Ask HN: As a lead, are u responsible to drive your members to make an impact?

2 pointsdev_02 comments

I am leading a team of engineers. What I observed is that most are not motivated to make improvement and mostly instructions taker. How do I drive them to take initiative to improve things rather than waiting for instructions

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Taking initiative comes from personality and motivation, not management directive. Do your team members have the ability to take initiative? Or did you get a group of juniors who can’t do much more than take direction? Years of school trains people to follow directions, do as they are told, not think for themselves. What rewards can you offer for those who do take initiative? Do they risk criticism or worse if they do? Do they have agency in their roles? Do they have any reason, financial or otherwise, to invest their effort in trying more?

Mixture of Juniors and seniors. I am looking for ownership in their own areas. But most of the time I need to provide instructions on what to achieve

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