10 Ways Managers are Wasting Their Developers' Potential

Devaluating the company in the process

Here are ten ways managers are wasting their developers' potential. Grab your bingo card and check how many are a reality for you!

1. Making promises to stakeholders without the developer’s consent

As absurd as it seems, it happens all the time. The prospect of generating more revenue is too alluring to refrain from promising things that are way out of order.

2. Defining the solution

Many managers used to be developers themselves. What they absolutely should not do, is continue playing that role. It’s not up to them to determine how the software is to be built.

3. Persuading developers to reduce the estimates

When managers start this game of haggling, the consequences are disastrous. And developers will be the victim of the power game.

4. Considering estimates to be promises

Estimates can never be considered to be promises. They are merely the best guess of the work at hand with the limited information you had at the time.

5. Allowing people to disrupt the developer

Managers that allow interruptions to happen regularly may not realise how impactful this is. But they better learn quickly as it is a major morale killer.

6. Adding work on top of the planned work

Even worse, often the manager dares to expect the team will continue to commit to the original plan and also to the extra work.

7. Asking for quality shortcuts

Delivering a faulty product in time will haunt you in the end. Your users will not be happy.

8. Pushing to work overtime

Pushing people beyond the sustainable pace will not make them faster. And on top of that, you run the risk of burning them out.

9. See failure as bad, not a learning

Too often, managers see new learnings as failures. The developer should have analyzed the topic better to avoid unexpected setbacks. But in a complex environment, every new learning helps to move towards the goal.

10. Taking the credit

A manager claiming that without them, this would not be a success. Their role will be largely overstated at the cost of the developers.

Don’t put up with this behaviour!

How many did you recognize? And do you know more examples of bad manager behaviour? Let me know in the comments!