Agile Learning Labs

Makings of a Great Manager - at EUSF

Greetings,

Today I had the pleasure of facillitating The Makings of a Great Manager for a group of ambitious job seekers at Experience Unlimited, a program of the San Francisco Chapter Employment Development Division.

Each member of the group considered what attributes, practices, or skills set the best managers that they had worked for, apart from the rest. The group had diverse experience, and the discussions were interesting. We chose a label for each idea, and then we ranked them, based on the collective experience of the group.

Here is the list of 'idea labels' as ranked by the group.

Top Tier
Encourage and inspire
Compassionate leadership

Second Tier
Management by leadership (vs. by administration)
Appreciative

Third Tier
Creates a sense of mission
Friendly, Fair, and Firm
Promotes personal growth
Room for mistakes
Positive reinforcement

Fourth Tier
Innovator
Gives benefit of the doubt
Honest
Happy
Kind
Chemistry
Team oriented
Competence in the area managed

Fifth Tier
Conflict resolution
Stays calm
Good networking
Open door
Having self together
Authority matches responsibility
Work - life balance
"We need YOUR help"
Celebrates anniversary of joining company
Workload management
Firm
Entrepenuerial
Well-groomed
Remembers birthdays

You may be interested to compare these results with those of other groups:
IEEE Technology Management Council
Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group (plus 'Group X')

These results on retaining key employees seem relevant as well.

Cheers,

Chris

IEEE Group Answers: "What makes an engineering manager great?"

Last night the San Francisco / Silicon Valley IEEE Technology Management Council met to examine the question: "What makes an engineering manager great?" Nearly 30 people participated. Over 40 good ideas were presented and considered. In the end the group ranked the following skills, attributes, and behaviors most important.

It is interesting to compare these results with those that two other groups generated here. Also interesting is how similar these results are to those generated by a group considering the most important things a technical manager can do to retain key contributors, which can be found here. While there are common themes that run through each group's responses, the results are far from identical. This makes sense to me. Each group is unique, and has different values and needs. There is no 'One True Way' to be a great manager. Certainly there are core skills and knowledge, but to rise to the level of greatness requires really understanding the group to be led, and giving them what they need.

Tier One
Integrity
Enthusiastic & inspiring
Praise & reward
Listen well
Ask questions rather than give orders
Clear communication
Have a vision
Interpersonal skills
Respect staff input

Tier Two
Appreciates the service of others
Team builder
Honesty
Build consensus
Know each staff member's strengths and weaknesses

Tier Three
Recognize individuals, share blame
Big picture knowledge
Focus on fixing, not on blame
Ability to prioritize
Engender ownership
Clear goals

To learn more about the San Francisco / Silicon Valley IEEE Technology Management Council click here.

Retaining Key Contributors - Results

Last night a dozen technical leaders gathered for the Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group to answer the question:

"What are the most effective steps a manager can take to retain key employees?"

The following guidelines where provided:

• Consider this question from your own personal experience.
• What were the things that kept you?
• What effective measures did you take to retain people?
• What things could have been done to keep you: "If only my manager had...I would have stayed."

We used the Group Wisdom Without Groupthink technique to capture the experience and wisdom of the whole group. More than twenty ideas were generated and discussed. Each idea was given a short name, and posted on the wall. The group then ranked the ideas, based on their own real-world experience. The exercise took an hour.

Here are the results. Some of the names, such as "Giving Credit..." mean pretty much what you would think. Others, "Empowerment" for example, represent the groups best effort at summing up a much more in-depth and detailed idea. The ideas are presented as ranked by the group. I have left out a number of ideas that were considered but ultimately not selected by the group.

Tier One
Empowerment
Giving Credit, Recognition Both Public and Private
Create an Enjoyable Work Environment

Tier Two
Be a Buffer Between Senior Management
Willingness to Actually Lead
Proactive Problem Resolution
Tolerate Failure
Compensation

Tier Three
Clear Shared Vision
Mentoring for Professional Growth
Prioritize to Prevent Waste
Respect

Tier Four
Training
Match Interests to Roles
Be Accessible
Provide Tools for Success
Regular Performance Reviews

Looking at the results, I am struck by how similar they are to the results that have come from workshops that have sought to identify the qualities of a great manager. Results from some of those can be found here. This seems to support the idea that people stay or leave based primarily on their relationship with their manager.

Perhaps now is a good time to mention that I offer one-on-one coaching for engineering managers, as well as several workshops to help engineering managers succeed:
Managing Technical People
Coaching and Mentoring
Delivering Effective Feedback
Makings of a Great Technical Manager
and many more!

Engineering Managers Support Group - New and Improved!

The The Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group is celebrating our six month anniversary. Things have been good, and they are about to get even better...

New Sponsor!
I am proud to announce that Rearden Commerce has joined The Technical Management Institute in sponsoring The Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group. The Rearden Personal Assistant has been described as doing for services what Amazon did for products.

New Location!
This month we will meet at Rearden's world headquarters in Foster City. Some of the mapping sites, and meetup.com, want to call it San Mateo since 94404 covers both cities. Don't worry about it. The address is 1051 E. Hillsdale Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404. It's a shinny office tower between Foster City Blvd and Shell Blvd, across from the Foster City Fire Station, and just off of 92. Rearden's offices are on the sixth floor. Park in front of the building, on the Hillsdale Blvd. side. Seth will be in the lobby to ferry folks up. If he's not there when you arrive, you can hail him at: 415.515.2654.

New Food!
We will be enjoying some yummy Thai food. Make sure to arrive around 7:00 PM for best selection. There will be a variety for both vegetarians and meatetarians.

New Presenter!
Our opening topic will be: How to make performance reviews less painful and more effective. Joining me in creating and delivering this presentation is Richard Simone. Richard is an independent senior management consultant in the area of fabless semiconductor, and semiconductor design and development. He has held several VP and Director level positions over his career before founding his consultancy.

As Always
After the presentation, we will open up the meeting so that participants can bring their real-world issues to the group and get feedback and advice from the group.
Best of all, it's still free. :-)

RSVP Now!

Engineering Managers Support Group - Tonight

The October 2007 Engineering Managers Support Group meeting is just a few hours away!

Where:
Round Table Pizza (event room)
61 43rd Ave
San Mateo, CA

Schedule:
7:00 PM Socializing and free pizza
7:30 PM Getting a New Hire Up and Running

You have found an ideal candidate; made them an offer, and they start in two weeks. Now what? I will share an approach that has worked for me, and some lessons learned as well. Please bring your experiences to share, and together we will unearth best practices for integrating new hires into the team.

After that, we will have a facilitated discussion where participants can share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and so it the pizza! Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.

Getting a New Hire Up and Running - October Engineering Managers Support Group

You have found an ideal candidate, made him an offer, and he starts in two weeks. Now what? At this month's Engineering Managers Support Group meeting I will share an approach that worked well for me, and some lessons learned as well. Please bring your experiences to share, and together we will unearth best practices for integrating new hires into the team.

After that, we will have a facilitated discussion where participants can share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and so it the pizza! Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.

We are meeting on Wednesday, October 24th, in San Mateo.
RSVP now

Bay Area Engineering Managers Support Group August Meetup

This month's session will start with a short workshop on SWOT analysis, a tool commonly taught in business school to examine internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. It was originally conceived to help corporations formulate high-level business strategy, but it has proven useful in a broad range of situations. SWOT is an excellent tool for evaluating business opportunities such as starting a new business, entering a new market, pursuing a new development project, or allocating resources in areas such as recruiting or training.

This workshop will teach you how to do a basic SWOT analysis, using your own career situation as a practical application. You will learn a valuable analytic tool and gain new insight into your own professional potential.

After the workshop comes a facilitated discussion where participants can share challenges that they are facing and get feedback, ideas, and support from the group. The event is free and pizza will be provided. Come out, join the discussion, and become a better manager.

This time around we will meet on Wednesday night, August 22nd in San Mateo.

Arrivals and free pizza 7:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Program starts at 7:30 PM

For more details, see the full listing on meetup.

Photo courtesy of N.Trung

Is it Time to Quit Your Job?

The Chief Happiness Officer has a good post today on knowing when it is time to quit your job.

If you are unhappy in your job, go read it. No really, stop reading this and go read it. OK, since you are still reading this, I’ll give the upshot of his article, but really the whole thing is worth reading.

• Give up the idea that you can know for sure whether or not it’s time to quit. It’s always going to be a leap.
• Listen to your intuition. Your gut may know before your mind.
• Remember what quitting can cost you - but also remember what staying in a bad job can cost you!
• Remember that the longer you stay in a bad job, the harder it gets to leave.
• Most people stay too long in bad jobs - mostly because they fear the uncertainty that comes with quitting.
• Most people, once they’ve quit, find that their situation improves. Maybe not immediately, but certainly after a few months.

MBA Panel Discussion

Last night I participated in a panel discussion about the career of consulting at Santa Clara University, put on by the newly formed consulting club of the MBA program. My fellow panelists were Ken Wirt and Megan Shields. Mike Levenhagen moderated the panel.

Megan was very familiar with the world of big consulting and explained the differences between strategy firms such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting, implementation firms such as Accenture, and boutique shops such as her own firm ARGOS Consulting Group.

Ken and I represented the smaller one-person operations. Ken advised the prospective consultants to plan to spend 1/3 of their time on billable activities, 1/3 on business overhead such as billing, and 1/3 of their time networking and selling. This led to a discussion of setting rates, where I pointed out a common model of tripling the typical hourly rate for the same activity when it is done as a fulltime job. For example, if you would make $100,000 as a fulltime employee, you could calculate the consulting rate as follows:
$100,000 / 2000 hours = $50 / hour * 3 = $150 / hour

Don’t forget to factor in the value of benefits!

Some in attendance thought that this seemed high, but Ken was quick to point out that a company will be willing to pay a premium for the flexibility they get by bringing a consultant on for a short-term assignment. The salaried employee is getting the security of a permanent position, while the consultant will have to find work again in a few months.

I want to thank Steve Hawker for inviting me to be a part of the panel. Steve is one of the founders of the club, and obviously a go-getter.

Mini MBA For Free - Thanks TVC!

I spent yesterday morning with about 30 other entrepreneurs, learning about some real-world legal, HR, and funding issues that startups typically face. The program was one of six that Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC) puts on in rotation. The program is free, and they even include a decent continental breakfast! Interestingly, TVC is funded by Lockheed Martin and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The event was hosted by SRI at their headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.

Ralph Kokka, a lawyer with Randick, O’Dea & Tooliatos, started us off with a presentation on the pros and cons of the various forms a business might take, such as LLC, S Corp, and C Corp. He hit the high and low points of each, with a focus on the concerns of startups looking for funding. There were many questions and he did an excellent job of answering them while keeping his presentation moving.

Sherry McVicar then walked us through the most important HR considerations for a startup. She pointed out common pitfalls such as mis-categorizing workers contractor vs. employee or exempt vs. non-exempt. She also explained what benefits are mandatory, and when these requirements kick in. For example:

• All companies must provide leave for jury duty.
• Companies with 5 or more employees must provide pregnancy leave.
• Companies with 50 or more employees must provide family and medical leave.

TVC's very own Ralph Patterson rounded out the day with a presentation entitled “13 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make.” The mistakes that he pointed out were all issues that would keep professional investors from funding a company. The mistakes included:

• Assuming too much debt
• Acquiring too many shareholders too early
• Pitching the product instead of the business
• Too many Powerpoint slides
• Not having a business plan

The event was interesting and informative, and I’ll be back to checkout the other 5 installments:

• Entering the Entrepreneurial World
• Market Research and the Marketing Plan
• Financial Management
• Preparing and Presenting the Business Plan
• Attracting Equity Investors and Lessons Learned

Big thanks to Juan Montermoso, who told me about this event.