I’m currently a senior developer, but relatively new in the role of a “lead”. In my current project, I’m having a kind of co-lead and we have two devs working in our team. So a rather small enterprise.
Now my boss told me, that going forward, I will probably be leading larger and more complex projects (possible rather soon).
Since I’m constantly doubting myself, I would really like to learn more about how to be an effective/likeable lead. I’ve had too many “leads” who were just dogshit, professionally and as a person. I don’t want to be that (at least the professional part).
So, I guess my question is: what helped you? Books, articles, just random hints or strategies? I’ll take everything.
Just care for your team.
Realise you need to spend most of your time working with your more junior developers, making sure that they understand the problems they’re solving, doing some whiteboard-design sessions, jumping in and pairing frequently to teach them as well as keep things going in the right direction. A lot of that is giving your team enough confidence that they’re going in the right direction that they can make the decisions they need to make.
But you should not see yourself as someone that picks up tasks and gets things done by themselves. You need to work through your team. That can be difficult. And if the team gets larger, that gets even more difficult! You’ll need to find some seniors you can trust, and use them to pick up some of that leadership/guiding work. You will run the risk of getting further removed from the practical technical work, and will have to find a balance. You’ll probably be doing more work around the team than in the team. Maybe get involved with planning more.
But the most important thing is the above: make things clear for your team(s), don’t leave them guessing about the direction, but don’t prescribe the solution too much, teach as much as you can, but give people room to make their own decisions too.
Great answer. I am also a fresh “lead” and am struggling with some aspects, but as you said, clarifying the direction and working together are the most important ones. Pairing also allows you to explain things in more depth, which aids understanding.
We don’t do complex planning, usually have a few meetings and we start prototyping. So that’s been a non-issue luckily as a lead. Detailed estimation can be really exhausting and takes a toll on the team.