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Comment by liquidcool | Hacker News Reader

I wrote a very long, funny post about the frustrations you are facing. It's based around being a lead, but having no authority because you have no influence over salary and hire/fire decisions.

However, I never never published it because I'm afraid people won't read to the end where I realize you need to be able to show how management's problems are their problems, and likewise the solutions. And if you can't articulate in a convincing way why best practices are really best for your team, it may be time to revisit the source material. To be fair, I had to do this myself, but I came out way more confident in my knowledge of what makes a productive team.

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Thanks, that is some good insight. A doubt I still have is: what if the delta is too big? Can you really turn a team of "meh" pogrammers into a bunch of great coders by tring to infuse them with passion? If I have a good understanding of best practices I can probably convince them to a point, but it doesn't seem possible to infuse them with passion somehow. If I want to be around a great team might as well change jobs and give up on learning to lead for the moment.

I don’t think the key is inspiring them, it’s understanding them. Empathy. Why are they a team of ‘meh’ programmers. Is there no upward mobility? Does no one care how they perform? Are they just clocking time? Words are so hollow. Understand which people on the team have potential and why that potential isn’t being filled. What do they want? How can you help them achieve what they want and in the process have them help you achieve what you want, a well functioning team.

The leadership myth is some great profit on stage rousing people with inspiration. That doesn’t last and is often counter productive. Leading people is primarily at the individual level. Junior Officers and NCOs lead people into combat, not Generals. Understand your team, empathize with them, and then figure out how to move everyone in a direction you all want to go.

I agree poof has some good points. You don't really define "meh," which means you haven't defined the problem in detail. Or perhaps multiple problems, which you could prioritize and tackle individually. If the delta is too big, shrink the delta.

And I caution against making "passion" the goal. That's a myth. You just need people being productive. I know a few brilliant people who don't show any signs of passion or excitement, but they're prodigious without being egotistical, which is the best you can hope for.

I don't know your situation, but part of my problem was that best practices produce overhead, which feels like wasted effort if you're not getting yelled at for big errors or missed deadlines. And it's worse if you're not getting yelled at for big errors, but are getting pushed for deadlines. But then you're racking up technical debt, and there's a lot of material on that.

Publish it, and post the URL! I want to read it!

I would very much like to read your post.

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