Managing Tech: Professionals

This is part of a series:

• Managing Tech: People
• Managing Tech: Heroes
• Managing Tech: Professionals (you are here)
• Managing Tech: Time
• Managing Tech: Cadence

In my post, Managing Tech: People, I mentioned that the social contract between employee and employer has changed over the past several decades. At IBM in 2016 (just one decade ago), it was common to encounter people who had been with the company for twenty years or more. I myself spent almost fifteen years at Adobe (2000–2013).

By 2026, it is far more common to move between employers every few years. The reasons for this are many. The question then becomes: if the old contract is no longer relevant, what is the new contract?

Professionals

When I start working with a new direct report, I generally tell them something along the following lines:

You are an adult. You are a professional. I expect adult, professional behavior from you. You can work whatever hours you want, in whatever manner you want, within reason. You know best how you get work done. Do that. I trust you to deliver.

This is the contract I am proposing: you are a professional.

The Oxford Dictionary defines "professional" as "doing something as a paid job rather than as a hobby." That definition is a baseline. What matters more to me is the implied trust, accountability, and autonomy that come with it.

There are clarifications that surface along the way, of course. For example, attending meetings during normal business hours is expected. To me, that still falls under the umbrella of professional behavior.

Manage Your Business

Once this message is clear, I push the boundaries a little further with an explanation along the following lines:

Your job is your Business (capital “B”), and you are responsible for it. We all love to focus on product, but sometimes we are called into other business functions. Some days you may be in sales (communicating vertically about your performance). Some days it is marketing (communicating horizontally to ensure people know what you can do). If you don’t know how to do some of these, let me know, and I will mentor you through those skills.

For an employee, I generally think of their business functions as (in no particular order):

• Product: Deliverables
• Sales: Vertical communication (share your awesome)
• Marketing: Horizontal communication (find other ways to contribute)
• Finance: Expenses; ordering gear or equipment
• Human Resources: Annual training and continuing education
• Customer Success: Meetings (stakeholders, managers, etc.)
• IT: Automating workflows and reporting
• Leadership: Time management and mentoring

You cannot come in and just write code. To be successful, you must think about your business holistically. Touching all of these functions ensures that your business - and your career - runs smoothly.

For The Manager

This contract is not just for the direct report - it applies equally to the manager. You must hold yourself to the same standard. Failing to do so erodes trust, and once trust is gone, the contract no longer works.

I like to take this one step further:

Do not ask a direct report to do something that you have not done in the past, or are not willing to do in the present.

In tech, this idea can feel counterintuitive. Innovation never stops, and you may ask someone to deliver a feature you have never personally built. But this principle is not about that specific feature - it is about the nature of the work. You understand what delivery entails: the extra hours when needed, the on-call rotation, the pressure of deadlines, and the responsibility that comes with ownership. That shared understanding matters.

If an employee has a family emergency, are you willing to step in, roll up your sleeves, and write some code? If someone is struggling with part of a feature, are you willing to schedule time, open the code, and work through it together - even if your role is simply to be a second set of eyes or a sounding board?

If you are asking a direct report to grow, stretch, or take on responsibility, you must be willing to do that work alongside them. That means using your experience to help define manageable goals, checking in on progress, and coaching - not delegating and disappearing.

A new contract with employees does not absolve you from the work. It raises the bar for how you show up as a manager.

The Professional Contract

This is often a new perspective for employees, but one that is both empowering and rooted in trust. I try to regularly schedule time to coach people through these ideas. By laying out the contract in terms of familiar business functions, we establish a shared framework - and a shared understanding - of what it truly means to be a professional in today’s world.