Learn to Manage Your Boss and be Successful
The most important thing to your software development career is the ability to create great code right? Wrong. Although this is important, one of the single most important things to your career is your ability to manage your boss. The relationship you have with your boss is critical to your success, and how far you will go at the company you’re at. Possessing the skills required to “Manage Your Boss” can put you further ahead than anyone else at your company, and in your role within the software development lifecycle.
Raises, promotions, training, books, expense accounts, travel, are all dictated mostly by your boss. Make sure you have the proper skills to manage your software development boss!
5 Things you can do next week to improve your career!
This article will focus on 5 key areas that you can take to improve your career and quality of life by managing your boss better. Managing your boss you say? Yes, that’s right, your boss also needs you to manage them. Do this well and you will get the raise you wanted, the new position you deserve, and be much happier at work. We will focus on:
- Managing your boss’s time
- Keeping your boss in the loop
- Promoting yourself and your projects
- Getting others to promote you
- Never bring up problems without solutions
Manage Your Boss’s Time
Although a good software development manager will always make you feel like you are number one, the reality is the software development manager has a hundred things going on at any given time. If you are having an issue, get it dealt with fast, however do not act as if it is the number 1 issue for the entire company, when the reality might be its only 2% of your boss’s concerns.
What does this mean? Simply, if you have an issue that needs to be addressed, and it is a simple issue, do your homework before taking up a lot of their time. Clearly find what the problem is, what options can be taken to resolve the problem, and your suggested approach. Make sure not to appear scatterbrained and confused when you approach your boss. Make it clear, and keep it to the point.
Complex Issues Require Meetings
If you have a relatively complex problem that needs more time than just a 5 minute conversation, book some time in his or her calendar. A follow up email also works really well explaining “I have booked xxx meeting for xxxx date. I would like to discuss xxx. Below are my notes on the topic. Looking forward to meeting with you.”.
By following this approach, you are not just barging in and taking up 20 minutes, and possibly side tracking something more important, or worse, making something important get brushed off because they had something else already booked. Sending the email with the details of the meeting (which should also go in the meeting request), enables the manager to review the reason for the meeting, and move the meeting up closer if they see it as critical.
Keep Your Boss in the Loop
Most software developers hate creating status reports. This is really unfortunate as it is one of the best times to keep your boss in the loop, and inform them of your achievements. One of the constant fears that flows through the minds of any software development manager is that there employees are falling behind, making mistakes, and not letting anyone know.
In order to manage this “fear”, software development managers will tend to nitpick and ask questions at times on certain tasks. This is done to gain more information, as well as see how quickly and efficiently the questions are answered. An employee that is able to answer questions bang on, and to the point, is looked at as competent, and on track. No further questioning is needed. If an employee asks for questions to be clarified, answers in round about ways, and is unsure of himself and his answers, is seen as incompetent, and requires further follow up and micromanagement.
Another way to avoid the questioning and making yourself seem on the ball, is to send in fantastic status reports! Those status reports are your boss’s direct link into what accomplishments, and failures occurred for you during the week. Take this time to be honest. If things are slipping on the timeline, let your boss know, make suggestions to improve the time line. If you are on track and made some great new technical innovations, show off, and tell the world what you have achieved!
What Does Your Billboard Advertisement Read
If you were a casino on the Las Vegas Strip, and you had a giant billboard, what would that giant billboard on the strip say to attract people to come to your casino over everyone else’s? Sometimes I ask this question in an interview to poll a few things from the candidates. Do they know what they bring to the table, what makes them different?
This is actually a very important point. What does your manager see you as? Your Software Development Boss has so many different things to worry about, you need to make sure that when he thinks of you, he thinks of “Your Billboard”. What makes you, you? Are you the AJAX wizard? Are you the relational database master? Are you the walking dictionary when it comes to c#?
Be Your Own Marketing Machine
One of the most important things you can do to move ahead in your career is to be your own marketing machine. Market yourself to your team and your boss! Pick an area that you will be the expert in, and become the expert! Let people know you are the expert! Create lunch and learns, send out emails with ideas and articles from the Internet. There are roles for everyone at your company, pick your focus, and shine bright!
Market your Tasks and Projects
Just like a good book has chapters, your career’s “chapters” are your projects and assignments. Make sure you have clear title for every chapter, and explain each project or assignment clearly. Make sure that at every status report you report clearly on your projects, and clearly explain how your “area of expertise” assisted in pushing the task/project further.
Get Others to Promote You
Software Developers hardly ever thing of the things I am talking about, so stay with me here! Another thing you must be extremely good at is to get other people that are around your boss, to like you, love you, and see your value. Ideally if you have created a clear message as to who you are, and how you bring value to the company, your next step is to get your Software Development Manager’s friends and meeting buddies to also value you and see you as “The Database Design Genius” for example.
For example, let’s say you are the quality assurance team leader. During your lunch breaks, and meetings, make sure you are always stressing quality issues. Who has tested it, how many bugs are left, have we provided the correct amount of customer training. When you are meeting with financial people such as the CFO or his team members, stress how quality is critical to the business, and explain your background.
Explain how much happier your clients where that all orders are shipping on time now due to 99.9% availability of the new software! Talk to the VP of Manufacturing and explain how the new QA standards you put in place should be helping the production line produce better products, and ask them for new ideas and input!
Never Bring up Problems without Solutions
I love the movie Madagascar, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it’s great! My niece always loves to watch it whenever she comes over. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the penguins are trying to dig their way to China, and instead, only dig their way to another part of the Zoo. The ”Boss Penguin” says “Don’t give me problems, give me solutions!”.
Software Development Managers hate when people come to them with problems, and don’t provide options for solutions. You are hired to solve problems, and come up with solutions. If you see a problem, take time to come up with possible solutions! They could totally be wrong, but just make sure that you have put some thought into some possible solutions! At the very least it gets discussion going, and helps you learn how to solve problems. The more you do this, the better your proposed solutions will get, to the point where your possible solutions will start being correct!
A good exercise is to write out the problem, think of three possible solution, write down the pro’s and con’s to each solution, and then pick the one that you think might work, and list why. If you just start doing this, you might be totally off with all your solutions, but as you continue to go through this process with your manager, you will start to learn how he comes up with the correct solutions. One day you will be able to walk in there, and all three solutions will be great, and the one you picked will be the greatest solution! What a feeling that will give you!
In Closing
A career in Software Development is, in my opinion, one of the best career choices you can make! You get the ability to be a programmer, manager, mentor, team leader, architect, and even a self promoting marketing manager! I hope the tips above help you propel your already successful career to the next level!