Leading a Team

I was hired at NCSA almost 5 years ago now. During that time I've had the good fortune of moving up in the organization and building a team that is now 15 strong. Looking back I'm amazed to see the changes in my own style of management during that time. Scattered thoughts follow:

Take Yourself Seriously

Work needs to be enjoyable. It's my job as a manager to make sure that there is an atmosphere that is fun to work in. This isn't to say that work should be a party or that people should goof off all day, but people should come to work and feel like they can have fun while doing their jobs. This starts from the top. One thing I love about our room configuration is that I don't have an office. I'm not blocked off from the team. I sit with them. I interact daily with my employees whether I want to or not. And during those interactions I try to have fun. I try to find ways to create an environment where the stress of work can be minimized.

This fun atmosphere needs regulating. I am still the boss. There are times where the good times are interfering with production. It's my job to walk that fine line and be the guy who pulls us back. There have been times where my employees have had to reach out to me to ask for me to try to reign it in. I should be more on top of that.

Do the Work

One of the things that I've strived to do is maintain the pulse of the group. The best way I know to do that is to actually do the work they are involved in. If you are managing but haven't been on the ground level in the last few weeks how do you know how things are going? How can you make decisions on how to improve things if you are so far removed? I don't work with the team as often as I'd like. I have meetings, reviews, interviews, budget, and all the other cruft that takes up my time. However, I try hard to make sure that if I have a free hour I participate. I am not as skilled as my employees at what we do. I don't have the hands on experience that they have. But I am a decision maker in the company and I need to know how difficult it is to work in the areas of the code/company in order to make the best decisions.

It's through working with the team that I find the areas that we need to improve on. It's also where I get to see the team at it's best. When I check in code that I think will work perfectly and one of my QA guys points out multiple ways that it is failing or things I didn't account for I'm impressed and happy that they are improving and surpassing me. When I look into a codebase that I haven't been in recently and find it well refactored and elegant I am pleased to know that the team is taking care of the internals of the system. 

The work of a software team is largely invisible. The end product is so small comparatively to the work that went into its creation. If you don't peak under the surface regularly you may find that your team is falling apart.

Be the Boss

Here is an area that I sometimes struggle. And it's in part due to the first two ideas. At the end of the day I'm their boss. And that's tough sometimes. I like these people. I want them to like me. I don't want to discipline them. I don't want to have the tough talks. But when I don't I see the atmosphere start to change. I see the problems start to crop up. It only takes a few days before a problem starts to surface that I could have nipped in the bud if I was more willing to have the hard talk. I'm lucky to have hired good people. But even good employees need to know when their behavior is not inline with company expectations. It's the goal of any company or individual manager to have a team of 'A players'. It's a hard goal, but it's unreachable if you won't tell people why they're not at an 'A' yet.

Democracy in a team doesn't work. There has to be a decision maker. There has to be someone who ultimately stops the conversation and moves production forward. This is not as fun as it sounds. Sometimes I make large mistakes in my decisions. Sometimes my decisions make the entire team's life harder for a few days. But without the decision we would still be arguing. And that also makes the team's life hard.