3 Managing people, teams, and yourself

 

This chapter covers

  • The importance of managing people, teams, and yourself
  • Career conversations, support, and conflict resolution
  • Focus on goals, morale, and trust
  • How to manage yourself to identify opportunities and acknowledge mistakes
It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have and how you’re led.
—Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple, Inc.

To excel in management, you must thoroughly understand what you oversee. Just as a successful army comprehends its strengths and adversaries in order to strategize, effective management involves understanding and leading three distinct entities: individuals, teams, and oneself. This understanding entails grasping motivations, providing support, and fostering growth, which in turn enhance trust, engagement, and productivity. By matching individual strengths with responsibilities, managers maximize team potential, which leads to higher employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention rates.

Managing a team involves defining goals, boosting morale, setting expectations, building trust, ensuring accountability, and evaluating success. Good management of a team fosters collaboration, innovation, and positive behavior, enhancing performance and enabling the team to achieve its goals. Strong team dynamics also encourage knowledge sharing and mutual support.

3.1 Managing people

3.1.1 Having one-on-one conversations

3.1.2 Supporting junior versus senior engineers

3.1.3 Resolving conflicts between team members

3.1.4 Challenging team members

3.1.5 Leading by example

3.2 Managing teams

3.2.1 Defining team goals, vision, and strategy

3.2.2 Handling morale problems

3.2.3 Building trust and transparency

3.2.4 Convincing teams about dependencies in the team road map

3.2.5 Managing remote teams

3.2.6 Accepting responsibility for your decisions

3.2.7 Evaluating metrics for the team

3.2.8 Avoiding burnout

3.3 Managing yourself

3.3.1 Identifying opportunities

3.3.2 Succeeding as a manager

3.3.3 Recognizing that everyone makes mistakes

3.3.4 Managing emotions and well-being