This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Mohamed Aboelez
A good lead programmer is a bridge between your development team and the other business units in your organization.
“Lead Programmer”: Such an exciting word!
I guess every programmer worth his salt would want to become a lead programmer at some point in time. And I don’t blame them. It is the closest to what you can get to be a “god” of software.
So far, so good. But that brings us to a question.
Why do you want to become a lead programmer?
Is it an ego thing? Or perhaps, it is the fastest way possible to earn more money, get more powers, or even flaunt your shining aura of invincibility across your friends?
No, I am not questioning the reasons. The reasons are perfectly valid. It is OK to have a bit of ego thing going on. It is also OK to want to earn some money and get a few superpowers at work. You can also brag about your new role in front of your friends. After all, you deserve it.
The issue is that, while the above reasons are perfectly valid, if you are aiming to be a lead programmer only because of these reasons, you will never enjoy the role and the additional responsibilities (and often beyond your compensation!!) that come with it. I am not discouraging you, but you need to see the complete picture here. Yes, it might be a thankless job and you might not even get a pay raise for all your efforts.
OK. Let us dispel a few more myths about the lead programmer.
Writing great code automatically makes you a great lead programmer-A senior developer’s immense experience in crafting expert code and designing great algorithms does not help him to get prepared for the highly unpredictable, thankless and ambiguous role of managing people. A lead programmer besides coding also requires skills of coaching, influencing, facilitating, motivation and delegating of work among the team.
A great lead programmer simply rewrites the “poor” code of his team members- The lead programmer can be the best programmer in the team but if he starts rewriting the suboptimal code of his team members, he is only setting up a recipe for disaster. The long-time solution is not writing the best code yourself but enabling others in the team so that they can write code as well as you can. This is what is called programmer empowerment.
A lead programmer only focuses on development — The difference between senior and lead programmers is their focus of attention. Senior programmers are “inward” focused on the development team and make sure that development tasks are addressed on time. Lead programmers, on the other hand, are “outward” focused and they bridge the gap between the development team and other business units in the organization. In short, lead programmers have a different mindset; instead of developing code, they focus on developing a usable and performant system that works.
And as a lead programmer, you need to show that you are not just technically competent, but also have the competence to foster relationships, encourage, build a sense of unity, and inspire people together and unite them for a common cause.
And here are a few powerful habits of successful lead programmers.
1. Lead by knowledge
Christopher Pike nailed it when he said.
“A true teacher would never tell you what to do. But he would give you the knowledge with which you could decide what would be best for you to do.”
They are the undisputed knowledge gurus. They conquer people’s hearts by sheer technical expertise and a great attitude to teach and mentor. They share their knowledge with anybody and everybody and are highly respected and regarded in multiple circles.
They inadvertently directly or indirectly find themselves associated with multiple strategic assignments and learn to finely balance across them to everybody’s advantage and expectations.
2. Lead by innovation
Steve Jobs always held innovation in the highest esteem when he said.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
They are the ideates and “out-of-the-box” thinkers. People approach them when they require advice in seeking a new direction and a different perspective.
They come up with ideas and innovations which not only become the talk of the organization but also act as huge disrupters within the industry. They come across as generally introvert but have a huge fan following in spite of that, across the organization.
3. Lead by analyzing
Analyzing is nothing but doing “reality check” and showing the mirror without flinching and Max DePree gets it right when he says the following.
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”
They are the devil’s advocates and excel in that role. People approach them when they need their solutions to be dissected minutely to find flaws, issues, and loopholes.
They not only guide the team in identifying and plugging in the gaps but also help them in visualizing their own solutions from a different angle. Their “fault-finding” attitude does not really make them the darling of the masses but in spite of that, everybody expects a “seal of approval” from them to go ahead.
4. Lead by conflict resolution
Hilda Solis brings out the most important quality of any leader when she says.
“My role was to bring about fairness in the workplace. All I did was implement the laws that were currently on the books.”
They are the people managers and are great team players. They love working in teams and contribute a lot to team collaboration, sharing, and success. They play natural mediators in defusing team tensions and conflicts.
They mostly succeed in negotiating win-win situations in conflicts and are great communicators. They are the glue that keeps the team together.
5. Lead by charisma
Dan Reiland nails it perfectly when he says.
“How can you have charisma? Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you.”
The dictionary meaning of Charisma is “compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others. “.
Charisma is not just saying hello. It’s dropping what you’re doing to say hello. It is just a fancy name given to the knack of giving people your full attention.
Charismatic leaders use this charm to their ultimate advantage. People get mesmerized either by their good looks or witty words and can do “anything” for them.
They are natural leaders and are the experts in getting things done without putting much of an effort. But having said that, charisma needs to be substantiated by knowledge or it will start to fade soon.
6. Lead by empathy
In his book Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek proposes a concept of leadership that has little to do with authority, management acumen or even being in charge.
True leadership, Sinek says, is about empowering others to achieve things they didn’t think possible. Exceptional organizations, he says, “prioritize the well-being of their people and, in return, their people give everything they’ve got to protect and advance the well-being of one another and the organization.”
That is empathy in a nutshell. Empathy is all about finding echoes of another person in yourself.
We all have empathy. It is only that, the true leaders have the courage to display it often. Empathetic leaders are trusted helpers for everybody at the professional and personal level. They have this great ability to understand the pain of others and alleviating it in the best way possible.
They are great listeners and elegant communicators. People approach them to get that “soothing” feeling of relaxation and self-assurance. They are the ultimate stress busters.
7. Lead by problem-solving
There is an interesting statement made by detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s all-time famous book “Murder on the Orient Express.”
“As you yourself have said, what other explanation can there be?’
Poirot stared straight ahead of him. “That is what I ask myself,” he said. “That is what I never cease to ask myself.”
That is what problem-solving leaders do every day. They constantly made it a lifelong endeavor to solve and conquer any problem, however tough it might be. For them, problems are meant to be solved, and not complained and worried about.
They are also “smart fixers”. They have an uncanny knack for solving problems and fixing issues that are considered unsolvable by everybody. They are highly valued because of this ability and often find themselves much sought after during critical projects and unwavering deadlines.
Last thoughts.
Leadership is a complex business. It is comprised of a dynamic mix of behaviors, mindset, and skills, which are used to move people where a leader wants them to be for the betterment of the organization.
And good lead programmers although require a good amount of technical knowledge, but they do not necessarily need to be the best. They need to be good enough that the team respects them technically, but they will probably draw more on their leadership skills day-to-day than their technical skills.
That said, one of the greatest rewards of becoming a lead programmer is when all your hard work pays off and you see your team succeed.
It’s an incredible feeling to watch junior developers take the new skills you’ve taught them and apply them to your team’s work.
Or to see your team working out cohesively and shipping a project on time. This satisfaction is one of the best parts of being a lead programmer and is worth all the sweat and pain you have gone through.
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7 Habits of Highly Successful Lead Programmers was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Mohamed Aboelez
Mohamed Aboelez | Sciencx (2022-11-20T21:30:27+00:00) 7 Habits of Highly Successful Lead Programmers. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/11/20/7-habits-of-highly-successful-lead-programmers/
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