Welcome to episode 59 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we have part 2 of an interview with Kelly Schroeder about the technical management career and advice for the would-be manager.
Original Recording Date: 10-15-2019
Topics – Kelly Schroeder Interview
02:19 – Kelly’s Current Role as a Manager – Observations and Lessons

* How is this role different than his previous positions?

* The organization is a different scale with over 2000 employees. The IT Department is 80 people, and Kelly has 15 people under him (2 supervisors and 4 direct reports).
* This is wildly different than what he has done in the past. With a team this large, he cannot do anything technical (no room to fit into his day).
* Kelly was hired into this job to replace someone on the way out. He replaced a quality person who had built a great team and considers himself of a maintainer than a builder.

* Kelly realized the person he was replacing had truly cared about the wellbeing of her team. She understood them, knew them on a personal level, and helped shape them to be better people.
* John mentioned some of the great managers he’s had exhibited the same qualities.

* At Kelly’s level, he can know all the people on his team and interact with everyone.

* Even though he manages managers today, the fundamental principle of caring for his people does not change.
* If he was a level or two higher and over a larger team the connection with each person would not be feasible.
* We’re not sure how more senior level leaders handle this, but maybe we need to have one on the show.
* When managing managers, Kelly can set an expectation / vision and ask managers to communicate to their teams, but it’s extremely difficult to step back and avoid micromanagement.
* John shares a fun anecdote about how to properly raise a flag in the military.
* 12:44 – John White School of Mentoring Plug

* Pulling back from micromanagement comes down to respect.

* It feels disrespectful for him to do someone else’s job. When he gets the urge, he thinks about the way he would want to be treated and changes course.
* Is managing like parenting? Listen to Kelly give some great advice here.

16:02 – Advice for the Would Be Manager

* Know what your leadership looks like.

* Some feel leadership looks like a charismatic leader of a large organization (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.). Because of this misconception, Kelly originally doubted his ability to be a leader.
* Kelly took a StrengthsFinder training and realized he could leverage his relational strengths to lead instead of trying to be like someone who he thinks is a leader.

* The StrengthsFinder assessment is just another personality assessment that focuses specifically on your strengths rather than on what you lack.

* The episodes on management with Charlie Nichol inspired Kelly to share his perspective with our listeners of coming from the SMB world.

* Episode 51
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