Re^3: Working Solo and in a Team

[afoken]

The other half is always making sure your team is enabled as much as possible to do what they need; that they have necessary resources, equipment, etc., and don't waste their own time having to find ways to do so themselves or otherwise find workarounds.

You are right, and I really forgot that.

I started my first job as an intern, and during the first months, we (the team) noticed that database performance was less than optimal. I googled a little bit, read everyone recommending to use a Sun + Solaris as the base for Oracle, instead of x86 + NT. So I scribbled a three page Powerpoint file, showing the current NT database box as another application server, and a Sun in the center, running Oracle. Expecting nothing but a "nice idea, but we can't afford that" or a "we are a Windows company", I showed my manager that three pages. He asked what that Sun is and what it costs. "Umm, let me google that." A few days later, he told me "your Sun is coming." Imagine my face. I was about to ask "are you kiddin' me?", but he simply ordered that machine and the required software, for a five-digit number. And boy, it was fast! During the next weeks, we reorganized the servers and integrated the Sun, as a wrote in that Powerpoint file. End of performance problems.

Still makes my smile.

I had one manager like this in my career, and God help me I miss him.

I know what you are missing. Same here, for several years.

The other half here is when said manager refuses to accept responsibility for failure and instead blames his subordinates and/or predecessors. I've also had one manager who exhibited these behaviors.

"I'm a genius and always the smartest person in the room ..."

Luckily never met one of those, except perhaps in a failed job interview.

Alexander