The Biggest Technical Management Myth To Avoid: No Coding Will Make You A Better Manager
There are very few sports that reward technique enough that a person can be competitive, at least relative to other sports, until the very last days of their life, but here are a few:
- Golf
- Running, Swimming, Biking
- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Other Martial Arts
- Climbing & Bouldering
- Tennis
One of the issues with sports like basketball, soccer, and football is that athletic prowess is so embedded in the sport that at the end of a professional career, often in the late 20's or 30's, a career is just ended as the athlete has started to master the technique. With other sports that are more technique focused, like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, master's in the last years of their life can still defend against world champions. The same goes for golf, and for sports like marathon running, where there are athletes in their 60 and 70's that are almost world class.
As a software developer, I am very fortunate that my career never has to end. As some skills diminish (working 48 hours without sleep), technique takes over, like learning to be smarter, and keeping myself healthy and avoiding mistakes I would have made when I was younger. There is a myth that after 40 years old technical people, especially managers, should put the brakes on learning and contributing. The is exactly the wrong time to stop learning and contributing, just as years of wisdom have begun to pileup, and true effectiveness is created, why would anyone quit coding?
A recent article by Harvard Business Review mentions that having a boss that can do your job means you are more likely to be happy at work. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. If you look at a dogsled, there is only room for 1 or 2 people in the sled, but there is a lot of room to run along side the pack. Who is the real leader in this situation, the person behind the sled or the dogs at the front of the pack pulling harder than anyone?
One of the most inspirational coaches I had in college, was a former Olympic Decathlete and he made us do 8 x 200m intervals under 27 seconds once a week (btw, this is the most extreme pain I have experienced in my life). Not only was he the "boss", but he also ran them with us, and beat everyone on the team. That was a spectacular version of leading by example, and my definition of what management, especially, technical management should be. It would have been easy to avoid the pain, but showing you can do what you are telling others to do is true leadership.
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