
Why are there so many bad managers? - jevanish
http://jasonevanish.com/2014/01/29/why-are-there-so-many-bad-managers/
======
RKoutnik
Why are there so many bad managers? Because it's _really easy_ to be a bad
manager and _really hard_ to be a good one. Great management means empathizing
with others, putting the team goals ahead of yourself and accepting the blame
when it's passed around, none of which are the defaults for us humans.

My father (a school director) summed up his philosophy on leadership in "When
you succeed, it's the team. When you fail, it's you."

~~~
smarterat
Very early on in my career I had the privilege of working with a manager who
shared your father's philosophy. The experience left a lasting impression with
me, and has led me to seriously consider whether management is something I'd
be good at or would even want to do.

Perhaps most enlightening was her stance on promotion. Our department had
been, overall, falling seriously behind and, as a result, the other managers
hadn't promoted anyone in many years(!). She and I discussed this one day and,
to paraphrase her words, she said: "At the end of each year, there should
always be someone ready for the next level or getting close. If there isn't
then I haven't done my job; I haven't appropriately challenged them. My goal
is the growth of my reports, and their success is mine."

------
greenyoda
One problem that's quite common is that new managers are given very little
training or mentoring - the company just promotes a senior developer to
management and expects them to somehow figure out how to do it well (at least
that's what happened to me). However, management requires a very different set
of skills than programming, and, like programming, you can't just learn these
skills in a few weeks (especially while working around the clock to try to
meet a product deadline that's now _your_ responsibility).

Unfortunately, the mistakes a novice manager can make - hiring the wrong
people, irritating good developers to the point where they quit the company,
etc. - are much harder and more costly to clean up than the kinds of mistakes
you can make as a developer. For one thing, there's a multiplier effect: your
actions suddenly affect more people.

~~~
semerda
The training companies provide are nothing extraordinary. Usually few days of
managerial training spread over few months on what you can and cannot
say/question employees i.e. religion, race etc. and few other tidbits on
general managerial operations. If your boss is too lazy to send you to one
your HR must. It is their obligation.

However that is not the crust of being a good manager. Emotional Intelligence
(EQ) and having Empathy is. Realizing that every person is an individual and
as such should be treated individually. I recommend books by Dr Paul Ekman
like Emotions Revealed & on body language by Joe Navarro that will give you a
head jump in working with & understanding people.

------
taeric
Is it bad that I want to answer this before even reading the article? My
answer: because programming is not the only difficult thing in life. <goes off
to read article>

Not even sure what the article was getting at. Other than my email address. :(

It takes more than just having a human element to do well. In large part, many
managers are bad because they are not given any real control. Sure, they have
some control over their workers, but that only gets you so far. Unless the
manager has real control up, as well, they can only be so good. This is
especially so on projects that are likely in a death spiral.

Worse, though, is that many "good" managers probably don't have a real idea on
exactly what makes them good. Even more perplexing, they likely did well at
some point and there may not be any obvious variables that have changed from
their success to their failures. Other than the outcome.

~~~
jevanish
I totally agree. My goal was to get some people to sign up I could do some
customer development around an idea I have. Maybe I needed a little more
detail.

I think the human aspect can go a long way and there are still a lot of
elements as you suggest that work against you. Thing is, if you do protect
your team (I've heard it called "the shit umbrella") and care about them, you
can do a lot to make them happier and more successful even if you're dealing
with a lot of crap yourself as the manager/leader.

Soft skills are hard to measure. I'm not sure we ever will, and my hope was to
make the point that the pure measurement of results often does nothing to
distinguish or incentivize good from bad management.

~~~
taeric
Well, I'm looking forward to see where this goes, then. :)

------
ChristianMarks
Good managers are a dime a dozen. Managers promulgate the myth that there are
many bad managers to justify inflated salaries. But the pool of good managers
is so vast that there is absolutely no excuse to hire a bad or an average one.

This the first of an infinite series of correctives to the standard Bloomberg-
LinkedIn-Forbesesque-BusinessInsider business media line that employees better
watch their step and always put their own interests last. Their bad managers,
who despise "silos" (meaning "technical silos") know better. They keep their
asymmetric information to themselves: they love _management silos_ , which
must be nurtured and protected against employee incursion, lest they too get
the "big picture."

~~~
jevanish
I'm glad you've had good experiences with managers. I know a lot of people who
have really suffered under bad managers multiple times across their careers,
especially in startups.

------
ThomPete
This is all fine and good but it's not the real issue IMHO and it comes off a
little bit like salesman like (sign up for the cure).

The real question we should be asking is:

"Why don't bad managers help people achieve their goals even though they know
it's better for everyone including themselves."

~~~
jevanish
Thom,

You're absolutely right. I wrote the post with the hope of getting to do some
customer development interviews with those interested in what I wrote about.

Soft skills are a funny thing; to succeed as a leader/manager you need them,
but it's hard to quantify strength and weakness in them.

I have some ideas for a product but didn't want to make the post about the
solution.

------
GuiA
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle)

------
nazgulnarsil
Because managing is hard, and people deprecate managing enough that people
don't strive for excellence in the field. How often are exceptional managers
praised socially and not just rewarded financially?

~~~
marcosdumay
How many people can spot a good manager (that isn't his boss)? We complain
about that in IT, but there are other professions just like ours.

Also, 90% of anything is bad. That includes the workforce.

~~~
jevanish
I think if you look at the language someone uses, you can tell a lot about
their quality as a manager...it's about we and they when it's good and I when
it's bad.

Look at pro athletes; the best leaders on those teams generally are the ones
that give all the credit around in wins and take ownership of losses. Peyton
Manning used to throw his lineman under the bus in playoff losses and now he's
all team as the Broncos are in the Super Bowl. Obviously there's other factors
at play, but think about how a good leader is going to motivate his team
through the human element things I talked about: people love to be recognized
for things they worked hard on and it means a lot when people show they care
about them. Who do you go out of the way to help on your team?

You can also learn a lot by talking to people they've worked with before re:
management. I love an interview tactic I heard before where you ask someone to
rank them on a scale of 1 to 10 on something. If they don't say 10 on
something, you can then ask what made them not a 10 and usually get some good
answers.

------
zoowar
Because people aspire to management for the wrong reason: power.

------
pcurve
Not sure if this short post even begins to scratch the surface of many reasons
why there are so many bad managers. Reads more like a self promotion post to
me.

------
greenyoda
" _I believe there is a way for today’s technology to help us all be better
managers and caring leaders._ "

How can technology help people be caring?

~~~
jevanish
I have the memory of a goldfish. Helping me log key things (goals, personal
interests, motivators) for easy reference would be a big help. Then, giving me
reminders for things that are easy to forget like team member birthdays, work
anniversaries and checking in to see if I helped a team member with their
personal goals in the last month would all be helpful for me. Right now I hack
it with a spreadsheet and google calendar, but it's more work and much less
organized than it could be.

I hope to validate if that's just me or others similarly could use help
holding onto that information and providing timely reminders. I have found
it's little things like what I listed above that has greatly improved
motivation and morale for the handful of teams I have worked with.

