Thread by @QuinnyPig

All of the managers I ever reported to were complete crap until I managed people myself. Now I look back fondly at them.

A thread, partially in honor of @sarah_edo's bold new book.

https://twitter.com/sarah_edo/status/1412405246802944003?s=20

In hindsight, the recurrent failing that my managers always had was that they failed to explain just exactly WTF their job was. It turns out that 'managing me while catering to my every whim' was absolutely not it.

From where I sit, the hard truth is partially that having employees isn't the manager's job; having employees is simply their current approach to getting the actual responsibility handled.

This opinion may be accurate or not; it's certainly terrifying to hear from your manager. This is why at the @DuckbillGroup I don't manage people. Everyone here reports to @mike_julian.

In our position as company leadership, our role is to be outward facing; we should be long term strategic thinkers. Managing people is fundamentally inward facing, and is at odds with this at times. Something must be done!

Our solution to this is to expand our leadership team with a Head of Consulting Services.

Initially we'll be hurling them into the same conundrum; with time we expect them to build an organization that's significantly less flat.

apply.workable.com/duckbillgroup/…

My Twitter shitposting, @LastWeekinAWS newsletter, various podcasts, and the periodic speaking stunts I do aside, our primary business is consulting.

We're looking for an experienced leader to own that side of the business.

Services are not SaaS! We're not looking for an engineering leader, but rather someone with experience in managing / growing consulting delivery orgs.

This role will be managed via clearly defined KPIs–one of which is employee satisfaction. We didn't hire the best cloud economists in the world just so someone can drive them away via mismanagement!

You may notice that the job description deviates from the rest of our historical postings in that it doesn't list a salary figure. This is because the role's compensation is much more negotiable than an IC's, thanks to KPIs heavily influencing their variable comp.

All of the usual @DuckbillGroup philosophy applies; we treat people fairly, we protect our clients, we remind the industry that it takes itself too seriously sometimes.

This is a very challenging role to fill, and we expect that it's going to take a while. If you or someone you know resembles the description, please reach out. apply.workable.com/duckbillgroup/…

And now as always, I will field questions.

We do not care where in the world you are located. Legal does require that you're authorized to work in the US at this time.

https://twitter.com/Sam__Bramley/status/1412876128952279041?s=20

Objectively, I think most places get jaded. "No matter what we write, a bunch of folks will just YOLOslam their résumés in, so why bother?"

That's the price of hiring. The successful candidates will read what you write and perhaps discover a resonance.

https://twitter.com/EricGMoore/status/1412888671682969603?s=20

We're a fully remote company, and a lot of our communication is asynchronous. Clear and effective written communication is a prerequisite in this environment.

https://twitter.com/jimtanner/status/1412914904709967872?s=20

We meet our clients where they are. Internally we use @SlackHQ because that's where we are.

I dispatched someone to test out Microsoft Teams 8 months ago. I should probably go check on them.

https://twitter.com/granthyarbrough/status/1412946078916349954?s=20