To be an excellent manager and lead a successful team of Java developers isn’t easy. That’s why exploring your skills and the best tools available to strengthen yourself and your team is essential.
Java development requires both technical knowledge and soft skills since it’s not only about writing line after line of code. A leader of a development project may have expertise and experience, but if they don’t have various skills such as time management and good communication, the development process will be more than challenging.
Luckily, there’s a solution for everything.
It’s essential to hire Java development team of experts who have experience, a strong will to learn, and a sense of teamwork. The reason is that first, you must find the right people for the job since you can’t manage something that’s broken from the start.
Once you do so, it’s time to implement these five tips in your working environment.
Improve Your Communication Skills
Team leaders often overlook the massive importance of communication, which is a huge mistake since it’s one of the crucial factors affecting the Java development team’s productivity.
Once you find Java developers for hire and make them a part of your team, it’s essential to establish excellent communication right from the start. Furthermore, you have to make a solid effort to keep the team connected and encourage them to talk to each other. If you neglect to check in with your developers regularly, this will create poor communication that can destroy a project.
Furthermore, good communication is also essential with business-side departments to make sure the app meets the user’s needs and that everything stays in line with the organizational structure.
A team leader should have a clear project schedule, which means you have to predict or at least take into account various potential complications and delays. Also, you have to know how to prioritize tasks since poor decisions can result in unproductive Java developers and frustrated stakeholders.
Pay Attention to Their Feedback
When you are managing a team of Java developers, make sure to advocate for their insights and requirements.
Oftentimes Java developers find aspects of their project requirements unnecessary or unreasonable. However, because they are tasked with executing something that’s made by another team, they are more than valuable ideas, and insights are rarely taken into consideration.
Therefore, invite your Java developers team to comment on the instructions they receive and also let them say how they would improve the project requirements with their own ideas. You can communicate their ideas and concerns to stakeholders and even arrange a meeting between teams to improve the project’s overall success.
They will see you appreciate their talent since you are taking their feedback seriously and into consideration. This aspect is even more important for remote Java developers since they aren’t present in the office and will feel even more comfortable if they know their opinion matters.
Arrange Regular One-on-One Meetings
Whether your team has a freelance Java developer, someone with tremendous experience, or a developer at the beginning of their career, it is essential to arrange regular one-on-one meetings with each team member.
Of course, this is a meeting between you and one team member that’s about the member reporting to you but also about checking in to see if everything is alright and how they feel about their working environment. In essence, such a meeting must be a safe space where you and your Java developer speak about various issues and what you can do to give them support.
Regular one-on-one meetings are critical for managing a Java development team since they are the easiest way to get to know each member and positively influence their working process. That’s why you must make one-on-one meetings meaningful and make the best out of every meeting.
Also, adjust on what works well for you and your team and be a manager that listens to its Java developers since they are the ones that can give you the most insights and make the project better, especially during one on one meetings when they are entirely relaxed.
Spend Time to Prepare Tasks Adequately
Many Java developers are professionals and have excellent skills, but they still aren’t magicians. Therefore, they can’t read your or the clients’ minds.
Therefore, you have to give them clear instructions on what has to be done, with an emphasis on what, not how, since they know how so don’t be bossy.
Spending more time writing down the details for each task is essential since this will save you time in the long run. The reason is that you will avoid unnecessary debates and mistakes on the Java developer’s side. Another benefit of writing tasks down is that you can return to them and see if you did everything correctly.
Even though you think that you can remember everything, you will make a huge mistake since it’s impossible to remember everything daily, let alone weekly or monthly. Therefore, spend time preparing tasks adequately, both to make things easier for your Java developers but also for yourself.
Avoid Micromanaging
Last but not least, avoid micromanaging and don’t test each step your Java developers work on. If you participate in each decision, measure their working time, and address every detail, you will annoy your developers significantly and destroy their productivity.
Always remember this – the line between being extremely helpful or becoming a micromanager is pretty thin, so try not to cross this line. Otherwise, you will disappoint every Java developer on the team and make them angry, which can lead to many of them leaving the company.
In short, put yourself in their shoes, and you’ll see that you would also not like your manager to micromanage your every move. The road to progressive working is to relax the team structure and let everyone do their best, not to manage each and every step and complicate things without reason.
Now you know some of the main ways to manage a team of Java developers successfully, it’s time to go hunting and hire the best Java developers on the market. Good luck, and don’t forget that being a manager is about being a leader, not a boss!
