I’ve been managing teams on and off for more than 10 years.
It came with a lot of lessons and brought a lot of humility.
Here are 6 things I have learned about team leadership. I talk about software teams because that’s my gig, but I’ll go as far as to say this applies to most intellectual work management.
- You’re not boss. Forget the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman approach to work. This is not the Army (and frankly, I doubt it works like that even in the Army). A leader is a force multiplier, not someone who disciplines or bullies people around. Don’t be that guy.
- You’re not your reports’ friend. There is something attractive in being part of the social group of the team. I get it. One day though, you’ll need to have pretty difficult conversations with some of your buddies. Be professional, be friendly, and do care about your team, but keep a reasonable distance.
- You’re in charge. Your team is doing the work. They’re good, smart engineers. They are focused and dedicated. They’re creative, they’re amazing. They also still need you to tell them what’s the goal, what are the priorities, and what are the resources that they can use. And then, if shit goes down, you’ll have to suck it up and take responsibility. And when there’s a tough decision that will make somebody unhappy, you must take it, and own it. Lead from the front.
- Own up failures. Watermelon goals are the fastest path to failure. What’s a watermelon goal, you ask? Easy: it’s a goal that’s green on the outside but red on the inside. Reassuring your leadership everything’s amazing and great when it’s not, while waiting for some sort of miracle to happen, will only result in having to explain what happened at the last minute, when you will have to come clean. This will destroy your reputation and any trust you had built with leadership faster than you can say “status report”. Own your shit.
- You have a different job now. I know managers who will occasionally (or, sometimes, frequently) sit down next to one of their developers and “pair program” with them. For the love of Peter Drucker, don’t be that guy. I get it, you miss your IDE, and the simple, predictable craft of making computers do what you want. Your team member though probably hates you.
- The easiest way to work for you is the worst for your team. I’m not quite sure if it’s because people adapt so quickly, or because their personality is already that way (and that’s why they moved to management), but too many bosses pepper their team’s calendars with meetings, social events, catch-ups, and a myriad of other context-switch-to-talk-to-people-about-some-random-topic. I’m guilty as charged. But, most engineers want large stretches of time to focus on a problem and you should just leave them alone most of the time.
I either made or witnessed first hand all of these mistakes. You can avoid them if you’re a manager, and you can send this to your boss so they can avoid them too!
Anything I missed?