Hey Pete, I'm sure you'll be getting a lot of great advice, so please blog what you find out and how it works for you!
My personal experience with technical people who have been promoted to supervisors is that many continue to want to do what they know best (i.e. do technical work) and kind of suck at people management. IMHO, you have to let go of (at least the day-to-day) of doing technical things, and concentrate mainly on people management and improvement, as well as project management. So think about taking some management classes (or read some good books on the subject) and concentrate on developing those who work under you, and making good hiring decisions (and how to compassionately yet firmly discipline, and if it comes to it, let go of employees.) Also some intro PMP classes (I took a good week-long AMA class in the city a few yrs ago that was good) are very helpful. All this with a grain of salt, since I have not been a manager since my very first job (and that was a looooong time ago!) Best, Will From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Peter Grace Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 10:16 AM To: LOPSA Discuss Subject: [lopsa-discuss] Graduating to management and the pains thereof Hello list, Well, I've been an IT Director for about half a year now. In this time I have learned quite a bit more about what it takes to be a manager and the amount of self discipline it requires to keep all of the pieces on the chessboard moving safely. After 6 months, my self evaluation is I suck at being in charge of an IT department, and by gosh I want to fix that. I am asking for your opinions on all manners of self-help: certification ideas, books that have helped you "grok" how a department should work properly, ways to improve process management, things of this nature. I want to be the best I can be and I know that a lot of the people on this list have "been there, done that" and have lived to tell the tale. I'd love to hear yours. I struggle since the place where I work still has a lot of startup mentality but they're getting to the size where we need to start making it "enterprisey" to keep things moving smoothly. A lot of the people in the organization feel like making things more enterprise-like means that they'll be mired in paperwork and mucky-muck and it's tough to break that opinion. What are your experiences? Thanks in advance, Pete
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