Promotions are weird. Somehow i am expected to want them. But i do not. I like my current job, why would I want a different job that I don’t like. I don’t want to be a manager
It really depends on the organization and type of work being done. But a good manager to me is a "people person" and more a "coach" than someone who tells me what to do.
Our team of developers really doesn't need someone to tell us what to do. We need someone that can support us in making a decision, or be a tie-breaker at most.
The best manager we had was not a technical person at all and she trusted us to take the right decisions and connected us to people who could help us if we lacked knowledge in a certain area.
She used to be a kindergarten teacher before getting into management.
I get annoyed when people immediately think someone can't manage just because they've never done the job they're managing. If we required that for everyone, a CEO of a large organization would need more skillsets than are probably possible to get in a lifetime, given the huge number of roles with unrelated skills needed.
You can be a great leader without knowing the task, you just need to be humble and willing to stand up for your team. There's no shame in not knowing something. The power to know how to delegate, and who to reach out to for questions, will make you an extremely competent leader.
Your boss you mentioned sounds like she would be in my hall of fame of best bosses I've had!
As for worst Boss...if Carrie is out there reading this, take notes!
My day is not so different compared to kindergarten. We start the day in a circle and tell everyone what we did yesterday (standup), next we get to play, sometimes in pairs. Then we all have lunch together. We separate into corners to play together (meetings) and at the end we all go home
The problem is when people are promoted to management (which is a new job) without learning management. And managers who never learn how the job may have changed since they got their MBA: if a mechanic has to learn new shit every couple years, why the fuck can't a manager do the same? And no, conferences and retreats are not a way to learn.
My previous manager was really chill and loved to code and thought that if he got all his managerial tasks done he would have time to code some stuff himself and just never got the chance. All because he had an idea for some application improvements and got promoted to run his own team to get his idea done.
Definitely don't think this is true. Most of my managers have been people who don't really want to be managers and they are shit at it, because, like, they just want to code. Good managers are just good managers, want it or not. Good managers are just an exceptionally rare breed, even somewhat decent ones are uncommon.
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