I’m tired of talking about how great I am. What about you, what do you think of me?
There may have been a point in time when someone understood all that there was to understand about computers. Early on there may have been one person who could stand above his fellow scientists and claim to be the authority on everything in this young field. Where wizards stay up late makes a good case for a few individuals who may have filled that natural desire we have for an overall authority on a subject. Yet those men, great scientists and tremendous minds in an unproven field of study, were some of the most humble ambassadors of technology we will likely ever see.
Today we have no overall authorities. No normal person can hope to represent enough deep expertise to be considered an expert in more than one specialty. Exceptional people may be able to handle two or three fields before being overwhelmed by the fire hose of information needed to keep up. Hollywood has it wrong, again, about smart people in technology because there are no generalists out there that know everything. Computers is similar to any other complex system like medicine, law, scientific research and finance. It demands that you specialize to do be considered an expert. (This may also be why I like House as a show but have problems with a plot device that pretends there are doctors that can ever know everything.) Anyone who either pretends to be an expert on the whole of technology or really has convinced themselves that they are will be doomed to huge management failures.
Pete Johnson Chief Architect at HP and a guy who clearly knows what he is doing around a computer wrote up good article on Dzone about why programmers hate working for Software Architects. Pete’s experiences run parallel to my own as a manager of programmers and his first point sums up my advice to anyone who wants to lead a programmer.
- Be humble
- Ask your people for advice on subjects you don’t know.
- Make it public knowledge that you are the least important person in the room.
- Stand back and let them shine before your customers, but stand in front of them to take blame.
- Programmers can sniff out BS. Honestly admit when you’re unsure of a direction.
- Keep them informed and let them know when you are giving fact and when its your opinion
- Ask only what you would be willing to do yourself. Prove it by doing it occasionally for them
- Keep a diverse RSS list and forward on good information to experts in your group
- Be humble
What’s on your list?
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Photo attributed to SuperFantastic on Flickr CC