Art of becoming a good manager

Alright, so you get a team of programmers under you and you have been declared their manager. Wow!

So, if the above mentioned incident was an outcome of an accident or you have travelled a long road to reach here rules of game will remain the same.

Following are few things I have learned over the time from my personal experience or from colleagues having same role.

For many of us out there this is common sense but unfortunately we have common things missing.

1.       A Happy Smiling Face – I know you are not on a public dealing job but this is the very basic rule to be a good leader.  Whenever you approach your juniors or a junior approaches you, talk with a pleasant smiling face. This way you are giving him/her confidence like a good doctor does with his/her patient and then they speak out whatever they feel like.

2.       Never act like Corporate Feudal – Title of this advice says it all. Be humble and kind towards your juniors.  Don’t boss them; Make them realize that they are owners of their work. You are here to help and need their help to finish this task.

3.       What can I do for you Sir/Madam – For some people it looks odd if you ask your junior “May I be of any help” regarding work or any other matter. This shows that you are not a daddu (frog) manger but a multi dimensional personality having firm observations not only on work but on other matters which affect their work performance.

I have seen bosses making tea or bringing lunch/dinner, carrying hardware at times for their busy teams at work because they want to help. Remember your team is watching all this. Being a manager it is your responsibility to let your team focus on work and you do provide all the miscellaneous items support.

4.       Superstar treatment– Fame and Money always attracts, this is in human nature. I know you can’t give them a heavy pay check by yourself (again, lots of corporate theory J ). At least you have control over something which you can give them. Treat them like superstars; praise them by putting emails to higher management and to their colleagues about their achievements. If your budget affords I recommend giving away an ice cream, samosa, chips party on their achievements.

5.       Embrace Change– It’s always hard to swallow change. Don’t be hardliner, remember you are a manager and your task is to get best out of your resources. Let them come up with an idea, always ask them to bring a new idea. Get rid of your code entropy disease.  They might be suggesting something which really improves your things.

If you fail to convince them that their idea can’t work, try to give them time in which they can work out themselves or you do as they are suggesting in spare time and let them see how it collapses.  Developers are egoistic mostly and sometimes they tend to make technical things matter of ego in their early professional life.

6.       Say No to Workaholic attitude – It’s quite common that you will see juniors around who wants to work and work only. In short term you might consider it a benefit for yourself or your company but you are heading towards a disaster. Never ever allow such an attitude or approach of your juniors.

In short term this looks very attractive that what a dedicated resource sir jee! But, you are heading towards a disaster. If resources keep working like this un necessarily they will lose interest or burn out.

Tell them to have time for themselves, family and friends. Suggest them activities they should do after office hours.

7.       Successor Planning– Many of us don’t believe in doing this, they are afraid if they transfer all the information what their role will be, what their company would do with them. If you have this fear that transferring knowledge or control will make you retire then it means you don’t deserve where you are sitting today because you are afraid of kids whom you taught.

Until or unless you are working in a Seth (sole proprietor) company or poor corporate surrounded by politics then you don’t have to behave like this. Remember experience can’t be replaced.

8.       Party Time– No matter your company sponsors event or not, it’s not a complex thing that you and your team goes out for some activity like having lunch together on a weekends or go out on dhaba for tea in evening before going home and have some chit chat. This is a good way of learning minds of your resources and they also have chance to discuss general things with you.

9.       Have a break, Have some off days– Ask your juniors to plan and take annual leaves to have some break from a monotonous routine of office. You might have heard from your juniors I get bored at home, even then don’t take this excuse and give them a break.

10.   Patrolling– Kindly get up from your seat at least once a week during office hours suitably in late part of 1^st half or 2^nd half and visit desk of each of your team members to discuss how is it going, is everything fine, you can ask them about their studies or any activities they do.

11.   Act as Air Bag– I hope you understand what I mean. During a pressure situation, collapse, screaming clients act as a vacuum chamber for team. If you can’t shield them from all this I bet their mind will be distributed between all this and problem at hand.

Always ask them to do their best in pressure situations and keep environment light. Never ever show a tense face to them, this will definitely cause un rest, remain calm and composed.  Try to get best out of worst. Remember point-7(Successor Planning), what you do in front of juniors today they will do it when they will become managers and you have taught them all.

If you start postmortem or start shouting then this will create a very negative impression. Remember you are a manager and your job is to manage. Let them do technical work and you focus on keeping things in control. You will always have time to do postmortem of situation.

12.   Courtesy– It’s all about manners and courtesy. If your resources or someone in their close acquaintance got ill and you know that they are out of office because of this then give them a courtesy call or send them an SMS asking if you can be of any help.

13.   Divide Pizza Equally– Always ensure that everyone in team gets equal chances of growth, R&D projects, Trainings, Deputations. If you fail to do so then so you might face a serious problem where someone will get up and say good bye and thank you. Remember its not a mason's job, it takes lots of hard work to make an skilled worker. So, Keep your eyes and ears open.

Smart Driving

While driving on Karachi roads when traffic is jammed and you see lots of common things around. There is one thing which I commonly observe. We see an ambulance is trying to make its way out of this and carrying a patient very often. Its siren is buzzing loud and even we hear ambulance making announcement "rasta dain,...rasta dain"..

But, unfortunately what I have observed in 8 out of 10 cases that people whose vehicles are ahead of them are failing to clear a path out for ambulance. Reasons and solutions are quite simple.

1) Those who are privileged enough to have four wheelers with windows closed and A/C running with a sweet melody playing often turns a deaf ear to this situation as if something very ordinary is happening outside. 

It is not their fault, it is just their lack of maturity. They are blessed but don't know responsibilities they carry with these blessings.So, If you are blessed like this please keep an eye on your back and side mirrors to have an idea if you see an ambulance trying to make its way. If you start shifting lane believe me that vehicles besides you will start doing the same.

2) Those who are riding on bikes often thinks that they are on such a small thing and they also don't need to move to other lane. Don't make this assumption, because I have seen other bikers to make this assumption and collectively many bikes create a congestion point. So, Realize the situation and get aside.

3) Those who are driving long vehicles like buses, trucks, etc. I know they don't get a chance to read this writing or hardly anyone reading this blog can see such a driver in person and tell him what I have observed :)

So, for them I have seen some people doing the trick so car drivers and bikers can do the same. I have seen bikers coming beside to buses and shouting to get aside because of ambulance. I have seen cars blocking their way to clear out a path for ambulance.

4) Don't be so smart to run behind an ambulance and taking advantage of a clear lane. Since you rarely see ahead of a Suzuki Bolan/Hiace(ambulances) and if they shift lane you will be hitting in some one's vehicle. 

Sometimes when I travel in a Taxi and driver is not concerned about the ambulance coming behind it I ask him to please shift lane or at least try to shift. Sometimes I got the answer "bhai yeh jan bojh k bhi aisay kartay hain ya pher itna jam hai kahan jaaon ya yeh tou gorment/traffic police ka kam hai". 

Imagine yourself lying in that ambulance. Do whatever you can, don't start justifying or throwing ball in other people courts. We have enough of it as a nation, there are certain things which we can do. So, act immediately and give way to ambulances. 

Be a responsible driver.

Pastry from a magnifying glass

I have met many fresh graduates from computer science background in my acquaintance and same type of question is being asked by them. "What kind of job shall I do or look for once I graduate".

So, I thought I will write somewhere what I used to tell them and from next time I will advice them to read it then we will discuss.

Let me quote an example, "A pastry from a magnifying glass". You must be saying what kind of pathetic answer is this. Well, keep on reading you will realize that this is the answer.

Remember few points

1) Pay check.You existing pay check speaks your market worth.It tells your next employer that you were important enough that company was paying you this amount. So, don't get fooled by these words "you are going to make a rocket but you will be paid less because we are letting you work in such a wonderful and unique area that no one in market is doing". You are not out there for "Charity".

2) Grooming. If you get to work in a garage like environment you will never learn art of how to talk to your senior,peers,clients, how to dress yourself etc etc. Its all about work etiquette's. So, don't work in a garage. This will make you techie only but you will lack basic soft skills.

3) Stability.There is a difference between doing job and fulfilling a hobby. There are few lucky people who are actually doing what they love to. Because not everyone is blessed this much :)

Work for a company which is stable enough not a jerk where few investors are tolling with their "Great Ideas" and when they get fed up they say "Thank you for working with us".

4) Learning. Don't go for monotonous work. Try looking out for work where you got a chance to learn tools, technologies, concepts, professional work methodology. If you run into an environment where you don't see new ideas, tools, technologies and methodologies at work then your basis will be made in wrong direction.It takes a lot of efforts to write a quality software(Designing, Coding, Optimization[Profilers,Code Analysis],QA, Release Management,etc). Try learning new things on your own and discuss with your peers,team leads if that can improve your work quality.

5) Next Possible Move.Its not wise to sell "spectacles" where everyone is blind. So, Calculate your next possible move, means where you would go after this. I know some intellectuals would come forward and say that they are working on it because they are "lateral thinkers" :). For them I have simple answer, Don't do job then become an entrepreneur.

That's what I can tell from my little experience. I have been through all this. I know its not possible to get everything in your plate at once, but keep trying for it. At least go for one which has maximum in it and remove "Magnifying glass" while you are asked to view a pastry :)

That's all for today.

Most abused words - Critical, Urgent, Important, High Priority

Most of the people who are working in private organizations are quite used to of hearing and reading words mentioned as heading of this writing.

We normally hear these words from clients, business development department and marketing departments and last but not least by managers like myself.

I use these words to emphasize my sub ordinates of importance of situation or matter in hand. But, do we ever think how badly we abuse these words and they are losing their impact day by day. It’s like saying “Pakistan tareekh k aik nazuk daur say guzur raha hai”. We all have been hearing it since we were kids.

Do we really think once the situation has passed, if it was that critical that I declare it as a TSUNAMI? I guess no. If we think on these lines we could see how many false alarms we generate every now and then and how badly we are destroying the essence of these words.

It’s all about handling situation effectively. I sometimes realized that if I can handle pressure myself rather than running myself in the crowd and saying “Bhagooooooo”. It was my fault and I apologize for the ones who suffered due to my miscalculation.

One of my friends was telling a story about an advertising campaign for which he worked. Now, Analyze this situation tomorrow there will be a major strike in city by some of the political party and he was instructed to keep his field workers out in city all night to put on all the advertisement banners by morning considering situation is getting worse in city. Now, see how critical it was. The person instructing it could have handled situation on his own but he didn’t and he just passed on what he received.  The fun part here no one dared to come on street on strike day even they guy who mentioned it to be a critical activity.

Medicine is the most critical of all kinds of services being provided.  But, I have hardly seen any urgency or criticality in this area. I have seen patients in life and death situations in ICUs even my father was in such situation. Their doctors didn’t come at the time of emergency and people are told that on duty doctor will take care of your patient. In worst case they will make a call to respective doctor. In some cases when you have good terms with Doctor they can come in but mostly it is not case. I ask myself this question that the most important area is the most neglected one. We are ready to save an advertising campaign, recovering an email server from crash but not a human life.

These words should be used with caution and as a first step we should analyze if it is really a critical situation. If they are really critical we should pass on as much knowledge to receiver(s) so that they also what is happening in background otherwise they will destroy your image in front of receivers.