“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan
Effective leadership is a fundamental approach that helps to achieve the key objectives of a software project. Why is it important and what can strong leadership bring to your software development team?
Productivity
Experienced specialists can coordinate work inside the team effectively. They have worked using different methodologies and can easily apply the principles of Agile, Waterfall and other development environments. Deep understanding of developer’s mindset helps them to identify and prevent issues a team can face within a particular development task. This way teams get rid of stressful situations and focus on the quality code. As a bonus, experience-based leader authority also breeds discipline in the working process necessary to meet the project deadlines without overload.
Knowledge
Software development leaders have a vast technical and business experience to share with a team that makes them amazing mentors. Thanks to it members of a team get an opportunity to improve and practice their development and communication skills. It is a great news for a customer since continuous improvement inside the team increases the quality of services, and consequently the quality of the product. Deep knowledge allows leaders to explain technical tasks clearly and support both engineers and stakeholders in understanding complex project architecture.
Unity and safety
Great leaders make a team united which is extremely important for the development of complex software projects. When every member of your team understands the common goals, beliefs and needs, it is easier for them to stand up against the outside pressure and work as a single organism. It means that solid leadership can protect development teams and their stakeholders from outside danger. The skillset of a strong leader allows him to determine the inner circle of your project making your team safe. It is also easier for united teams to work using Agile methodologies because they are used to support each other towards the shared goal and appreciate each other’s job.
Motivation
A strong leader inspires your team motivating its members to achieve better results. According to the statistics on the impact of uninspiring leaders around 93% of them have a probability to be rated in the bottom 10% of productivity. This fact proves that teams that have a leader who is able to hear, support and motivate them are more likely to be effective. A person that has the best interests of your team in mind brings motivation and desire to achieve the best possible results within a project.
Appreciation
According to the SurveyMonkey statistics around 43% from 563 respondents feel more confident receiving appreciation from their colleagues. Strong leaders have a unique ability to communicate and support that breeds feeling of trust, reliability and fulfillment. Appreciation makes your team love what they do and understand its value. That helps to create a comfortable work environment and atmosphere within a team needed for productive work.
Despite the trend of hierarchy reduction strong leadership helps to develop the team potential, meet project goals and deliver quality results in time. Exposit is always ready to provide you with experienced Project Managers and Team Leads to boost your software project development.
