It might not be firefighting or mixed martial arts, but software development can be a stressful job. As a tech lead, keeping calm is a powerful skill to possess to help your team perform at their best.
“Don’t you just sit behind a keyboard and code all day?”
Seriously? By itself, coding is not all that stressful, in fact, it can even be relaxing. The types of things that do make software development stressful are:
- Interruptions
- Unspoken expectations
- Lack of planning
- Unreasonable deadlines
- Unorganized client feedback
- Being forced to jump to the hottest “fire” in your Inbox
As a technical leader, you are the buffer between your team and whatever chaos is happening on the outside. Servers are down, credit card payments aren’t going through, or a client is blowing their top.
It is your job to keep calm and shelter your team.
When you keep a level head, assess a situation, and set the proper course of action, you are allowing your team to do their best work. Will there still be stress? Sure, but better your team be operating together under your leadership with a plan of attack vs. running aimlessly, dispersed across the battlefield.