Alright, so you get a team of programmers under you and you have been declared their manager. Wow!
So, if the above mentioned incident was an outcome of an accident or you have travelled a long road to reach here rules of game will remain the same.
Following are few things I have learned over the time from my personal experience or from colleagues having same role.
For many of us out there this is common sense but unfortunately we have common things missing.
1. A Happy Smiling Face – I know you are not on a public dealing job but this is the very basic rule to be a good leader. Whenever you approach your juniors or a junior approaches you, talk with a pleasant smiling face. This way you are giving him/her confidence like a good doctor does with his/her patient and then they speak out whatever they feel like.
2. Never act like Corporate Feudal – Title of this advice says it all. Be humble and kind towards your juniors. Don’t boss them; Make them realize that they are owners of their work. You are here to help and need their help to finish this task.
3. What can I do for you Sir/Madam – For some people it looks odd if you ask your junior “May I be of any help” regarding work or any other matter. This shows that you are not a daddu (frog) manger but a multi dimensional personality having firm observations not only on work but on other matters which affect their work performance.
I have seen bosses making tea or bringing lunch/dinner, carrying hardware at times for their busy teams at work because they want to help. Remember your team is watching all this. Being a manager it is your responsibility to let your team focus on work and you do provide all the miscellaneous items support.
4. Superstar treatment– Fame and Money always attracts, this is in human nature. I know you can’t give them a heavy pay check by yourself (again, lots of corporate theory J ). At least you have control over something which you can give them. Treat them like superstars; praise them by putting emails to higher management and to their colleagues about their achievements. If your budget affords I recommend giving away an ice cream, samosa, chips party on their achievements.
5. Embrace Change– It’s always hard to swallow change. Don’t be hardliner, remember you are a manager and your task is to get best out of your resources. Let them come up with an idea, always ask them to bring a new idea. Get rid of your code entropy disease. They might be suggesting something which really improves your things.
If you fail to convince them that their idea can’t work, try to give them time in which they can work out themselves or you do as they are suggesting in spare time and let them see how it collapses. Developers are egoistic mostly and sometimes they tend to make technical things matter of ego in their early professional life.
6. Say No to Workaholic attitude – It’s quite common that you will see juniors around who wants to work and work only. In short term you might consider it a benefit for yourself or your company but you are heading towards a disaster. Never ever allow such an attitude or approach of your juniors.
In short term this looks very attractive that what a dedicated resource sir jee! But, you are heading towards a disaster. If resources keep working like this un necessarily they will lose interest or burn out.
Tell them to have time for themselves, family and friends. Suggest them activities they should do after office hours.
7. Successor Planning– Many of us don’t believe in doing this, they are afraid if they transfer all the information what their role will be, what their company would do with them. If you have this fear that transferring knowledge or control will make you retire then it means you don’t deserve where you are sitting today because you are afraid of kids whom you taught.
Until or unless you are working in a Seth (sole proprietor) company or poor corporate surrounded by politics then you don’t have to behave like this. Remember experience can’t be replaced.
8. Party Time– No matter your company sponsors event or not, it’s not a complex thing that you and your team goes out for some activity like having lunch together on a weekends or go out on dhaba for tea in evening before going home and have some chit chat. This is a good way of learning minds of your resources and they also have chance to discuss general things with you.
9. Have a break, Have some off days– Ask your juniors to plan and take annual leaves to have some break from a monotonous routine of office. You might have heard from your juniors I get bored at home, even then don’t take this excuse and give them a break.
10. Patrolling– Kindly get up from your seat at least once a week during office hours suitably in late part of 1st half or 2nd half and visit desk of each of your team members to discuss how is it going, is everything fine, you can ask them about their studies or any activities they do.
11. Act as Air Bag– I hope you understand what I mean. During a pressure situation, collapse, screaming clients act as a vacuum chamber for team. If you can’t shield them from all this I bet their mind will be distributed between all this and problem at hand.
Always ask them to do their best in pressure situations and keep environment light. Never ever show a tense face to them, this will definitely cause un rest, remain calm and composed. Try to get best out of worst. Remember point-7(Successor Planning), what you do in front of juniors today they will do it when they will become managers and you have taught them all.
If you start postmortem or start shouting then this will create a very negative impression. Remember you are a manager and your job is to manage. Let them do technical work and you focus on keeping things in control. You will always have time to do postmortem of situation.
12. Courtesy– It’s all about manners and courtesy. If your resources or someone in their close acquaintance got ill and you know that they are out of office because of this then give them a courtesy call or send them an SMS asking if you can be of any help.
13. Divide Pizza Equally– Always ensure that everyone in team gets equal chances of growth, R&D projects, Trainings, Deputations. If you fail to do so then so you might face a serious problem where someone will get up and say good bye and thank you. Remember its not a mason's job, it takes lots of hard work to make an skilled worker. So, Keep your eyes and ears open.
