A better approach is to have separate career tracks for 'people' managers and 'project' managers.
People managers do the performance evaluations and various HR administrative tasks (signing time cards, hiring, firing, etc.) but they rely on feedback from their group which are both individual contributors and project managers.
Project managers lead the projects and have to select/attract the right combination of individual contributors to their project if they want it to succeed.
A project that 'gets more management' will usually have to justify the addition of PMs from a cost-benefit perspective. And a project that is overburdened with management types will usually see the ICs migrate to other projects in order to improve their impact.
All this happens organically, so individual contributors are empowered instead of being disenfranchised through organizational changes.
That sounds like basically matrix management which has many well documented issues. The biggest one in my experience is that the people managers need to be themselves judged on some rubric. If that rubric is success of projects then it tangentially aligns with business goals. If it's something else or they don't have power over projects then they are encouraged to play constant politics.
Do you have any practical experience with companies running as it's described in this motivational book?
Many of those books are selling well because they are well written and say exactly what reader thinks might work, but if you ask anyone else who worked with the author, the reality can be quite different.
That's what I like about "agile roles" like Product Owner or Scrum Master, they take a slice of traditional manager's responsibilities, but they don't have any reporting authority over other workers. My EM has like 30 direct reports and it works fine because he doesn't really have anything to do with our day to day work.
That list of “skills” is spot on. I also especially like his use of the term “skunking” to describe how somebody’s personal opinions/problems/issues impact the rest of the team. “51%ers” are exactly the kind of people I want to work with.
itronitron|2 years ago
People managers do the performance evaluations and various HR administrative tasks (signing time cards, hiring, firing, etc.) but they rely on feedback from their group which are both individual contributors and project managers.
Project managers lead the projects and have to select/attract the right combination of individual contributors to their project if they want it to succeed.
A project that 'gets more management' will usually have to justify the addition of PMs from a cost-benefit perspective. And a project that is overburdened with management types will usually see the ICs migrate to other projects in order to improve their impact.
All this happens organically, so individual contributors are empowered instead of being disenfranchised through organizational changes.
marcinzm|2 years ago
nip|2 years ago
- Organising the work and steering it in the right direction
- Ensuring that people work well together, help them grow, deal with "people problems"
If and when both of the above is achieved without a person holding the title "Manager", you don't need them.
This can be achieved by hiring 51%ers for example [1] and by actively monitoring the health of your organisation.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39333921
[1-1] https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitalit...
[*] YMMV: the hardest problem in any organisation is the "people" aspect, there's no silver bullet.
EDIT: Added the link to my other comment about 51%ers
isbvhodnvemrwvn|2 years ago
Many of those books are selling well because they are well written and say exactly what reader thinks might work, but if you ask anyone else who worked with the author, the reality can be quite different.
The_Colonel|2 years ago
eddyg|2 years ago
That list of “skills” is spot on. I also especially like his use of the term “skunking” to describe how somebody’s personal opinions/problems/issues impact the rest of the team. “51%ers” are exactly the kind of people I want to work with.
higeorge13|2 years ago
soneca|2 years ago