Stories of great or bad Tech management

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Jenkins on June 25, 2009 at 7:15am

Good topic Norm,

I'm not going to cite any specific examples since I believe they can be found in any successful company where IT people actually WANT to work. But my contention is that tech people are inherently creative and progressive minded individuals, so in order to make them happy, you must first offer them intelligent projects that challenge their creative problem solving acumen and secondly, ensure those project utilize cutting-edge technologies that satisfy their desire to learn and use new skills.

Unfortunately, corporate bureaucracy, outdated technologies and bad management in general... are all counter intuitive to a creative work environment for IT folks.

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Permalink Reply by Capecoder on November 7, 2009 at 4:48am

I've worked for some pretty ineffective team leaders. The problems stemmed from not keeping their distance from their own managers and their reports. Too much socializing on either side of the corporate ladder removes objectivity, thus leading to favoritism on the one hand and scapegoating on the other. If it were up to me, I'd do away with non-competes and substitute non-social contact agreements instead!

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Cole on November 13, 2009 at 1:41pm

I've been a member of some very good teams, not so good teams, as well as led some good teams. Like Kevin, I won't site any specific examples.

However, I will say that for me and in my professional experience, the difference between a "bad" team, a "good" team and then a "great" team is sometimes related to the "contribution balance" within the immediate team and the entire IT group. More specifically, a team where egos are left behind when collaborating within the team and group, where confidence is used in a positive fashion and in an effort to resolve problems, and a team that does not repeat the same mistakes as a result of the negatives I've just described such as not checking thier egos at the door.

In my experience, when there is more of the positives I've just cited, the work-life balance as well as content, enjoyable team members will be there as well, more often than not. If a team leader, manager or director strives for this positive contribution balance, influence and direction is met in a positive fashion and flourishes througout the team at every level. Regardless of the technical levels of difficulty or creativeness of each individual and project tasks.

The only other comment I would have on this topic is that team leaders that are fair, trust in the abilities of their staff and worry less about being "liked" by their peers are always more favorable in my opinion. I respect this type of manager more as they typically do the right thing, not just the easy thing which is obviously much more difficult but garners a much higher level of respect from both a peer and direct report standpoint in the long run.

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Permalink Reply by Norm Frenette on November 16, 2009 at 4:55am

Thanks for the replies, Kevin and Capecoder. Interestingly you both touch on one similar topic: the relationship of the leader to the team and the organization. We often hear that being a manager is not being everybody's friend - and in fact in hurts the performance of the team when the leader tries to be friends or socialize. And yet, it seems so common that team leads do this (although when confronted, they'll swear up and down that they do not - that they are objective and impartial.) I guess the need to be loved, to be appreciated is strong in us humans...

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