1. Do Work
Help, I became a manager
(surviving tips)
Thursday, March 24, 2011

2. About Me
• 16 years working in the industry, different technical
areas
• Published articles in magazines, a book and spoke
at conferences (NoSQL:br, QConSP, TDC,
FFFFuuuu Conf)
• Minister for The Church of the Latter-Day Dude
Thursday, March 24, 2011

3. Transition to Management
• Had previous project leadership roles, decided
about being technically focused, no management
career
• Worked on non-trivial projects, where
management was almost not needed
Thursday, March 24, 2011

4. Transition to Management
• Had previous project leadership roles, decided
about being technically focused, no management
career
• Worked on non-trivial projects, where
management was almost not needed
• Opportunity knocked and I already knew that I
cope better w/ my limitations than having a non-A
manager telling me what to do.
• I'm pretty happy to be managed by intelligent
people, on different levels
Thursday, March 24, 2011

5. Management interactions
• * Manager -> Your pairs (other Managers)
• ** Manager -> Board
* should be dealt with by you
** also should not affect your team directly
Thursday, March 24, 2011

6. Management interactions
• * Manager -> Your pairs (other Managers)
• ** Manager -> Board
• *** Manager -> his/her team
• *** Manager -> other teams
* should be dealt with by you
** also should not affect your team directly
*** matters to your team, also their responsibility
Thursday, March 24, 2011

7. Relationship with your pairs
(Other Managers)
• All about collaboration, clear boundaries
• Give recognition to doers
• Give a hard time to lazy/incompetent
• Give ‘clash with reality’
• Draw the line between what you do care
what you don’t
• Knowing (well) your stuff is worth it.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

8. Relationship with your pairs
(Other Managers)
• Give props to doers
• Give a hard time to lazy/incompetent
• Give ‘clash with reality’
Don’t forget that some of them might be in a
MONKEY TRAP
Thursday, March 24, 2011

9. Write that down: Monkey Trap
Thursday, March 24, 2011

10. To make it clear: When a manager fool around, he/
she is about to enter in a world of pain. (Specially if he/
she needs to keep the job but don’t have the skills)
Thursday, March 24, 2011

11. Relationship with your team
• Forget micro management
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentric_bias)
• Work on delegation/accountability
(http://slidesha.re/g6BYth)
• You don’t want Herd Behavior
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_instinct)
• Deal w/ your team as you like to be dealt with: no
BS, no treating like kids. Assume they know what
to do.
• Never, ever, take credit for other people’s work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

12. Relationship with your team
• Forget micro management
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentric_bias)
• Work on delegation/accountability
(http://slidesha.re/g6BYth)
• You don’t want Herd Behavior
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_instinct)
• Deal w/ your team as you like to be dealt with: no
BS, no treating like kids. Assume they know what
to do.
• Never, ever, take credit for other people’s work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

13. Relationship with your team
• Forget micro management
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentric_bias)
• Work on delegation/accountability
(http://slidesha.re/g6BYth)
• You don’t want Herd Behavior
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_instinct)
• Deal w/ your team as you like to be dealt with: no
BS, no treating like kids. Assume they know what
to do.
• Never, ever, take credit for other people’s work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

14. Relationship with your team
• Forget micro management
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentric_bias)
• Work on delegation/accountability
(http://slidesha.re/g6BYth)
• You don’t want Herd Behavior
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_instinct)
• Deal w/ your team as you like to be dealt with: no
BS, no treating like kids. Assume they know what
to do.
• Never, ever, take credit for other people’s work.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

15. Motivation Crash Course
‘The thing is, Bob, it's
not that I'm lazy, it's that
I just don't care. (…)
when I make a mistake, I
have eight different
people coming by to tell
me about it. That's my
only real motivation - not
to be hassled’ – Peter
Gibbons
Office Space - (http://www.imdb.com/title/
tt0151804/quotes?qt0386861)
Thursday, March 24, 2011

16. Management Fallacies
• Agile methodologies, Extreme Programming, TDD,
code review are not what a Manager is about.
• Tools that a team chooses to help their day to day
work
• Roles are not honor badges.
• Don’t waste other people time trying to be an
evangelist of any methodology.
Thursday, March 24, 2011

17. Management Fallacies
Thursday, March 24, 2011

18. A final word on Agile, Tests, OOP,
Lean, ITIL
Thursday, March 24, 2011

19. Hard Work Shuts Mouths
Thursday, March 24, 2011

20. Thanks
@gleicon
http://www.7co.cc
http://zenmachine.wordpress.com
http://github.com/gleicon
Thursday, March 24, 2011