A Guide for Technical Managers

CPTE 433John Beckett

UpperManagement

TechnicalManagement

TechnicalPerson

Customers

OtherManagement

GoalsDeadlinesBudgets

AppreciationCohesivenessResourcesAccomplishment

Steps On the Path

• Workflow system– Connects with processes

• Manage other technicians– Create and maintain a team– Promote and keep customer-orientation

• Take on cognate tasks– Contract renewals if you are a service provider– Telephones – natural but beware of black hole– Other services (e.g. mail, copiers, FAX, A/V)– Medicare example at LCCA

Management Tasks

• Plan• Organize• Direct• Control

Morale

• Simply being nice to people is a good start.• Pay attention to their needs

– Whether expressed or not– Careful: don’t invade privacy

• Some people are different than you are– Accommodate without pigeonholing– Be prepared to change your perception

• Their work is not their whole life– But it is an important part– Look at the entire compensation “package”

Hersey/Blanchard Matrix

Task-Oriented Behavior

Rel

atio

nshi

p-O

rient

ed B

ehav

ior

Tell

ExplainParticipate

Delegate

Unable and unwilling or

insecure

Unable but willing or

confident

Able but unwilling or

insecure

Able & willing &

Confident

http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/sitleader.htm

Hersey/Blanchard Matrix (Restated)

• Tell• Delegate

• Explain• Participate

Able but Unwilling

or Insecure

Unable but

Willing or

Confident

Unable and

Unwilling or

Insecure

Able & Willing & Confiden

t

Task-Oriented Behavior

Rel

atio

nshi

p-O

rient

ed B

ehav

ior

Removing Roadblocks

• Organizational “administrivia”• Lack of commitment from other

players– Promise/Performance cycle

• Misunderstandings between players• Resource shortages• Need for training• Analysis errors

Rewards

• Take notes on what each person considers a reward

• Given before the event, a reward is unlikely to elicit enhanced performance– …unless the reward facilitates the event– …in which case, was it a reward or was it needed?

• Some “rewards” are appreciated differently– Trip to a meeting– Laptop / PDA / Smart Phone– Plaque (forget certificate!)

• Monetary rewards have temporary effect– May become ordinary/expected

Rewards That Work

• Not necessarily expensive• Necessarily tailored to individual

– Duh…recognize individual’s accomplishment• Examples:

– Change in responsibilities– Pat on the back (be sensitive to individual

preferences)– Something on the wall– Money

Rewards That Bite

• Perceived as unfair• Perceived as nothing but a way to

get more work out of people

Reward Money

• One-time bonus– Has immediate effect on morale– Costs you once– Temporary effect on person’s self-concept

• Pay rate increase– Has immediate effect on morale– Costs you forever (x14 rule of thumb)– Temporary effect on person’s self-concept– “Golden handcuffs”

Reports

• Your SA staffers don’t want to “waste” time preparing reports to you

• Make the reporting function part of your ticketing system

• Beware of trivial updates that keep an issue off your radar

Morning Staff Meetings

• Regular meetings– Opportunity for people to bring things up– Respect peoples’ time

• Morning is good:– Incentive to get it over so we can get on task– Happens after people have “slept on it”– Before people “do it”

• Morning is bad:– Somebody worked late last night– They probably have info the rest of us need– At least one of your best performers “just isn’t a morning

person”– Drives system demand into in the afternoon– Customers tend to increase in the afternoon

Afternoon Staff Meetings

• Afternoon is good– Everybody is here by now– Frees system response during a peak time

• Afternoon is bad– Everybody is in the middle of something– Somebody’s going to have to get back to

their task after the meeting– Somebody else will think they ought to

take the rest of the day off

Fairness

• Sorry, the world isn’t fair• Sometimes the best you can do is give

everybody a chance• Beware of favoritism

– Note any feedback you get indicating people think you play favorites (but don’t panic, compensate, or overreact)

– If somebody starts with “of course…”, draw their idea out

– Find a contribution to cite from each person• If the situation is bad, start with the worst

performer• You may have to get creative

– Don’t forget to recognize hard workersAre you feeding your problems

and starving your solutions?

Somebody is the “bad guy”

It’s part of the responsibility, to be the person insisting on things somebody doesn’t like.

• Example: The beard• Example: Unauthorized software• Example: Re-imaging• Example: Fraudulent calls

Evaluations

• Yearly evaluation is a (good) tradition• What does it mean?• How much input should the employee have

on what goes into it?– At a minimum, they should be able to tell their

side of the story– Better: they should be the primary source of info

with you querying them about what is going in– Good time for them to tell about something that

went well• Excellent time to discuss career plans

What About the Top SA?

• What do you do about the SA who is at the top of their craft?

• Have them contribute to the industry– Perhaps even to the standards we use– Can you use this to improve your market position?

• Have them create design for larger projects you are doing

• Ask them to look into what we should do next• Is this person key to your company’s

competitive future? Don’t lose them!

Beware of: “She’s your most expensive worker.”

Vision

• Balance between keeping this thing going and thinking about where you’re headed next.

• Is this the time to change?• Get vision ideas from all

– Take responsibility for leadership– Enable participation– Clarify roles

Let People Fail

• Sometimes people can learn only from failure

• Who will clean up the mess?• Dilemma: Is the failure you see

ahead worse than the cost of having to continue doing something yourself in the future if you take over the responsibility this person isn’t handling?

Career Paths

• The organization works better overall when each person is at maximum effectiveness.

• What if a person meets your needs, but could do something better for themself?– Maybe they would be handy in that position,

with good memories about working for you• EGW quotes often bewail people trying for

higher position– Should not be used to prevent people from

advancing ability

Non-Technical Peers

• Use analogies they understand– Make sure these analogies are robust– Expect them to extend the analogies

• Back them up in this effort

• Respect their competencies• Use their help• Fulfill your promises

“New Director” p842

• If a disconnect arises between management and a department, the first thing that goes is usually management’s understanding of the department’s real strengths

• So: If you are placed in charge of a department, begin by understanding both management perceptions and the department’s perceptions

Competitive Advantage

• What is it that makes your company win against the competition? (Core competence)– Feed it

• What is it that makes your unit indispensable to the company’s core competence?– Do it consistently– Improve it

Keeping Employees

• Organizational competence can come as easily from aggregate effectiveness, than from individual competence

• Long retention is good if attitudes are good

• “Get out more” – capture lessons from other companies

Priorities

1

2

3

4

Impact

Eff

ort

Low

HighLowHigh

Fig. 28.1

Do You Really Need to Do This?

Perhaps Start With a Smaller Project

• Consider Dave Ramsey’s “snowball” method for getting out of debt– Start with the smallest credit card bill, then roll up to

the largest– Use resources you free up to deal with larger issues– This works because most debt is a confidence/attitude

issue, not an actual shortage of money• If confidence is an issue, start with a do-able

project• Use that project to test and refine techniques

you’ll use on a larger project• This is a way to get started on a new technology

Buy Versus Build

Advantages Disadvantages

Buy complete solution Saves time/money if this is an unconnected or loosely connected project

May not do things your company’s way (hmm…is your company’s way needing re-study?)

Integrate or customize- Driven by product

Somebody else has thought this through

May not fit your needsMay require lots of work

Glue products together- Use products as tools

Don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”, but still have control of how it works

Products may not play well togetherNo single source of success

Build from scratch Fine-tuned to your needs

May institutionalize your shortcomings

The Priority Dilemma

• If you use static priority assignments as described in figure 33.1, low-impact high-effort tasks will never get done.

• Possible cure: Recognize the dynamic nature of both impact and effort:– Is it harder to do now or later?

• It could be either way!– If we don’t do it now, what will be the

impact later?• The problem might go away, get worse, or

cause “thermonuclear” secondary effects

Beckett’s take on “Best Practices”

• You’ll do as well as you understand of what somebody else is willing to tell about.

• Serves as a double-check for areas in which you are less than competitive.

• Doesn’t necessarily help you advance beyond them.

• Good source for ideas that, if applied appropriately and thoroughly understood, can leapfrog you past the competition.

By the way, who decided these were “best?”

Make the Team Stronger• Collaborate on larger projects• Write conference papers together• Social events

– Have secretary arrange– Don’t waste a lot of staff meeting time

planning, use a small task force– Remember the person who’s stuck back

at the office• Rotate or do something special?

Develop Yourself

• Keep on top of the technology• Develop your own career

– Education is a key• Do something you enjoy

– Don’t let it take over your time– Perhaps it’s better for it to be an

external hobby• Participate in the operation of your

church congregation or other volunteer organization

Conclusion

• We are all “executives” because we actually do (execute) tasks.

• We are all “managers” because we relate to other people.

• We are all “technicians” because we cannot escape the technology around us.