My Boss is Weak In Technical

My boss doesn’t know what I”m doing! My boss is lack of technical skills! I lazy to talk to my boss because he is weak in technical. A good boss supposes to know better than me, why he still ask me? Does this sound familiar to you? Well before you complain, let’s look at what are the management skills needed from a single contributor to first-line, middle and top managers in a company.

Notes

1. Technical skill is a skill to perform each single detailed tasks. Human skill a skill to deal with human and resources to accomplish the company’s goals. Conceptual skill is a skill to understand the business need and set directions for the company.
2. The area of the shape tells you how much the role should spend their time in technical, human and conceptual. The total area for each role or shape should be the same. We have only 24 hours a day. :)

Is My boss Really Weak in Technical or….

Well I agree your boss is weak in technical. So you expect your boss should be better than you since he/she has worked so many years in the industry? If this is the case, you’re really in deep trouble because when your boss is better than you technically, you’re actually underperformed. Let’s look at the diagram above, a first-line manager supposes to spend less time in technical than a single contributor. How could you expect your manager is better than you since he spend less time than you? Yes, you’re underperformed!

If you look at the other way, let’s assume you’re not underperformed and you boss is really damn good in technical. You should start asking if your immediate boss focus on the right things? He should spend more on the human side for the skills. Does he do that? That is the reason why not all managers are suitable to be managers. In this case he is probably better to stay in the technical path (e.g. group lead, team lead) rather than in management path.

So think about it again. Is your boss really week in technical? It is expected your boss has less technical knowledge than you, and your role to explain to him and make sure he has the right amount of detail information.


Discussion

That is the general understanding of management skills. The higher you go, the less technical you’re as you’re now moving towards more human and conceptual management skills. Please set at least the right expectation to your manager. Having said so, one may still challenges this statement. The first argument of this is does this also apply to a technology company? Basically in a technology company, even managers are expected to be strong in technical? Is that true?

I myself work in a technology company and I have seen middle managers are damn good in technical and also both human and conceptual skills? Those are usually the outstanding manager. Is the expectation now set to the manager in a technology company somehow different? If that is the case, looks like being a manager in a technology company is a lot more harder. What do you think?

High Pay with Low Stress or Growth?

A friend of mine resigned from his company last month. So, I asked him why and his answer was very stressful to work there, and he didn’t see a reason to reject since he got an offer with 30% increment and promotion. According to him, the new company (i.e. which is also his ex-company) is a lot more less stressful than the existing one. So the conversation continues:

Me: Are you doing a same job like what you did previously?

Friend A: Yupe. No difference and I know in-out of everything.

Me: Even with a promotion, will you still do the same thing like what you did last time?

Friend A: Kind of. I'm supposed to get a promotion previously but they didn’t give me. I can perform at that level. No problem for me at all.

Me: So, can I say you will be in comfort zone?

Friend A: Definitely. So lucky I am. Get a raise to do an easy job!

Me: What about personal growth? Will the new job help you to grow?

Friend A: Hmm…  Is that important? I don’t take that into my consideration. I will be stupid if I don’t take this offer for doing something easier and less stressful.

Me: Okay. You’re right. Good luck, man!

So, what do you think? Was my friend making a right decision? There 2 things to consider here:

First, you get a promotion with a same job scope before? Think about it carefully, why a company want to do this? It still makes sense assuming if you’ve already over-performed in a lower grade as what my friend told me.

Second, no growth versus money. Which one is the right thing to decide if you can only choose one? Well, this is not an easy decision especially when it comes to you. I bet most people will choose money and sacrifice growth like what my friend did. If you were my friend, what will you do?

If I were my friend…

I will make sure there is a growth for me before I take the new position. I will start discussing with the hiring manager the opportunity to growth. Keep in mind that doing a same job, doesn’t mean no growth. Assuming after the assessment, I find that there is no growth or no significant growth in this new job,  I will NOT take this offer! Ops. but with one exception, guess what? The exception is there is also no growth in my current or existing job.


Conclusion

One more thing is missing here before you consider to switch job is company stability. You don't want to join that no strong in fundamental. Anyway to make the discussion easier, let’s put aside this into the consideration
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Well this is what I think. You should make decision based on the following criteria in priority order:

1. High Pay, Low Stress, and High Growth (Ultimate goal, don’t you think so?)
2. High Pay, High Stress, and High Growth (Okay, not that bad. Learning to manage stress is a skill.)
3. Low Pay,  Low Stress, and High Growth (Eventually your growth will translate to money, don’t worry!)
4. Low Pay, High Stress, and High Growth (Don’t worry again, money will come later.)
5. High Pay, High Stress and Low Growth (Try to make use of your high stress to become your growth)
6. High Pay, Low Stress and Low Growth (Yes, only if you really want to be in comfort zone!)
7. Low Pay, Low Stress, and Low Growth (This should be your retirement strategy.)
8. Low pay, High Stress, and Low Growth (Too obvious right? Please avoid this.)

Look at 3,4,5 and 6. Guess some of you may disagree with me?

P/S: Btw, guess what is the top 5 high-paying and low-stress jobs? That is Physical Therapist,  Computer Software Engineer, Civil Engineer, Massage Therapist, and Technical Writer (Provided by: Investopedia).