2013-04-19 07:49:52 +00:00
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[[!meta title="A guide for IT bosses"]]
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2013-04-19 07:47:54 +00:00
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## Introduction
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You are an IT boss. Your job is to manage the
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[IT crowd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd).
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Depending on your skills and knowledge you may find this
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job more easy or hard.
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This guide is created by those who you try to manage: The IT crowd.
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Discussion for enhancements
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takes place on [Hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/).
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## Background
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I am a System Engineer currently working 80%
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for [local.ch (Swiss Phonebook)](http://www.local.ch) and 20% for
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[ungleich (Unix/Linux infrastructure company)](http://www.ungleich.ch).
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On a daily basis I see how employees and bosses are acting and I spent time
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on analysing the behaviour of both parties (for fun - not profit).
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As I often see common mistakes and behaviour patterns, which make
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good or bad bosses, the idea was born to create a guide for IT bosses.
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## Guidelines
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### Be honest
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Not a special requirement in regards of IT, but if you want your
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employees to respect you, you definitely need to be honest.
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Don't even think about playing tricks on them, they will find out and
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everybody will lose the respect for you. Guaranteed.
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### Be available
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Your job involves a lot of meetings and coordination.
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Your employees understand that and may even be very thankful you took that job.
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Still, as you are the boss, communicate straightly when you are available, so
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people can bring their questions and problems to you.
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If you see there is too less time to be available for your team, it's probably
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good time to split up the team or to move on to another position
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and promote somebody else for being the head of IT crowd.
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### Give freedom
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More important than in probably most other areas is the amount of freedom you
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give: IT professionals are usually bright people who understand their job very
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well. The learn on the job (which includes getting side tracked from time to time),
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they are keen to touch the latest and newest technologies and have a high motivation.
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Adding artifical borders to the way the work makes them less productive, less motivated and
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in the worst case leave your workplace.
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Pay even more attention on this topic, if you have some technical background.
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You may know (or think you know!) what the best solution or technical choice is,
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but you hired those people to do a good job, not just to execute your thoughts, did you?
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## More to come
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This article is work in progress and is going to be enhanced by input
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from other IT professionals - don't miss the discussion on Hackernews.
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[[!tag localch net unix]]
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