> Leadership is a concept largely foreign to the software industry
Maybe in the companies you’ve worked for, but I haven’t found this to be true at all
> An excellent software developer tends to score high in agreeability, but a strong leader knows how to turn that down to 0 for maximum confrontation and/or defiance
Hard disagree. “Maximum confrontation and/or defiance” has never been a goal of good leaders who are trying to build a team that works together.
Encouraging people to speak their mind is good. Encouraging “maximum confrontation” is just going to create chaos. The goal is to work together to ship, not to argue and defy all the time. I can’t think of anyone who would want to work on a team where everyone had agreeableness dialed down to 0 where leaders encouraged confrontation all the time, except maybe for people who just like to argue a lot.
> Most people in software are deathly afraid to abandon conventions of comfort whether in business or in product/process innovation.
Another strong generalization that I can’t agree with. Most people I’ve worked with in software have been so aggressive about bucking trends and trying new things that we’ve had to dial it back a notch. A lot of the debates I’ve had with teams have been about choosing boring, stable technologies over the newest cutting edge technology that’s popular on Twitter. Same goes for business strategies, where I’ve had to deal with everyone from product managers to sales people trying to do things their own creative way when the standard, boring practices are what finally got the job done.
Maybe in the companies you’ve worked for, but I haven’t found this to be true at all
> An excellent software developer tends to score high in agreeability, but a strong leader knows how to turn that down to 0 for maximum confrontation and/or defiance
Hard disagree. “Maximum confrontation and/or defiance” has never been a goal of good leaders who are trying to build a team that works together.
Encouraging people to speak their mind is good. Encouraging “maximum confrontation” is just going to create chaos. The goal is to work together to ship, not to argue and defy all the time. I can’t think of anyone who would want to work on a team where everyone had agreeableness dialed down to 0 where leaders encouraged confrontation all the time, except maybe for people who just like to argue a lot.
> Most people in software are deathly afraid to abandon conventions of comfort whether in business or in product/process innovation.
Another strong generalization that I can’t agree with. Most people I’ve worked with in software have been so aggressive about bucking trends and trying new things that we’ve had to dial it back a notch. A lot of the debates I’ve had with teams have been about choosing boring, stable technologies over the newest cutting edge technology that’s popular on Twitter. Same goes for business strategies, where I’ve had to deal with everyone from product managers to sales people trying to do things their own creative way when the standard, boring practices are what finally got the job done.