Respect

No manager should have to deal with disrespectful and uncooperative subordinates . You are being paid well to be a positive, contributing member of a programming team under the direction of IT management. Your manager may not have the technical programming skills that you have, but he does have a perspective and an understanding of corporate objectives that you do not share.

Loyalty, trust, and respect between manager and programmer are essential to the success of both members of the team. Do not belittle your manager: He is your boss because he has skills that you do not yet have. You can become much more valuable by observing and working well with a good manager. Its his job to help you with your technical issues, your projects, and your education plan. Whats less obvious is that he can model for you the way to deal effectively with management.

Clearly, your boss should not ask you to do anything illegal, unethical, or outside the corporate business-conduct guidelines; and, just as clearly, you should not violate those standards either.

If you draw a bad boss, mockery and insubordination from you will only add to his hostility toward you. Programmers who are disloyal to, or show no respect for, their managers are usually unhappy and unproductive, traits that are likely to dislodge them from their positionsooner rather than later.

Your manager will probably let you in on the biggest challenges to his success early in your relationship. After all, you are there to solve or address those immediate problems. Coming into a programming department that is saddled with major difficulties gives you an immense advantage. You bring a fresh perspective, a creative approach, and a positive attitude that might be missing on the programming team. You may also bring application experience, programming expertise, and, of particular significance, the knowledge of appropriate programmer productivity tools that are very important to the company.

Over time, and with your demonstrated success as a programmer on his team, your manager will depend on you more and more, and eventually ask you to take on some high-profile projects for him. Recognize these cues and seize these opportunities. They are offered to star programmers on their way up.