How one person changed the way I looked at management

If you had asked me twelve years ago, when I was working as a full stack developer, whether management was something I wanted to do, I probably would have said no.

At that time, I was focused on building things.

I enjoyed solving technical problems, writing code, figuring out why something was broken and finding better ways to make things work.

Management felt like a completely different world.

• More meetings.
• Difficult conversations.
• Feedback sessions.
• More coordination and alignment.
• Discussions about budgets, planning and priorities.

A lot of it looked more administrative than technical.

I also had the impression that managers were usually people who enjoyed being in front of groups, talking all day and getting energy from constant interaction with others.

That was not really how I saw myself.

I had never really spent much time thinking about management as a possible career direction. My focus was always on technology and improving the things I was building.

Then, after having been offered the opportunity by the company I worked for to take on more responsibility, I eventually became responsible for QA teams.

At first, I approached management in the same way I approached most things: learn as much as possible, understand what good looks like and improve over time.

Some lessons came quickly and other were learned the harder way.

One of the biggest changes in my thinking came from realising that managing people is not about applying the same approach to everyone.

When I first started managing people, treating others how I would want to be treated myself seemed like the obvious approach:

• Be fair.
• Be transparent.
• Give direct feedback when needed and focus mostly on points that can be improved.
• Give people freedom and trust them to solve problems.
• Support when they ask for help.

Those things are still important, but the part I underestimated was that people need different things to be successful.

Some people need more confidence and encouragement, some need more challenge and some prefer clear structure and regular guidance while others do their best work when they have the freedom to explore ideas themselves.

A good manager needs to understand the person in front of them, not just apply the same approach to everyone.

One person in particular changed how I looked at this.

They were, and still are today, one of the most QA I have ever managed. They were shy and introverted and whenever they talked about their own work, they would often point out what they could have done better before anyone else had the chance to say anything.

They were extremely hard on themselves.

Over time, that started affecting how others viewed their work as well. When someone repeatedly questions their own abilities, people around them can start picking up on that, even when the actual quality of their work says something different.

The interesting part was that my conversations with them painted a completely different picture.

In our one-to-ones, I saw someone who asked thoughtful questions, noticed details other people missed and carefully considered decisions before acting.

They had strong technical skills and a great understanding of quality and people.

The main thing holding them back was confidence in their own abilities.

We worked on that over time through regular conversations, feedback and creating opportunities where they could step outside their comfort zone.

With their permission, I encouraged them to take ownership of situations where they had previously stayed in the background.

They had to do the difficult part themselves though.

• They had to speak up when something mattered.
• They had to trust their own judgement.
• They had to recognise that their ideas were valuable.

Those changes came from their own effort.

My role was creating an environment where they felt safe enough to take those steps and helping them see strengths that they were often overlooking.

Slowly, things started changing.

They became more comfortable sharing their opinions in meetings. They challenged ideas more often. They started suggesting improvements and taking ownership of initiatives without needing someone else to push them forward. People even started to trust them with their personal issues, as someone that could guide and advise them.

Those skills were not suddenly created.

They had been there all along. People were simply starting to see them more clearly.

Eventually, they grew into a QA Lead role and became someone who was highly respected across the organisation.

That experience had a bigger impact on me than I expected.

Seeing someone develop, gain confidence and grow into a stronger version of themselves gave me the same satisfaction I used to get from solving a difficult technical problem.

Actually, it gave me even more.

It made me look back and realise that I had always enjoyed parts of this:

• I enjoyed teaching.
• I enjoyed mentoring.
• I enjoyed helping people learn new things and progress in their careers.
• I enjoy seeing processes or quality improve.

Some of that was already visible outside of work. Coaching football goalkeepers had always been something I enjoyed because helping someone improve was rewarding in itself.

Management simply brought that into my professional life.

That does not mean the technical side disappeared.

I still enjoy writing code when I get the opportunity. I still like understanding how systems work, improving automation, building frameworks and getting involved in technical discussions.

Whenever I join a new company, I usually end up exploring the technical side as well:

• Building or improving test frameworks.
• Looking at automation opportunities.
• Understanding the architecture.
• Helping teams improve their engineering practices.

The difference is that I have learned when my time is better spent enabling others to solve those problems themselves.

That combination is what I enjoy most.

The technical side keeps me curious, while the people side gives that work a bigger impact.

Of course, management still comes with parts that are less exciting.

• Difficult conversations.
• Giving feedback that people might not want to hear.
• Organisational processes.
• Stakeholder discussions (athough I secretely quite enjoy these as well).
• Prioritisation decisions.
• Meetings that probably could have been an email.

Over time, I started seeing these things differently.

They are part of creating an environment where people can do their best work.

And when a team is able to do that, the impact is much bigger than what one person can achieve alone.

The biggest lesson management has taught me is that people grow in different ways.

Everyone has different strengths, different motivations and different things that hold them back.

The job of a manager is not to create copies of themselves.

It is to understand what each person needs and help them become better at what they do.

I never expected management to become such an important part of my career.

Somewhere between the frameworks, the automation, the QA strategies, the one-to-ones and the countless conversations with people, I found something I genuinely enjoy.

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Alex Hovenkamp