Small Dev Team Leadership Tactics

The situation: You wake up one day and find yourself in charge of a small software development team. It's on you to make sure your team performs and is healthy.

So, you go online looking for tips for new managers and you only find anodyne platitudes like: establish trust and empower your team. This aren't bad or wrong, but they don't tell you what to actually do. This text is meant to lay out practical, actionable TODOs that will make you a fantastic technical leader.

The first 30 days

Wake up, look at your body

look at your environment

understand the current objective

understand where you are now (task in progress)

get going

Delegation

Your Team

Team Roles

Team Performance

Team Health

Burnout

Size

Skills

Engagement

Organization

External Relationships

Cross training, but not too much

The goal: team runs itself

When to fire

KPIs

• esprit de corps
• velocity

ARMY LEADERSHIP REQUIREMENTS MODEL

BE

• Character: the moral and ethical qualities of the leader
• Presence: characteristics open to display by the leader and open to viewing by others

Know

• Intellect: the mental and social abilities the leader applies while leading

DO

• Leads: provides purpose, direction, and motivation; builds trust; provides an example; communicates
• Develops: develops themselves, creates a positive climate, develops subordinates, and stewards the profession
• Achieves: executes, adjusts, and gets results to accomplish tasks and missions on time and to standard.