If communication was the key skill needed to be a great manager, it would imply that great managers could parachute in to run any old team, as long as they were able to communicate well.
But the best managers don’t just communicate their decisions; they need to exercise judgment and expertise to make good decisions in the first place. And making good decisions requires understanding your technology/product/team very well, which all go far beyond communication.
In your other point though, I‘ve seen highly effective managers who didn‘t understand much of what the team was doing technically, because the were able to build trust among everyone involved in major processes.
And advocating for yourself is just doomed to fail. But that doesn't mean you don't have a voice. You do, for others; due to the nature of how advocating works.
For example, if a manager is in a project allocation meeting and sees a project that would help their reports reach their career goals, the manager should be "advocating" for the project to be assigned to their team.
As a manager I take notes throughout the year WITH my staff to capture what they worked on, how they grew, and all that stuff. If there are stumbles along the way we capture those too. It just makes it easier to then show the higher ups how consistently good a person is (or not in some cases). The self eval is less of an exercise in futility of reminding the boss what you did but an opportunity for staff to reflect on their growth.
Every Friday morning, my company has a meeting for the teams to explain what they've worked on that week. Every Thursday afternoon, my manager asks me what I've worked on that week.
So when I do something, I have to explain that I did it at least three times:
1. In Jira. 2. In daily standup. 3. Every Thursday to my manager. 4. Sometimes in Slack, because no one reads Jira comments unless they're pointed to in Slack.
These days our 1 on 1's barely last 5 minutes, it's like we do it as a formality. She is even afraid of talking to me and the worst bit is that I cannot change teams because of the PIP. Plus it's a bad job market. never been this dammned
Then I became a team lead and a people manager. Nobody told me squat. I decided bonuses and performance rating freely. I entered them directly into the system.
All the HR stuff was all a lie.
Left soon after when I was held back (without pay increase) while other engineers with less experience and significantly fewer accomplishments were fast tracked for promotions while I was held back.
I’ve learned two things over the years:
- raises/promotions in the same company never happen, even when overdue
- switching companies can mean more pay, better environment, and wider skill set — all at the same time.
It’s really surprising how many disadvantages there are at staying at the same place for > 5-10 years.
I’m also shocked at how little companies value length of tenure. Someone in the same project for 3-4 years is infinitely more productive than someone working on it for 1-2. Yet, companies (and including project managers) really don’t care.
I always worried about getting into something worse than my current job. (Other than compensation, I was happy with coworkers and the type of work. ) But each time I switched, I was wiser and avoided making such mistakes.
Of course, each company I’ve joined often took a nose dive within a few years. Some didn’t work out as long as I hoped. Others survived far longer than I expected.
In contrast, the people with 20 years at the same company are so pigeonholed with outdated skills that they are virtually unemployable anywhere else…
1. Senior management had no clue how to hire middle managers. Literally one hundred percent were selected as a promotional reward to the best performing employee. Almost always a person who had no prior management experience. And there was no training.
2. Senior management demanded obedience and loyalty. If there were performance issues, they wanted the person fired. If too many people were fired, then that was the middle manager's fault. In the end, if you didn't have people on performance plans, you weren't being tough enough. But if you ended up having turnover, you were going to be fired yourself.
charles_f•5mo ago
At this point, I'd take someone somewhat capable and behaving like a human over most things.