I lead a team of 20 software/web developers and managers. When I ask my team to do something collectively or as individuals, the answer I expect from them is “no”. It is because of this expectation that when I am delegating a task to any of my staff, I make sure that there’s a good reason behind my requests and that I am ready to offer the reasoning if asked. It’s not like my team does not do what I ask them to do, as they are all amazing people to work with and they are very cooperative and they actually do what I ask them do with no resistance. Most of the time, while it’s not necessary for me to offer any explanations since they willingly accept the task, I make the conscious effort to take the time to provide them with the explanation behind my request.
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Leadership
Why I expect my co-workers to answer my requests with “no”
Technical Managers – All We Do is Forward Emails
A developer tells me “the only thing managers do is forward emails”. I knew I couldn’t convince him otherwise so I didn’t bother correcting him. He’s wrong by the way! Managers like me also schedule unproductive meetings and sit at our desks the whole day, thinking of how to make developers’ lives miserable 🙂
The developer is right partially in that part of my job is to forward emails. Below are some emails I have forwarded throughout the years:
* Customer’s appreciation of the wonderful job my staff have done for them. I forward them to my team and/or to the staff as well as to my director and those above them. This is my way of recognizing their efforts and building their reputation with the upper management.
* Customer’s questions/requests. There have been many times when my customers asked for my help to move a request forward in purchasing equipments or starting projects.
* Email about why a system suddenly stops working. Sometimes I would get emails from customers and other developers about a system not working. Unfortunately, changes to the system, either through changes to code by developers or network/server settings by IT administrators are made without informing those affected of the changes made disrupting the system
* Emails from upper management about policy changes.
There have also been times when I have had to what provide what I call “value-added email service.” In addition to forwarding emails, I have had to add my perspective/interpretation on the issue in the email. For example:
* Translating technical jargon into words understandable by lay people.
* Apologizing to our customers about an email sent by a tech person which they perceive as disrespectful and accusatory.
* Apologizing to our customers about the disruption of their service caused by an unauthorized change to the their system.
I think every developer (including me) at some point have probably thought that managers are unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. From experience, only when a developer assumes a leadership/management role in an organization will that person truly appreciate the values of middle management.
New Job Title: “Social Media Lifeguard”?
A colleague of mine tells me “You’re like a lifeguard, you tell us how far to go in the ocean and where to go, and you call us back if we go too far but you don’t stop us from going into the water.”
To put what he said into context, a group of us, some folks from our student life office and some technical staff from my office which is the central technology department for the Division of Student Affairs, had just seen a demo of a product to manage student organizations. The authentication used by the vendor product uses facebook connect. While the vendor product was really beyond what we could ever build and everyone watching the demo, including me were very impressed with the product, I unfortunately had to dampen the enthusiasm of those present. I had to mention that using facebook connect may not be an idea that will be readily accepted as an option by security administrators on campus. Using a third party like facebook for authentication for an official campus system is a new concept on my campus. In my role as the Associate Director of Information Systems and Software Development, I unfortunately have to play the role of “bad guy” sometimes. Many times, some of these concerns I share are not even necessarily mine, but I do have to share them anyways. I think in general, I am more flexible in how far to push boundaries when using new technologies, relative to some of my technical colleagues. However, I still do need to represent their perspectives. Fortunately, I’ve built up my reputation with the departments I have served throughout the years that I’m not a “nay-sayer” and I’m a strong advocate for their programs and innovative technologies. My reputation allows me to be frank with my concerns as someone charged with protecting student academic and health information and enforcing security and electronic policies.
How well do you know your co-workers?
How well do you know your immediate co-workers? Do you know them beyond their job titles and responsibilities? Do you feel like you belong to a community at work?
One of the many reasons why I love my job is because of the people I work with. I love that we have a sense of camaraderie and that we consider ourselves as friends to one another and we just don’t see each other as co-workers. In my previous position (same organization) when I was managing a team of 8 staff members, I made the effort to promote an environment where my staff can freely share their personal lives to the extent they are willing to share. I have always believed that part of being a happy employee is to feel like you belong to a team, that you are not just co-workers given tasks to complete. We spend more time at work with our co-workers than our families that I made it a point to cultivate an environment that fosters personal interaction and friendships, basically, a community.
Ode To My Mentors – Deborah Scott
Deborah Scott was my former Director at Student Information Systems and Technology (SIST) at UC Santa Barbara and I consider her as one of my most important mentors. She is now the CIO at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Below is my tribute to Deborah at her going away party. She has many of the leadership qualities I admire including the ability to inspire, to bring people together and most importantly, she manages towards possibilities, not constraint. I always looked forward to our conversations because I always left feeling so much better about myself. I think my speech below captured what Deborah meant to me as my mentor.