Over the years, I have worked with, for and managed a spectrum of management talent. A good manager can make a huge difference to the bottom line and influence the actions of an entire organization or program. They are at the center of driving business success.
\nYet too often, I still hear phrases like \u201cI am looking for a manager who is an expert in building enterprise Java applications\u201d or \u201cI am looking for a manager who has an MBA from a top notch school and has a track record of managing portfolios worth $X\u201d. While it is important to hire for the job at hand, let\u2019s not lose sight that we live in a fast changing world \u2013 and job descriptions change quickly. I am sure everyone who is reading this was hired to do job A and then transformed themselves into doing a multitude of other things. Hence it becomes critical in our fast paced world to have a lot more than just domain knowledge to excel as a manager.
\nIn conducting the interviews for my book \u2018The Software Soul\u2019, there emerged a set of core traits that set apart truly great leaders.
\n1.\tDomain knowledge, focus and drive
\n\u2022\tA macro understanding of the product, and its business value
\n\u2022\tStrong analytical and problem solving skills
\n\u2022\tCustomer knowledge
\n\u2022\tStrong work ethic, passion and drive
\n2.\tOperational Excellence
\n\u2022\tExcellent project scheduling, tracking and execution
\n\u2022\tCreate balanced product portfolio
\n\u2022\tOptimize resources: use the least number of resources to address maximum number of business needs
\n\u2022\tAbility to forge a path forward in the face of ambiguity
\n3. People and communications skills
\n\u2022\tCreating a strong sense of community and purpose
\n\u2022\tAbility to get individuals working together as a team
\n\u2022\tFostering pride of ownership, creativity and innovation
\n\u2022\tSoliciting concerns and feedback & taking actions
\n\u2022\tAbility to simplify complex ideas and convey that to a team\/executives
\n\u2022\tBeing unbiased and fair<\/p>\n
4. Fit into the leadership ecosystem & Sponsorship
\n\u2022\tGaining the sponsorship of their management
\n\u2022\tConnecting with their peers
\n\u2022\tCollaborating with other teams
\n\u2022\tGaining customer trust
\n\u2022\tAssessing and Navigating office politics <\/p>\n
Managers are most often hired based on their domain knowledge, credentials and operational excellence. They most often fail if they cannot master \u201cPeople and communication skills\u201d and they certainly will not be promoted without \u201cSponsorship or fit into the leadership ecosystem\u201d. If the leaders fail, the teams fail, the projects fail and the organization fails. Recognizing that all these dimensions are important will make a difference in your ability to succeed as a manager.
\nWhat has been your experience in factors that influence management success?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the years, I have worked with, for and managed a spectrum of management talent. A good manager can make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1494,"featured_media":26075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/10-Do-you-have-what-its-takes-to-succeed-as-a-manager-.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26077,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions\/26077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}