Management Styles

It's been interesting to see the different styles of management I've experienced since I started working.

I was sort of thrown into a project at my first job and didn't really have a manager for the first few few months. After I was assigned to a real team though, I found out that the guy sitting in the cubicle next to me (and who started a few weeks after I did) was going to be my new manager. I also found out that he had never really been a project lead before. Needless to say, I was skeptical of his leadership abilities and unfortunately that didn't change much over time. He knew his technologies pretty well but I think that clouded his judgment a lot and also closed his mind to suggestions by others.

My second manager was actually another programmer on the previous team. When the first company split into a commercial offshoot, he was promoted to be a project lead. We worked together pretty closely before (bonded more by our dislike of the management style of the former lead than perhaps anything else), and so the new structure worked out pretty well. I can see how in some situations there could be a lot of bitterness concerning the promotion since we both worked at the company for essentially the same amount of time, but that wasn't the case at all. I felt the team ran a lot smoother since he knew both our strengths and weaknesses and ideas were more free-flowing than before.

At my current company, the management structure is actually pretty similar to my co-op at IBM back in college. I have a manager and then a project lead. My main interactions with my manager have been personnel-related (timesheets, performance evaluations, etc.), and all of my tasks have been assigned by the project lead. Although I haven't worked with my manager much, everyone has said that he's an incredibly hard worker and very open to the opinions of others. I've seen the same thing in my project lead.

People become managers for different reasons and take different paths to get there. However, from my own experiences, the most effective teams have leaders who are willing to listen to everyone's opinion and want to consider all options before moving forward. The most effective leaders are those that set an example by working hard themselves and offering their own innovative opinions.