What makes a good team leader?
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
But better as second baseman.
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
In my experience: 1) Make decisions when the team is at an empasse; 2) Own your decisions if and when the management comes down complaining; 3) Don't ask your team something you wouldn't do yourself.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
A good team
The less you need, the more you have. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally. JaxCoder.com
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
What I'm not going to waste time on is virtue signaling or the ridiculous idea that diversity in skin race/gender/orientation has a thing to do with building a successful team. The whole idea that someone's race/gender/orientation brings value to the team is exclusionary and divisive. I've worked for women and I've hired women and they were in their jobs because they were excellent. Make excellence your goal ignoring all other factors and you'll succeed. Leave the race/gender/orientation statisticians to play their irrelevant games.
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
Faith in your team members. I was the team lead for a group called Area51 because what we did was a secret. And because of the nature of this group we were always understaffed. Management came to me and said that he had a guy that none of the other teams wanted and could I use the help. Of course I could. He then said you should know why the other teams did not want him. I said I didn't want to know, that was between him and them. So he reports to me, I told him where his office was and when he was settled in, came back and I'll tell hin his job. When he came back I told him. He seemed a little overwhelmed. He asked how he was to do that. I said if I knew I wouldn't need him. Go research it and come back with some options. I knew how to do it, but I wanted him invested in it. He came back with some interesting approaches. We talked about the pros/cons of each approach. Then he said which one would I take. I said that was not relevant, I wasn't going to do it, he was. Go decide which one and put together a plan and schedule. When he came back he had chosen the one I would have, the one most likely to succeed. His schedule was a little optimistic - as usual with engineers. So I said he needed to add a little time for things that don't go right and I said have at it. If you have problems let's talk about them sooner than later. Well he delivered - on his optimistic schedule. I praised him for that in staff mtg. In private he asked if I knew about his previous problems with the other teams. I said I knew he had them but I didn't know what they were, they were not my business - unless he wanted to tell me. He then asked if he knew why he kept to the optimistic schedule. Without waiting for an answer he said because you had faith in me and I wanted to earn that. I wanted to prove that it was not misplaced. Treat a man as he is and he will remain so, treat a man as you want him to be and that is what he'll become.
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Faith in your team members. I was the team lead for a group called Area51 because what we did was a secret. And because of the nature of this group we were always understaffed. Management came to me and said that he had a guy that none of the other teams wanted and could I use the help. Of course I could. He then said you should know why the other teams did not want him. I said I didn't want to know, that was between him and them. So he reports to me, I told him where his office was and when he was settled in, came back and I'll tell hin his job. When he came back I told him. He seemed a little overwhelmed. He asked how he was to do that. I said if I knew I wouldn't need him. Go research it and come back with some options. I knew how to do it, but I wanted him invested in it. He came back with some interesting approaches. We talked about the pros/cons of each approach. Then he said which one would I take. I said that was not relevant, I wasn't going to do it, he was. Go decide which one and put together a plan and schedule. When he came back he had chosen the one I would have, the one most likely to succeed. His schedule was a little optimistic - as usual with engineers. So I said he needed to add a little time for things that don't go right and I said have at it. If you have problems let's talk about them sooner than later. Well he delivered - on his optimistic schedule. I praised him for that in staff mtg. In private he asked if I knew about his previous problems with the other teams. I said I knew he had them but I didn't know what they were, they were not my business - unless he wanted to tell me. He then asked if he knew why he kept to the optimistic schedule. Without waiting for an answer he said because you had faith in me and I wanted to earn that. I wanted to prove that it was not misplaced. Treat a man as he is and he will remain so, treat a man as you want him to be and that is what he'll become.
This is a glorious tale, thank you for sharing it! (and well done):thumbsup:
TTFN - Kent
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This is a glorious tale, thank you for sharing it! (and well done):thumbsup:
TTFN - Kent
There was a company policy to order dinner for everyone working after 7:30. I was doing a very key part, complicated and tricky. So in order to maintain a train of though, I had worked about 12 hours that day when they came around to take my dinner order. It was another team lead. He said this is great, he took a dinner order for evry member of his team. I said it is greater that every one of my team members are at home eating dinner with their family and they will all be in early tomorrow morning refreshed are raring to go and will have done more before your team arrives than most do all day. My team always over delivered in under time while the rest of the company under delivered in over time. My reward for that was I was replaced and let go. Most of the team members left the company soon after. The CFO was so angry with management that he forced them to compensate me for letting me go. They put me on a $1000/month retainer until they sold the company and all my stock options payed off. Failure is rewarded, success is punished. I coined that while working for Novell for 10 and 1/2 years. Which was 10 years too many.
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
My current leader is a genius. Also a perfectionist so I'm pretty sure that is what makes a great leader. Oh, also, he requests particular summary report -- let's say he requests a requirements document. I send it back to him & he doesn't reply (not even "got it") for over 1 week. When he finally replies, he says, 'Let's have a (teams) meeting'. When we have the teams meeting he mentions things like, "I wouldn't use that word, i'd use this word". Genius!!!! So I change the word on the document & then I'm done for XXX weeks again. I've decided to give him a nickname: TGG - The Genius Ghost Cuz you can't do anything -- even spell a word -- without him, but he gonna ghost you when you contact him. But, then, he'll suddenly materialize behind you (or on Teams) & say, "No! Speel it liek theeesssee" TGG is obviously the best leader you've never seen. I'm so glad he haunts my work place. I know I'm one of the lucky ones. But I've worked the IT industry for 30 years & there have been many, many TGGs.
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Despite the rapid evolution and constant change being seen in the software development industry, one thing has remained constant: the necessity for strong and capable leadership.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." edit: fixed title
A long article that never mentioned one important behavior in a leader: shielding the team from external nonsense, like corporate politics or customers who call developers.
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. -
A long article that never mentioned one important behavior in a leader: shielding the team from external nonsense, like corporate politics or customers who call developers.
Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.Greg Utas wrote:
one important behavior in a leader: shielding the team from external nonsense,
not to forget the internal nonsense too... (a.k.a. Time killer useless meetings)
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
