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How to speak Manager, from OSCON 2008 by Andy Lester
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Please do not run away.
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Not this.3
Why speak Manager?
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Do a better job.
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Make your boss happy.
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Get paid better.
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Get what you want.
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Eliminate micromanagement.
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Be happy at work.
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Build your reputation.
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Make it easier to get your next job.
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Caveats
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I'm assumingUnited States.
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I say “he” a lot, but this is universal.
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Some day Tina the Brittle
Tech Writer will get
promoted.
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And she won't be a very good
boss.
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Questions?
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Principles
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Your relationshipwith your bossis a relationship.
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Your boss isnot an enemy.
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Your boss is not incompetent.
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If any of these are false, get a new job.
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Improving communication
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This is hard.
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No one elsethinks like you do.
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It’s work for you to know what Boss wants.
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It’s work for Boss to know what you want.
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Sadly, you may be the only one
working on this.
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Seek first to understand
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Think like the boss.
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Your #1 job is...
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Make the bosslook good.
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What does your boss want?
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You & your boss share one goal.
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You both want to get your jobs done.
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The less time spent with each other,
the better.
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What’s unnecessaryfor the boss?
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Anything that doesn’t get results.
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People problems.
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Arguments.
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Dealing with your personal problems.
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Whining.
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Things you can solve yourself.
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What’s unnecessaryfor you?
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Micromanagement.
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Anything that doesn’t let you do cool stuff.
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Questions?
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Speak the language
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Money
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Time
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Numbers
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Your job is translate techie details tomoney and time.
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This is what you do when you work on
your resumé.
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What not to tell the boss
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Every normal thing that goes on
(unless he wants that)
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Your problems without potential solutions
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Problems you cansolve yourself
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What to tell the boss
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Good thingsand their effects
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Good things
• "We found a misconfigured index on the users table. Reindexing sped up user lookup about 20%."
• "I cranked through the reports menu last night, so we're about 4 days ahead of schedule."
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Bad things...62
... and how youfixed them.
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Bad things
• "We've uncovered a big hole in the requirements on X on the Foo project. Our swag is that it's about two weeks of work. Do you want us to fill in the requirements, or should we wait until you talk to Joan?"
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Always say"should I do X or Y?"
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Bad things
• "I mistakenly dropped an index on the user table at 10:37. Pages are taking about 1.5 seconds to load. Reindexing will be done by 11:12, and we should be back to normal."
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Bad things
• "Steve in Marketing is pissed about our downtime the other day. I tried to explain but he sounds like he's going to bring it up with Sue."
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Never delay bad news hoping it will get better.
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You won't fool anybody.(notfoolinganybody.com)
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It is always better for the boss to hear it from
you than others.
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Questions?
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How to getwhat you need
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No competent boss has ever OKed "a week to
clean up the code."
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Explain what you want.
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Explain the costs.
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Explain the benefits.
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Everything you ask for goes up a level.
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Sometimes you have to accept a "no."
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Questions?
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Eliminating micromanagement
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"My boss always nags me about when I'm going to be done."
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Micromanagement = fear
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Don't fight it.Give 'im what he wants.
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"But he shouldtrust me!"
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Building trust diminishes fear.
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Never give the boss a reason to ask you what’s going on.
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Questions?
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