I've read a bunch of the management books and even my company's internal training. None of it seems to matter. They're great in theory, but I never see any of my managers really practicing it. The fact is, they're so far removed from real power they're just implementing what the people 3 levels above them want. It seems they're just struggling to keep their own heads above water most of the time.
I haven't recieved any real career or growth coaching by any of my managers. Most of my managers haven't been around long enough to actually help (about 16 managers in 12 years). The guidance I get includes "make me happy and I have connections to get you promoted", "just keep doing what you're doing and you'll get there", "we want you to increase throughput and ask fewer questions" even though I've requested disability accomodations for more coaching, and of course there was plenty of therapist style managers asking what I wanted and how I thought I should go about it but without any actual feedback or real discussion.
I've had to fill leadership roles in the past, but thankfully never any sort of reviews or managerial positions (more like TL, supervisor but not manager, stuff when I was a kid too). I'm just a leader by necessity. Nobody else stepped up, so I did. We did what we needed to get done as a team and it worked surprisingly well. It almost seems like the people who really want to be leaders end up bringing some baggage with them or can't get out of their own way.
In my opinion, all of the management training completely ignores the one thing that matters - make the company money.
If management training isn’t helping you make the company more money, then you might as well just ignore it. It’s likely actively working against your own interests.
"In my opinion, all of the management training completely ignores the one thing that matters - make the company money."
They definitely don't tie it together explicitly. In my view, much of it implicitly can help the company, but only if it's applied correctly.
With my disability, I feel like the canary in the coal mine. My team is a low performing team. I've been identified as a low performing member of that team. Our tests are basically non-existent. We don't have a requirements repository other than JIRA stories. We don't have documentation for most tasks. These things (and more) are common complaints of most team members. It certainly affects their speed and quality. However, with my disability it affects me much more. The company could save money on dev costs if they made some process improvements. Instead, they give me career advice that I need to speed up, ask fewer questions, and that I should look for other roles, including non-technical roles. I guess when I do get fired or leave, they'll have to blame the slow and low quality work on someone or something else...
I haven't recieved any real career or growth coaching by any of my managers. Most of my managers haven't been around long enough to actually help (about 16 managers in 12 years). The guidance I get includes "make me happy and I have connections to get you promoted", "just keep doing what you're doing and you'll get there", "we want you to increase throughput and ask fewer questions" even though I've requested disability accomodations for more coaching, and of course there was plenty of therapist style managers asking what I wanted and how I thought I should go about it but without any actual feedback or real discussion.
I've had to fill leadership roles in the past, but thankfully never any sort of reviews or managerial positions (more like TL, supervisor but not manager, stuff when I was a kid too). I'm just a leader by necessity. Nobody else stepped up, so I did. We did what we needed to get done as a team and it worked surprisingly well. It almost seems like the people who really want to be leaders end up bringing some baggage with them or can't get out of their own way.