🔒How To

A while back, I caught up with a former employee. During our conversation he said, “I'm not even sure why you took so much time with me.” Caught off guard, I replied, “Because it's my job to help my employees be the best they can be.” Over the years he and I had a few “uncomfortable” conversations but, despite the discomfort, we made a lot of progress together.

My senior year in college, during the fall job interviewing process, we heard the terms “management training program” and “management track.” My classmates and I all wanted to be managers. We didn't know what it meant and yet we were darn sure we wanted to be one. As it turns out, most of us wanted to be something important and, at the time, that translated to “manager.”

For many of us, some years after graduation, we got the chance to be promoted into management. There were a variety of reasons this happened. Speaking only for my field, technology, it almost never happened because someone clearly exhibited the personality of a successful manager, took a series of management training courses, was given some temporary management situations, or was, in any way, prepared to manage. It was because the person excelled at being an individual contributor. This method puts everybody at risk of suffering the Peter Principle, in which people “rise to their level of incompetence.”

The thing they don't tell you is that management should go well beyond the duties of setting priorities and doling out raises. It's about making each person as good as he or she can be. Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space, once said, “Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine.” Indeed, I prefer to call it “people management” because it's more about the people than the process. If the people you manage feel that they are valued and respected, they are much more likely to be productive and happy.

I practice what I call value-added people management. By the time employees sit down to work in my group, they've already been vetted for both technical and business knowledge. So, moving forward, it's my role to provide them the framework needed to grow and succeed, not to school them on the latest technology. Again, it's not just about telling them what to work on and when to finish, it's about working with their strengths, eliminating their weaknesses and keeping them motivated.

When I first meet with a new employee I make it clear that our successes are intertwined by saying, “My job is to make you successful.” Then I ask one very direct question, “What motivates you?” I tell them that if the answer is money that's fine, I just need to know. The answers are fascinating and, more importantly, they help pave a path for success. It can be detrimental when a manager makes assumptions about what motivates an employee — or, worse yet, assumes that they are both motivated by the same things.

It was several years from my initial burning desire to be in management until I actually knew what it meant to be a manager. It's not about being someone important. It's not about the title. It's about being responsible for the success of others and fulfilling the unwritten duty of making them the best they can be.

Rob Levine, a software engineer and manager, is a member of the Association for Consulting Expertise, or ACE. He can be reached at rolevine@gmail.com