How did you become a manager?
Were you an excellent artist, designer or engineer that was promoted to management? Or did you seek out a leadership position from the start, knowing that you wanted to be of service to others, or because it was a no-brainer to ambitiously climb the ladder?
I don’t expect anyone to answer the last question, as it’s totally unfair. Most western societies respect someone rising up the chain of command, regardless of the method. I’ll talk about psychopaths in a later post, as that’s a whole pile of hurt that affects us all.
A few years back, Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, ran a poll on his website to identify the biggest problem facing corporate America. The overwhelming response, which made international news coverage, was “Idiots being promoted to management.”
Hmm.
I was never a good developer. I only learned as much code as I needed to tinker with my first software company’s database in order to help clients meet their business needs and repair corrupted datasets. I learned the basics of HTML because, well, it’s kinda like typing, just add some brackets to do what you want. I’m certainly not a good artist. My drawings are amateurish, though I love making them and they crack me up. I’m a competent writer, and I love writing narrative, so I do a lot of that in my spare time.
However, I was groomed through time in the cadets and the army to be a leader/manager, whether I wanted to or not. I don’t consider myself to be a great leader, but I’m aspiring to be one some day. Regardless of your thoughts on the military, it taught me some good ideas on leadership that I’ve brought to every management position I’ve been in, albeit adjusted to do away with all the yelling, shooting and other non-essential military stuff.
NOT ABOUT YOUR CAREER ANY MORE
The first concept I learned was to forget my own career, and focus on that of my team. This sounds completely counter-intuitive, but it actually serves to propel your career forward. The reason is simple. If a whole team looks good, so does their manager. Higher-ups notice this.
Second was to follow the 10 Principles of Leadership I learned at military school. Here are the first five, and some real-world applications.
PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP
1. Achieve professional competence.
For me, this means constant learning about project management, people management, software design/game design/requirements design (UML FTW!) and learning the business model of every company I work with. I still think casual games and Android make no fiscal sense for game industry longevity, but I’m willing to admit I’m wrong. The jury is still out on those.
2. Appreciate your own strengths and weaknesses, and constantly pursue self-improvement.
Once you gain a big chunk of knowledge about one area, and people look up to you, overconfidence strikes and it’s hard not to think you’re an expert at everything.
You’re not.
New medical doctors, MBAs and Ph.Ds make this mistake a lot, and so do newly-promoted managers. It’s called the God complex. You assume that because you are an expert in one area, you are an expert in all areas.
Again, you’re not.
I made this mistake as a newly promoted manager. Did you? I also know that I’m a glutton for praise, but I’ve forced myself to re-direct that praise to the team, and I therefore don’t get a big head about it. Otherwise, my ego would simply piss people off, and I’d probably start making bad management decisions.
3. Seek and accept responsibility.
This means, “Seek and accept responsibility even when it’s really uncomfortable.”
One day after starting a development director job in a new studio, I was ordered to immediately fire a member of the audio team by multiple VP-level execs.
After a week of my own investigation, I made the decision to fire the individual, because it was the right decision for the team and the person, while arranging a good compensation package. The audio team veterans were livid, blaming the VPs for this action, and were about to start emailing up to the top of the company chain – a very big company chain – when I told them it was my choice, and my responsibility.
I admit, I was tempted to weasel out, and say that yes, senior management had made the decision before I got there, which was partly true. But then, my mental drill instructor would have kicked my ass into next Tuesday. I still stand by that decision.
4. Lead by example.
The most important one for me, it always annoyed me that this was number 4 on the CF’s list.
I heard a variation of this: “When others speak ill of you, live your life so that no one will believe them.” I can’t recall who said it, but it’s great. When you are in a leadership position, especially if it’s a public one, the petty and small-minded will take shots at you, mostly because they feel powerless in one or more aspects of their lives. Don’t shoot back; kill them with kindness.
There’s so much I can say about this, but it would detract from those three simple words – Lead by example.
5. Make sure your followers know your meaning and intent, then lead them to the accomplishment of the mission.
Ever have five people on your team give you five different ideas of what your game is supposed to be? Make sure everyone knows what your end goal is, and what the smaller goals are that get you there. Even better, let them come up with the necessary steps to get there, so that they own the direction of their game area.
Continued in Leadership Part 2.
IMG Consulting 