new team to lead & I was fretting over it.Now i feel confident & ready to take it head on & make the most of it.
You are Great.
Wishing you luck & Thanks again.
Shweta.
This is very true. I have also had a boss who was hyper critical of things I did and was very vocal about it. I spent more time feeling demoralized and miserable than getting anything done. I was too afraid to speak to him about it and didn’t feel like he would listen to what I told him anyway.
Like most employees, I want to please my supervisors and do an excellent job. When you’re trying to learn and improve yourself you will make mistakes, and how your manager responds to these mistakes will often determine whether you stay at a company or leave it.
As a manager, demoralizing your workers is a twisted form of self sabotage.
How do you manage a person who wants to run the whole company but is one of the newest employees.
Hi,
I am currently going through and am with a boss you have described in “The Effects Of A Lack Of Motivation”. He is a great tech lead and a bad manager. I have had days when I am angry with myself on being so scared when fixing a bug. You gave words to everything I was going through and really felt great after reading this post.
In fact I felt that this basic knowledge can be applied not only in office but at home and personal life.
Thanks for this great post.
Nitin
hey this is a crap man
I am very much glad to be one of your subscribe. I will use this chance properly.
Thank you very much.
Solomon K.
As a manager with over 20 years experience, I agree that its important to allow staff to learn and grow. When you engage staff, empower them, and let them grow and contribute – the results are very good. My current team is the best in our division for this very reason. It;s the employees that have made all the difference in the world.
This was of great help to me, and i will use it to improve my managerial skills.
I’m curently a tec. person position and have the ambition to be a future manager. thanks for the great tips…you realy got me thinking!
Robert
[...] Good managers get employees to respect them, effective leaders get employees to not only respect them but more importantly they get them to respect themselves. [...]
i want to become agood manager?
Great post, really helpful as I am sort of the technical lead on a project and have just been offered the opportunity of transitioning to manager. Still deciding if it is right for me or not, but this post was extremely helpful.
Thanks
I am young university graduate and I have been an opportunity to work in a coy as the MD. please I need helpful hints into what it takes to cope.
Thanks.
hope,u will help me to know more about how to manage.. to become a good manager.. and successfuly in times in handling in bussines.. tnx GOD BLESS YOU..
just add me in my email add.. im willing to know more about in management.. im willing to fallow what will you give to me some tips in handling bussisness tnx..
The article was very informative and definately touched on the important basics of an effective manager.
Great advice, thank you!
My name is Lisa, and I’m 16 years old.
This year I participated to a project that is called ‘mini entreprise’ (it’s french)
We are a group of 10 students and during a whole year, we have to make a product, thanks to the shares we sold, and sell it. We have salaries, we also have to pay taxes,… We’re learning how a real company works.
I’m the manager of the team, and this week, we had to make company-shirts pour each one of us.
It costs 13,50€. We all agreed paying, except for one (Nathan).
So I said “Nathan, we are all getting a T-shirt anyway, so you will be the only one without.”
He had no choice, so he finally said he would take one too.
Saying that, does that make me a bad manager?
What should I have done instead?
olá como vc está:
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I need a wife
Thank You for sharing this tips,it really help me a lot. There is also lots of helpful information on here http://www.paracalls.com/article/what-necessary-skills-required-for-good-manager-/127
You’ve got great insights about Why dont you build effective lists?, keep up the good work!
Hi there,
I have just been offered a transition into a management role for the first time in my career. An exciting change for me and your article has helped me with preparing for this.
Can’t thank you enough.
Regards,
Jeremy
It gives me immense pleasure to subscribe for this valuable stuff and I will say this is kind of mirror to see yourself in a unique way , in a better way.
I would say that a true manager is a leader who do not create followers, rather he create even more leaders.
Interesting point of view! I think that these videos will captivate the most of you! Management issues turned into a humoristic way. http://www.themotivatorofchange.com
Dat is de juiste weblog voor iedereen die behoefte heeft om uit te zoeken naar informatie over dit onderwerp. Je realiseert je veel zijn bijna zware ruzie met je (niet dat ik eigenlijk nodig zou hebben … haha). Je zet zeker een nieuwe draai aan een onderwerp thats geschreven over jaren. Mooi spul, gewoon geweldig!
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Xavi Gerad Jude Am. Aiicco Sigorta plc temsilcisi. Biz 3% geri ödeme oraninda kredi sunuyoruz.Bu(CEO)e-posta adresine bizimle irtibata ilgilenen varsa:xavigeradloanfirm@yahoo.com
Sadece Aiicco sigorta plc izin alir 20 yas üzeri edin.
Bireysel Krediler Yatirim.
Isletme Kredileri Yatirim.
Konsolidasyon Kredi.
Insaat Krediler.
Bir veya ödeme yasindaki seçin.
Plan kapsaminda aylik ve yillik ödemeler arasinda seçim yapin.
Esnek kredi kosullari.
Yil 5000 8000.000.00 Euro kadar kredi yok.
Firmamiz Güvenilir, Verimli, hizli ve dinamik bir islemdir. Bize bugün.SR GERAD JUDE Yatirim plc: Yanitlar Isim gönderilmesi gerekmektedir,E-posta:xavigeradloanfirm@yahoo.com
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