7 Technical Management Techniques

Often it is the case, where team leaders and managers at software companies are ex-geeks that climbed the ladder to reach a managerial position. Well, "climbed the ladder" is really a misleading metaphor. First, who says managerial positions are higher, or better, than development positions? Some would argue the opposite. And indeed, in some companies, managers are offered optional rotations of management and hands-on R&D. Second, it is misleading since the less glamorous reality is that when companies expand, someone has to manage the newcomers, and those new managers where there at the right - or wrong - time.

Either way, geeks being geeks, social codes and human interaction were never their forte. How can they manage other people if they can't get a date without a facilitating website?

So, let me tell you some secrets. First off, the words 'Technical Management' in the title isnot what you think. You might think it's about management of technical people, but it isn't. It's really about the techniques of management. It's about knowing and using several technical and emotional rules, that would make the life of the manager geek (you?) so much easier, and would get results with less friction.

However, these rules and tips would not do the work for you. We are talking about Technical Leadership, but this post is more about the Leader part, and less about the Technical. The technical side deserves its own article, or maybe a book.

But there are some intersections. In your technical leadership, you can decide to follow either the Surgeon model or the Decider model. A Surgeon leader works as if he's a doctor operating a patient. He has a full staff - from nurses to residents - helping him do all the work by himself. The surgeon cuts, analyzes, takes a direction and on most cases, also stitches.

On the other side, a Decider (if I may quote someone) doesn't really have a concept or an technical ideology. It hears the opinions of the team, asks a lot of questions, and decides, this way or the other.

These are two well-defined extremes. As for you, you probably position yourself somewhere on this range - for better or worse.

When it comes to leadership, one needs to remember that management, as any other profession that deals with people, is highly complex and no recipes are to be found. One needs to understand the platform, the substrate for everything. And this platform is respect. This is what everyone is after. I think it's so important so I'll repeat it: respect is what everyone is after. Respect (self-respect included) cannot come without its sibling: humility. So if you have respect and humility, and you should, all other things will come easily. You will exert politeness, consideration and gratitude. You could give remarks and criticism without guilt and without being afraid of de-motivation. Most importantly, you will receive respect in return.

Now, after this short introduction, let's cut to the technicalities, to those techniques that would help you transfer this sought-after respect:



Technique 1: The Oreo

As Noel Coward once said, I love criticism just so long as it's unqualified praise. No one likes to be criticized. on the other hand, critique can be a gift someone receives as an opportunity for improvement. And you will need to criticize your guys since you are probably would have, sometimes, different ideas than them. So make them an Oreo sandwich: start with praises, put in the critique, and end with some more praises. Something like: the banner design is really cool. I think though the middle block should use Ajax, and not PHP as it is now. Still, overall the new node looks awesome!

Technique 2: No Buts!

But is a traitorous word. It tends to minimize whatever came before it, and sometimes simply nullify it. For example, when you say something like "listen, this piece of code is elegant, but the performance is bad". What the poor guy is left with is that the performance is bad. And thats taking a hit after investing so much thought in making it elegant (hey, elegance in code deserves another post altogether). Yes, she would survive, but why chip away in the motivation, if you could just use another word instead of the 'but'? What if you would just replace the 'bug's with an, say, and? Imagine now how the sentence would sound like, and tell me this is not a brilliant technique.

Technique 3: do you know the real meaning of assume?

Many a time we tend to think the other person is just an extension of our own self. This belief can be found in couplehood, as well as at work. And at those two places its exactly one of those beliefs that complicates matters. So here's the latest: The other person has different opinions, different priorities, different ideas. So when you assumed that she was going to do something in a certain way, your mistake was that you didn't convey this assumption to her and transformed the assumption into a discussion. Because when you assume, you make an Ass of U and Me. So Talk. Ask. Discuss. Just don't sit there at your desk and assume things will go right.



Technique 4: Praise in public (condemn in private)

With today's open space environment, the use for private areas is even more in demand. But dont make the mistake of using it for telling your man how much his work was good. Try to find any opportunity to praise him in public. And the opposite is true as well. Don't let him look like a fool. It's bad for him (or her), and it's bad for everyone else too: do you think they really believe its saved only for this poor guy? They are very much afraid for the moment it will get to them!



Technique 5: Responsibility goes with authority

Remember how they told us to delegate? well here's a quiz: how can you delegate and still be the manager? The answer, my friends, is that you can't. When you give someone the responsibility on a certain subject, he's the manager. And this responsibility must be accompanied by authority, too. The authority to make decisions, and the authority to make mistakes. Because those who don't make mistakes, are those who don't make anything. If you wan't to delegate, you should want that they will make some things.

Technique 6: Save the perfectionism for yourself

If I may choose only one technique, that would be it. Oh, how many managers did I see that thought their demand for perfectionism serves the cause. Here's a news flash: you aren't perfect. And your job, as a manager, is to understand that no one is perfect - but not to accept it. Remember: everything we have today, is a result of gradual improvements. So when the next engineer declares a done task, test it, compliment him, find the flaws, and continue to the next layer of improvements.

Technique 7 : Blame has three fingers pointed at you

This picture should be remember by everyone who feels the urge to blame:

As everyone can see, when you point a blaming finger and accuse someone for doing a stupid, stupid mistake, what really happens is that one finger does point towards the accused, one finger points up to bad luck, and three fingers pointing at you. Get that? you do the math.