Discussion on:

Good IT managers - are they born or bred?

Without exception, all of the non-IT managers I have had as my bosses in 15+ years have been an unmitigated disaster. In most cases, it is the finance types. The problem is that these individuals have no background in the subject matter. It doesn't matter how nice, intelligent, or great you are, if you don't understand the subject material of your department, you are not going to be able to effectively manage it! They may be able to communicate better to the business side, but they are clueless when it comes to the IT side! All you've done is substituted ineffective communication from one side of the equation to the other!

What's even worse, is that now you have a manager who - by virtue of their complete lack of understanding of their employees' jobs - becomes completely unable to provide feedback to these employees and help them develop - creating stagnation, dissatisfaction and even antipathy towards the manager, and underperformance. Been there, done that.

The only way to get good IT managers is to grow them. They have to understand the way your company uses IT - from technologies and platforms to business processes. They will undoubtedly need help from business managers to understand these items, so those business managers are going to have to dedicate time - weekly, probably - to mentoring these individuals.

"And if they show ability, then they will climb a career ladder to a position of seniority in their chosen field." Only if those above choose to promote that person. If that person is viewed negatively for any reason including jealousy there will be no promotion.

Good IT managers are born with the ability which is developed and improved through coaching, education and practice. If the IT genius proves an ineffective manager who remains in that position his/her name = Peter Principle. Sadly in the corporate world more money is tied to promotion into management. More money should be tied to strong job performance regardless of your title or position on the hierarchy chart.

I once believed the myth that non-IT people were better managers. After I became a manager and I worked with non-IT managers on joint projects, I realized that there are just as many incompetent non-IT mangers as IT managers. Here are some gems from non-IT managers:
You want to see the project plan for my part of the project? Will this slide do?
You want me to commit to a deliverable? I cannot do that; someone may hold me to the commitment.
TCO? What's that?
What can non-IT managers do well? They can create really great looking PowerPoint presentations. There may not be any information in the presentation but it looks great.

Working in IT, doesn't mean you don't need it.
I've had good managers, I've had bad ones, whether they knew anything about IT has been irrelevant.
I'd rather have a manager who was good at managing, than a manager who WAS good at IT.

A good manager pays attention to the process and or people they are managing, all else is self serving drivel

I'd take a good manager as my manager, than someone who thinks they were / are a good developer any day.

I agree that a non-IT manager in IT is a disaster in the making, just as a marketing person in operations management within a manufacturing facility is. These people do not have the perspective or empathy to understand what they are expected to manage.

I believe that some IT people can be effective managers, if they have the wherewithal or interest, but most IT people are probably better off and much happier remaining professionals.

I think that business and society in general do a great disservice by presenting management as the ultimate attainment one can achieve in one's career. Why not reward and respect that great professional who gets knee-deep into the details of project operations and actually gets things done?

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand." -Putt's Law.

I believe that people managers and those closest to the techs performing the work need to have some sort of 'hands-on' experience in order to facilitate the work load across all team members and to distill the information they get from the techs to give to the higher-ups. Without this understanding managers are at the mercy of the technicians and cannot properly access the situation on their own.

Understanding the bottom-line and IT's role in an overall business strategy is important but for those first few lower level and middle managers, having more than a grasp of terminology is critical.

I believe it's management's responsibility to relay the importance of business concepts and business goals to IT. A mentoring program with spheres outside a person's own group would foster a greater understanding for all employees and a company can then select individuals for management and supervisory positions.

While I have seen what the author describes, more often than not I see the situation where management sees a person, and it doesn't have to be tech, as good at whatever they were hired for and nothing else. This dead end approach is not only a career killer if one stays in such a place, but a soul crusher as well.