It starts when you land your first management position.
Suddenly, you’re splitting your time between telling other people what to do
and actually doing stuff yourself. And as you climb further up the chain, the
balance shifts and you spend more and more time managing people, projects,
budgets, and bosses. Then, one day, you realize that the unthinkable has
happened: you’ve been so busy managing a team that you’ve let your hands-on
skills deteriorate.
As you advance in your career, you will frequently hear that
it’s not your hands-on skills, but rather your ability to lead your team to
success that matters. I would never suggest that leadership ability is not
critical to your advancement. It certainly is. But I would also suggest a
supplement: pick a skill and keep it sharp. Keep it razor sharp. Having a
relevant, current, hands-on skill is one of the best things you can do as you
advance your career.
Recruiting Magnet
The single most important thing you need to do as both an
advancing and established manager is to recruit and retain the very best
talent. The best talent always has options and is always looking for the most
engaging, rewarding, and interesting place to work. As a recruiter, you’ve got
to present your organization and — more importantly — yourself as the most
interesting person for whom to work. You need to let your candidates know that
you’re going to challenge them. One of the best ways to do this is to show them
just how much you challenge yourself.
Hands-on technical candidates want to know that their
potential manager is going to give them the opportunity to work with current
technology. What better way to demonstrate that than to be hands-on with
current tech yourself? Candidates want to know that when they get excited about
some new coding design pattern, their boss will engage with them about it.
Furthermore, where are you going to find these very best candidates? Like all
good recruiters, you’ll do best if you meet them where they are. You are far
more likely to find like-minded candidates by staying hands-on with a current
technology, and attending MeetUps and other groups yourself.
Find Something You
Love
I joined The Times Group in 2008 as Corporate Head –
Gujarat, India. I knew nothing about Corporate Culture or anything about
driving Corporate Sales and Content Validation or Communication at Corporate
level. I was just plain good in Motivating and adapting very fast to any
environment. To learn the skills to a new level, I went to Indian Institute of
Management (IIM) – Ahmedabad for a Management Development Program and started
loving every aspect of my role in the Company. Wanting to round out my
development background, I chose to learn Communication Strategies and Men and
Women at Work. It empowered me to excel in my selection of candidates for my
core team. Introductions made for great opportunities to continue that. I not
only learned how to hire Managers and Executives for Corporate team but also to
evaluate their skills.
So I went to IIM – Ahmedabad again and took some classes. I
figured that there might be some students worth considering as candidates and
at the very least, I’d learn a bunch. While it turned out that none of my
fellow students were a good fit, I had learned enough that when I began my
search for a full-time hire, I was able to attract a truly talented PhD-holding
Corporate Strategist who was able to bring our ideas to life.
People Want to Know
Shortly after I joined KForce Inc and was placed in X
Projects at Google Inc, my boss wanted to introduce me to the board of
directors as the newest addition to the team. After giving a bit of preamble
about how important technology is to our mission and how excited he was to have
me on board, he relayed the story of me taking an Corporate Strategy class and
how I had a team that defied odds and was able to work at 110x (x being the
Cost to the Company to maintain the team). His real story to the board was that
he hadn’t just hired another Program manager, but rather someone who is
current, relevant, and would be able to attract talent to push the mission
forward. The board’s reaction was universally approving.
Razor Sharp, Always
It’s an enormously worthwhile endeavor to keep learning new
skills, even if you choose one that you don’t employ in your current gig.
Whether it’s during one-on-one sessions or at a full team lunch, the boss who
can talk turkey is the kind of manager who retains their best talent. If you
can think of this as a hobby and not as work, all the better. Think of the glow
on your face when you tell your friends about your favorite hobby. Now imagine
having that same glow when you are relating your new skills to your colleagues.
It will help you recruit, retain, and relate to the very best candidates. No
matter how high up the technology food chain you get, having a few razor sharp
skills will always pay dividends.
Good Management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive; that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.
Good Management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive; that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.
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