Link Roundup for 22 January 2011

I spent time today catching up on my Instapaper backlog. That means I’ve got plenty of grist for the link roundup mill.

Given that I’m a new manager and that I’m the kind of person that I am, I’ve been thinking recently about what makes great bosses great. Here are some answers:

• Bob Sutton lays out twelve things good bosses believe.
• Bill Taylor explains another thing good bosses believe, that nobody wins unless everybody wins.
• With this in mind, Naomi Karten gives us the tools to resolve disputes so that everybody wins.
• Esther Derby tells us that good bosses also know that resources don’t write software, people do.¹
• David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer remind us that it’s important for bosses to understand why your employees are losing motivation (and what to do about it).
• And Esther Derby returns to clarify the importance of software managers knowing a language… that enables communication.

¹ This is one of my pet peeves. Slowly, I’m fighting the battle against “resources” at work.

These Shouldn't Be Secrets

“Management exists to organize purposefully. The whole purpose is to deliver results and build capacity. It’s conceptually easy but operationally difficult.

Apply simple — but not easy — practices consistently. None of the practices described here — one-on-ones, portfolio management, feedback, delegation — is difficult to understand. But the key to successful management is to consistently and reliably perform these practices.

Managers who never apply these practices are poor managers.

Managers who apply these practices intermittently are only average managers.

Great managers consistently and reliably apply all these management practices.”

—Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby, Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management

It’s tempting to summarize this book by saying, “Every manager should read this.”¹ That’s correct, but not complete.

Behind Closed Doors is structurally similar to The One-Minute Manager² in that it presents the story of a manager and what he does in the first seven weeks in his new job. Interspersed with the narrative are summaries of the principles behind what he’s doing. One result of this organization is that we see good managerial behavior in context, then we’re presented with the ideas behind that behavior. Another is that we see themes - like giving feedback and professional development - unfold over time, because they’re not things that happen only once. While this means that some topics are spread out over the course of the book³, it’s a powerfully accessible way to present the material. The major techniques are also summarized in appendices for easy reference.

As someone who has been managed by many different people⁴ and who is now managing others, I found dozens of useful tools here, ranging from how to structure one-on-ones to using Gerald Weinberg’s Rule of Three⁵ to further discussion. The trick, as the authors point out in their epilogue, is not just to understand these techniques, but to apply them consistently and reliably. Which I’m hoping to start with my one-on-ones this afternoon.

¹ Along with Managing Humans, of course.

² And other books, I’m sure, but that’s what comes immediately to mind.

³ Which thwarted my note-taking-by-outlining scheme.

⁴ To varying degrees of effectiveness.

⁵ “One alternative is a trap. Two alternatives is a dilemma. Three alternatives provide real choice.” I used this in our backlog grooming session yesterday to great effect. It works!