Developers want managers who'll help them solve business and technical problems, who'll protect them from unnecessary office politics and who will help them meet their personal career goals.
But programmers are...different. Like musicians, these creative folks can alternate between big-picture thinking and persnickety detail in a heartbeat.
Тom DeMarco's Peopleware
Harvard Business Review essay called "Who are your motivated workers?" by M. Scott Myers, written in 1964 (vol. 42, issue 1, pp. 73-88,
recognize their own and their team's abilities, and trust them to get the work done. ("Try and challenge me. I'm so much more than what you use me for,"
Ilja Preuß software developer at disy Informationssysteme GmbH. "The most motivated people are those who do what they like doing."
"Techies need time to think as well as doing the code," says Lotus Notes guru Ben Poole.
Instead, give developers the big picture. "The more work I am assigned in advance, the better,"
To many, the manager's most important role is to protect developers from office shenanigans
Limeback says, "to take care of all the corporate crap, useless meetings, paperwork and other time sinks."
Jim Pensyl, a senior performance engineer, "The more you cave to marketing time lines and avoid realistic estimates, the more you set yourself up for a project that will extend beyond marketing's promised date."
"Get out of my way. I know what I'm doing." Many developers say they work best with people who give them problems to solve and do not interfere with how the individual solves them.
Developers don't necessarily expect that the boss will understand what they're doing. They do, however, want the boss to listen and respond to her staff before making decisions.
"Chat with the people who do the work once in a while. See what motivates them, and perhaps even get an idea of what it takes at their level to complete a project," IT professional Michael Furmaniuk
"Listen actively, speak openly"
Be specific; subtlety is often lost on developers who are very cause-and-effect oriented. "Non-directive" suggestions aren't helpful, since a developer may not have any idea what you're hinting at.
"Verbal praise works for me," "Even if I'm not the best, I still need some positive talk to move me."
But feedback isn't always about telling developers how good they are. It's about setting expectations and being both consistent and fair
"At the root, all problems are people problems. Consider the people first, and the technology second."
The Difficult One: Pay Developers a Lot of Money.
keep an eye on what the job market is doing for his role, and make reasonable adjustments to ensure the staff is within the comfort zone for their pay scale
A Purr-fectly Reasonable Analogy
good IT people like cats
"If you treat them well, offer the occasional special treat, and discipline them fairly, it can be done and done well. If you miss a point or two now and then, they'll adjust," he says. "If you miss any of these points consistently for too long, the really good ones will start to wander off in search of better opportunities."
micromanaging a cat is pointless; the results are frustration for both you and the cat
Make sure that the cat understands what you want.
If you've done a halfway good job of handling the cat, it will consistently surprise you by doing a better job than you can imagine, and often in ways that you would never have thought of and couldn't explain if you had thought of them!" he says. Plus, trying to understand a cat is highly educational, but rarely profitable because, after all, cats do what cats do. It is a bad idea to either over- or underfeed a cat, Phelan advises. "Overfed, they get lazy. Underfed, they'll do things you don't want them doing. Find the appropriate level for each cat. Always leave room for the occasional treat (some earned, and now and then one 'just because')."
Do not abuse the cats, he adds. They'll do things to get even that you'll never think of. Remember, too, that cats learn a lot by playing. Always try to leave them time to play. The exercise is good, the team building is good, and you often end up with better-behaved cats.
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