Does you manager have skills or are they just there because they have non-manager qualities?
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Before I left, I went through four different managers (I was with the company for roughly 5 years and the management changes all happened in the last two years I was there...which directly corresponds with when SVB joined).
The first was the VP of the group/hiring manager who brought me on - she was good. She hired a manager for our team in roughly the same time period that I started, so I switched over to reporting to him directly shortly after. He was very good.
After several years of having it good (aside from a couple years of having to deal with a horrible lead dev who eventually got the "boot" and landed in different group at WF [sorry to that group btw]), I got re-org'ed onto another team within the same larger group. The new manager was bad - didn't really know what was going on and poor form (both work management and interpersonal wise). The group was split up and I got re-org'ed again and the new manager after that was meh - definitely appeared to be more competent technically and perhaps managerially than the one before but the interpersonal skills were also lacking. You know you have a good manager when you can shoot the breeze with them 25 out of 30 minutes on a 1:1 and still talk about outstanding work issues for the remaining 5.... lol. It's a drag when they start having wear-more-flair-esque "personal development" conversations though.
I was only under the last manager for a couple months before leaving WF for a new job.
Definitely the latter two managers seemed to be more sayers than doers. Whereas the former two were definitely more doers than sayers (or at least did what they said).
Anyway, my current non-WF manager is awesome...lol
I can't remember ever having a manager who was truly helpful in getting the job done. Seems the best we can hope for is a manager who at least isn't a downright roadblock.
If you want to know why a team of people isn't doing well, look at the manager who is holding up progress. Get that person out of the way and I bet that team would do a lot better.
I've heard it said that "people don't quit companies, they quit managers". Maybe not so true with companies like WF, but across most companies I bet it's true.
Managers are mostly extroverts and are energized by being around other people.
IC's are mostly introverts, who perform best if they have peace and quiet within which to focus on their work, and are drained by being around other people.
Current one is ok. Wish he was more technical, but he does get sh-t done. Much better than my last one, definitely not in the great category though.
Nope, d-mb pr--k doesn't know anything but knows everything. He changes policy and procedures to fit his needs.
Have had over 20 different managers in this company. Of that 20, 2 were very good managers, 1 was a good manager, the rest were horrible or worse. The two very good were back to back, which is amazing, considering it's typically 5 managers between the good ones.
Presently on one who got the job when the last very good manager left. Not bad, but not good.
Doesn't really matter if they can or can't as most simply aren't needed. The 80-20 rule fits well here: 20% of managers are monitoring the guardrails and their teams for customer-essential operations; the other 80%'s efforts are spent endlessly justifying why they and their teams are essential to the other 20%'s operations.
Truly either non-value-add or waste.
This is my manager’s first gig as a manager of people, previously managed processes … it (mgr’s preferred pronoun) speaks to the team like they are toddlers. Micromanaging everyone. We have lost over 50% of the team since it was hired as our new manager in January. I am looking for a new role and so are most of my teammates.
My manager has great managerial skills. They are somewhat knowledgeable in the skills/tools we use in our job, but not overly so that they become a horrible micromanager. They largely stay hands off and if we have an issue needing escalation to levels above, they take it and handle the situation. They foster cooperation and not competition. Because of this our team gets along well and has good workflow.
The only management skills I’ve seen here in my 7+ years are the ability to manage up. Managers hide bad news, beat down on their teams to fix it before there’s no hiding it and if, somehow, the acrimony on the team isn’t enough and the bad news does reach the higher levels they blame anyone they can who “didn’t tell them” or “didn’t make it seem serious enough”.
I hate this place and most of the people in it for the above reason. I’m looking for something better - and to leave financial services, am in IT, but I’m not jumping on just anything.