A lot of people have given really good advice, and a lot of it is more
or less very similar. I'd love to sit down and chat with you (and
everyone else) about this stuff, but for now, we are stuck with email...
I am an IT director, but my route to it was somewhat different (and not
only in an academic setting, in an academic department, so it has much
less of the IT Management trappings that our IT Division has...)
My first thought was you can't do everything. Several people said you
have to give up the day-to-day technical, and they are probably right.
But more than that, you can't have a list of 20 things that you want to
do, or want your department to do. You need a few goals, and focus on
them. Make a few changes at a time, or a few points of emphasis.
Work with your staff. You are there to enable them to shine and do a
great job.
Are you a manager or a director? Probably both, but figure out what is
your top priority. Does your staff need ongoing management, and are you
the right one to do that? Or is the higher priority setting a direction
for IT? You can focus on managing the staff (individually and as a
group), or on managing projects, or on setting the department in the
right direction.
If you decide that the group needs a new, or more clear direction, that
is still a group project. You can't do it on your own, you will need to
involve all the staff (and that doesn't just mean inviting them to the
meetings... but I think you already know that).
Anyway, that was my quick first thoughts on this...
--david
On 01/07/14 10:33, Brodie, Kent wrote:
I too, have been in this position (in 1999, with a department re-org,
I was made a "manager"). The advice below from Peter agrees with
the one biggest thing I wanted to say on the topic. The only thing
I'd add to it is, work with the people (staff), **in person**, a
LOT. Meet with them one on one on a regular basis. Get caught up
regarding their problems, issues, requests. Do not manage via
email. A trap I found myself getting into at one point was "hiding
in my office", and then digging around doing technical things anyway
and avoiding the PEOPLE STUFF, which is what you do now, 100%.
Making technical people managers is a difficult and challenging path.
Best of luck!
In a bizarre twist of fate, 5 years later after our re-org, when I had
finally gotten to be GOOD at being a manager, our department was
outsourced, and I ended up being a technical person again for a
massive research department. It's kind of like Star Trek IV (Voyage
home), when Admiral Kirk gets demoted back to Captain . I'm not
unhappy. JJ
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Mark Honomichl
*Sent:* Tuesday, January 07, 2014 9:38 AM
*To:* Peter Grace
*Cc:* LOPSA Discuss
*Subject:* Re: [lopsa-discuss] Graduating to management and the pains
thereof
While I am by no means a full on DevOps guy, I thought the book The
Phoenix Project brought some interesting thoughts to the table.
As somebody who has been through this type of transition, I felt that
the most challenging part was disconnecting myself from the
day-to-day. We always say "when I get there, I can still be one of
the guys. I have the technical chops. I can help out." While this
is true, it took me a long time to learn a) my company no longer payed
me to do the day-to-day stuff and b) you do a disservice to your team
if your not transitioning your knowledge to them so they can do it.
Past that, I focus on being a leader, not a manager (I believe that
there is a distinct difference).
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David Parter
Director of Academic Computing Services
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department
[email protected]
608-262-0608
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