How to hire a manager

Earlier this year, I asked for advice on how to hire managers. Plenty of you answered - thank you. Since then, I’ve thought about the topic a lot. I’ve seen hundreds of CVs, sat through dozens of interviews, and hired a few managers. When I interview a manager there are plenty of things I look for - passion, cultural fit, talent, communication skills - but here are some less obvious ones that separate the cream from the milk.

You must be comfortable with ambiguity. You need to see the world in shades of grey, but still make decisions. Often, there are no right or wrong answers; no rules that always apply. You must be pragmatic, not dogmatic. The best answer you can give to many interview questions is ‘it depends’. Q: How do you manage people? A: It depends (on the situation and the person). Q: How do you motivate people? A: It depends (what are their buttons?). Q: How do you persuade people? A: It depends (some people like facts, some people like stories). Q: Your project is running late. How do you fix it? A: It depends (there are as many ways to fix it as there are projects). You get the picture.

In an interview, talk about the concrete. You need to show you can roll up your sleeves and plunge your hands into the blocked toilet bowl of software development. You can’t just strategise and theorise. When you tell me about how you deal with tricky people problems, don’t tell me about processes and rules. Tell me about the time that Bob turned up to work smelling of beer, or how you caught Fred snorting cocaine in the toilets. I want evidence that you’re seasoned, that you haven’t just read a book.

This demonstrates that you’ve done it before. For engineers, I hire for talent.  You need to demonstrate that you’re smart, and can get things done. But you don’t need 2 years of C# or SQL Server under your belt. For a manager it’s different. Management is something that you learn. It takes time. Sure, aptitude is still important, but you must show that your aptitude has crystallised into ability. Management is also about good judgement. Mulla Rasrudin once said that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. I’d like you to get that experience elsewhere.

You must be able to switch from the concrete to the abstract. Show me you can knit your particular examples into wider rules. Tell me how your experience contradicts, or confirms, other people’s theories. Tell me about the common thread that runs through your successful projects. Tell me about Herzberg’s motivational theory, and how you’ve seen it work. Or how it’s good in theory, but not in practice.

Of course, these guidelines are aimed at hiring external candidates. If you’re promoting from within - and that’s often a better choice - then different principles apply. I’ll write about my thoughts in a future post. Subscribe to the RSS feed to stay up to date.

 

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Comments

[Andrew Martin]

Nice list! There's a lot of seldom-offered insight here, I think, particular in your last few paragraphs. Two things I might add...

The first is easy, but it only applies to a select group. Simply: if you're using recruiters, COMMUNICATE these points to them, however condensed. An in-house recruiter or a marketplace website like Dayak are great resources to finding talent and maximizing roi, but when it comes to managers I can't tell you how many recruiter-found candidates I've shuffled through before hitting a home run. Lately I've been telling them to give the most attention to the letter of interest (how is the candidate selling himself or herself?) and of course the track record.

Also, maybe your point about abstract vs concrete would be better parsed (or maybe simply expanded) by saying theoretical vs. practical. Some managers have big ideas but no execution skills, others can get anything going in the pot but don't have that necessary vision. But the ones that have both...well, I'd feel a little threatened myself!

[ernest]

thanks for your great post. absoultely usefull to me.

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[xocai]

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[edwin]

Very nice posting. thanks

[Extenze]

very thoughtful, The first is easy, but it only applies to a select group.

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Some managers have big ideas but no execution skills, others can get anything going in the pot but don't have that necessary vision.

[Mesothelio]

Nice BLOG. Lately I've been telling them to give the most attention to the letter of interest and of course the track record.

[Monavie]

Useful info, Management is also about good judgement. Mulla Rasrudin once said that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. I’d like you to get that experience elsewhere.

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Helpful blog. The first is easy, but it only applies to a select group. Simply: if you're using recruiters, COMMUNICATE these points to them, however condensed.