The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show # 168 How Hard Can It Be- Joel Spolsky
Posted on 18. Nov, 2008 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks software and creating middle management from scratch with Inc. Magazine columnist and Fog Creek’s President, Joel Spolsky. We also ask how the title of Satrap would look on your resume.
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the 168th episode. Today we talk to Joel Spolsky as well as dedicate this show to Cyrus the Great of Persia, who gave us the cool job title Satrap. Beats Middle Manager doesn’t it (even if that’s basically what it is)?
A couple of quick announcements:
- Don’t forget the TPN Pledge Drive. If you haven’t heard the explanation, you can listen here.
- We are doing the pilot test of our new training program “Management 2.0: Become the kind of leader you’d follow” on December 15 and 16 in Chicago. Click here for more details.
3:34 The quote of the week is from that barrel of laughs Albert Camus who said that all great ideas have ridiculous beginnings… everyone who works at a startup, especially the founders, know that’s true.
4:45 Welcome Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software and about a dozen other things, including Fog Creek Software. He has finally come to the conclusion that managers are important, but it came slowly. he prefers management to be administration and not authority (and the word is connote.) His own management style was formed between the Israeli army and Microsoft.
9:45 His management style was formed in the Israeli Army and by Microsoft. The military is NO help whatsoever when managing software geeks. Still, running through a minefield while shooting is a metaphor we won’t dwell on.
15:50 A couple of columns ago, Joel wrote that he finally has come to conclude he needs managers... blame Fast Company for that (read the article here). Still, what kind of management is he looking to create? How is Seth Godin to blame and what is a Purple Cow?
20:00 Even when senior management has an open door policy, people want someone a bit lower to be the mediator. Joel tells the story of what happened at Fog Creek.
24:45 “Career Path” is a strange thing at software companies because being a manager and being a great programmer aren’t the same thing. How do you increase pay and rewards without making people managers who shouldn’t be managers? Listen to Joel squirm while explaining not all programmers have great people skills…. just say it, Joel, we’ve been saying it for years on this show. And by the way, I’m not crazy about the term “wetware”.
28:28 What does Joel read? Pretty much everything…
Seth Godin’s blog (with or without a purple cow).
Read everything and become “literarily promiscuous” (copyright pending on the term, thank you)
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