http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2005/07/management-myth-4-managers-dont-need-training.html Management, especially good management, is hard to do. This blog is for people who want to think about how they manage people, projects, and risk. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:31:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2005/07/management-myth-4-managers-dont-need-training.html/comment-page-1#comment-191 Neil Rothman Mon, 01 Aug 2005 22:12:19 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8128#comment-191 I agree completely. After 25 years of working in product development and having made the transition from individual contributor to manager to company officer, I continue to wish I had more training along the way. One of my employers were very good about offering coaching seminars and other training programs to help the transition. But that was more about how I dealt with people, rather than what I needed to help myself. The biggest challenge for me was understanding that, while engineering is primarily black and white, management is almost always gray and fuzzy. There is no "correct" answer and while there are tools and methods you can utilize, you typically have to make decisions with insufficient information. I am now teaching a class in engineering management and trying to help the soon to be graduates understand what may lie ahead for them. I agree completely. After 25 years of working in product development and having made the transition from individual contributor to manager to company officer, I continue to wish I had more training along the way. One of my employers were very good about offering coaching seminars and other training programs to help the transition. But that was more about how I dealt with people, rather than what I needed to help myself.
The biggest challenge for me was understanding that, while engineering is primarily black and white, management is almost always gray and fuzzy. There is no “correct” answer and while there are tools and methods you can utilize, you typically have to make decisions with insufficient information.
I am now teaching a class in engineering management and trying to help the soon to be graduates understand what may lie ahead for them.

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