Problems of transition to middle managers
Good afternoon, dear readers. In this post I will try to show the frequent problems of a person’s transition from a programmer to a middle manager (head of a small department) and how to deal with them. Who cares - welcome.
Today I can safely say - I am a middle manager. The transition period has already passed, it officially sounds differently in a position and actually does a completely different job than some time ago. But what difficulties I had to face in these couple of years, which was not enough, why I began to treat problems a little differently - let’s know more here.
At once I will make a reservation that I work in a large company, therefore business processes are far from being at the initial level, and the bureaucracy is taking place.
Probably the most difficult part of the transition is that your work does not bring a direct result: there is neither a working code, nor a satisfied user, and you spend time on communication and paperwork. For me, it was just a crisis of faith, and although I am not a programming guru, I could do almost everything that was required of me. And then such a bummer, this area of your skills is not needed. During the transition, I found an outlet in two things: first, I quietly programmed in my spare time and second, I sat with new programmers and forced them to rewrite code that I thought was unsuccessful, a bit selfish, but it helped me a lot.
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In the work of a manager, this is one of the most important qualities and he had to be dramatically developed. The programmer most often communicates with his team, a pair of supervisors and related specialists. The manager's communication circle is much broader and one must be able to speak with different people, and the client, the bosses and your team are just the tip of the iceberg. Much more surprises and interesting events are connected with other people. For example, go to the next department and ask one person for help for a week (our crisis) or think how to congratulate an employee on his anniversary, including corporate resources. I think this problem is a cornerstone for many programmers, because communication is often difficult for them, and everyone has their own discussion skills, a degree of arrogance and charm, the ability to start and keep up the conversation in the right direction. If you do not have at least a part of the desire to develop in each item, then such work is not for you.
I did not specifically say in the vein “I don’t have enough time, I don’t have time for anything,” because more often this phrase is a question of perception, and not a real problem. And the tasks must be set in such a way that they can be done (we are not talking here about goals, but specifically about tasks). You can do anything, but it is very difficult to do it all on time (do not forget about a few meetings, about the questions you were asked and want to get an answer in sane time). Still keep abreast of and follow the main business process, or stop - maybe this is the main business process - be ready to answer any question. In general, it was hard, neither the planners nor the reminders helped, the colleagues got angry, then they cursed, then they complained to the authorities, until finally a few rules were worked out that helped me. There are a lot of articles on time management on the Internet, each of which, I hope, helped someone, the main thing is to find something that will help you.
The manager is responsible for the project, for the team, and if something goes wrong, then you begin to worry. There were moments when I slept poorly, when I drank to relieve tension, but as it turned out, time heals everything. After a couple of crises and a year of such work it became much easier. Now I am calm and from the side I can seem like a thick-skinned hippo who cannot be pierced. But you just have to tell yourself - if I survived that thing, then this one is generally little things in life. And then solve the problem, not being distracted by emotions. There are people who left the project management precisely because of unnecessary hassle, and this was the right decision, since a person should not go against his nature. Be able to stop and transfer to another car, if it is better for you.
To summarize, I didn’t tell everything that had accumulated, many aspects were not touched upon, but these 4 problems were the most difficult and, perhaps, if they were solved, the rest could also be overcome.
Today I can safely say - I am a middle manager. The transition period has already passed, it officially sounds differently in a position and actually does a completely different job than some time ago. But what difficulties I had to face in these couple of years, which was not enough, why I began to treat problems a little differently - let’s know more here.
At once I will make a reservation that I work in a large company, therefore business processes are far from being at the initial level, and the bureaucracy is taking place.
Problem number 1 - I stopped creating
Probably the most difficult part of the transition is that your work does not bring a direct result: there is neither a working code, nor a satisfied user, and you spend time on communication and paperwork. For me, it was just a crisis of faith, and although I am not a programming guru, I could do almost everything that was required of me. And then such a bummer, this area of your skills is not needed. During the transition, I found an outlet in two things: first, I quietly programmed in my spare time and second, I sat with new programmers and forced them to rewrite code that I thought was unsuccessful, a bit selfish, but it helped me a lot.
')
Problem number 2 - Communication with people
In the work of a manager, this is one of the most important qualities and he had to be dramatically developed. The programmer most often communicates with his team, a pair of supervisors and related specialists. The manager's communication circle is much broader and one must be able to speak with different people, and the client, the bosses and your team are just the tip of the iceberg. Much more surprises and interesting events are connected with other people. For example, go to the next department and ask one person for help for a week (our crisis) or think how to congratulate an employee on his anniversary, including corporate resources. I think this problem is a cornerstone for many programmers, because communication is often difficult for them, and everyone has their own discussion skills, a degree of arrogance and charm, the ability to start and keep up the conversation in the right direction. If you do not have at least a part of the desire to develop in each item, then such work is not for you.
Problem number 3 - all have time on time
I did not specifically say in the vein “I don’t have enough time, I don’t have time for anything,” because more often this phrase is a question of perception, and not a real problem. And the tasks must be set in such a way that they can be done (we are not talking here about goals, but specifically about tasks). You can do anything, but it is very difficult to do it all on time (do not forget about a few meetings, about the questions you were asked and want to get an answer in sane time). Still keep abreast of and follow the main business process, or stop - maybe this is the main business process - be ready to answer any question. In general, it was hard, neither the planners nor the reminders helped, the colleagues got angry, then they cursed, then they complained to the authorities, until finally a few rules were worked out that helped me. There are a lot of articles on time management on the Internet, each of which, I hope, helped someone, the main thing is to find something that will help you.
Problem number 4 and probably the worst - Nerves
The manager is responsible for the project, for the team, and if something goes wrong, then you begin to worry. There were moments when I slept poorly, when I drank to relieve tension, but as it turned out, time heals everything. After a couple of crises and a year of such work it became much easier. Now I am calm and from the side I can seem like a thick-skinned hippo who cannot be pierced. But you just have to tell yourself - if I survived that thing, then this one is generally little things in life. And then solve the problem, not being distracted by emotions. There are people who left the project management precisely because of unnecessary hassle, and this was the right decision, since a person should not go against his nature. Be able to stop and transfer to another car, if it is better for you.
To summarize, I didn’t tell everything that had accumulated, many aspects were not touched upon, but these 4 problems were the most difficult and, perhaps, if they were solved, the rest could also be overcome.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/202534/
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