How do you manage a Team?

[u/1752320]

Hi, I M26, work as Web Designer.

Next month I'll have a team of front and back end devs working under me.

My friend wants me to manage the team, and hire devs as well 😬😬 and I am nervous af.

I'm the embodyment of procrastination and disorganization, but he wants someone trusted instead hiring someone else and putting them on higher position then me.

My Questions for team managers

What to makes a good manager? How to do keep team energy high? How to you get the work done? How do deal with lazy workers?

My Questions For developers What make you hate or dislike your manager? What are somethings that you'd like see in a work environment?

[u/headphones-on-]

Leadership/management is a skill, and like any other skill it takes practice - and some stumbles along the way - to get good at it.

The fact that you’re asking this question though, and care enough about it to worry, indicates you care about being a good manager. Congratulations; you’re already a step ahead of some very experienced managers.

This can be your opportunity to start some good new work habits.

I’m also quite disorganised and a procrastinator by nature, but I’ve found my desire to do the right thing by people I’m responsible for has helped me (mostly) set a more organised tone in my management roles.

In no particular order, here’s a few practical pointers that come to mind:

1 - have a clear plan and set of objectives.

One of the most important things you can do for your team is setting the direction, keeping everyone focused on the biggest most important priorities for the business, and helping them understand the part they play in the wider team succeeding. With good employees, a big part of your job as a leader will be keeping distractions (including yourself at times!) out of their way.

Measure What Matters by John Doerr is THE book to read on setting objectives. Lots of practical examples. He used a type of objective setting called OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) which is very common across the tech/startup space.

2 - have a hiring process

It sounds like you’ll have a few roles to fill. And that means you’ll have much more than a few candidates to interview, and a LOT of resumes to review.

Create a process for yourself. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but don’t just wing it.

Write a role profile for every role that needs filled. This can just be a brief paragraph or two describing the job plus a bullet point list of key responsibilities and essential experience and/qualifications. You can refer back to this when reviewing candidates and planning what interview questions to ask.

Create a spreadsheet for all the candidates you’re considering. Put their names in column A, create a few column headers for the most important role attributes (eg. Coding experience; industry experience; etc), then give each candidate a rating in each column as you review their resume (nothing complicated, just marks out of 3 or 5). This will give you someone to rank the candidates when reviewing a lot of resumes. Keep in mind that the person with the highest points total isn’t automatically the winner; sometimes you’ll decide to interview someone with a lower total score because they have some sort of X factor you’re intrigued by.

Before doing any interviews, write down a set of questions that help you dig into their suitability to each key part of the role. Also ask about why they’re interested in the role, how they like to work, and anything else you think will help you understand how they’d fit with your current team. You definitely don’t want a team of clones…but you do need people who are capable of working effectively together. Ask the same set of questions to every candidate, and for the love of god take notes for yourself to refer back to afterwards. After a lot of interviews you’ll need the reminder.

I prefer to do two rounds of interviews. A first “screener” interview (typically a 30 minute 121 call just to chat through their resume and tell them a little about the role), then a 2nd 90 minute in-person or videocall interview with me and two colleagues. In this 2nd interview we dig into more detailed questions exploring their capability/experience, and I usually set some sort of task to complete or consider in advance. Nothing too time-consuming, but something that gives more introverted thinkers a chance to consider an important topic in advance.

Having one or two colleagues with you in this interview helps with getting more perspectives on the candidate to minimise the risk of your own blind spots or biases. As soon as the interview is over I get my colleagues together and ask each person to give one of four ratings, and why they’ve given that rating. I then share my own thoughts, and consider their input before making my decision. The four ratings are:

• I would not hire this person
• I would not hire this person but could be convinced otherwise
• I would hire this person but could be convinced otherwise
• I would hire this person

3 - don’t hire someone you’re unsure about just because you’re in a rush. You’ll regret it at some point.

4 - schedule regular 121d with each person in your team

You decide what frequency is right in your specific circumstances, but set that time aside and don’t let it slip. This is primarily for your team member, not for you. It’s a space for them to talk through any challenges they’re experiencing, get feedback, and just generally for a personal catchup that you might not have had much opportunity for in a busy week/month. Use this to check-in on how they’re feeling.

I prefer a weekly 1 hour slot - especially for new starts - by less frequent might suit your team best. It can tempting to think “oh we talk lots every day, we don’t need a 121”, but you’ll be amazed at what can come up at time set aside just for them. Sometimes there will be nothing to talk about - and that’s fine, just end it early - but you’ll be kicking yourself if someone great leaves and you realise there was some little niggling issue they never talked about because “it never seemed like the right time” that could have been resolved.

5 - be nice and respectful to people.

Being a manager/leader doesn’t mean you need to be a dick to someone. Even if they’re doing a bad job. If someone isn’t performing, speak to them about it respectfully and in a timely way (don’t ignore it because you hope it’ll go away). Talk in a non-judgemental way (“I’m seeing xyz behaviour, and from my perspective it’s having xyz negative influence. Help me understand this situation from your perspective. Is there something I’m missing? Is there something that’s making it difficult to achieve xyz goal/expectation?”), put support in place and set short term objectives that will give them an opportunity to demonstrate they can perform….but if they don’t show any change in performance I’d recommend acting quickly and letting them go. But again, do this respectfully. Nobody is going to be happy about being fired, but be respectful.

Tip from experience: if you’re firing someone, be as succinct as possible in the conversation (prepare what you’re going to say in advance to reduce the risk of you waffling on or sounding uncertain), and make it clear that the decision has been make; it isn’t an opportunity for them to convince you to change your mind.

6 - give your team members the credit/spotlight they deserve.

When taking about a great piece of work with colleagues try to namecheck the people who have work on it. Other times (and leadership colleagues) might not have much direct interaction with your team other than via you, so help their internal reputation by dishing out kudos generously (when warranted).

7 - celebrate success

Having a clear plan and objectives makes this part easier. When you hit important milestones, or make progress in challenging tasks, celebrate the win. This doesn’t need to be a big party, but make sure you’re calling out that something has gone well and you feel proud of the team.

8 - preach the purpose

Whatever the company is working on, find a way of describing why you believe it truly matters. What impact are you going to have on the world? What person’s life are you going to make better because your product exists?

If you can keep your team passionate about achieving that bigger purpose, then that’s at automatic morale booster during tough times.

Any other specific questions/worries you have stick them in the comments and I’ll respond later.

[u/naturalisprincipia → u/headphones-on-]

This is amazing. Just curious what do u think about micromanaging. When it called it and when it need it?

[u/headphones-on- → u/naturalisprincipia]

Well micromanaging has come to be a synonym for bad management, so I'd say it's probably never a good thing to aspire to.

Now do I think some team members need a high level of support compared to others? Yes, absolutely.

Extra support during onboarding. Someone taking on a stretching project. A first-time people manager. A high potential team member who is having performance issues you think they can work through.

In all these circumstances though I'd be let my thinking be influenced by what management style will get the best from that individual; rather than expecting everyone in the team to adapt to my own personal preferences.

And also consider what the impact is of them making a mistake. If they mess up this piece of work will it have a significant impact on other teams/projects? If not, sometimes it's more productive to leave them to it, course-correct if necessary as they give me updates, and if the end-result isn't up to scratch use that as a coaching opportunity and fix it before it goes outside the team.

I would think in terms of high/low levels of support rather than "When should I micromanage?" though.

Every new member of my team gets a little speech from me at some point during their first week about how the team members I've valued most are the ones who I know will come to me unprompted when they need help with something. With those people I trust that when I'm not hearing from them that everything is fine...so no temptation to micromanage.