Management, Idealism, and Adaptability
Flexibility and Adaptability are crucial traits in management
We are often drawn to people we consider Idealists. Those that embrace their core principles. Who put in the time and work towards fighting the (good) fight. Who persevere even if there are major setbacks. In tech, a famous example is Steve Jobs, who was idealistic about user experience. But this applies to pretty much all areas, from climate change to civil rights.
We all have idealistic traits, whether they show up lightly, or stronger. One of my core values is personal growth. I am putting great focus into making sure everybody in my team has goals and feels supported in their career.
Depending on your situation and role, it can be beneficial or required to show strong idealistic behaviour. Software engineering is a good example. Being a good engineer and writing high-quality code depends on sticking to some core values: Write clear and understandable code. Consider maintainability and extensibility. Understand and manage tech debt. And lots more.
It is easy to write code. It is even easier to write bad code. But to become an effective engineer, who can build and maintain a complex project, you need clear ideals and determination.
So, being an idealist is a good thing. At least most of the time…
Idealism and Management
Engineers can be idealistic because they work within the boundaries defined by others, often managers. These boundaries can take a lot of shapes, for example, time constraints, size of the team, other priorities, etc.
Looking at management roles, being idealistic can be an equally valuable trait. An example is a focus on personal growth I shared above. But it can turn into an issue if we are not careful.
An effective manager needs to be flexible. To take on new information, understand the implication, and use it to adjust the approach. Whether this is about changing priorities, trying out new processes, or mixing up the team. Strong ideals and values can get in the way of this and impact our efficiency.
If we stick to a plan no matter what, we miss out on new opportunities. For example, if we cannot let go of our desire to work asynchronously, we exclude certain members of the team. If we care too much about deadlines, we miss out on the personal growth of our team. If we only trust senior engineers to contribute to the team, we end up with a less diverse and less productive team.
Yes, we need a good set of values and ideals to be effective and to help improve the status quo. We certainly should not be dropping our core beliefs as soon as we step into a leadership role. But we need to be aware of them and understand when they might be getting in the way of our effectiveness.
In the end, all decisions we make are some kind of trade-off. Letting go of one of our ideals — even if it is only a little bit — can be a useful tactic.
