Pilot: What makes a good manager in a software company?
Not many management books tell the truth about how to evaluate a manager. Here is the deal, and it is super simple, just two criteria: 1. A good manager leads the team to ship the product, a.k.a, to change the world. 2. A good manager makes the team better when he left the team. I really like the book The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker . A core idea in the book is: Effectiveness is decided by the results. So, no matter a person has or has not shining leadership and charisma, or he is good or bad at public speaking and business writing, he is a bad manager if he made the team worse. Likewise, a person is a good manager if he improved the team with good results regardless of how he did it and what kind of person he is. Often, you could tell if the team improved apparently, however it is tricky some time. I think the next question is: how to fairly evaluate a team's improvement. So, stay tuned...