If the Command and Control management style is like the British Armada then do dev managers need to be a lot more like pirate ship captains?
Jeff Maxwell is an application architect with experience in Fortune 100 corporations, a longtime software developer and lifelong Oklahoma State Cowboy alumnus.
Jeff was a prior guest of Hello Tech Pros on episode 2 where we discussed Productivity and how Jeff took a $1 million project and reduced the team size from 25 to 4 people by restructuring the requirements document into bite-sized tasks.
Key Takeaways
- You’re not a leader if you’re not listening to your team.
- Leaders who are very non-technical in a very technical field can be challenging to work with if they are command and control driven and don’t solicit feedback from the team.
- Developers are really good problem solvers. Leadership needs to identify those who are great problem solvers and empower them to make creative solutions.
- Managing developers is like
herding catsbeing a captain on a pirate ship.- Developers crave adventure.
- They don’t want to follow rules that have no purpose or add value to the current situation.
- They respect leaders who have hands-on experience and lead from the front lines.
- Each ship and each captain had their own set of rules or Pirate Code.
- Can’t light a candle after 9pm at night.
- If you’re going to smoke or drink you must do it above deck after 8pm.
- Each man gets a vote.
- You must keep your pistols and cutlass (skills) ready for war.
- The person who forsees the first sail gets the best weapons.
- The captain is elected by the majority of the crew.
- The musicians get to rest on Sunday but have to take requests on all other days by the crew.
- The captain has to understand every aspect of the ship and what each role entails.
- Each dev team should create their own Pirate Code and swear an oath.
- Coding standards.
- SDLC process.
- Culture standards.
Resources Mentioned
- HTP-2 Scaling Down a Team to Get Results — Productivity Tuesday with Jeff Maxwell
- It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques From the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff (Listen on Audible)
Sponsors
- Burdene.com – SMS text-based bot for taking notes and getting reminders.
- HelloTechBook.com – Get a free audio book from Audible.
Contact Guest
- Jeff Maxwell on LinkedIn
- jeff@tcnsolutions.com
Available on Leadership Wednesday and Hello Tech Pros daily podcasts
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