[Sigia-l] What happened to the good IAs

[Stephen Collins]

On 23/06/2007, at 2:45 PM, Ziya Oz wrote:
> Eric Scheid:
>> We don't want the managers actually *doing* our work, do we?
>
> Yes, we want managers who
> A)  can do our work
> B)  have done our work
> C)  will do our work if/when needed
> D)  enjoy our work so they stay up-to-date with trends
> E)  are designers
>
> We don't managers who are clueless about what we do save for a book  
> or a
> seminar, who have no sense, sensibility or interest in our work,  
> who are
> unable or uninterested in mentoring those of us who do the work,  
> who can't
> promote us within the organization because they don't quite grok  
> what we do.

Actually, I'd suggest what we actually want is management who  
understand their own limitations and are prepared to actively defer  
to their expert staff when and as appropriate.

One of the best managers I've ever worked for was responsible for the  
set of web sites belonging to a fairly large governments department  
here.  He was a professional *manager*.  Knew very little about the  
web, but did know:

- what he didn't know
- how to shield his staff from senior management interference
- who was responsible for what and when
- who to turn to on his team to get expert views to present to senior  
management
- how to delegate responsibility for delivering to the right people  
rather than the *wrong people*
- how to communicate up, down and across the organisation

The guy was a dream to work for.

My $0.02.  YMMV.

Steve
--
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