It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness.

Over the past 24 hours, my two articles, "Why Your Programmer Just Wants to Encode" and "It's Time to Wake Up for Managers," have been read over 96,000 times on Medium and received over 900 comments on Reddit .

It seems that the problem is more serious than I thought.

Yes, there are bad managers in technology companies. And yes, I did it hard, putting the blame on them for the apathy of the developers.
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But I want to help developers who feel frustrated, powerless, or deprived of the right to vote . After all, it was you who posted the vast majority of comments describing the terrible conditions and terrible management. You raised your hand to say: “I’m sick of it.”

Starting today, change this.

We, as programmers, have chosen this behavior.

By tolerating this, we show managers how to relate to us.

Let's be realistic. We cannot change everything alone, but we have more power than we think.

Here are some effective ways you can radically change your work environment.

Recognize that the manager is trying to work well

Most likely, the boss was previously an engineer, just like you. Technical companies profess the principle of Peter and raise people in office until they fail.

The bad news is that your manager probably received less training for his work than your barista ( 76% of managers studied less than 8 hours of training to work in their position! )

No one is born with the knowledge of how to govern or lead. The phrase "born leader" is a bullshit.

Many technical managers doubt that they are “created” for this job. Honestly, most of them would still like to program!

The transition from a programmer to a manager is difficult, so let's leave them alone for a start. Yes, they must change. But who should not? Nobody is perfect.

Let's try to find ways to change the situation so that we all can move forward.

Your manager works in a bad environment (and you, too!)

Both you and your boss are part of a common environment with its problems. Most likely, they did not create such conditions. In fact, they also feel themselves hostages of the current situation.

Technology leaders almost never control ...

• What features / bugs programmers are working on.
• How much is paid to developers.
• The duration of their vacation.
• What incentives can be offered to programmers.
• Where are the developers, what are their working computers.
• When programmers can work remotely.
• What languages ​​and frameworks are used.

The company, the culture and the environment here are decided. And this is hellishly upsetting your boss.

Acknowledge that NO ONE stops you, but ENVIRONMENT is capable of that.

You and your manager are victims of the extraneous phenomenon: a bad environment. It can be identified by certain characteristics, like a bad code .

Some signs of a poor environment that can be noticed:

• People talk about what they would improve if they controlled the situation.
• Lack of interest in project value and results.
• Feeling powerless in improving the situation.
• The feeling that "anyone can screw it up, but we are responsible."
• Continuing work “as usual” because of the fear of being wrong (and being punished).
• A lot of talk about change; very few real changes.
• And much more…

I worked in repressive conditions, and this is very depressing. As if you can not breathe, you feel annoyance and anger.

Leadership is not given, it is acquired

Think about the people who are around. Is there anyone who can be called an unassigned, informal leader? (Companies appoint managers, but the leaders themselves appear to appear everywhere).

Watch them carefully. What do they do differently? Why do you think they do it? How do others react to them?

In my first job, I noticed that one employee, Milind, acted a little differently than the others. He was an informal leader in the team, although I did not immediately understand it.

For example, Milind ...

• He asked key questions about WHY a particular approach was chosen.
• He admitted his misunderstanding during the group discussion and asked the head to clarify the ideas more clearly.
• Never hesitated to call a client to clarify or even discuss a requirement.
• He was extremely focused on the release of real software, and not on the discussion of tools.
• Insisted that we understand the true cause of the problems.

Milind changed our environment with his actions, and he definitely changed my mind about "software development." He even changed the way our boss behaved!

He showed me that I have much more power than I thought. If only I stop constantly waiting for what will be fed with a spoon.

His actions showed that real leadership is not given, but acquired.

Over time, I changed my behavior, and others, too. And you can too.

Talk about the environment, not just the process

Most teams discuss their agile process. What worked, what did not work, how to improve everything. This is what flexible retrospective is for. The best teams regularly talk about this, and even make changes to improve the situation.

Excellent teams are still talking about their environment.

They spend time discussing environmental issues, for example:

• How people work together.
• How much they trust each other.
• How emotionally safe is the environment.
• How can you improve communication .
• How to help each other more and get help easier.
• How best to solve problems.
• How ego and self-esteem affect work.

Start discussing the environment - and you will see that everything changes.

To do this, do not need to get someone's approval. Do not expect your boss to hold a meeting called "How to improve the software development environment." No need to declare such a topic for the next meeting.

Just start talking about it.

Start questioning accepted assumptions by raising topics about environment in retrospect. The more you talk about it, the more others will start.

Assign a one-on-one conversation with the boss.

If you do not have the usual one-on-one negotiations with the boss, ask for it. No need to wait until they themselves offer it. Most people feel uncomfortable with this, but every time I asked for such a conversation, my manager was thrilled that I did it.

You see, most managers appreciate one-on-one conversations, but they think you don’t want them. One request completely changes the situation.

Send in advance a brief agenda and come prepared. (Not sure what to say? Use this template to get started.)

Sample agenda:

• Discuss upcoming projects.
• Hear the opinion of the manager .
• Report on current projects.
• To tell your opinion.

In your conversation, consider telling the boss that you are working on changing yourself and the environment. You want to be a more efficient engineer and create a more efficient team environment. And what do you know: technical skills are only part of what a good engineer needs, and you want to improve your leadership skills.

He will not feel threatened. You are not trying to take away his bread, but you want to do your own work better.

Every manager wants to see independent programmers and self-managed teams. This is the promise of agile development, right? Your life will make your life easier.

Try and tell what happened.