Hello World

“Follow the leader” was a popular game when I was a kid. It was fun to try and be like the big kids and do everything they did.  But it was the most fun being the leader. 

For over 20 years, I have had lots of fun being a manager in the software industry (yes, there were a fair share of headaches too). I moved into management because I wanted the teams to be more organized, but I stayed there because I liked building and directing teams. I have been a coder, a designer, an integration specialist, a project manager, and a VP of Engineering. I have worked on fixed price government contracts for Defence and Air Traffic Control, products for automotive automation, consumer products for the software industry, and internet security appliances. 

 

Not all managers are created equal. What made me different from many of the managers that played the software game alongside me was that I was also leader.  Managers organize and execute while leaders provide the inspiration and the vision for what needs to be done.  I liked to do both. Over time leadership became more interesting to me (guess I still have more fun being the leader)

Many people have told me that leaders are born. You are either a leader or you are not. I just don’t believe it. Think about the army. They don’t go into war and plan to manage their way out. They go into war and they lead to victory.*  The army teaches their officers how to be leaders. Leaders are needed at all levels of the army and, I believe,  at all levels of a software organization. 

I have learned many of my lessons the hard way - I have not found that elusive silver bullet. There is no one book or short course that is going to make you a leader. My goal is to simply share what I have learned. Hopefully it can help you. Some of what I write will be about management; but most about leadership. You can be a good manager and a good leader. It just takes practice. 

So follow along. And unlike the kids’ game, I won’t be trying to make it so hard that you fail. I don’t want to be the winner of this game. We can all win.  The more good leaders we have in software, the better for all of us.

*war analogies will be very limited. I really don’t like them but this one from an HBR article was just so appropriate that I decided to go with it.