Why Great Dev Managers are Like Pirate Ship Captains — Jeff Maxwell on Leadership

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.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/jeff-maxwell-leadership/

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 cats being 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)

 

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