[clue-talk] Management and Positions of Power: Fewer IT professional and Engineers?

[rex evans]

Thanks for the varied replies.
When you guys were giving examples, I was
saying "I know that guy and I know that guy." 

The biggest knock on technical people moving
up to a management role: they stay too involved
in detail and cannot see a bigger picture. 
Each of you addressed this.

I checked out 2 audio tapes on management,
authored by James A. Belasco. As a top manager,
he made this kind of mistake, and corrected himself.
He presented this like it was something new.

You guys have affirmed my suspicion that all of us 
little people understand this and have seen examples 
of this, on the job.

Summary:

For a manager, it is a constant trade-off: 
detail versus big-picture. 
(In their own worlds, this is also true of designers
and even programmers.)

If a manager has no knowledge of detail it is 
hard for that manager to make a trade-off.

Furthermore,
such a manager will also have no common experience,
and no common vocabulary with techies. 
The manager will have no sense of "heading for 
big trouble".

A counter argument: 
"The Lead-techy should take care of this".

The Lead-techy is quite often very busy with
the substance of the project, and he may only have
time to raise a red-flag, "It might not take the
load."
 
When the manager has no more technical knowledge 
than the man-on-the-street, L-tech may not have 
time to explain, explore, translate, justify, prove
his position.
If the L-tech took this time, the project might surely
fail, 
so he raises the flag, and goes back to work on the
project.

Have you guys ever been there and done that?

rex





















 
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