studies (which?) show that a happy team works hard and faster. discretionary effort they call it. but what makes a team happy, fruit bowls and office murals? maybe, but these are only part of it.
intrinsic rewards
invariably tech team members are motivated by the domain itself, (intrinsically motivated is the term) and they become disillusioned if they believe there is no hope for the future. interesting work, participatory processes, friendly supportive coworkers and hope (project or personal) for the future, these are the rewards that will keep people when others are offering more money.
increasing team velocity, improving retention, growing team members is only part of what i do.
shared goal setting
without the right goals even the most content of teams will come adrift.
the second side of the coin is architectural and technical leadership. involved and participatory setting of tech goals means you share with the team ownership of the journey and gives them the experience they need to grow into their own futures and because it is with you, they stay to see it through.
these two major areas of software engineering leadership go hand in hand. emphasise one and you get disillusioned unhappy teams, emphasise the other and you may not achieve your goals. luckily growing your people improves your ogs tech prowess too.
inclusive data driven processes
the third side of the coin (huh?) is data driven process management which has one foot in either camp and influences both. we wouldnt hesitate to use data to tell us about players, or the tech itself, well it can also tell us about how well we are managing a team. many are wary. too often data driven processes have been used as a stick to beat team members, or brought into play when performance needs to be improved. many have bad experiences, and have reason to fear them.
the fear of their use can be alleviated by opening the books and revealing all the tools and process, but most importantly using it to support success not determine failure, the latter will cause team members to disengage. in my experience data driven processes can accelerate teams by helping leads understand how to refactor the processes better and team members where to spend their time better.
- people, process & product, you cant lead a team to greatness unless you focus on all three.