The First Myth of Management

I remember when I was a young pup working as a programmer for a company that made controlled access (security) systems for IBM and Ford and such, that my fellow coders and I would muse about our managers and how it seemed they were more interested in controlling us rather than encouraging us to work harder. In fact sometimes it seemed like they would deliberately demotivate us for god knows what reason (most probably political gain).

We came to the conclusion that a good manager worked for his engineers, not the other way around. A manager's job is to get his engineers whatever it takes to make them more productive. If they need an in-circuit emulator, then we should rent one. If they are stuck on a coding issue you should be able to resolve it for them. If they need a newer version of a compiler you need to pay the upgrade fee, etc. Within reason of course, but the point here is that the title of manager should be replaced by the term "Uber Grunt" and then you will have the right mindset to manage others.

This is a core value I have carried with me throughout my career; that a good manager doesn't control his people, but rather works for his people in an attempt to make them as productive as possible. The worst thing a manager can do is demotivate a fellow team member. This is easy to do, but must be avoided at all costs. It is one of the major mistakes a manager can make. Better to over look minor transgressions than to alienate an otherwise productive resource. Don't forget who works for who.