
Ask HN: What can I do to prepare myself to manage engineers for the first time? - nck4222
I&#x27;ve been a developer my entire career, and will be entering a new role (at the same company) as a team lead, where I will have a couple developer direct reports for the first time.<p>How can I prepare myself ahead of time for this? What should I do within the first year at this role to continue developing this skill set?
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dsr_
Remember what a coworker did that made your job better. Try to do those
things.

Remember what a coworker did that made your job worse. Try not to do those
things.

Remember that everyone is subject to the Fundamental Attribution Error (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error)
) including you.

Be kind.

Teach. Explain. Whenever possible, provide guidance and policy rather than
orders.

Find an organization method that works for you, and use it consistently. Don't
worry about it being the best method, as long as it is good enough. When it
stops being good enough, keep your experiments in finding a new method away
from your coworkers.

------
folknor
[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/08/10/the-identity-
manag...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/08/10/the-identity-management-
method/)

------
java-man
let them work.

