I’m going to start with quite not politically correct, yet very much true statement. We, the developers, get sick and tired, as soon as we hear “accessibility”. There is a simple reason behind it. Often times the word “accessibility” is used very wrong. Many people think that accessibility equals aria labels and making you app usable by the blind. But this is only a small fraction of accessibility.

So what “accessibility” is?

Let’s start the other way round and explain disability. We all know disability as a permanent state where a body doesn’t have all motor skills, but that’s again, just part truth.

Looking at the picture above you probably already are aware that at some point of our lives we’ve all experienced some sort of disability. Either temporary (broken arm) or situational (occupied hands). Cambridge dictionary defines disability as “an illness, injury, or condition that makes it difficult for someone to do some things that other people do”. Taking this one step farther, physical disabilities are not the only ones that exist. Any learning impairment, like dyslexia, is also a disability, but again this one in a permanent one. Taking it a step back to temporary / situational mental disabilities as well as definition “difficult for someone to do things that other people do” even not knowing a language well, regardless if it’s due to some learning impairment or that language not being one’s native tongue.

For all this, I want to introduce a better way of saying “accessibility” namely, as the title of this article states, “universality”. To me this is a better term, as we all do want our apps, documentations, articles be universally accessible by as many people as possible, regardless of their physical location and their own ability to access your content.

What “accessibility” really is, is an answer to a question “Can I get access to information?”

Here, I don’t want to focus on good HTML structures or aria labels, there is plenty great articles about that. I want you to improve your way of thinking about accessibility. I want you to make information as much accessible as possible.

Touch

We’ve all seen people, usually older, using styluses to navigate their phone. Some of us might even laught, but have you ever wondered why they do it? It’s simply because they have hard time taping on items they’d like to navigate to. This happens because, as you get older your motor skills worsen, but to be completely honest with you, I sometimes struggle to tap on the thing I’d like to. Why? Mostly because of bad UX. See it for yourself.

Looking at this map, at the first glance you realize that, tapping on the correct map pin is nearly impossible. A very simple fix for this may be grouping some nearly located pins into one that would cause the map be zoomed in to that area with nicely spread pins.

Generally with any touchable / clickable area a great rule of thumb is “could I tap it”. The more touchable area the better, but the minimum should be 48dp (or 48px / ~3rem) [what is a dp?] .

Contrast

Here I won’t say a word about colorblindness, nor any other permanent disability. Just look at the picture below.

Screens get better and better in terms of brightness, but if you never had an issue with sun making your screen unreadable, you probably live in the dungeon. This one is a struggle for every single person in the world every single day. When you create your app with bad contrast or some unusual fonts, you make it a lot worse for your users to get the information they need from you website.

An excerpt from “Refactoring UI” by Adam Wathan & Steve Shoger says:

By designing in grayscale, you’re forced to use spacing, contrast and size to do the heavy lifting. It’s little more challenging, but you’ll end up with a clearer interface with a strong hierarchy that’s easy to enhance with color later.

Leave handwritten fonts for logos, leave weird colors schemes and just make it simple. Simple is better.

Language

Simple is better, but what’s even more better, especially with language, is plain. I left this one to the end on purpose. This is a point relevant not only to copy writers or developers, but honestly to everyone. Ever written documentation? Procedure? Email to employees? A Slack message? You need to understand that plain is better. And now plain language is also an ISO standard.

I said earlier that accessibility is the answer to “Can I get access to the information?” question. What is better for that than a language. A language is the key to get out message across. Regardless of what that message is.

If English is your native language, you are in a better position, as majority of the web is in English, but keep in mind that there are millions of users that either know English as a second language, or don’t know it at all. Think what is easier to translate. I personally worked with an app where where you could have peers instead of friends, principals instead of leaders and articles could be appreciated, not liked. People sometimes think if they do things different, they will be better, but in communication this is not the way.

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it, and you really want to show it.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

We all know this nursery rhyme, it’s one of the most popular ones that is used in English as Second Language teaching as well. If you look at it again, what do you see? There’s a lot of repetition and simple words.

This brings me back down the memory lane when I was studing English teaching. We were to create a children Christmas story, but the goal was to use no more than 30 different words. Tough challange, but has its point. Same as the nursery rhyme. That’s how we learn and understand language the best. With simple words and repetition.

An average 5–6 year old child knows 2500–5000 different words, by the age they’re 9 their primary set of words is around 5000, and secondary around 10000. If you think it’s more when you’re an adult you’d be wrong. It is basically this for the rest of our lives. We tend to use same words over and over again, and you know what? It is good! Using complex and unusual words does not make us sound smarter. It’s just making us less understandable.

Keep it simple!

Look at the examples below, they both mean exactly the same, but which one is actually understandable?

The recently implemented categorical standardisation procedure on waste oil should not be applied before 1 January 2015.

or

Do not use the new waste oil standards before 1 January 2015.

What is more, when we use longer words (8 or 9 letters), users are more likely to skip shorter words (3, 4, or 5 letters) that follow it. People just don’t read one word at a time. They bounce around, especially online, and anticipate words, subconsciously filling them in. You don’t need to read every word to understand what is written. It is estimated that people can drop around 30% of text and still understand it perfectly. An exception from that rule are people with learning disabilities who read letter for letter, and do not bounce around like other users. However, keep in mind that they cannot understand a sentence if it’s too long!

THIS IS MEGA IMPORTANT

Capital letters are harder to read. By around 13 to 18%.

Capital letters were great when you started learning to read. At first, you might sound out every letter, but you did not understood the concept of lower and upper case by the age of 6. At this point instead of letters, you start recognising the shape of words. This speeds up comprehension and speed of reading.

People do not read words, people recognise the shape of a word and understand it. It is a lot faster that way, and we all value our time greatly.

Online vs Paper

Users read very differently online to paper. They do not read top to bottom or even from word to word. Instead, users only read about 20 to 28% of a web page. Think of a letter F, that is a shape in which users browse content of a web page. they want to complete their task as quickly as possible, so they skim across the top, then down the side, reading further across when they find what they need. So, Keep it Simple. Give access to the information as quickly as possible.

Learnings?

• be concise — simple and shorter is better. Be understood, especially when you write procedures.
• address the user — use active voice
• DO NOT CAPITALIZE — unless it’s logo
• use text version of signs — and is easier to read and understand than &, same with dates use to instead of —
• Be gender neutral — use plural “they”

And make sure you use plain language, see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z-of-gov-uk-style for full list of words that can be easily replaced. But to give you a few to avoid that I’ve seen use quite extensively:

• collaborate, use ‘work with’
• empower, use ‘allow’ or ‘give permission’
• key (unless it unlocks something), usually not needed but can use ‘important’ or ‘significant’
• streamline, use ‘simplify’ or ‘remove unnecessary administration’

I hope that now you understand better what is the goal of accessibility. It’s simply to allow as many users access the information you want to provide in a way they can understand it as you intended. I believe you want that too.

Artykuł Universality, because accessibility is not about disability pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

You are constantly engaged in all kinds of meetings, one-to-ones or simply keeping an eye on your staff to make sure they’re on track and doing well. There’s simply no time for you to sharpen your own skills and get back on the right track. You might start feeling like an impostor and notice that you are often unproductive and drifting between tasks that previously would not have been an issue at all.

Define your own self-worth

How can you get back on track? Isn’t people management exactly how managers earn their pay? It’s very easy to see how productive individual contributors such as coders, designers and so on are. They have a job to do and the measure of their productivity is whether the job got done and to what standard! The product of their work can be measured and valued in an objective way. 

Managing tech teams is a bit more complex and its value should not be viewed or measured in the same manner as individual contributors. Be careful though, judging your own productivity based on the group’s output is a fast track to frustration or even a burnout as the manager is not the “group”, strictly speaking. This dichotomy can be overwhelming if your own self worth has not been clearly defined.

What you’re here for

You’re probably here for some guidance, some advice on how to be a good manager and to recognize the value of your input to the company. Below, I have listed some of the most overlooked (yet obvious) indicators of being on top of things and doing your job right as a manager.

It’s also important to note that growing as a manager does not happen without growing as a person; these developments go hand-in-hand. In order to examine yourself as a manager you will also have to examine yourself as a person. This can lead to some self-realizations into your own flaws and behaviors and it’s good to prepare for this. Embrace it as this is where personal breakthrough happens.

1. Knowing where to start and what to do next – Locate and prioritize what has to be done to meet your expectations. Organize yourself so that you have a full understanding of the tasks. Being able to pull the right threads in the right order is the foundation of a manager’s work.

• Check: Do you have a clear vision or a roadmap of what has to be done in the following days or weeks? Do you know who’s doing what and are you comfortable with delegating work?

2. Delivering value for the company – It might be hard to believe but many leaders are not actually sure what success looks like for either them or their business. Having that “perfect” scenario in your mind will set the general direction of the business. Your first job as a manager is to get to the core of that and understand the value that you are supposed to be generating on the way to collective success.

• Check: Can you explain all the “whys and wherefores”? You must know why your team exists and be able to explain what the ideal, successful outcome looks like.

3. Assign tasks to people involved in the project – All hands on deck. Nobody in your team should be without clearly assigned tasks or goals, they should all know exactly what is expected of them. In addition, make sure that your team is not only aware of what their own job is, but also what the rest of the company is focusing on too. If your team doesn’t get into alignment with each other then you won’t be able to empower your people and you will end up with individuals working towards different goals instead of a cohesive team working towards a common goal.

• Check: Can your team members explain all the “whys and wherefores”? They should know why the team exists and be able to explain its importance for the process as a whole.

4. Create an environment for decision-making – As the manager, you can make those “last resort” decisions but where possible, you should defer to those in your team who carry out the work. In the perfect scenario, the manager makes no actual decisions at all but acts only as a guide. Sound a bit far-fetched? This is absolutely possible if the team is well-aligned and aware of every aspect of the process.

• Check: How many decisions come to you that shouldn’t? How much time do you spend debating things versus doing them? Do people work against decisions or commit to them?

5. Be the “go-to person” – People value leaders who are good listeners and proactively solve issues as they occur. Teams look up to their leaders and their respect lies in terms of whether managers trust them to do their jobs and if they are free to make their own decisions concerning what the appropriate course of action looks like. As the manager, if you take shortcuts in your own approach then it empowers your staff to do the same.

• Check: Do team members come to you to talk about work-related issues? Do they inform you if they are uncomfortable with a course of action or situation? Do you trust people to do the right thing?

6. Coaching and feedback – If your team isn’t moving forward then it’s staying behind. As it evolves, it will perform better which will result in the team achieving more. Make your feedback loops meaningful and make sure they are actionable. Don’t forget to actually listen to your team’s feedback too, it works both ways!

• Check: Do you know in which areas people can grow? Are you aware of where you can grow based on the feedback you’re getting?

7. Create an inclusive environment – People leave jobs because of various reasons. While this is often unavoidable, attracting “the right” people doesn’t happen without trying and it’s important for managers to work on this. As a company, you need to be involved in building proper work ethics and employer branding. Every employee is a living testimony of, and for, the company. By rewarding your team you can also set an example for people within your company who’ve outgrown their current teams to work in a positive and supportive manner.

• Check: Do you have enough people to deliver the value you are accountable for? Do you interview candidates? What are you doing to make sure the onboarding goes smoothly and the new staff feel comfortable within the team?

8. Celebrate success – Appreciation is a necessity, not a luxury. Success breeds success, positivity generates morale. If you’re working flat out and there are no breaks at all to celebrate your achievements then work becomes a drag. Recognizing good work helps to empower the individual and should be the cultural norm within a company.

• Check: Can you name three positive things that happened last week? Did you take the time to appreciate them verbally? A celebration can be an uplifting aspect of the feedback loop.

9. Turn Mistakes into Learning – At LEOCODE we try to document our setbacks and turn them into valuable lessons. Fail fast, fail better is one of our mottos. Your job as a manager is to turn issues into progress and create an environment where people are not afraid of saying “I don’t know” and admitting that they’ve made a mistake. Celebrate recovery from failure so that it’s seen as a valuable use of their time.

• Check: Does your team repeat the same mistakes? Are people afraid of admitting to making mistakes? Do you celebrate learning from previous mistakes?

It’s a wrap

The manager’s journey is rewarding far beyond the position itself. So far I’ve learned skills that have made me both a better, more valuable manager and a kinder, more understanding human being.

Some of the most valuable lessons I learned have come from outside my professional life (for example my beloved family is one of my biggest sources of inspiration). It takes awareness and purpose to not turn into an individual contributor or withdraw into a routine. My best advice is to do the opposite and enjoy being part of collective success.

Let’s grab a virtual coffee:

Click here to on the image below to schedule a free consultation today.

Artykuł The Manager’s Guide to Being a High Value Asset pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

The job market is full of offers both for product managers and product owners. Most job offers require a mixture of product management and project ownership skills and quite often the duties and responsibilities of each are blurred. As a result, you might be able to find product manager job offers containing the responsibilities of a product owner and vice versa.

As an HR professional working in the tech industry, I’ve also noticed a reoccurring offer for the role of “project manager”. This “new role” is growing in popularity and seems to connect the duties of a product manager and a product owner, but does it really work that way? Do you need a PO, PM or both? Which one should you hire when you’re on a tight budget?

Start by asking questions:

Who does what in my team? What are the current bottlenecks? How does my decision-making process work? What does a successful outcome look like for my process?

Answering these questions will give you an overview of how your company operates, and possible room for improvement. This information will help you structure your team and pick the right professional for the job.

Product owner vs. product manager

Product owner
The term finds its origins in Scrum – an agile project management framework based on a set of meetings, tools and roles that help teams structure and manage their work.

The official Scrum Guide defines the role as being “…responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, Scrum Teams, and individuals.”

In other words, the product owner is mainly responsible for optimizing the development process and maintaining the product backlog, which involves:

• Researching users’ needs and documenting insights.
• Deciding the next features to build.
• Improving the product by delivering features that customers demand.
• Setting long-term strategies for the product.
• Managing the team around the product roadmap.
• Being in contact with external partners and investors to provide information about the direction and progress of the product.

Simply put, the product owner role includes working closely with the software development team to make sure that the production process aligns with the roadmap and the product will be delivered on time.

Product manager
The product manager role is quite different. It takes a more holistic, overall approach as it includes responsibilities that influence the product life cycle. The product manager role is to set and execute the product strategy. 

Vision, deep understanding of customer needs, knowledge of the product, spokesman and selling skills, as well as overall market expertise are the qualities that every product manager needs.

Thanks to their wide skill set and strategic roles, product managers are a valuable asset to the company and production process itself. Their day-to-day work includes:

• Advocating the customers’ point of view and potential needs to the development team.
• Creating actionable user stories from customer issues.
• Creating and managing the product backlog. 
• Structuring and setting priorities to particular production processes. 
• Ensuring that the development team knows what to work on next.
• Ensuring that the process is aligned with the roadmap
• Providing feedback on the validated roadmap to the product manager.

Side-by-side job role comparisons:

The vast difference in soft skills is also worth underlying. Product owners should be creative thinkers, they should be able to truly understand and define the needs of their client or end-user. In contrast, the product manager is a highly focused, team-oriented person who is firm and demonstrates strong leadership qualities such as being able to make important decisions quickly and with conviction.

Summary:

The actual range of required competence is always dictated by the needs of any given project, the product you’re working on, or the client themselves. 

Despite requiring seemingly similar responsibilities, the product owner, product manager, and project manager are three separate and distinctly different roles that require different expertise, personality traits, and soft skills. It is possible to run a successful project without hiring staff for all three roles, but you should not expect to cover all three jobs with just one person as this will not give you the breadth of skills and time required to satisfy them well.

Do I need a product manager or product owner?

PM: If vision and strategy is what you need the most at the moment and if you’re on a tight budget but you want your company to grow, you should consider a good product manager who knows how to execute a well-planned strategy. A good product manager will help you to build digital products that create real value for your clients and satisfy the end-user.

PO: If delivering functional and technically polished digital products on time are your main focus, a product owner is who you should hire. A well-crafted backlog, clear documentation and smooth process execution will not be a problem for an experienced product owner.

A high sense of individual ownership will also help as you want to build a culture where everyone thinks like a product manager while executing the validated roadmap with high precision, attention to detail and a focus on the technical aspects.

Any more questions?

I hope this blogpost cleared up the main differences between the roles of product manager and product owner, with an increased awareness of where they differ and where they cross paths. In case you have any more questions, feel free to schedule an online consultation here.

Artykuł Product manager vs. product owner. Who do you need? pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

“In a survey of nearly 260 UK developers by software company Haystack, 83% of respondents reported feelings of burnout, 81% of which cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the cause. Of these, 32% said this was true to a ‘great’ extent, and 30% to a ‘moderate’ extent.” According to Zdnet.com 

Job burnout

You might have experienced this yourself or known someone else who has. Some of us might have even tried to self-diagnose ourselves by searching online for relatable symptoms, but do we really know the difference between being tired from working hard and true burn-out? How similar is it to a general lack of motivation, fatigue or small bout of depression?

The term was brought to the research lexicon in 1974 by the article “Staff Burn-Out” written by the psychologist, Herbert Freudenberger. He defined it as “the depletion of motivation, a growing sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism”. Freudenberger’s studies and observations were conducted with volunteers at a drug rehabilitation clinic in New York in 1974 wherein he coined the term “burn-out” and applied it to a wide range of issues. During the study, his subjects, formerly idealistic mental health workers, were finding themselves depleted and experiencing an ever-growing negative emotional response towards both their patients and the clinic. 

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you? You will find a handy self-test at the bottom of this article. 

The first mention

Traditionally, the word “burn-out” has been used as a colloquial description for a particular set of work-related symptoms such as being constantly stressed, overwhelmed, and not having enough energy to devote to a given task or even an entire career. In May 2019, the term “burn-out” was officially given a medical definition in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and was recognized as a formal mental health problem. WHO announced that burn-out would be classified under “Factors influencing health status or contact with health services”. A spokesperson for the World Health Organization, Christian Lindmeier, described it as “not conceptualized as a medical condition, but rather as an occupational phenomenon”.

What is burnout?

ICD-11 definition

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been managed successfully. It is characterized by three dimensions: 

1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
2) increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job;
3) a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.”

It’s worth mentioning that the World Health Organization only recognizes burn-out as a type of non-medical life-management difficulty rather than an illness. Nonetheless, ICD-11 highlights burn-out as a real handicap to productivity and mental health and not just synonymous to being “stressed out”. 

The mismatch between a desired state and reality

In February 2020, the anonymous tech networking platform, Blind, conducted the first of two surveys with 3.6M verified users IT professionals. They posed the question “How often do you feel burned out?” – The poll gathered 3,500 responses and the results were as follows:

• 36% Daily 
• 32% Weekly 
• 14% Monthly 
• 13% Every few months 
• 5% Never

The platform ran a second poll in May 2020 to compare the results from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key results from 6,789 responses, stated: 

1. 61% of professionals felt burned out in February 2020, but this number rose to 73% in May 2020. Of these numbers, the subcategories and underlying reasons can be summarised as:
   • During the COVID-19 outbreak, one in five professionals feel burned out due to job security fears (19%).
   • 20.5% of professionals during COVID-19 feel they have an unmanageable workload.
   • Over 10% of professionals feel as if they have no control over their work.
2. All surveyed companies reported to have had at least 60% of their workforce burn-out in May 2020 whereas, pre-COVID-19 the minimum was 30%. 

You can download the full report here.

Burn-out is the stress that has not been successfully managed

Creating digital products takes effort; both from development teams and their leaders. There are many aspects which could go wrong and prevent digital products from being released on time, or even from being built at all. 

Burn-out tends to happen when the effort we put into work is bigger than the reward we gain from it. Some of the most common work-related factors of burn-out include:

• An unmanageable workload.
• An expectation to consistently perform perfectly.
• An evaluation of performance based on output.
• Toxic productivity-focused work environments.
• Poor management.
• A lack of support.
• Perfectionism.
• Micromanaging.
• No recognition or feedback.
• Financial instability.
• Long hours and consistently working overtime.
• A lack of common aims in the workplace.
• High effort, low reward work.

What we see as “rewarding” is entirely subjective. It is based on our background, personality, interest, values and mindset. Some people may find one job extremely rewarding while others may see it as strenuous and thoroughly unenjoyable. It’s different for everyone.

Nevertheless, the core values underlying our enjoyment and core motivation are all reasonably similar; earning a good salary, getting a promotion, improved social status, flexibility to work as you please and working in a mission-driven company. We always strive for financial stability, validation or recognition and the feeling of making a positive impact. 

Symptoms of a burnout

Knowledge workers such as IT experts are expected to be consistently productive and creative in equal measurements. However, it’s almost impossible for the human brain to constantly generate new ideas without a rest. 

It is vital that you have a chance to unwind or spend time on less cognitively-demanding tasks for your brain to recover and function properly. If you don’t, you might start seeing some of the symptoms associated with burn-out which could ultimately lead to a full blown case if you don’t catch it early enough. 

Burnout symptoms are usually separated into three categories: physical (body), emotional (mind), behavior:

Physical:

1. Feeling drained most of the time.
2. Frequent headaches or muscle pain.
3. Lowered immune system.
4. Change in appetite or sleep habits.

Emotional:

1. Sense of failure or self-doubt.
2. Feeling helpless, trapped, defeated.
3. Detachment, feeling alone in the world.
4. Loss of motivation.
5. Increasingly cynical and negative outlook.
6. Decreased job satisfaction.
7. Feeling little or no sense of accomplishment at work.

Behavioral:

1. Withdrawal from responsibilities.
2. Isolated from others.
3. Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done.
4. Using food, drugs or alcohol to cope.
5. Taking out your frustration on others.
6. Skipping work, coming in late all of the time, leaving early.

“If not addressed, burn-out can lead to additional health issues, including insomnia, depression, substance abuse, and coronary heart disease.”

Dr. Sharon Toker, Tel Aviv University.

How does it translate into your business?

Staff turnover rate increases: This is a strong signal that there are instances of burn-out. Your employees might be tired and looking for less demanding and more rewarding career opportunities.

Lower performance: If your team keeps failing to meet deadlines, lacks creativity or shows a negative attitude towards the job, you might want to consider counseling your employees and checking for possible burn-out symptoms. You should also watch out for decreasing code quality which will result in extended deadlines. 

Increased absenteeism: Unhappy employees tend to take sick days to get away from work. Even though they’re not feeling ill, they take a sick day just to escape the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Low morale and poor internal relationships: Fatigued employees show a more negative and cynical attitude towards both the job and their team. A negative work environment is contagious and can quickly affect everyone on the team, resulting in a complete collapse. 

Productivity is not an endurance sport.

Burn-out might occur because of either personal or work-related factors. This blogpost focuses only on the professional aspects of this phenomenon. We’ve gathered some of the most popular ways of minimizing tension in the workplace by encouraging natural human interactions and providing the necessary downtime without affecting your company’s daily performance.

Here are our top tips for avoiding burn-out in your workplace:

• Reasonable workloads: There’s a fine line between having a challenging yet achievable amount of work, and that which is overwhelming and detrimental to your health. To alleviate workloads, delegate jobs and assign tasks to your team in a reasonable way. Ensure that your team is not overloaded by their to-do lists.
  
• Achievable work hours: The amount of hours one can work differs from person-to-person. Some will be able to work 80 hours a week reasonably comfortably while others will seriously struggle with a 40-hour week. Allow for sick days, paid time off and vacation periods.
  
• Don’t be afraid of taking breaks: Encourage your team members to take 15-minute breaks throughout the day (everyone, not just the smokers), as well as making sure they have a proper lunch break as well. Regular breaks allow your employees to take a walk, have a chat with coworkers or do a little bit of exercise to get their blood flowing before the next session.
  
• Be flexible: Set realistic deadlines to avoid an unnecessarily stressful crunch time. Don’t be afraid to re-assign people to different jobs if they were not right for the task. If you feel that your team would work better with a restructuring of responsibility, don’t hesitate to make that change for the good of everyone.
• Clarify roles: Communication is key. Provide every team member with a specific job description and make sure everyone understands their role and are aware of your expectations, without exception.
  
• Develop a culture of being supportive: Reward employees who show a supportive attitude towards the team and encourage collaboration, provide assistance to others and promote inter-team bonding.
  
• Encourage socializing: Socialization is a must-have for forming bonds within the team. It allows people to share insight, share different perspectives and to unwind when it’s needed.
  
• Provide downtime: Provide your team with a reward to let them know that they are appreciated. It can be anything from food, gift cards, allowing them to leave early or having a party at work. A workplace where an employee is excited to come to work will most certainly experience less burn-out.  
• Be Fair: Equal treatment is another core value to implement in every organization. Be sure that decisions are fair and ethical. 
• Feedback: Provide and listen to feedback. It creates room for improvement, reduces frustration and prevents the tensions from escalating.
• Listen: When an employee expresses frustration or concern, address it immediately. Make sure that they know you are taking appropriate action or give an explanation as to why you can’t meet their needs.
• Educate employees on burn-out: Provide information about burn-out and ways of preventing it. Hold a seminar where employees can ask relevant questions about burn-out. Consider asking a mental health professional to mediate the discussion.

The burn-out questionnaire

To let you spot a possible issue, we’ve prepared a short test. I want to note that no inventory is absolutely accurate or foolproof. Your score on this test is merely a guide to your experience of burn-out.

Interpret these results only as an indicator of a possible issue, not a definite one.  If your score is high, consider taking steps towards fixing the issues highlighted by consulting a mental health specialist or a personal advisor of choice.

To download, click here or on the button below.

Artykuł Job Burnout in Tech Industry – Test yourself pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

I have several years’ experience in HR. In our team, we often share knowledge on what to pay attention to with regards to LinkedIn profiles so I hope that the following tips will not only reduce the amount of recruitment spam you get on a regular basis but will help you to receive offers that are really interesting and tailored to your skills.

Your LinkedIn profile introduction

Picture

Is your photo relevant? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same as in your CV, but should present you in a good, professional manner. With regards to your profile, it does not look more professional to have a blank image instead of a picture of you. If you don’t update your profile regularly, it is more likely you’ll receive “copy and paste”, standard messages. Personalize your profile to try and avoid this as we don’t want lots of spam do we? 

Job title

This is located below your name at the top of your profile. Use this section to not only tell people what your current job is, but also to let everyone know the wider industry you’re in and your skill set. Some typical examples in our industry may include:

• Front-End Developer | React, Redux, JavaScript
• Backend Architect in XYZ Company
• Front-End Developer | Web Developer | Full Stack Developer | Looking for an Opportunity
• Graphic Designer focused on UX / UI

Location

Adding your current location to your profile will allow people who are local to you to send interesting offers from your area. What’s more, you will avoid spam from recruiters who are looking for people from a specific area or country and write to you because you do not have a place of residence entered.

Background image

This is not the most important part of your profile, but if done well it can be the icing on the cake.

Look at the comparison below of a fully complete versus an incomplete profile.

The main body of your profile

About

This description is very important as it summarizes your specialism, your interests, which job offers you are happy to consider and so on. When viewing your profile, recruiters are likely to skim read this section very quickly to determine whether they feel you may be suitable for their role so it’s important to be concise, accurate, informative and get yourself across in a positive, professional manner.  

Information to include in your LinkedIn profile:

• Technological stacks that interest you – listed from hashtags with the following string:
  #react #reactnative #javascript #node #aws or any other technology
• The type of offers that you’re looking for:
  – “only 100% remote offers” 

– “I’m only interested in offers related to JavaScript” 

– “I am interested in working in part-time”

• If you are not interested in any job offers at the current time, make it known:

– “I am not interested in any job offers at this time”

• Other important information:

– “I am interested in speaking in lectures”

– “I am looking for a hackathon team <link>”

To make your profile even more refined, I recommend that you include the motivation for working in your chosen industry to demonstrate your enthusiasm for your work, state your professional goals, explain what drives you to succeed and so on. Of course, all too common is the reality that recruiters won’t actually read these sections properly and will simply provide you with a standard “copy and paste” offer. That being said, most of the people I know, including myself, read it carefully and respect the time that someone has put into preparing their profile.

Experience

It is essential to not only have a description of your role, but also the projects you have previously worked on (it goes without saying they shouldn’t be described in too much detail so as not to break the NDA with your previous employers).

Example

Senior Java Developer 

I was responsible for:

• onboarding new people into the project

• code review

• contact with the client

• Other general tasks

Project X: 

I was involved in creating a platform for exchanging kitchen recipes with other users. During the project, I was managing a backend team of three people. The project consisted of implementing new functionalities…. and so on.

Describing your experiences in this manner will make someone think twice before they write to you with an offer that is completely unmatched and unsuitable for you. 

For example, if a recruiter is looking for a Java leader who will lead a team of six people in a tourism industry project, they won’t write to a software developer who deals with Java and Scala and who has indicated that they are more interested in Scala projects within the financial industry – If they read your profile properly they won’t anyway!

If the profile in the above case only said that the given person is programming in Java and Scala, such an offer could go to him even though it wouldn’t be a good match at all.

The final section of your profile

The lower part of the profile is much less important than the introduction and main body. It’s really there to just add in a bit of extra information and cover all other aspects not previously mentioned. It’s likely that most recruiters won’t even bother to read this section so it’s not worth spending too much time on it. However, like anything worthwhile, it’s worth updating this section and keeping it current as there are recruiters who are looking for people for specific roles that are not advertised on job portals. Devoting just 10 minutes to this section could be the difference between getting a really good offer which is suitable for you and getting nothing at all.

Skills & Endorsements

Recruiters who are looking for people with specific skills will search this section of your LinkedIn profile. I recommend that you update this section from time to time and include only the technologies you work with regularly and are highly familiar with.

References

It’s definitely worth collecting references from former colleagues and superiors to add to your arsenal of recruitment tools, as well as issuing references to others. I do not recommend the “references on request” method because at first glance, you have the possibility of showcasing a really positive reference than a former colleague gave to you, why not show that off proudly? 

Interests

On LinkedIn, you can follow profiles on topics that interest you personally. As a result, a recruiter who is looking for a specialist in a niche topic can find that data much more easily. An additional benefit of being up-to-date with a specific topic or profile of a company or person is that you will further demonstrate your knowledge in a specific, desired field which could be useful for recruiters. 

A real-life example of this is a project that I ran on the niche topic of cryptocurrencies. In this recruitment process, I paid attention not only to the potential candidates’ skills, but also to their interests. In this particular process, I was specifically looking for people who were interested in “Bitcoin”, “Cryptocurrencies” and “Blockchain”.

Summary

Upgrading your profile to a higher level should only take you around an hour. I believe that this is well-worth devoting this time to developing your LinkedIn profile as it is a supplement that advertises you professionally. What’s more, its quality, depth of information and appearance speaks volumes of the person themselves. 

Another benefit of updating and maintaining your profile will likely be a better matching of job offers. Let’s not forget, however, that LinkedIn is a portal not only for recruiters but for everyone. Thanks to a well-completed profile, we should hope to find people to collaborate with and offers of cooperation that we did not previously expect at all and which we would not have received if it were not for the time invested in refining your profile.

No time to read? Listen to our podcast on Spotify.

Artykuł How to reduce recruitment spam on LinkedIn? pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

Source: Link 

Does this picture ring a bell? Welcome to 2020. The year of lockdowns, hurricanes, massive fires in Australia and some other “minor” issues. Yet, in the IT field everything seems to be fine… or is it?

How to empower a sense of ownership at work

As I wrote in my previous article, it is easy to mistake ownership for responsibility and obligation. Understanding the distinction between these seemingly similar definitions is the key to step two – the process of building and empowering the mindset of your top-notch team.

“The worst guide” to managing a productive IT team

Action 1: Reassign your developers regularly

Software development has its own rules. Priorities shift rapidly and as a result, teams might be asked to hand over their project to another team, to start a new project entirely, or even to simply stop working on a project altogether. Management does not always look at these situations holistically and can sometimes miss the “big picture”. Moving teams around is likely to affect productivity, cause some amount of chaos and should be treated as a last resort move. Developers are not “resources” that you can freely move around from one project to another without affecting their motivation and morale.

Want to be sure that your project fails? Recruit people who do not care about the legacy they leave behind and have no investment in their successors’ achievements. Start the project with your best team and then reassign them to another project halfway through. In this manner, you will soon foster a culture of “that’s not my problem” and you will become the proud owner of a piece of software that nobody wants to take responsibility for. This is the easiest way to kill any IT project.

Red flags:

• Employees who show little to no interest in what they leave behind.
• A constant narration relating to “them” instead of “Us/we”.
• People who play the blame game and can always justify errors to be someone else’s fault.

Team players will take responsibility for their work and look inwards at their performance and areas in which they can improve. Non-team players will always look for outward sources of blame; they will shy away from responsibility and are always slow to take ownership of their work.

Action 2: Share no vision, give zero explanation why.

Simply knowing how to carry out a task is not enough on its own. Without understanding the importance of that task and how it fits into the grand scheme of the overall project, it’s just not possible to produce top-quality work. Software engineers who know why they’ve been selected for a particular job and why that job is important for the whole project will be able to work in a more rounded and flexible manner. They will find better solutions for issues that might occur during development.

Red flags:

• Employees who show zero interest in knowing any more than they need to in order to get their job done.
• Negative emotional attitudes towards the core concept of the project or end the user/ customer.

Vision without execution is just hallucination.

Action 3: Autonomy is bad. Long live micromanaging.

Let’s be honest, complete and total trust can, and sometimes does, work. However, in order to minimize the potential for errors and poor quality work, management still needs to check and double check on their staff to maintain the highest standards. On the other hand though, a lack of trust leads to unwanted stress, micromanaging and even mild paranoia for everyone involved. No one wants to be looking over their shoulder every 5 minutes only to see their manager standing there, glaring at them.

Red flags:

• People who just “go through the motions” and pretend to work from 9-5 but whose output doesn’t match their timesheet.
• Employees who do not, and cannot, explain with cognizance what work has been done.

Action 4: Ignore those who take initiative.

Always acknowledge the doers in your business and those who take initiative. Empowering positive mindsets that you want to see more of in the future sets a good example for the rest of your team and will serve to guide and motivate them into developing themselves, working harder and seizing opportunities to take initiative.

Red flags:

• People who never step up to a new (or difficult) task.
• People who sit on the fence, don’t like to be heard and are afraid to ever take a firm stance on any issue.

Action 5: Freedom! Hold no one accountable.

Even within a team it is essential that each member is a responsible individual even if nobody can hold them personally responsible for potential failure. That being said, employer’s trust and employee’s autonomy goes both ways. Meeting set goals and deadlines is a crucial part of delivering IT products. Being a reliable employee and having the ability to meet firm deadlines is a valuable factor in terms of a company’s needs. Do not let your team off the hook when it comes to your deliverables, but at the same time, don’t go too far with your demands.

Red flags:

• Employees who justify all mistakes, use excuses, and postpone tasks constantly.
• Individuals getting late to work on a daily basis.
• Team members not informing others about possible delays until the day before.

Action 6: Who needs feedback? Blame is the way to go.

No matter the result, a consistent feedback loop is a must-have in IT. Although your team might not ask for it, both constructive criticism and positive feedback are needed to develop their skills and knowledge.

Red flags:

• People who do not care about, or want feedback.
• An “I’m always right and do everything perfectly” attitude.

If you do not follow the rules, beware!

The morale and attitude of your team members could change dramatically which will likely lead to undesirable results. How can you avoid this? Shift the mindset from “My job does not matter” to “I can make a difference within the organization”. This is an absolute game changer for productivity and efficient workflows.

“I’m on my own” turns into “I have the support of coworkers and management. I want to be accountable for my actions” – Teamwork at its finest!

With these simple shifts in attitudes, personal and professional growth are absolutely possible which will only serve to benefit everyone. As an employee, being a valuable asset by incorporating private passions into your position is invaluable to a company and will be a hugely positive attribute. Positive actions create good results for both employee and employer and forms the foundation of a long-term partnership between both parties. 

Being able to trust staff members to do their job fully allows managers to sleep much better at night. Let’s not get too optimistic, they’ll still have to check in on their employees and keep an eye on things but managers’ lives will become much easier when all the micromanaging is gone.

Trust, but double-check (especially with new employees)

First and foremost, we must always lead with the assumption that everyone has good intentions, although they possibly might not have enough knowledge or experience. Your assistance is necessary. Help often, help wisely. 

If you want your employees to take ownership of their work then you must invite them into a culture where trust and accountability are fostered, valued and encouraged. You absolutely don’t want industry-era workers blindly following orders without a shred of creative input. You want insightful, engaged and flexible professionals caring about the work they do. 

Double check to prevent a wreck.

The next step

To make things easier, I’ve put together all the information from both articles and created a handy checklist.

It will help you spot the ownership tendencies in your current team members and pick the right tools for empowering the mindset you want to grow in your environment.

To download it click the picture below or follow the link.

No time to read?- listen to our podcast

Artykuł Make your IT project fail – 2020 edition. pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

Welcome to the world of IT where demand is much higher than supply. It is a world in which you can chase a hot-shot candidate for 6 months, finally get him on your books as an employee, only to lose them right away due to a more lucrative offer being offered to them.

This is a big problem in our industry and many CTOs lose a lot of sleep over how they are going to meet deadlines without the appropriate staff. CTOs find themselves under increasing pressure from their CEOs and other C-level executives. The Holy Grail of IT is to hire people who love what they do, people who deliver more than is expected of them, and truly care about the outcome. How can we make that happen and find the right people for our teams? Let me introduce you to THE OWNERSHIP practice! 

If you OWN, you CARE

I used to think that ownership and responsibility were the same thing. Nowadays, I understand that I could not be more wrong. Let me explain the most important difference between these two:

Most people treat the commodities they own better than the ones they rent for a brief period of time. Think about driving a car you saved up €10000 for vs a rental car you paid €75 for – which one are you going to drive more carefully? Which one will you be more mindful of the clutch in? Which one will you clean? If you own something, you care about it more – This is a simple concept but let’s dig deeper as the analogy is relevant to much more than just material possessions…

“That’s not my job”

Individuals that have a strong sense of ownership and responsibility are a valuable asset to businesses. They breed cultures in which no one is waiting for “someone else” to do something. For such an environment to function, this culture of ownership must be earned and must be valued by the business, or else people that exhibit such qualities and those that don’t will be treated equally. Employees with a sense of ownership are the very core of high performing teams. 

Moreover, there is a strong connection between building a trustworthy workplace, empowering an ownership culture and forming high performing teams. Being able to differentiate between people’s true motivations is a first step to understanding the elusive nature of the ownership mindset. In this short series of three articles, I will help you to comprehend, spot and empower the ownership mindset within your current team. If you don’t yet have a team of tech superstars, I will help you to find a tech partner to best fit your business. 

Source: https://www.monkeyuser.com/2018/blame/

Needs determine motivation

Throughout my many years of working in IT, I have gathered valuable observations about the different types of people working as software engineers. Many hours spent conversing with other professionals has allowed me to understand a variety of motivations and styles of work in this business. You might have come across some of these in your own professional experience, but let me briefly introduce what I consider the most common character types:

• The Optimist – They are the “glass half full” people. They are always happy to help. They are not overly skilled technically but are open-minded, problem solvers, and easy to collaborate with.
• The Complainer – They are the “glass half empty” people. They tend to complain about everything on a daily basis. They self-stimulate by complaining, focusing on the negative side of things, and feeding off negative narration. 
• The Princess – They expect the “royal treatment” at every stage. They are fully aware of the market and use it to negotiate the best possible deal without caring about the end-user or quality of the product. They are focused only on themselves and will likely abandon a project as soon as they are offered a better deal
• The Nerd  – They get the job done. They require minimal social interaction. They need strong management and clearly assigned tasks. They tend to avoid taking too much responsibility as it gives more room to possible failure.

First of a series

As an IT manager, I’m always searching for ways to encourage people to love what they do and give 110% to every project. I decided to take a closer look at the low ownership issue in order to find any possible solutions to increasing employee motivation. After going through various articles on the topic and spending hours and hours in conversation with both developers and managers has allowed me to prepare this short summary on spotting and building a sense of ownership in your IT business.

Know the difference

Blame and justification 

Blame games are a huge waste of time, period. When you are in “blame mode”,you are not in a good position to solve the problem. Blaming others and attempting to attribute fault to factors outside of your control as the main (or only) causes of failure will only result in tremendous frustration. In most cases, being just a team member you cannot hope to change the team, the team leader or anyone you currently blame for the issue. “The problem is out there, not in here” is a destructive line of thinking, even if the issue is not your fault, technically.

Even if you are not the problem, you are welcome to be part of the solution

Obligation

Obligation means you have to do something that you don’t fully want to, or you’re not fully sure of. You are obliged to do the minimum to label the job “done” and go home. Sadly, this is a common feature of the modern corporate culture. If you’re afraid that someone will eventually blame you if something goes wrong, then you certainly won’t do any extra work, as this would only create more opportunities for potential failure. Using a sense of obligation as the main driving factor might technically work, but it’s not going to be very effective and certainly won’t put you in a position to deliver the best solutions to any problems. It will likely result in employees experiencing a very boring 9-5 job to which they feel no real affinity of commitment. It will lower productivity and drain your staff’s energy through a lack of any real intrinsic motivation.

Accountability vs responsibility:

Responsibility can be both given out and taken away. However, assigning responsibility does not guarantee that accountability will be taken. Each person in the team can be assigned responsibility for solving a particular issue but in most cases, only one person is held accountable for the result of the team’s work. It seems to be more motivating to do a good job when people feel accountable for their work, rather than simply being responsible for someone’s decision. Accountability is seen as a major factor in creating personal growth, as opposed to creating anxiety (as is often assumed). A good mindset can make you “go the extra mile”, even if nobody expects you to do so. It might be the difference perfecting or simply completing the piece of code you wrote or the functionality you are in charge of. There is always room for improvement if you truly care.  

Source: https://9gag.com/gag/a9pKQVK

A sense of ownership

The ownership mindset is about showing initiative and being responsible even when you won’t be held accountable for the result. It gives you a certain type of self-confidence. When you truly feel ownership of your work, you won’t be ashamed of your mistakes as you will treat them as a natural part of the learning curve. You want to do your job the best way you can and you do not blame anyone else for possible issues. There is no magical attitude you can adopt that will guarantee you to solve a problem, but taking ownership of your work puts you and your team in the best place mentally to be able to do so. “Let’s sort this out together” is a much better attitude than “that’s not my problem”. People stepping up and taking personal responsibility for their work contributes immensely to their high-performance team as they tend to come up with more effective solutions, thereby making the job easier for the whole team as a result. 

How we do it at LEOCODE

There are two main ways of approaching the low ownership issue: 

1. Build a high sense of ownership mindset from scratch within an existing team.
2. Find a tech partner with the right values, tools and knowhow and who also have access to a pool of selected talents.

We had a long discussion a few years ago about our future, our company goals and the values we represent. We discovered that there are two main factors which are important to us when making business and IT decisions:

1. BE HELPFUL – Delivering digital products is a process that needs true initiative to reach its full potential. We try to always be helpful any time we can improve even the smallest aspect within our business. We care about the end-user as much as we care about proper execution, technology and business aspects. If there is something that can be done better, be sure that we’ll improve it.
2. BE THE SOLUTION – We take pride in being able to create great software. Facing and solving issues is what motivates our talents every single day. Agile communication and transparency is what makes us different as a company. We focus on efficiency, high-quality products and being a true tech partner to our clients. Having the ability to deliver solutions to every IT problem your company might face is exactly what we strive for. 

The next step

You now know the basics of what having a strong sense of ownership is (and what it’s not). The next article will guide you through “must-have” conditions of forming an ownership culture within your organization. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay tuned to receive a handy set of questions for your team, a guide on possible red flags to watch out for and clear conditions you can implement to let your team take the initiative and enjoy their work even more.

I’ve also put together all the information from both articles and created a handy checklist. It will help you spot the ownership tendencies in your current team members and pick the right tools for empowering the mindset you want to grow in your environment. To download it click the picture below or follow the link.

No time to read?- listen to our podcast

Artykuł Fixed vs growth mindset. Importance of Ownership in IT. pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

Even with the best of intentions, it’s not easy to predict all the challenges that you will have to overcome in your business. It might be that your APP has just stopped working, or the tech team doesn’t match your expectations, or indeed any other issues which are causing issues in your processes. If this is the case for you, what can you do to solve these issues? 

This is when you might want to consider our Rescue Mission Team service. It comes into play when you have to meet set deadlines but you’re facing some sort of technical or HR difficulties. We assemble our special forces to help troubleshoot and support your project through its rough patch. Our Rescue Mission Team will get right to the bottom of the problem. We will discover and resolve issues from specific technological struggles to high-level strategic and organizational conundrums.

What is a Team Rescue Mission?

Are you in a situation where you can’t seem to agree on anything with your current provider? As an experienced IT organization, we’ve taken on the challenge of helping clients who find themselves in problematic situations and are committed to providing support and assistance.

One of the many cases:

The problem of bad communication was exactly what happened in one of our rescue missions. A 9-hour time difference, along with the ‘waterfall’ model resulted in an unnecessary delay in production. The client decided to set a final deadline for his current team to deliver part of the MVP which they had previously considered as impossible to meet.

Reason for the Rescue Mission:

When the client and his team decided to go their separate ways, LEOCODE came to the rescue with our team of experienced professionals. After three weeks of intensive production, lots of overtime, and working weekends, it was only our constant communication that kept us on track to deliver the product in such a short time period. There were also many more parts that had to be fixed in the background, such as hard refactoring, which required much hard work on our part.

When we were first faced with this challenge, we started by carrying out an audit. This is important because when faced with an unknown issue, providing a proper examination of the current situation is the key to finding possible issues and discovering where the necessary improvements can be made. We understand that there are always specific deadlines and business goals at the forefront of every project so we strive to recommend the most efficient solutions at all times.

Being flexible and able to quickly reorganize a process is crucial for clients who find themselves under significant pressure. We try to lift that stress off their shoulders by putting in extra hours and focusing strongly on rescuing the product at all costs.

The most common types of situations where RM is needed:

• The roadmap is not aligned with the progress of development work,
• Poor code quality, 
• Communication issues
• Startups on an early stage, preparing the MVP 
• Companies that had to let go of their CTO or development team
• Companies that are not satisfied with their current tech partner
• Clients that want to build or fix something fast
• Customers who had an application created for them, which is inefficient when scaled (when we are victims of our own success: we make a cheap MVP on short notice and suddenly it turns out that we need to scale x1000 but the product can’t handle it)
• Time pressure and lack of proper documentation, 

We always start with the audit to find and present all possible solutions. We verify the code quality, used technologies, and find possible causes of the problem. After the audit we propose solutions and clearly state the time of execution and define expected results. After the client agrees we proceed with the implementation. Often we need to prioritize and choose between: 

• delivering as much as possible in the shortest possible time by working with a larger team 
• delivering less or within a longer timespan cause of the lower budget thus smaller team

In each of these situations, we have to quickly find the reason for poor performance but there is a slight difference in the approach between these scenarios.

More insight

If you have any doubts about technology, quality, or work efficiency in your business, we can verify it for you.

Being unaware of what is happening in your application is a fast track to losing control. Recurring issues, bugs left without a fix, communication issues, or being partially excluded from the process is also what drives some clients to hire a rescue team.

If this sounds anything like your current situation, hesitate no longer. By hiring our rescue team you will gain easily digestible insight into what is happening in your product, along with reasonable solutions for possible problems. Transparency and efficiency are what we value the most and giving the client a clear view of the process often forms the foundations of a long-term tech partnership.

Quicker execution

If the production of your product seems to have no end in sight, the developers working for you are only accessible via the project manager and you’re not sure what they are working on at any given time, you should consider our rescue mission service.

We will jump right into the code, propose solutions that will make your product as brilliant as it can be. After consulting the client, we will refactor the code if it needs to be improved. If not, we will simply build on top of it while developing the product and adding new features, and still, refactor what is needed anyway.

When our rescue team jumps in to save your project it’s all hands on deck. Carefully selected team members and expert consultants will work tirelessly to speed up the process with their knowledge and highly refined skill sets.

The predisposition of developer and RM team:

• devs must quickly analyze the situation propose suitable actions
• ready to quickly jump into action 
• technical competence – you know immediately how to put together/clean up the work
• self-reliance
• courage and persistence (not to be outdone by what comes out in an audit ;)
• experience: someone who has seen a lot of bad code, a ‘been there, done that’ fixer type
• not to overpromising, not overly optimistic
• able to correctly prioritize tasks (by PM)

Summary

Our rescue mission service lets you gain insight and an overview of your current situation, helping you to regain control over the production of your digital product. Our tech teams focus on transparency and constant communication while providing expertise and insights into possible improvements for your product. We put our client’s needs and business goals first by designing our workflow to strictly deliver the most professional and transparent IT services available. So if you’re stuck with any of the issues mentioned in this article, hire us!

Find out more about the full range of our rescue team services here.

Artykuł How does a Tech Rescue Mission Service work? pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.

Unlocking your team’s full potential and managing it in a consistent way can be a reliable predictor of organizational success. Capturing such power is quite difficult as it requires an individual approach, a dose of empathy and even then, a great deal depends on circumstances that might be out of your control. Despite its elusive nature, the secret formula of building a high-performance team is hidden in plain sight and comes down to understanding the very essentials of human nature – Without further ado let’s jump into what they are.

1. Valuable errors:

Do not let their brilliant problem-solving skills fool you – software developers are not robots and they do sometimes fail! Everyone’s allowed to make mistakes. It is an important and unavoidable part of a learning curve – the way you cope with errors as a leader is what makes the difference. Providing your team with constructive feedback creates far more value than simple correction or judgment and should be perceived as a long-term investment rather than a temporary solution for issues that occur. Proper narration builds a sense of safety among a team as much as creating a stable work environment, attractive salaries or healthcare plans do. Improvement-driven communication will help every leader make sure their team is delivering on time.

2. Build for growth:

No matter how unified and well-oiled they are, every team is a machine built of individuals. Highly motivated professionals constantly look to absorb more information and master new frameworks offered to them but their experience levels may vary when merged into a single team. Creating an opportunity to exchange knowledge and learn from more skilled colleagues can be a crucial factor in constructing high-performance teams (or even the recruitment process itself). Having a good support network and working alongside other people who actively encourage each other to grow is a great asset to a company. Invest in your team’s education, provide resources and mentorship. Build your team in a smart way and observe with reverence how productivity increases.

3. Start from the core:

Achieving a level of high performance requires a deep understanding of individuals’ capacities, drives and motivations. Forget about ‘one size fits all’ solutions and take time to get to know your players and build up from the core. Start with identifying the main purpose for each and every member of your team. Make sure everyone feels fulfilled and that they are following a path they want to be on. The right person in the right position will be happier and better motivated. Know their expectations and let them know what is expected of them to shape their work environment accordingly. Setting adequate goals and key performance indicators for the team will lead to an increased focus and help you to go a long way as a leader. Work to your players’ strengths and handle their weaknesses with improvement in mind. In addition, don’t hold a meeting for what could have been an email – Work efficiently and always aim to decrease unnecessary distractions.

Summary:

The most obvious solutions often need the most cooperation in advance. Although it is time-consuming and requires a certain skillset from both the leader and the team, this formula has proven to be very efficient across different industries as it comes down to fulfilling the needs that most people share. It’s important to identify the individual capacities and motivations of your team members to find the right route for their development, provide constructive feedback in day-to-day work and communicate in a clear way to improve the workflow. Last but not least, simply care about your team’s needs.

Artykuł High performing IT teams formula pochodzi z serwisu LEOCODE.