Select Quotes from Peopleware, Part 4

In my early years as a developer, I was privileged to work on a project managed by Sharon Weinberg, now president of the Codd and Date Consulting Group.  She was a walking example of much of what I now think of as enlightened management.  One snowy day, I dragged myself out of a sickbed to pull together our shaky system for a user demo.  Sharon came in and found me propped up at the console.  She disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a container of soup.  After she'd poured it into me and buoyed up my spirits, I asked her how she found time for such things with all the management work she had to do.  She gave me her patented grin and said, "Tom, this is management."

Sharon knew what all good instinctive managers know: The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.

Peopleware, pg. 34, This Is Management