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Discussion on: Crowdsourcing a portrait of an ideal manager

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rfbarraza profile image
René Barraza • Edited

A manager should be:

  • Technically adept. Not necessarily the smartest person in the room but experienced enough to know when to trust their reports.
  • Excellent with time management and communicating schedules and vision to their reports while incorporating their feedback.
  • Transformative. Managers should be looking to not only develop products but people. When their reports move on it should not be because their managers are failing them but because their managers have helped them mature and grow for new challenges.

They should not be:

  • Non-technical. How can a manager who is unfamiliar with the nature of their reports' work possibly hope to communicate effectively with them?
  • Paternal. The militaristic "hurry up and wait" and "trust me and I'll insulate you from problems" mafioso attitudes stifle reports abilities to feel vulnerable to incorporate constructive feedback and ultimately stifle creativity.
  • Transactional. Managers who deal both internally with their reports and externally in a tit-for-tat manner are at best selfish and at worst untrustworthy.
  • Inauthentic. Nothing is more frustrating and damaging to trust than a manager who has incongruences between their words and their actions. (And ask/demand you to exhibit the same behavior!)
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ice_lenor profile image
Elena

That's a nice list, thank you, Rene