How Technical Must You Be?

Yesterday's post looked at the importance of knowing the technical requirements of the work your people do. But just how technical must you be?

Obviously, the more technical skills you have the better you will understand the work. But you also may be more prone to doing the work rather than managing it. You also may become too involved with how people do their jobs (their style) rather than concentrating on the the results of their work effort (the substance). (For more on style vs substance see "Much Ado About a Vacuum Hose" posted on May 5, 2009 and "Alternate Methodologies" posted on May 6, 2009). And no matter how technically competent you are, you must also have a good set of management skills which you are capable of using competently as well.

So just how technical must you be? In my judgment, technical enough to understand what your people do and generally how they do it so you can effectively plan, organize and schedule the work; provide the necessary supporting resources; coach and train people; give them helpful advice and counsel; and accurately evaluate performance factors for each employee as an individual as well as the department as whole.

For example, if you are going to manage electricians you don't need to know exactly how to wire a 220v dedicated circuit feeding a water pump. But you should know who on your staff is qualified to do it, about how long it should take, understand what possible problems might crop up especially in an old work situation, make sure the key components of the job are on-hand, be aware of possible disruptions to users and other departments, and know what permits and inspections are required. (If you've just read this paragraph and don't have a clue as to what I am talking about, you would indeed be quite limited in your ability to manage this electrical project for example. In that case you'll need the advice in yesterday's post).

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