Managing Technical Professionals

02 Jun 2010 - Cliff

Management is the art and science of getting things done with limited resources. It is science because it has been studied extensively, and many facets can be learned to make anyone a better manager. It is an art because there are some intangible components that separate the great leaders from the good ones. There are things that are difficult teach- such as initiative, charisma, and inspiring confidence. The resources managed are usually people, technology, time, and capital.

Small business owners occasionally assume that management involves just telling individuals what to do – and in many cases that works fine. However, as the size of the business grows and you start to add on technical professionals, this one-size fits all approach can lead to problems.

One Size Does Not Fit All

In my undergraduate and graduate courses, I had the opportunity to study management both through an academic lense, and through actual case studies. It was fascinating to look at the real world case studies and see what caused Fortune 100 companies to stall, and what could pull them out of a tailspin. For example, IBM completely stood up completely new lines of consulting and IT services independent of their business machines line, just to stay relevant. Boeing managed to develop new revenue streams by completely computerizing, and networking their aircraft. Those lessons have come in handy when I had the opportunity lead teams directly and manage departments with the managers reporting to me. I have learned many things about working with technical teams, the most important of which is to retain top talent, you need to be able to vary your management style to match the employees and the situation. Here are the fundamental management styles and their suggested use. This is not a complete list for every situation (invariably you will come across something that has not been documented, that is what makes management such an interesting challenge.)

Management Styles

Picking the Correct Style for the Situation At Hand

Choose the Directive Style when:

Choose a Participative Style when:

Choose a Laissez-Faire Style when:

Summing it All Up – The Perfect Style

There is no perfect style of management, an effective manager has a variety of styles to match the situation at hand, taking not only the priorities and deliverables into consideration, but the strengths and weaknesses of the team.