Old Man Manager's Weblog

Comparative Advantage of a Software Engineer

Comparative advantage, as an economic concept, is intellectually understood, difficult to practice, and even harder to verify if it really works.

David Ricardo, in 1812, published the famous The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. He coined the term comparative advantage — the concept not less important in shaping our world than Adam Smith's basic theories on economy. Like Paul Samuelson said, it is also the concept least understood and most mis-used by politicians and probably the intellectual class alike.

The classic way to illustrate the concept is with an example. Say two countries, Altia & Barvola¹, both produce wheat and rice. Altia's relative costs of producing them is 3:1, meaning it costs 3 times more to produce wheat than rice. If Barvola's relative costs are 2:1, then Barvola has a comparative advantage producing wheat than Altia. It does not matter how absolutely the costs are. For example, Altia may have the costs of $30 and $10, per unit of wheat and rice, and Barvola $50 and $25. Here Altia has absolute advantages producing both wheat and rice, but not comparatively.

Ricardo's theory states that, if conditions are right, it is better for both countries to specialize what they are comparatively better at and trade with each others. They might end up producing more wheat and rice. The societies, combined, will be better off.

What would happen really?

Barvola's wheat and rice industries see the cost advantages and go off-shore. That offshore wave drives up Altia's labor costs and, consequentially, the prices for both wheat and rice. Since Altia is really not good at producing wheat, it cannot keep up with the demand. Wheat price goes up faster than rice. Barvola wheat farmers knew they can do better and start to produce wheat. Soon, they wipe out Altia's wheat industry. Both countries end up doing exactly what Ricardo predicted, with heart-aches, political instabilities, and social unrests.

Countries with absolute advantages always win first during the offshoring craze. Unless they maintain absolute lower costs, they will eventually lose to whichever comparatively more advantageous. Governments may erect barriers, but only to delay the inevitability or to advance short-term political interests.

Software engineers in India and China today have absolute advantages over the US, but not comparatively — their ratios of costs to GDP per capita is much higher. We have witnessed the 1st phase of the economy driven process — mad offshoring to capture the absolute cost advantages. The 2nd phase is happening — wages in both countries are rising faster than their GDP and the counter-parts in US. The 3rd phase, that they lose everything to another lower cost country or even back to US who has a comparative advantage today, will ensue unless one of the three things happens.

• Maintain absolute cost advantages.
  By accepting lower pay, but equal work. This is hard to swallow. No one wants to be the "low cost leader," since that gives up the hope for a better future.

• Establish comparative advantages.
  Make sure their relative costs to the rest of the country become less. They can hope and wait for the whole country to become wealthier.

• Achieve even higher productivity.
  This is really the other side of the same coin. As long as Indian and Chinese engineers can produce more, comparatively to the rest of their countries, they keep the advantage.

The only actionable and always safe choice is the 3rd one. Software industries in India and China must outperform their US country parts more than their relative costs in the country. If a software engineer in US earns 3 times than the average citizen and China 10 times. A Chinese software engineer must produce more than 10 times more than the average Chinese citizen, even when this engineer is earning less than his/her US counter-parts.

So, work harder and smarter. Out-run the wheel of Ricardo or get crushed.

Posted at 06:45PM Mar 11, 2007 by oldmanmanager in Practical Engineers  |  Comments[1]

Management 102

I wrote about "Management 101" long time ago. By now, you should have mastered the basics. Right? :-)

A while ago, few senior managers got together in Santa Clara, California. We talked about what a new manager must master to succeed. No doubt, delivery is the foundation. An engineering manager should be able to plan, execute, and communicate about the projects he or she is charged with. Beyond this basic, we enter the realm of managing people. Rule #1 is to focus on high performers. New managers make the mistake of spending disproportional amount of time on low performers to "rescue them" or to "coach them back."

• Motivating

  The secret is in knowing people and the secret to that is listening.

• Coaching/Development

  Self-awareness is the first step. If your employee does not know where to go, there is little point constructing a path.

• Recruitment

  How to judge a person in 30 seconds? Look for intelligence and energy, not experience.

• Firing People

  Keep it simple. Be honest. Make sure HR is on your side.

• Performance Management

  Maybe the employee should do a different job?

• Peer Relationships

  Few projects can be done these day by one organization alone. Collaborative skills go vary far. The key to collaboration is the true understanding of the other party's interests.

• Managing up

  Do you know what your boss wants? His or her priority? Does he or she know yours? Do you talk about each others' plans?

Posted at 06:54AM Mar 01, 2007 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Be Selfish

Managers deliver business results. All other things support this singlton goal, nothing else matters. First, you must understand what business results are.

Young, and often junior, managers do not get this. They focus on secondary objectives such as morale, teamwork, collaborative spirit, effective communication, personal charisma, etc. All of those are good, but there are so many and how can you possibly address them all? Ah, the tried and true methodology — prioritize and do them in order. Then prioritization implies a value system, or a clear higher level objective. We are again back to square one. Can someone tell me, pleeeease, what are the objectives or our value system? Don't ever ask that question in public. Do you see corporate vision, mission, values, strategies, goals, etc. prominently displayed everywhere?

We are in the purgatory of deeply confused with too much guidance.

You have a team. They do things; they do things in certain way; they abide by a set of rules and policies; they follow, so you hope, your leadership.

The things they do. Can they do more, better, or faster? How about 200%? What's limiting them? Can they finish their week's job by Tuesday afternoon? Why can't they? By the way, what happens if they stop what they are doing? Are you sure?

The processes they follow. If you are to start from scratch, would you design them the same? Are there others doing similar things or following similar proceses? (The answer is always "yes.") Have you talked to them? What are the lessons you can learn from each other? Are processes robust, in terms of reacting to changes in personnel, resources availability, scale, etc.? If part is destroyed suddenly, what would happen?

The rules. When is the last time anyone question those rules? What was the objectives of them? Who else are subject to the same rules? Did you make those rules?

Pick any of these questions and make that your, or your team's, mission.

Then, take a look of your boss's objectives (or mission). See if yours is aligned. Most likely, you can adjust to align them well. After that, take a look of what your company is trying to accomplish. (They are usually widely published. Hint: making money is always a goal.) Again, adjust to align with that too. These adjustments should not be difficult. If so, go back and pick a different mission.

Now that you have a mission. You have defined success. Tell your team, "This is what I want." Assess their skill-sets, experience, personalities, and enthusiaism. Gently ask those who do not, will not, or can not, help you to work for someone else. All those remain, stand by them, support them, endorse them, give them everything you've got. They will give you everything they've got. And you will accomplish your mission.

Don't feel bad for those who are not chosen to be on your team. After all, why are you so special to be the one who makes the calls that affect people's lives? If you are in a battlefield, would you hestitate picking only the most suitable in your squad? If you are a coach, would you send anyone less than your bests? You are a professional software practioner. You cannot afford anyone who's not best for you. If you fail, your whole team fail.

The same spirit is for anything that you need to achieve your goals. There are information, fundings, requisitions, equipment, schedule accomodation, etc. Most of them do not come easy, even they are required for the job. Managers secure their own resources for their objectives. The 1st step is to have your objectives clearly understood, the 2nd step is to secure the resources.

And the game begins.

Posted at 06:39AM Nov 17, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Time is Life

Economy is a study of scarcity, which defines value. Here we focus on time, among the most scarce commodities. As someone who did a lot during his youth, I now think it criminal to waste, or not getting the optimal return with this commodity. Like good investors, managers allocate their time carefully and purposefully. The general concept is simply return of investment.

The concept of return implies that resources will be transformed into something else, hopefully more valuable. If the input is time, then purpose defines the outcome. Purposes link the outcome with rationality. Without purpose, the return is not predictable.

The majority of people never gave this a serious thought. And there is nothing wrong with this blissful life-style. Lives do not need to be purposeful to be happy. Spontaneity and serendipity can be fulfilling and and even more enjoyable.

Then we have dreamers. They fantasize while commuting and talk about grandeur plans, particularly after few drinks. Deep in their minds, they never really expect to pull it through. Managers cannot be either. Manaagers are accountable for achieving planned objectives.

Why would you, a manager, have plans for everything at work, but not your life or career? Are there purposes? Is the plan realistic? Yes? You are better than 90 percentile. Come talk to me. I can help you. I specialize in execution — the art of refining the plans, aligning the resources, and a bit magic, to reach goals.

Wait! Read my standard recipe as prework.

Earlier in your managerial career, the emphasis of your time shoudl be on fundamental skill improvements. First- and second-line managers are in an Olympic-style competition. The better ones move up to the next level and race with others at least as good. The primary use of your time and energy should be on bettering yourself, in terms of managerial skills. It is wasteful to worry about politics, other players' training programs, coach's favorite pupils, etc. If you can outrun your peers, you will be tapped on the next round.

Skills move you upward. Find the environment that you can learn the fastest. It is your life and career. You can blame it on whomever and whatever and it does not matter. If you don't train yourself hard, others simply leave you behind. An athlete can complain on having a bad coach, substandard training facility, or the bad equipment. None of those complaints will win him or her the gold medal. Just save it. Yes, life is not fair, but your time is better spent not worrying about it.

What are the goals? Advancements in career, financial rewards, meaningfulness of work, recognition and appreciations from others, etc. are all good ones. Which ones are yours to pursue. Put them in priority order. One's value system is peronal and individualized. Good managers set his or her objectives aligned with the value system. Pursue what you want. Don't pursue what you don't.

This simple concept is, in fact, rarely practiced. For curious reasons, wasteful, or even destructive, paths frequently ensue along people's lives. People spent years working on something just because they are fashionable. People insist on behavior pattern for simplistic belief and no regard to the implicit trade-offs. ("I hate commute, but I must live on the coast-side that is 3 hours of driving away.") Lack of foresight, vision, guidance on the right objectives, and confusion between short- and long-term benefits are the usual reasons.

On a piece of paper written down these prority and objectives, go to one of those you trust and respect and ask them for honest feedbacks. Are they really worth pursuing? Are you sure they are really what you want? What are the realistic timing?

Live purposefully. Life is how time is spent.

Posted at 11:24AM Sep 22, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Common traits of senior engineering managers

How much can you really do to get ahead? What does it take to be promoted to next level?

Like many of my colleagues, I choose people for jobs based on skills, or subject matter expertise. Practice and perfect the skills for your current job. Then, invest the time and effort to prepare for the next level. Once the skills are well honed, the opportunities will come knocking on your door.

As you move up the level, skills gradually blend into character and mentality. They become harder to describe or acquire. You should think about them right now. They are not easy and take time to acquire.

At Sun, a strong senior engineering manager generally exhibit few common traits.

• Strong sense of right and wrong

  Things usually have their own intrinsic logics or ethics that cannot be manipulated — the fundatmental truth. From an engineering's point of view, there is always an optimal solution, given the constrains and the objectives. A strong engineering manager tries to understand the constrains and objectives, then evaluates if the current solution is the optimal one. If not, he or she does not hestitate voicing his or her opinions, sometime to very senior executives.

  A junior manager does not review the list of constrains and the objectives carefully. He or she does not speak up afterward either.

  The flip side of this management style is the less emphasis on personal elements and execution details. After all, engineers are trained to design, not implement. Engineers also easily overlook factors that cannot be measured and manipulated easily, such as synergy, motivation, etc. There are also tendency to not having "plan B." This comes from the natural confidence of everything has been considered and this is the best solution.

• Fast learning, curious

  Senior managers are likely to be fast learners. They grasp the concepts and familarize with the terminology quickly. They stay current. They change courses easily. How?

  One simple way is to stay curious. Do not stop when things work. Pursue dogmatically until you have grokked.

  This comes with a price. You need to work harder and the effort may not seem worthwhile. Why waste time and energy on trivialities? You have better things to do.

  Consider every project that comes your direction a learning opportunity. You would have learned 90% when you have completed the requirements. Do not stop there. Learn the extra 10%. It may, or may not, pay off. But if the same kind of projects come your way once more, you would be able to do better than those who did not.

• An energy source

  Energy makes everyone around you want to do more. The most common form of energy is motivation. It is not, however, the only form. Vision, charisma, love, loyalty, friendship, passion, determination, or even greed and hatred, all provide energy.

  Energy is infestious. It feeds on itself, circulates, and multiply. Are you an energy source?

• Know when to drill down

  Micro-managing is not evil, it is actually necessary. The art is in choosing when to delegate and, more importantly, when not to. No manager can afford to get back to his boss later. An "elevator opportunity" will not come again. Decisions must be made now. A strong senior manager is always ready. How?

  Focus, be prepared, and control the agenda. Whatever you choose (yes, it is your decision) to do. Do it well. You will naturally have all the answers on your finger tips. Be in tuned with your boss's agenda and the company's priorities. Whatever in those area, you should be prepared to respond quickly. Lastly, you are always prepared if you are in control. Ask questions, propose ideas, raise issues, and suggest alternatives.

What does it take to get promoted? The answer is exactly the same question turned around. "Do you have what it takes?"

Posted at 09:36PM Aug 14, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  |  Comments[2]

Reply to retiarius laboratories

In a global economy, why would an engineer accept less pay just because she is in India, China, or wherever? Tom Lehrer, who did not leave an email address for me to reply, commented on my blog recently.

It is such a good question. Three factors:

• Relative income: the lifestyle one can afford depends largely on the income difference to the rest of the society. Simply put, an engineer earning 10 times the average income in China has a higher purchasing power and social status than the one merely 5x GDP per capita in US. Even if the latter earns 3x more in absolute terms.

• Saving rate: where will one live when retired? How much money does she need? How long would it take to accumulate that amount? These appear simple and straight-forward. But for the mobile professionals, they essentially face the famous 4 corner decision: where to work (high/low income regions) and where to retire (high/low living cost regions) and should choose the corner that offers the fastest rate.

  Without doubt, saving where income is high and retire where the costs are low is the best choice. But which is the 2nd best choice? Most people found the "low/low" corner more attractive.

• Market barriers: many factors prevent a mobile professional to move. The cultural and linguistic skills are the most obvious ones. That software engineer is highly professional, but cannot deal with American society for whatever reasons.

There is always the last reason of market efficiency. The difference in labor costs creates an arbitrage opportunity for those who will exploit it. Companies do this all the time. They will continue to exploit until the arbitrage disappears. Labor market is usually not very efficient and takes years to catch up.

Edit on 6/12:
Change the title of the blog. Thanks for the comment that lead to it.

Posted at 05:26AM Jun 11, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  |  Comments[3]

Loyalty, Relationship, and Management

You need people. You need the confidence that your decisions are based on truth and whole facts. You need good advices. You need them to go the extra mile in desperate time. You need to have your back watched. You need them to mind the store when you are away. You need them to succeed.

Some managers reward loyalty above all. They cultivate loyal followers. These lieutenants, in turn, do the same at their levels. At the end, if they are good, they end up with an organization that is tight and formidable. They can go places, in fact, wherever the boss says.

In an enterprise, this does not work. Management is not that easy, not anymore.

Without affordability, managers frequently found they face the decision of rewarding either loyalty or competency. High performers than gradually leave and the group is left with 2nd-rated but loyal ones. This still works, for a while. The manager can compensate by focusing them and working them harder. But "driving" your staff is hard work, it also has the side effects of removing delegation.

Since loyalty must be bought and the price pretty high, the manager probably afford to reward everyone equally well. Secrecy becomes necessity. But secrecy divides the group and concentrates power. This makes her group not scalable — incapable for completing larger projects. It also creates single points of failure.

Lastly, loyalty, by definition, suspends one's creativity. This is fatal for software.

Management by relationship is much more satisfying. Relationship, although always 1-on-1, needs no secrecy. It is about role differences, instead of power distribution; respect, not authority; specialization, not command and execution.

You must be genuine and sincere. You must learn how to listen. Pay attention to what is said and think about it. You work on it akin to maintaining friendship.

But work relationship is always different than friendship. Most of the time, you do not choose work relationship. Company interest, work ethics, and policy compliance come first. You will do what you will never to friends. "Close but professional" is the idea.

Did you become a manager for power? It is OK that you did. Just avoid using it as much as you can.

Posted at 04:56AM Jun 11, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  |  Comments[1]

Points on RIF

RIF, or more commonly known as layoff, starts when the company learned it has more employees than it needs. Why? Most of the time, the company did not plan well. It is only academic to dig out the reasons and many MBA cases did. For you, focus on future, not past.

RIF is not cheap for the company that incurs severance costs, legal expenses, disruptions to normal operations, demoralization of employees, and, usually, bad publicity. If not done well, the company may lose critical productivity that lead to loss of revenue and another RIF — so called death spiral.

You can bet that some aspects of the RIF operation will not be done well. It is part human nature to avoid unpleasant tasks and part rushed. Try to appreciate the works senior managers must have done and understand that they actually did not have much time and were very constrained on maneuvering rooms.

The top executives of the company first decide to invest less on particular investment areas, to reallocate its resources, or both. This step is time consuming and gut wrenching. Sometime, we, mid-level executives, get a glimpse of board-room lock-horns. Most of the time, we simply observe the absence of senior executives for days, during which we get urgent and cryptic requests of information. When they come out of the smoke-filled room (OK, this is for drama, they are usually many rooms involved and execs these days do not smoke), each gets a number and a set of guidelines.

Each of the top execs then summons her staff, or few selected advisors, to plan for her number. This process cascades downward to roughly functional VP or director level. At this level, the single number has morphed into a set of actions that include the elimination/reduction of programs, number of people to layoff, a set of communiques, and a schedule. This is the time, you, the line managers, get busy.

First, learn the communiques and guidelines. Practicality does not allow thorough communication. Do not wait for the presentation or in-person training. Go to the web site, read the email, and study the guidelines. Ask questions only after you have done the homework.

Expect whoever planning this operation to have been hurried. Ask questions so that you can do your jobs, there is no need to criticize. This is hard for everyone, not just you. When you get the details, see if they will lead to disasters. If so, escalate quickly, but do not be insistent. No whining and no stating the obvious. Statements such as, "Do you realize this will impact morale and productivity?" is stupid and insulting. But, "if you substitute this with that, company can save more money, or avoid a major disaster" will be much appreciated.

It is human to dig dirt and gossip. That does not make these activities productive or less hurtful. Discourage by smiling and nodding politely. Gossips starve on the lack of excitement from the recipients.

Although not obvious, being laid-off is not really a bad thing. There is no need to be saddened. Sun gives a relatively generous severance and benefits to those laid-off. In a relatively healthy economy (like China), the laid-off employees usually find new job before the severance are used up.

In this industry, each individual faces competition from around the world. Someone from somewhere is trying to have your job, and vice versa. The only protection is your adaptability and professional competency. You are on a treadmill to upgrade yourself all the time. If you are not learning new skills so that you can do something totally different in a few years, you are risking being obsolescent. What are you learning now? Why would the employer pays you so much?

Being part of a lay-off operation bring this point close to home. If you are one that is receiving the package, thank the company to give you few months off to upgrade yourself. If you are a survivor, try to learn this lesson.

Posted at 08:26PM Jun 05, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  |  Comments[4]

Professionals train themselves

Kevin, an engineering manager, was frustrated. Good projects do not come to his engineers. If there are no projects, there will be no accomplishments, and no advancements. China will feel like the high-tech colony of the 21st century and get only menial works and be stuck in the "low wage" end of the industry.

I felt for Kevin's despair. At the same time, I was astronished on how his young engineers have missed the basics and focused on the wrong things.

Like atheletes, good software engineers move up the career ladder will skills. It is quite simple, choose the arena, suit up and compete. The winners move on. The question is, "Are you training yourself everyday?"

The general categories for a software engineer evaluation are:

• Credential:

  The pieces of paper that prove you qualified for certain tasks. The most basic ones are the diplomas. Then we have those issued by various institutes. These paper give the boss various degree of confidence that you can accomplish the tasks she needs you for. If the task has a commensurate higher job level, you may get the promotion tegether with the assignment.

  Credentials, particularly diplomas, also show your tenacity and conformity. You may not have learned much, but you stuck it out for years and met all requirements. If you can go through that, you must have what it will take to finish this project.

• Experience:

  Young engineers hate to compete on experience. You are not qualified because you have never done this before. But how can you get the 1st project then?

• Skills:

  Skills are easy. Although hard to describe precisely, an engineer know how skilled she is. Software, after all, is a craft. Within few minutes, an engineer would have sized up others and a pecking order is formed.

These basic three are part of all promotion considerations. The weights of them differ as career progresses. In general, Sun values credential the least, skills most, and experience a very close second. Ask. "Am I the most skilled and experienced among my peers?" Like atheletic competitions, software career is meritocratic. Do not waste efforts on anything before mastering the basics.

Next time, when you have finished the project, try do a bit extra:

1. Testability:

   How is the code testable? Is there test programs that automate the process? When problems surface in the system, how easy it is to isolate the bug?

   Along the same line is demo. How would you show someone your proud achievement? Did you write another piece of program to show it off?

2. Usability:

   Is there a web-based interface? Is there a tool to make it easier? How is the user experience? Do not hide behind areas of technology. A kernel module or a device driver can have user interfaces just like a Java application. As long as a human being can use it, you need to consider usability.

3. Elegance:

   Is the code efficient and pretty? Nicely modulized, neatly formated, appropriately named, cleanly inferfaced? How did you treat the global state variables? How much you rely on side-effect to accomplish works? Are you proud of this piece of work like a poet?

4. Documentation:

   Did you comment the code well? Did you write the design document? Did you let the next person who is unfortunately stuck with your code know where to pay attention?

These are where you gain experience without the assigned project. There is always something extra you can do to make your project better. When you are doing that extra amount of work, you gain experience on areas you do not normally practice in. Choose what you need to practice and do the extra work there.

And you would have done something wonderful to yourself. When you are doing those, your manager will notice that you walked the extra mile and did the extra-currriculum work. That shows your diligence, willingness to learn, and potential.

Most importantly, you gain control of your own career by doing these. Those extra works make you a better software engineer. An accomplished software engineer write his/her own ticket. You will name the next project you want to work on. Opportunities will come knocking on your door.

Lastly, wherever you look, there are bugs to be fixed and source code to be read. Pick an area of interest, read the source code, try to fix few bugs that seems trivial, talk to the owner of the code and ask him/her to review or integrate what you have done. They will appreciate it and you get the experience. This is the power of Sun's openness. Don't squander. Train yourself.

Posted at 09:25PM Apr 11, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Engineers  |  Comments[2]

Defining Moments

Career progresses not linearly. After few years, you have become proficient with your job, how does it go from here? Where do you break out from this current path?

Corporate ladder is more like a pyramid. There are fewer and fewer positions as you move up. With each rung, there are only a fraction of people who will advance. How would you be the one that get chosen? More importantly, how is the selection done? Without knowing the rules of the game, how is it possible for you to win?

I frequently tell the old Chinese folklore of waiting for the rabbit (守株待兔).

There was a farmer who was resting under a tree after a long morning's work. A rabbit dashed through and crashed into him. The farmer was pleasantly surprised. This made up more than the rest of the work. He took the rabbit and enjoyed the meal. The next day, the farmer chose to wait under the tree for another rabbit. It did not come. But the farmer kept on waiting, day after day.

Imagine you are one of a group of farmers waiting for rabbits. There is a luck element here. If it ran the other way, someone else will get it. You will just keep on waiting.

If, however, the rabbit comes your way, are you skilled enough to capture it? Are you nimble enough? Do you design traps? Do you work with the ones next to you to optimize the chances for both of you?

First thing a manager must do is get better with what he does. Everyday, think how can you do better, what skills do you need to acquire, and who can do it with you? There are few basic skills every manager must have. Review them. Ask a mentor to give you candid feedbacks.

And when the rabbit comes, what I call the defining moment, are you sure you know what it looks like? Surprisingly, a promotion opportunity is not that recognizable. You should train to recognize them.

Most common opportunities come in the form of a resignation. A peer or someone a level higher quit. That causes the organization to shift. This means you can benefit from it. Obviously, it will be much better if you learned about the departure ahead of the time. A good resignation is done secretly. Very few people will know about it. But the big boss is always in the knows. He either has a plan or will need a plan quickly. You may be just what he needs. But your timing must be perfect so that he can plan with you as an element.

Second form is a reorganization. Companies today must be agile to deal with the dynamics of the market. As the result, they re-align their resources to enhance the chance of achieving the goals. Since the market changes frequently, the goals, short- and long-term ones, shift priorities. Re-org is when new priorities are recognized officially. What exactly are the new priorities now? How would your skills be applied, differently, now? Make that known to the decision makers so that your skills can be better utilized.

Expansion is clearly the easiest one to recognize. But getting promotion from it always comes with a price. All major expansions begin with some studies, but not all studies lead to real, funded expansion. Those who contributed the studies, investigation, or prototyping are frequently tapped to participate the expansion project when it is funded. Why are you not there on "ground zero?" Two possibilities: your skills were not required in the early stage or you did not show willingness to contribute without assured return.

Downsizing is such a dreaded word that few recognize its benefits. If done properly, downsizing can be great career opportunities. Downsizing means the cancellation of projects that are large enough to meet the financial target. The surviving groups usually end up with slightly more resources, therefore, it is actually expansion for them. Again, if you are skilled, there is nothing to worry about.

Build your skills relentlessly, answer the door when opportunity knocks. It hurts when the rabbit comes and you are not ready. It hurts even more when someone captured a herd of geese and you did not even know what is a net.

Posted at 01:40PM Feb 20, 2006 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Career Ladders at Sun

Cross post

Posted at 08:47PM Dec 14, 2005 by oldmanmanager in Practical Engineers  | 

How to quit?

You are a good manager, you should plan for your job change. Like everything that can be planned, you need to know what you are trying to accomplish first. Are you bored? Are you looking for future growth? More money? More respect? What are you trying to accomplish? Think.

No one, with the possible exception of your current boss, should know. Keep everything under stealth. Perform as intensely as you always do. Don’t hint. Don’t “check out.” Don’t “cruise.” It is one thing to let people know that your morale is low. It is a completely different matter when people learned you are actually looking.

When you receive an offer, evaluate it against your objective. If you decide to accept, start designing your resignation. Yes, design it. Organize your records, list your duties, consider your successor, and backup your files. Is there anything your boss can do to keep you? If yes, list them and go talk to your boss. It is tempting and feels good, but don’t use your offer to negotiate.

Remember that both your current employer and the new one are critically important to your future success. You may come back to work for the same boss. They are your best and most influential references. You may be asked to work with them. You may do business with them later. So, don’t do anything that damages your current employer. It is not professional or ethical.

Draft a resignation letter. Keep to the key points. “I hereby resign. This is my last date. This is how to transition.” Don’t blame anyone. Don’t be angry. Don’t explain. Most importantly, don’t send. Keep it in the draft folder for at least 24 hours. Edit it at least twice.

Still don’t tell anyone at work. Not a soul.

Next go to your boss. Sit down. Close the door. Demand his attention. Resign clearly. “I resign. The last date will be…” You do owe him an explanation and some feedbacks. Stay positive. It is OK to vent, but don’t whine. Ask your boss what should be the next step. He should ask for your formal resignation. You go back and send him the letter you drafted.

Posted at 05:47AM Oct 23, 2005 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Myth on Size

The people count of your organization is clearly a measure of power. But by no means a predictor to your future success or influence. In fact, unless you are skilled enough to organize them, larger organization is frequently a distraction and a derailment cause.

As a manager, you work by communicating. Your effectiveness is limited by two factors: bandwidth and time. The communication bandwidth comes from utilizing various channels and improving skills. Then, you must pay attention to the effective use of your time. Whom are you communicating to? How much time did you spent? What is the result of that communication? Eventually, it comes down to how well you know the person you are communicating to – the better you know him, the better the communication.

Since there are only 24 hours in a day, you cannot possibly command a team that’s too big. People vary, but 5 to 15 is the norm of an effective team size. This means as long as you have a good team of 5 to 10 people, you can be effective, successful, and influential.

Take a survey of those in your organization. Who would you choose to be on your team? Give no regard to their ranks, seniority, and other external factors. Choose those who have the skills and communicate well with you. Can you find 5 to 10 of them? If yes, it does not matter how many more people are there beyond this core team. It can be thousands and it can be zero. And, lastly, the team members do even need to work for you directly. Think about this next time you need to worry about headcount.

Posted at 12:47AM Aug 22, 2005 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Email style

Newspaper style email

Study how newspaper article is structured. It begins with a “hook.” A simple sentence designed for capture the reader’s attention. For email, this is the combination of the subject line and the 1st sentence.

The first paragraph tells the reader what is the bottom line, conclusion, decision, action item, or whatever the purpose of the email message. It needs to be clear what the readers are supposed to do with this message.

Follow it by a slightly longer paragraph on the basic supporting argument for the 1st paragraph. Do this in the “executive summary” style by focusing on high-level judgment, summary of facts, and the key reasons.

Next are the supporting data. Try to be short.

Write the email as if you are a reporter writing a newspaper story. At almost anytime, the reader can skip the rest of the story without losing the key points.

Fact or Opinion?

Are you delivering facts or you are expressing opinions? It is OK to mix them, but do so with care. It is not a good idea to deliver opinions as if they are facts. If you are delivering facts, make sure they are. It does not matter if your source was wrong. It is your email.

In general, for VP or higher, the general guideline is to have 3 levels of back-ups. Every point you are making must be based on data, not just someone’s (or your) opinion. Those data should be based on more substantial and detail data too. Only the 3rd level can be based on people’s thoughts or opinions. It is OK to deviate from this guidelines, but you should know how much of your material is based on facts or just opinions.

Pay attention to headers

Particularly, who are on the “To” list and “Cc?” What’s the subject line?

If you are replying to a message, are you sure the recipients are still right? Should you remove few or add someone? Is the subject line still sensible? Remove excessive “Re” or “FWD” tags.

Include just the right amount of the original message. It is a good idea to cull unnecessary forwarded messages.

Posted at 04:28PM Jul 10, 2005 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  | 

Nine decision-making pitfalls

This recent article from Fortune is worth reading (and keeping).

Posted at 04:20PM Jul 05, 2005 by oldmanmanager in Practical Managers  |