[HN Gopher] Learning to be managed
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Learning to be managed
Author : zemike
Score : 55 points
Date : 2024-02-29 19:06 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (medium.com)
| zemike wrote:
| Hi HN,
|
| First time sharing anything I have written.
|
| Lately I have been wondering about how to be managed properly. I
| feel like I have not gotten what I wanted out of my career.
|
| This is my attempt at learning more about the subject, and
| sharing with people that are going through a similar struggle.
|
| Hope that it is useful. :)
| barrenko wrote:
| Thanks, we need more articles like these.
| tra3 wrote:
| That's an interesting post, especially in the context of being
| promoted. After being in the industry for many years, I'm just
| now becoming aware of this stuff, particularly as it relates to
| the promotion culture and "making impact". Google is famously
| known for shipping, but not maintaining.
|
| "Managing up" is a useful concept for how to interact with your
| managers. Post from a few years back that has useful sources:
| Design Patterns for managing up [0]. Hand in hand goes this
| Australian Gov't work book for Assertiveness:
|
| > Assertiveness means expressing your point of view in a way that
| is clear and direct, while still respecting others.
|
| 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18988939
|
| 1: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-
| You...
| zemike wrote:
| Thank you for sharing these sources with me! I will have a
| look.
|
| I would not say I am trying to "manage up", but I am definitely
| trying to be a lot more active in my growth process. In the
| past I kept waiting for things to happen, and thought my
| manager would have all the answers. Now, I want to be an active
| part of that conversation and find the right path.
| Aurornis wrote:
| Great managers will feel natural to work with. You won't have to
| learn how to work with them because they'll meet you as a person
| and guide you toward succeeding in your role as needed.
|
| Unfortunately, many managers are not natural managers but have
| instead learned how to "manage" from books, blogs, podcasts, and
| trying to imitate people they see as powerful.
|
| My biggest lifehack for dealing with these people is to learn
| what books and other resources they used to teach themselves
| management, then study what those books portray as the ideal
| employee. Your job is now to play the role of that ideal employee
| and set the stage for the manager to feel like the ideal manager.
| It takes a bit of restraint and the performance can feel fake at
| times, but as long as you play the role they want to see and you
| make it easy for them to play the role they think they should
| play, you're going to do well in their eyes.
|
| At minimum, I suggest every employee read a couple books like the
| Manager's Path book linked in the article so it's easier to
| identify when weak managers are trying to implement things they
| read from a book. It's like a cheat code to navigating managers
| who outsource their thinking to books and try to reduce every
| situation to something they read or heard a podcast about.
|
| In my last case, my manager read a book about all about how
| managers shouldn't solve problems for their employees, they
| should only give coaching for employees to solve their own
| problems. He went full cargo cult on that advice and literally
| stopped helping us get things done within the company. His only
| response to any issues we raised would be a long string of
| leading questions and coaching, but he refused to actually _do_
| anything. I fought this for a long time until he mentioned the
| name of the book, I read it, and I realized that I had to start
| making him think that he was _coaching me_ to a solution whenever
| I really needed _him_ to use his position to do his job. It took
| some mental gymnastics, but after I unlocked his secret I became
| good at navigating around him to get things done.
| onthecanposting wrote:
| I really admire those with the ability to conform themselves to
| a work place to be successful. I've always been candid, and I
| am occasionally at odds with management when polite lies are
| expected. Those I've managed appreciate the sincerity, but I
| would hardly describe my career as successful.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Genius idea, though I feel like you shouldn't have to do that
| in the first place. Like, I've been criticised by people for
| editing "their" code without talking to them first (in a shared
| project that we're all working on). My boss's ideal solution is
| for me to kowtow to their egos so he doesn't have to deal with
| it. No thank you. You go and tell _them_ to stop being
| possessive of code that they don 't own; they just happened to
| write. It's not my job to deal with their issues.
| tomcar288 wrote:
| the management techniques mentioned in the article are all valid
| but i'm going to play devils advocate here and say that not
| getting that promotion isn't necessarily a failure, rather the
| goal was not realistic.
|
| Don't assume that whether or not you get a promotion is always in
| your control. Don't assume your performance rating is entirely in
| your control or even mostly in your control. sometimes you can
| perform really well and it won't get you anything. and sometimes
| you can perform mediocre and still get lots of promotions and
| bonuses.
|
| and why do you really want to get a promotion? if you just want
| more money, the most effective way to achieve that is to look for
| another job. doing that, you'll get far larger raises far more
| quickly.
| mettamage wrote:
| I did my best at not being promoted. Promotion equals change. I
| really liked my salary and remote position. Any extra
| responsibility would require me to do more work. Sure, I'd get
| paid more but the stress would outweigh the pay.
|
| If you're ever down with not getting a promotion, just know
| that there are ways to think about it that might be
| constructive.
| frakt0x90 wrote:
| This is where I am. I'm remote senior level and got offered
| principal but 3 days in office which would mean moving cities
| and WAY more pressure in a department that's had issues.
| Probably a 50k raise but I'm doing fine as is. I'll keep my
| sanity.
| zigman1 wrote:
| Cool, but I'm not sure that's the topic of conversation.
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