As the director of an engineering team myself, this is an extremely insightful article.
Bossing people around and utilizing extreme micromanagement might work in retail (though, honestly, I doubt it), but being a drill sergeant is not the way to get things done with very intelligent and headstrong individuals in a technical capacity.
The trick of excellent technical management, to me, is the ability to balance the business requirements of management with the technical passions of the engineers. If this balance is off in either direction, the company as a whole suffers greatly.
Engineers need to be intellectually engaged, and need to feel that they can make decisions for themselves (even if it's just within the code base). At the same time, products and services need to ship to keep everyone employed.
Bossing people around and utilizing extreme micromanagement might work in retail (though, honestly, I doubt it), but being a drill sergeant is not the way to get things done with very intelligent and headstrong individuals in a technical capacity.
The trick of excellent technical management, to me, is the ability to balance the business requirements of management with the technical passions of the engineers. If this balance is off in either direction, the company as a whole suffers greatly.
Engineers need to be intellectually engaged, and need to feel that they can make decisions for themselves (even if it's just within the code base). At the same time, products and services need to ship to keep everyone employed.
It's a tough but rewarding job.