Canceling Developers for Mistakes? You’re Next!

Are you starting to hate other programmers on your team? Are you looking around on your software project and just waiting to see someone fail? Are you quick to condemn a manager or developer and cast them useless after a single mistake? Today we’re going to talk about how failing to forgive programmers and other IT professionals for mistakes can hold you back from the career you want in software. When I first began developing software, I wasn't particularly ambitious. I needed to make a living to support my wife and son, but I came from a background of partying and playing in a band. But after a few short years I had several promotions and raises, and it started to go to my head. With each new success, my pride got bigger. Once software projects started getting complicated, and I found myself leading software development teams, I started looking for people to blame. The scrum master didn't understand agile enough. The operations team wasn't making it easy enough to release changes into production. The other developers weren't following my coding patterns. Yeah, I became an elitist jerk in how I would lead programmers. But as I've told you many times on this channel, I fell hard eventually. A victim of career-long burnout, I lost my job, a lot of money, and sunk into depression. But when I came out of it, I made this channel and started giving software developers and engineers career advice. It also led me to learn how to work better myself - and help you be a healthy software developer. A moment though of reflection for yourself: are you on the way there? Starting to get rewards and recognition for programming? Is it getting easier to see flaws in developers and other people on your software project, making you quick to judge? Are you canceling the people who can help you for simple mistakes now that you lead programmers? If we're humble and honest, we've all made mistakes. And I'm sure I'm going to make many more, whether on a software project, coaching you on your career, or on this channel. I'm pretty sure if you're willing to take an honest look at yourself, you know you're going to too. But you've made mistakes in the past and been forgiven. So should you be more forgiving too? Can we really be fair canceling anyone? What would it be like if all our teams were more like this? What if we worked together assuming we'll make mistakes, and not being surprised? What if we spent more time forgiving, learning, and teaching - and less blaming? Imagine the courage we could have to try and do risky things that might be breakthroughs with our products, technologies, and careers? Programmers seem to have a harder time with this since we work with computers all day. To this end, I'm asking for your help in this video. Leave a comment with a story about someone who blew it - BAD. But who turned around in your mind. Maybe you realized they were really good at something else, even though they had weaknesses in one area. If you don't have a story like this, just read the comments for encouragement. Sometimes when you make a mistake on your software project, it can feel like nobody will ever forgive you or forget the mistake. But that doesn't have to be true. This is especially important if you're leading other software engineers. A couple ground rules. First, please don't use their real name. Second, please don't name the company, project, or product you worked on. It will show some kindness to the person and also keep you out of trouble with HR! #programming #career #leadership Related videos: My Software Developer Journey (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hNz8Y8IFw4 My Recovery from Programmer Anger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6sSZQkUTM Lead Software Developers Better By Letting Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp5oQyNV_ws Need help with your career? Book a free career consultation: https://jaymeedwards.com/services/software-development-coaching/ Section Markers: 0:00 Introduction 2:35 The Dangers of Leading 4:35 Falling Hard 6:14 Is Success Putting You in Danger? 8:15 Motivation for True Forgiveness 9:20 Leading Means Helping! 11:00 For Future Leaders... 12:52 What Could Teamwork Be Like? 13:48 Why Should You Care? 14:30 A Call To Action!!! 17:40 Next Time... 19:25 Episode Groove Download a free software development career guide from my home page: https://jaymeedwards.com