On 1/7/14 12:29 PM, "Yves Dorfsman" <[email protected]> wrote:
>- don't let go, trust your gut feelings >I kept this one for the end, because it goes against what everybody tells >you. >You need to let go of the keyboard, sure, but you don't need to let go of >the >details. Any details that you feel is not being taken care of, don't let >go, >don't assume you are at a level where this is no longer relevant. Don't >let >go, for two reasons: 1) it's going to eat you from inside out 2) you're >probably right, nobody's doing it and it is going to bite you in the most >fleshy part of your body. Ask the team or somebody on the team to make >sure >they take care of it. This is not micro-management, asking how they do it >would be, but asking if it's done, and if it's done properly is >management, >nor micro-management. +1 on this from Yves. Last time I took on a management role I decided that I had three guiding principles for the team... well, four actually. * Understand what it is that the team needs to be achieving and communicate that clearly to the team. This has been described in various ways by other commentators, but it bears repeating. It may include ridiculously mundane responsibilities and it may include enormous, big picture projects. You still need to know what's expected and you need to make sure your team knows it too. * Do whatever you can do to enable your team to get their job done. Make sure they have the tools they need, the guidance they need, the training, the goals... whatever. * Do whatever you need to do to stop external forces from preventing your team succeeding. This is often assumed to be the same thing as the second bullet, but I believe it's a different task. This is the one where you determine that someone isn't able to proceed because (x) is a roadblock. There's an argument that your team member develops skills in circumventing roadblocks, but don't let them thrash around too long. Turn it into a teaching moment and get them productive as soon as possible. * Your team are human beings. Treat them as such. I've had a wide range of managers in the past and way too many are way too comfortable in buying into the "employee as an asset". You don't have to be best friends, but you do need to have an idea about what is going on in their lives. In most cases a little flexibility/accommodation on your part is likely to buy you far more loyalty and effort in return. Enough from me for now. Just had to join in... Tim -- Tim Kirby [email protected] _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
