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All managers make mistakes; good managers acknowledge and repair

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308 points matheusml | 6 comments | 22 Aug 25 12:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.609s | source | bottom
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selecsosi ◴[22 Aug 25 13:29 UTC] No.44984445[source]▶
IME the gap in management between ICs is accountability. It's easy to say you are sorry, or say things won't happen again but good management, and what I strive to do is hold myself accountable.

To me, that means 1. To identify the issue that occurred (especially when you caused it), and much more importantly, 2. Put systems into place that prevent it from happening again.

Employees can feel very clearly when a manager lacks accountability and as part of mid and especially high level management (if your goal is actually improving both output and quality of people's lives) to not just say you did something wrong, but actually put your skin in the game ensuring what happened will not happen again (usually it means being better at saying no or aggressively managing prioritization rather than heaping additional tasks on people).

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bluGill ◴[22 Aug 25 14:44 UTC] No.44985294[source]▶
Mostly I agree with 2, but be careful not to get so many systems that nothing can get done anymore. Finding that balance is hard.
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n4r9 ◴[22 Aug 25 15:09 UTC] No.44985572[source]▶
That, and be careful to avoid a "box-ticking" culture where people rely on systems over independent thought. Also a hard balance.
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1. euroderf ◴[22 Aug 25 16:00 UTC] No.44986170[source]▶
Mere "box-ticking" in the form of checklists have been shown to greatly cut deaths in clinical/hospital settings. This may or may not apply to your systems.
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2. ducttapecrown ◴[22 Aug 25 16:24 UTC] No.44986468[source]▶
Doctors would implement self-healing and abolish checklists if they could! Be glad if you don't need a checklist.
3. bluGill ◴[22 Aug 25 16:36 UTC] No.44986594[source]▶
The right boxes to check are good. However you have to be careful. A doctor who spends 15 minutes checking boxes before treating a heart attack just killed someone... That doesn't mean the doctor cannot check boxes, just that they need to be break early to treat things. (even here checkboxes will be good - there are things with the same symptoms as a heart attack where heart attack treatment is the worst thing possible - those have a high death rate because they are so rare doctors don't check for them until too late to treat correctly)
4. trip-zip ◴[22 Aug 25 17:15 UTC] No.44987083[source]▶
Same with pilots.

Checklists are the only reason I ever feel safe to takeoff

5. thunfischbrot ◴[22 Aug 25 17:24 UTC] No.44987193[source]▶
According to Atul Gawande that‘s not strictly true as stated. It‘s not the box-ticking itself, it‘s several factors including the decisions about what the list should contain and adjusting the dynamics of the operating team to actually see results.
6. n4r9 ◴[22 Aug 25 18:02 UTC] No.44987641[source]▶
I'm not against ticking boxes, but a culture that relies on it overly much.