Managing Humans Quotes

“My definition of a great manager is someone with whom you can make a connection no matter where you sit in the organization chart.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“One of your many jobs as manager is information conduit, and the rules are deceptively simple: for each piece of information you see, you must correctly determine who on your team needs that piece of information to do their job.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“The difference between a manager who knows what’s going on in an organization and one who is a purely politically driven slimeball is thin. But I would take either of those over some passive manager who lets the organization happen to him.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“A manager’s job is to transform his glaring deficiency into a strength by finding the best person to fill it and trusting him to do the job.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“In order to manage human beings in the moment, you’ve got to be one.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Managers who don’t have a plan to talk to everyone on their team regularly are deluded. They believe they are going to learn what is going on in their group through some magical organizational osmosis and they won’t. Ideas will not be discovered, talent will be ignored, and the team will slowly begin to believe what they think does not matter, and the team is the company.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“in the absence of information, people will create their own.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Stay flexible, remember what it means to be an engineer, and don’t stop developing.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“I hired you because you’ve got enough skill and enough will to have my job one day … whether you want it or not.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Forty-five minutes after the meeting began, I did something I’d never ever done before. I walked out of a meeting where I was a key player because I simply couldn’t waste any more time on this uselessness. Stood up, walked out, and slammed the door. Yes, it’s an emotional move that is almost always a bad move in business, but near the top of my list of professional pet peeves is the following: Do not waste my time.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Reorganizations represent opportunity to those who are unhappy with the state of the current organization. As mentioned above, the moment stakeholders hear that there is a reorg brewing, they start working the grapevine to steer the course of the reorg in their favor. When you combine this fact with people’s love of gossip, you’re guaranteed a big, juicy, drawn-out reorganization.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Project managers don’t write code, they don’t test the use cases, and they’re not designing the interface. You know what a good project manager does? They are chaos-destroying machines, and each new person you bring onto your team, each dependency you create, adds hard-to-measure entropy to your team. A good project manager thrives on measuring, controlling, and crushing entropy. You did this easily when you were a team of five, but if you’re going to succeed at 105, what was done organically now needs to be done mechanically.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“My preference is that the manager is the person who is the bellwether for vision because that’s their job for the group. It’s not just that you know what the team needs, it’s that vision defines career path and you need to know, as early as possible, what it’s going to take to keep a future hire engaged. A strategic isn’t going to be with your team long because you simply don’t move fast enough, whereas a tactical is going to be happy as long as you keep the work relevant and constant.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“The sound that surrounds a successful regimen of one-on-ones is silence. All of the listening, questioning, and discussion that happens during a one-on-one is managerial preventative maintenance. You’ll see when interest in a project begins to wane and take action before it becomes job dissatisfaction. You’ll hear about tension between two employees and moderate a discussion before it becomes a yelling match in a meeting. Your reward for a culture of healthy one-on-ones is a distinct lack of drama.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“The Director’s primary focus is outward. The Director’s job is to figure out how the company fits into and interacts with the rest of the world. Yes, the Director is often the face of the company, but, more important, they are the interface between the company and the world. They are the curator of the vision, because they understand the game board is really just one game board sitting in a world of infinite game boards. Ideally, they are purely strategic. It’s likely they are strong tactically, but they lead with compelling strategy, not efficient tactics. In my experience, Directors tend to be viewed as being a little nuts, and explaining why is one of the reasons I wanted to write this piece. See, pure strategy doesn’t look or feel anything like raw tactics.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“The Lead is tactical, but is showing the first glimmers of strategy. They are beginning to understand the power of delegation, and they are still wrestling with the idea that they have authority. What is familiar to them is the work and the types of people doing the work. When a situation arises relative to these areas, The Lead acts authoritatively and quickly because they understand deeply.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Business is noisy because there is always stuff to do, and the process of doing stuff is called tactics. It’s tactical work, and while tactics are progress, the real progress is made when we get strategic. A productive one-on-one is one where we talk strategically about how we do stuff, but more importantly, how we might do this stuff better.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Busy feels great, but busy is usually tactical, not strategic. If you have time in which you’re investing in yourself while at work, and your boss is cool with it—give yourself a point.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“As I’m listening to the answer, I’m discerning your mood, and I’m throwing you into one of three buckets regarding the type of one-on-one we’re about to have: The Update (all clear!) The Vent (something’s up . . .) The Disaster (oh dear . . .)”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Your job in a one-on-one is to give the smallest voice a chance to be heard, and I start with a question: “How are you?”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“What is a manager learning in a one-on-one? Much of what you’re talking about in a one-on-one your manager already knows. You’re concerned about the reorg, right? Well, everyone is and he’s already talked to four other people about their concerns. You think the field engineers are a bunch of twits? So does he. A good manager has his finger on the pulse of their organization and the one-on-one usually echoes much of that pulse, so why is he carving out 30 minutes for every person on his team?”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“You need to go out of your way to make this happen, but it only need be a small gesture. A brief one-on-one moment where you acknowledge this person is relevant. More than a fly-by “bye” on your last day. Less than a tearful hug in the hallway.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“No matter where you are in your career, you need to continually develop your network of people because it’s likely that one of these three people will assist in future employment or opportunity. I’ve been in high tech for coming up on two decades, and every single job I’ve had has either been a direct or indirect result of knowing someone from a prior job. You’ll hear the phrase, “It’s a small valley.” It’s a small world.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“In addition to trusting those who work for you by delegating work that you may truly believe only you can do, you must also understand the art of evaluating a Spartan set of data, extracting the truth, and trusting your Twinges.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“better is the enemy of done.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Delivering (again) is not going to quench discontent in your team, but it’s going to give everyone involved a chance to speak up, and that should push your management karma toward motivator and away from tyrant.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“They were designed to appease the folks who had just yelled at us, and while my confidence was shaky, I knew it was time to say no again—to them and to the executive team that wanted a quick turnaround. “No, we’re not going for mediocre. No, no one wants us to do me-too design. And, no, we’re not done with this roadmap until it’s something that inspires everyone in the room.” Now, the difference between me standing up in my office and giving a speech on inspirational product roadmaps and a manager who’s flirting with Crazy Town because of an executive beat-down is slim, but therein lies the art. Saying no is saying “stop,” and in a valley full of people who thrive on endless movement, the ability to strategically choose when it’s time to stop is the sign of a manager willing to defy convention.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“My advice for maintaining an engineering mindset: 1. Use the development environment to build the product. 2. Be able to draw a detailed architectural diagram describing your product on any whiteboard at any time. 3. Own a feature. 4. Write unit tests.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“I’m still cringing. Someone is already yelling at me, “Managers owning features?!?!” (And I agree.) You are still a manager, so make it a small feature, OK? You’ve still got a lot to do. If you can’t imagine owning a feature, my backup advice is to fix some bugs. You won’t get the joy of ownership, but you’ll gain an understanding of the construction of the product that you’ll never get walking the hallway.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

“Just like delegation, the act of navigating politics in an organization is slippery. The difference between a manager who knows what’s going on in an organization and one who is a purely politically driven slimeball is thin. But I would take either of those over some passive manager who lets the organization happen to him. Politically active managers are informed managers. They know when change is afoot and they know what action to take to best represent their organization in that change.”
― Michael Lopp, Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager