Childish Behavior and the Cult of Personality

Dear Ms. Management:

I worked recently under a management structure that seemed not to care about wildly childish behavior on the part of one 'senior' developer (well, they gave him another, fancier title, but I'm not sure that's appropriate.) This 'senior' developer had been seen stomping around, huffing and puffing, waving his arms wildly when challenged with questions that he thinks should not be asked. The director of engineering was present at the time, and didn't even notice this little outburst, or if he did, he didn't react or do anything to intervene.

Immediately following this particular meeting, the 'senior' developer stomped directly to his cube, muttering invectives and saying "seven days to talk about it, fifteen minutes to write the code", and started hacking product code "to show them". I found this incident quite disturbing, and, sadly, I was paralyzed at the time, unable to figure out how to deal with this situation..

The overwhelming impression that I got from this experience and others like it is that the management and development teams were highly dysfunctional - something that I should have seen sooner, but sadly, I ignored the warning signs. Another strong sense was that this 'senior' developer was powerful within the company and not to be challenged, ever.

I ended up leaving the company shortly after these incidents. Upon reflection, it seems that there was quite a 'cult of personality' within that organization - the strong, adamant, bullying lead developer, and mostly meek, compliant developers who tended not to question the 'leader'.

My questions for Ms. Management:

• Can you recommend a way to deal with such a situation, should I (or your readers) encounter such an environment in the future?
• Can you suggest ways to detect and avoid such an environment *before* one joins the company, during the interview process, for example? Are there questions one can ask, or other subtle cues and clues one can look for?

Sincerely,

-- Baffled by Bad Behavior

Dear Baffled,

There could be a number of reasons for this organizational behavior. One, of course, is that the organization you stepped into is just hopelessly dysfunctional from top to bottom. It happens sometimes, and the best you can do is get out with as little collateral damage as possible.

More often, though, the problem is with the head of the department – in this case, the Director of Engineering. If you can get a handle on the underlying cause, you have a better chance of handling and changing the behavior effectively. The prima-donna is an issue, but the fact that the behavior is unchallenged is the real problem.

One key reason might be that the manager is non-technical (or minimally technical pretending to have a deeper understanding than he does), and is buying into everything your flamboyant senior developer tells him. If this is the case, you may be able to present a more rational approach to the manager (appropriately documented by you and backed up by written sources). In the case of software development, nearly every book ever written on the development process – even XP – advocates design and review over prima-donna hacking. You’ll do better if you can come up with a well-thought-through plan in conjunction with other members of the team – you want this to be a ‘for the good of the company’ group effort, otherwise it will seem like you’re in it for your ego (and let’s face it, your prima-donna has enough ego for the whole team). As part of your proposal, perhaps you can find a better place for your ‘senior developer’. This type of personality often can do a fabulous job as an evangelist or visionary – but keep him out of the product development environment. Let him make prototypes and present them to investors, keeping the money flowing and product maintainable.

Another reason might be that the manager considers the senior developer absolutely key to the business and irreplaceable – combined with the obvious volatility, the manager is afraid of crossing the developer and losing him. If the rest of the development team is strong, you can start facing the developer down in meetings and other forums – but the trick is to remain very calm, have your arguments in good order and on a technical (not personal) basis, and be willing to keep calmly pushing until you get an answer. On the other hand, of the rest of the development team is not strong you probably want to just cut your losses – if the senior developer leaves, there truly will be no one to pick up the slack and put things right.

If the manager is simply non-confrontational, facing the developer down in a public forum, as described above, will give the manager an out. He can agree with you without having had to initiate the confrontation, and you’ll give him an excellent starting point for changing the system.

Finally, the manager could be simply clueless – his mind is elsewhere, he’s dealing with investors or his boss or family troubles or whatever. In this case, you not only should advocate a more rational approach privately with the manager, but you should state your case for addressing the hostile work environment the manager has allowed to develop.

So, how do you ferret out this situation BEFORE you take the plunge? There are definitely some questions you should ask – and you should ask every person with whom you interview. Note differences in answers between staff and management, see if you get any evasions, and watch for eye contact:

1. How do key decisions (in this case, architecture and design) get made, reviewed, recorded, and validated? [If everything comes down to a key developer, there’s a problem. If management thinks things are sanely documented and reviewed and the team thinks one person dictates these decisions, there’s a problem. If no one really knows, there’s an even bigger problem.]
2. How does the team work, and who are the players? [Again, differences between management answers and team answers are key here. If the list of team players is different between the two groups or if the ordering of the team players is consistent within groups and different between groups, there may be an issue. If the team is led by one person and there’s no good explanation about how suggestions and decisions are made and vetted, you may have a problem as well. Expect to hear about a review process, not a distribution process.]
3. Follow this up with questions on existing roles within the team and the company, and how people move amongst the roles. Look for good movement within the team and an actual knowledge of what roles exist and how they’re filled.

Leadership vs. Politics

Dr. Ms. Management:

Some time ago, I told my manager that I was interested in the things that motivate people. His response: "You sound like you are interested in politics." I disagreed, saying that there was a big difference between the two, although I didn't have much time to argue the point. His comment left me feeling vaguely ill-at-ease, but I wasn't sure why.

Reflecting back on this mini-discussion, I see a big difference between 'politics' and 'leadership'. But I'm not sure that I can articulate it very well. Do you have any thoughts on the differences between the two? Do you agree with my position that 'leadership' can and should be much more positive and much less destructive than mere 'politics'?

-- Leaderless in Seattle

Dear Leaderless:

It seems that your manager has a pretty narrow world view. Understanding motivation, both in a general way and specific to individuals, is essential to many fields (everyone from physicians to teachers to business people have to know what people want in order to be effective!), and I would certainly not jump to the conclusion that it's the purview of politicians.

I see politics as an endeavor to obtain personal gain - power, money, ego-stroking. Those engaging in the pursuit tend to use manipulation rather than motivation, and are so often dealing with others that work in similar ways that their knowledge of and interest in motivation tends to be based on their own views. Politics is finding a way to get what's best for yourself, whether at the expense of others or not. It often involves dealing, favors, and compromise that might be uncomfortable to those for whom personal gain is not the top priority. In general, politics has a pretty negative connotation.

Leadership, on the other hand, has more of a societal gain in mind. It's helping people get what they want or they need. Leadership fosters collaboration. Study of motivation, both at an individual and a group level, is essential to help understand what exactly what people need and the best way to help them achieve it. On a large scale, true leadership helps individuals achieve their needs and wants within the balance of the greater good.

Clearly, some politicians are also great leaders - and some very good politicians are miserable leaders but excellent manipulators.

Which is your manager, I wonder?

--Ms. Management

MIA Manager

Dear Ms. Management:

My manager (who is also the Director of Engineering) is either in a meeting with peers or superiors, or has his face buried in his computer all day long. The only time his staff sees him is at weekly group lunches or the weekly staff meetings. He does absolutely nothing to reach out to his direct reports. I've never worked with a more inaccessible or distant manager.

There are signs of major problems within the engineering team, and I'm afraid things are going to come to a head soon. I know the Director is having some personal (family) issues, and I don't want to increase the stress level he must be dealing with right now.

Can you suggest a good way to break the ice, and perhaps draw him out of his shell?

-- Alienated Cubicle Dweller

Dear Alienated:

Sometimes managers get so wrapped up in what's happening to them - personal stuff, pressure from their own management, special projects, etc. - that they forget that the real job of a manager is to manage people. While we all have the expectation that our managers will always notice what we're doing and where their departments are headed, it doesn't always happen that way.

It's good that you're ready to take action. The first thing to do is schedule some time with your manager. Start with a half hour and see where you get. After the first meeting, try to schedule one on a recurring basis - half an hour isn't enough of a time block for it to be a problem. Be prepared with an agenda (although you don't have to send it to him in advance, or even show it to him). I'd recommend picking your top two concerns to talk about during the meetings. If you're seeing signs of major problems in your team, it seems like this is a shoe-in for one of those top two concerns. The trick is not to dump problems in his lap - no one likes that. Think it through. Let him know what you're seeing and offer some solutions, or at least your help. If you've been mulling the problem over and aren't able to come up with any solutions, let him know what actions you've thought about and why you discarded those ideas. That makes it more of a working session, less of a bitch session. This meeting is also a good time to let him know what you've been doing with your own work.

If you're not having a regular department meeting (at least every two weeks), suggest it. Organize it, even. This will help your manager pull out of his shell a bit and look around him. It doesn't have to be a big, high-stress thing - bring in pizza and have everyone talk about what they're doing and where they need help. This might help your manager take some cues to become more involved. At the least, it will probably get people in the department to talk about what they need and get some help from other department members. The food is actually important - people relax and talk things through when there's food involved, especially something they can eat without paying much attention to it. As for the manager, it's hard to remain distant and inaccessible when you're munching on pizza talking with folks. Not only that, take some notes during the meeting and send them out to everyone - it will help the manager remember what's going on in his group.

So, the key things in this kind of situation:

1. Be prepared to be part of the solution
2. Make it easy for your manager to see and hear what's happening in his group
3. Find a way to help him get face to face with you and your group

Good Luck!

--Ms. M