Leaders hire leaders and Managers hire slaves!!!

Mukesh Kumar
Aug 27, 2017 · 4 min read

We are living in the technology pattern where most successful professionals are building cool apps and ideas. I am lucky as I have evolved few of my ideas into a successful design and delivered it as a product. Also been involved in design and architecture of some of the cool apps. But how do I reach here is a story of how to understand and develop that skill.

I research with my own guts and does not fear on entering into new platform or domain. Because I know my fear is not in what I don’t know, but it is what I already know. Learning a skill means to listen to what a tool or technology is saying without evaluation.

I am here going to tell you what it needs to be successful in IT sector and what is the most important skill you need to develop in case you want to be a good leader for a long term.
Yes! don’t surprise and the best thing to do is — “shut up and do your job”.
(Sorry if it hurts please continue reading and let me elaborate)

So the first law is Never Outshine The Master.

Let me continue to differentiate between coder, designer and leader.

First in list, what is a coder — is someone who produces source code from a specification in the way that a secretary produces a typed document from a Dictaphone tape. Like a secretary, a coder may be expected to have the domain knowledge and judgement to interpolate small details, but should not generally be making decisions.

On other hand a good programmer spend less of their time writing actual code or design, and much more of their time understanding the problems their code is meant to solve. So a good programmer is the ability of a person to write programs that successfully solve problems with good judgement and decision making, critical thinking, and complex problem solving skill.

You can find few hints on “Design is not coding, coding is not design” at link below:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design

Now above two a programmer and a good programmer are guys who have to listen to the managers. The managers hold the authority of “Judgment and Decision Making” and never pass that power to subordinates/programmers.

This is why most companies become straight up high palace drama. Managers can do this because they rule the kingdom and everyone will pay their tax (do business with them) like it or not. If you threaten the king and show you are smarter you are toast and will be killed.

Same time most of the junior programmers need this stuff so they don’t make mistakes when they move to actually designing things.

Now there is another skill — leadership, if you can develop is to invest in the inner workings of the company. Using skills of intuition, you gather the business objectives and then write code to solve those needs in the manner most appropriate to the environment in which you work. Of course, often you’re writing more than just code and will contribute to documentation, blogs, and test with your users to gather feedback and improve your solution.

Now if you are programmer i would say it is not the most employable skill because coding is mechanical. You can get more information on demand of mechanical skill at below URL:-

That is the reason you can find many programmers of same skill in a project which managers can use to switch just like IF statement. So if you want to be successful in career then simply bow down to your boss’s ego, even when he/she was wrong. But “Judgement and decision making”, “Critical thinking”, “Complex problem solving”, are the actually difficult parts of doing long-term programming work, are at the top of the list. Don’t get me wrong, I personally felt into trouble and being ruled out when i have shown my confidence and courage. I love to hire “A” player and love to work with “A” players.

How about for a pretty generic plan until a leader meets you:-
- Know your trade: Understand whatever system you are using in depth.
- Understand how you create value within the specific business you are in.
- Have an O.K understanding of how your work interacts with others, and be O.K at explaining your understanding to others.
- Try to consistently interact with others in good faith and try to score runs for your project/business/whatever.
- Subjugate your own ego as much as possible and remain friendly when things get hectic.

Leadership skills are harder to prove because the skills to become a leader aren’t the same as the skills to be a good leader. See politicians for the example.
Read this article “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle" about the management concept which show to promote a talented “super-competent”. Peter noted that there is a strong temptation for people to use what has worked before, even when this might not be appropriate for the current situation.

Inspired by below article:-

Hang on until a leader meets you!!

)

Mukesh Kumar

Written by

Apart from Big data as my full time profession, I am a robotics hobbyists and enthusiasts… My Web Site: http://ammozon.co.in/

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