People told me having employees is hard. I shrugged them off.
But man is it hard. 😓
I only have two contractors and all I want is that they do the task just like it is in my mind. But I'm starting to suspect they, in fact, can't read my mind. I think I'm becoming a manager 😥.
But man is it hard. 😓
I only have two contractors and all I want is that they do the task just like it is in my mind. But I'm starting to suspect they, in fact, can't read my mind. I think I'm becoming a manager 😥.
Comments
yeah, I get how devs are hard to motivate in this regard haha
Keep founding team small - it works for startups.
Keep engineering team small - it works for MVPs.
Cult like me is best!
I do this. Works every time.
Fire them and hire me.
No matter how good your management skills are, if they don't take initiatives, they’re just burning your time and money.
#authentic
One little trick that has worked well for me is to record videos where I talk them through the task.
Video gives you nuance and detail, which is hard to achieve only with text.
It’s still hard to let go, though 😭
But in my experience, you can make it work in other cases as well...
What I found works well for some people is the opposite - leave them more space, but give them more responsibility
Optionally, go through the final code and discuss a refactoring iteration
P.S. I manage a team of about 10 devs at work, but I'm also coding >60% of the time.
It's a different muscle for sure and clearly communicating and investing in my contractors has made all the difference.
I finally accepted I need to be more of a manager in my agency than a developer.