Always wipe your bum!

“What comes around goes around” is a phrase commonly used when preaching to others about ethical behaviour or by those that believe that there is a levelling force out there that cares enough to ensure that things work out evenly in the end. Other phrases like “You are what you eat”, “You will reap what you sow” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” are also symbolic of phrases embracing karma.

I am a keen believer that as a role model (Manager/Leader) in team management you need to practice what you preach. During the team management phases of my career, my style has generally been a hands-on approach. This enables me to utilise my technical and leadership qualities on a daily basis from within the bosom of the team. I have never sought my own luxury office or other status symbol as an indication of my position. My positioning amongst the team would mean I am always available to talk through ideas or issues. I most certainly will be there to encourage, assist and develop the teams skills. If I ever needed privacy I could always track down a meeting room, shelter in the local café or work from home for an afternoon.

The purpose of this article is not to discuss the merits of positioning yourself as a manager or a leader within your development team, or is it to debate the benefits of the hands-on versus hands-off management and leadership philosophies. Each of these items are environment specific and so in depth that they are best served with full discussion in a future article.

I want to discuss the aspects of being a role model for your team and how your behaviour affects others around you.

I have worked with many different people over the years all with interesting quirks and features and every single one of them has in some way or another left their mark on me, not physically but by influencing my views as a ‘software development professional’ and helping me cast my expectations of the working community in general.

Some I speak of as visionaries and ahead of the curve, I value many others as trusted colleagues whose integrity has shaped my beliefs of honesty and transparency, there are the characters who make you laugh/cry or cringe, even before they speak. Then there are the odd four or five that if I were to write down my true opinion would land me in court fighting a defamation hearing, the blog would be censored as the article degenerates with unprintable language that even Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson would find objectionable.

Many managers fail to understand that you are judged on more than just your innovations or effectiveness, and you can guarantee more than death and taxes, your staff and colleagues will eloquently appraise you behind your back, if you are lucky to your face also. Managing upwards or sideways is only half the issue and this is where your political skills shine if you are that way inclined. Having a team that is 100% focused behind you is the harder half of the equation to implement successfully, and it is this half that is often overlooked by a manager on the path of change glory.

To put this into context I once read a couple of short quotes that I believe summarises the management challenge quite succinctly.

“Bulls**it can get you to the top of the corporate ladder, but it’s not good enough to keep you there”.

“When a monkey at the top of the tree looks down they see smiling faces. When you are below and look up, you only see a**eholes.”

As a manager you will be remembered for what you do wrong or badly as much as you do good. Actually, a sack full of positive memories can often be overshadowed by one or two bad decisions whether by misjudgement or deliberately/deviously thought out. The fact that this perception is fair or not is open for debate.

On a personal level I owe as much to the four or five people I’d rather not mention (All ex colleagues) as I do to those that have provided the motivation and broadened my thinking.

Quite often I have seen people behave in a manner that inspires me to make that mental note of “I wouldn’t do it that way” or “When I am in that position I wouldn’t do that”.

• Ever had a manager who bullies staff or chastises staff in front of others?
• Ever had a manager that values process and technology over the people aspects of running a team?
• Ever had a manager who seeks opinion but never listens and ignores all input?
• Ever had a manager who promises a review and then waited months or years for it to materialise?
• Ever had a manager breeze though a company with change havoc only to move on without seeing the job through.

Many of these are management lessons on page one of the manual and combine communication and basic human needs. Anyone who has ever taken the time to read material related to Maslow's triangle will understand my point here. I have seen all of these incidents above over the years with varying results, and once again the negative memories override any goodwill previously earned.

Last week I witnessed another of those moments (albeit small) when a direct line manager at my firm failed to stand up and be counted during a leaving speech of a long serving colleague who now reported to them. I was aware of a few differences in opinion between the two people that led to the resignation in the first place, but I felt that this could have been a time of reconciliation.

So whilst most were expecting the usual speech from the line manager I was shocked to see the manager hiding in the wings, quite literally, and instead it was left for other managers to make the ‘Sorry to see you leave speech’. The employee did their speech afterwards and kept it civil and in my view edged the overall contest on points.

I will try and look for the positives out of all this even though I was disappointed enough to blog this today. I am not saying that as a manager or leader you have to be whiter than white. There are occasions when you have to make decisions people won't like. In other situations in sports management I might suggest that pleasantries are not high on the agenda. But I am saying that it is important to consider every factor of your role and day. It is often the little things that undo a manager.

So, another mark has been etched into my mind and I have learnt that it is more important to front up rather than avoid those awkward moments. After all, the negatives may build up and may invoke a re-greasing of the corporate ladder.

So, if you believe in karma please remember, you never know who is sitting on the rung just above or below you or whether they harbour plans to move ahead, so always wipe your bum.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.

Damn Marketing Rebranding Machines!!!!

UPDATED to cater for the latest rename of Plex from CA Plex to CA Plex PRIME

https://communities.ca.com/thread/241697286

The document

So IBM has announced another change to the name for one of my favourite computing platforms.

The new name ‘IBM Power System’ replaces the name of ‘System i’. I must admit I hadn’t really come to terms with the last rename and more often than not used the term ‘iSeries’ or ‘AS/400’. If I am being totally honest, I actually interchange all of these terms so frequently in both written and oral formats that I have to constantly remember my audience as well as remind myself.

I grew up knowing the platform as the ‘AS/400’. An extremely powerful, reliable and scalable midrange system. It wasn’t known as a server in those days, more an integrated bespoke environment and all the applications ran natively.

Now things have moved on quite a bit. The announcement for the rename is actually more than just a re-branding exercise. It is not a shallow attempt from a ‘change hungry’ marketing team to try and impress a new boss or make an impact in a global IT organisation.

The technology has moved on significantly as well.

Two hardware platforms have been consolidated which must be good for me, the consumer. The ‘System i’ and the ‘System p’ now both ship as the ‘IBM Power System’. You then have the choice of installing one or more operating systems on system partitions. So this announcement for the industry is quite significant for the midrange marketplace.

My main moan point about this change is why companies constantly consider re-branding. In my mind it doesn’t make sense. I doubt they actually consider the affects of their airhead moments after 3 zillion triple espresso’s. Especially the impact for those outside of their organisational walls.

In my opinion, this is change for changes sake and I have seen plenty of that over the years.

This is particularly true when people join an organisation and immediately set about changing it. They do it without considering why it is architected that way. Very rarely do organisations or products require a revolution rather than applied evolution.

Yet, I have witnessed the revolutionists hitting the same problems the evolutionists had already resolved. If only these revolutionists had engaged the incumbents long enough to determine what needed fixing then value could have been added somewhere along the merry path of so called, 'change glory'.

Let's take a look at the soccer scenario when clubs change their managers too frequently whilst chasing success. Those that change managers, their approach and tactics, generally over a period of time underperform those with established managers and an evolutionary mind set. Consider a Manchester United or an Arsenal approach for further proof. The exceptions are the one season wonders and rich clubs like Chelski. How many IT companies out there can afford that level of investment before seeing a return?

So I ask, did these marketing executives ponder the impact of the change?

I guess they would be aware of the cost internally. After all, this is at least the fifth change that I am aware of, so the reprinting of the user guides, help text, updating of the other applications to reference the new name (I hope this was soft-coded somehow) are generally constant. I am assuming that each group within IBM was advised of the change so that all other aspects of the business i.e. services, pre-sales, technical support, training, internal systems and accounts etc are fully conversant with the new brand.

I am also assuming that IBMs strategic and local partners are aware of the change and that they have change plans in place to ensure that their own literature, staff and services are realigned to the IBM 'espresso executives' vision.

But, of course, it doesn’t stop there!!!

What about all those companies with ‘System i’ etc in their company names? What about all those now outdated links on websites? What about all those cyber squatters and phishing sites that need to seek reinvestment capital? Those poor recruitment consultants who have another buzzword to look out for.

One thing is for sure. Google/Yahoo/Microsoft and other web search engine robots won’t know or care about the platform evolution of the ‘IBM Power System’. So I now have to remember to search under many name banners to get the correct information.

How many millions of business cards, job descriptions, organisation charts and email signatures need to be updated around the world? What about all those periodicals that target the platform? All those outdated and now devalued books on http://www.amazon.com/ that plug the power of the 'System i', Ooops, "IBM Power System'.

This list is likely to be significant if I had time to ponder for longer. But, there is also and most importantly of course, the impact on me me me me me. Call it selfish, self-centered or paranoid, but...........

I used to say that I specialised in 'AS/400', 'iSeries', 'i5', 'System i' software development. I am going to have to append ‘IBM Power System' to this list. I won't even begin to comment on the names of the operating system whose naming journey has been equally as diverse to cogitate. Now they call the operating system 'IBM i', "Yeah Right!!!!".

Most begrudgingly, I now have to go and update my curriculum vitae remembering to be aware that not everyone who may read it in the future will be aware of the recent or previous changes.

My CV will now read something like.

Specialist in ‘CA 2E’ formerly known as ‘Allfusion 2E’, ‘Advantage 2E’, ‘Jasmine 2E’, ‘Cool:2E’, ‘Synon/2E’) which is a 4GL code generator for the ‘IBM Power system’ formerly known as ‘System i’, ‘i5’, ‘iSeries’, ‘AS/400’ and specialist in CA Plex PRIME formerly known as, CA Plex, Allfusion Plex, Advantage Plex, Cool:Plex or Obsydian.

The irony is that although the system has been re-branded and many of the tools that I use have also been re-branded. They are more often than not referred to by their original name.

Just ask Symbol, the artist formerly known as Prince.

Thanks for reading.
Lee.