One story about career growth or why I consider myself a good manager

Greetings, dear readers!

Having recently read another article about leadership by authorship of the very well-respected guys from the notorious school of managers, I remembered one story from my design practice and was glad that, although unconsciously, I did a lot in my work. Specifically, this applies to paragraph 6 of the eight rules of a good boss from Google: "Promote career growth of employees."

I once worked as a head of the project management department in a major IT outsourcer (I was in TOP-5 in Russia). And I was in charge of a very large project for the outsourcing of the IT infrastructure of one of the Russian federal ministries.

I directly employed 15 people: project managers, administrators, economists, logisticians and IT specialists who supported the automated system Service Desk. The project was really large with a turnover of more than 1.5 billion rubles. per year and therefore quite autonomous within the company.

I specifically emphasized the moment of direct submission. The project had several levels of hierarchy, and, in general, the entire project team consisted of more than 150 people. In particular, at the second level of the hierarchy, one of my project managers was subordinate to 10 heads of system-technical maintenance groups (STO). And each leader of the group submitted 10-15 more engineers. These were the usual “enikeyschiki”, which could clean the printer, replace the burned memory in the system, etc. They received applications through the Service Desk and performed work on customer sites in Moscow and the region.

Team leaders appeared at the office once a week for a setup meeting that was held by the project manager, I also attended it periodically when the schedule allowed. Engineers appeared in the office as they needed spare parts, tools, and consumables, and they didn’t go anywhere other than the logistic office and warehouse.
The company had an internal portal containing full names, positions, contacts and photos of all employees. So theoretically, engineers, without meeting me personally, still could know my face.

And so one sunny day, such an engineer (say, Denis) comes to me in the smoking room, and says: “Hello, I am such and such, from such and such STO group. Now I graduate from university with a degree in management (in absentia or evening, I don’t remember). I earn money as an engineer while studying, but of course after graduation I would like to work in the area of ​​management. I understand that without work experience I don’t need anyone and I’ll not immediately become a manager. So, please, if you have the opportunity to transfer me to the position of some project administrator or assistant project manager or something like that in the office. I will try very hard, I will not let you down, etc. etc. "A

request for me unexpected. But, nevertheless, I immediately noted for myself:

- a sound approach to building a career for a young man;
- initiative, courage and desire for growth.

I asked Denis to throw me a letter with this request so that I would not forget about him. Well, he promised to see what was happening ... There were no suitable vacancies at that time and it was not foreseen. However, the letter was in my mail, and in the background I remembered this guy.

3-4 months after the conversation came a wonderful time regarding the sudden verification of the fulfillment of the state contract by the fiscal structures. Accordingly, we needed to promptly prepare, that is, “pull out” from the ServiceDesk database, print and sign a huge number of reporting documents on the contract, such as technical acts of completed work, etc. Resources available in the office, to make it in the required time was impossible. I have decided to perform this one-time work to temporarily release on requests and transfer to the office several sensible engineers STO.

And naturally, in the first place, I “called on” Denis. Honestly I tell him that the work is temporary, but, nevertheless, he will sit for two or three weeks in the office and be engaged not in engineering, but in administrative work together with the main “office” project team. Accordingly, he will be able to penetrate into new topics, such as project document flow, plus light up in front of various company officials. Dim in the office, so to speak.

Denis, was delighted, agreed and, it should be noted, worked perfectly on this task. During this time I got used to it and did not want to let go back “to the fields”. But the task was completed, the new vacancies did not appear, and Denis returned to his trips to the customers' requests.

Soon after this incident, it turned out that I left the company.

Two or three years passed. I worked in another firm. This time it was a manufacturer of information security tools. There was a need for us to hire another engineer for the assembly and final inspection of products. The management asked me to search among my acquaintances in order not to take a person from the street. And I, going through the contacts in the phone, find Denis. I call him and describe the topic.

And what do you think, he says to me: “Sergey, thank you for the suggestion, but I have not been an engineer for a long time, but a whole head of the technical support group in Moscow. Remember, you then pulled me into the office for three weeks. So, while I was working there, I was really noticed and remembered, as you expected. In particular, I was noticed by our technical director. And at the next reorganization I was offered to head the group. Thank you for everything that you did for me !!! ”

And thanks it was very sincere ...

Here is a story about career growth.

PS And I still communicate with Denis. And if there is a suitable topic, I will call him back to my team ...

Also popular now: