What makes a good manager

Today I failed as a manager. Me and my colleagues were doing a huge huge project and in my ambitions to get a head start of everyone (as managers need to be ahead of everyone else by at least one step) I zoned out and failed to hear a couple of remarks made at me while I was coding away. Of course I heard them after and I took immediate action but there was an unpleasant moment during which I was unresponsive and the person talking to me felt like he was talking to a wall. Not what a good manager should do. So let me state here the top characteristics that in my opinion define a good manager

• You must NEVER EVER EVER waste people's time; a meeting must be short with an agenda and maximum benefit must be extracted from the meeting at all costs


• You are always ahead of the team, knowing exactly what needs to be done and, more importantly, knowing the team members


• The team doesn't see you as THE SCARY MANAGER but you are all equal; you must sometimes sit behind the scenes so that other team members who are ambitious may experience leadership themselves


• You must divide the work evenly between the team members and yourself, including your management. I see a lot of managers sitting late at night typing emails and I think to myself, man, I don't wanna be one of those guys

And every day I am a manager I fail to do these things. Lesson learned or lesson not learned I will take my time in becoming the best manager that I can be. Let me tell you what the best part of being a manager is. It is that moment when you come to a mutual understanding, when everyone starts to work equally as hard with an equal amount of enthusiasm and you have a business, NOT a contest to stay awake the longest.