5 ways to lead when you’re a junior developer
Leadership is a mindset, not a title. The best thing you can ever do for your career or indeed your life is to be a leader in every role you take on, regardless of whether you have the word ‘manager’ or any derivative of it in your email signature.
Don’t wait until you hit a formal leadership role to start exhibiting leadership behaviors. That learning curve is steep. Instead, start leading in your first junior developer role and by the time you make it up the ladder to lead in some formalized capacity, it will be second nature.
1. Pay attention to the things your co-workers complain about
It’s a goldmine of opportunity. Often, the biggest issues in a team surface at the (virtual) water cooler. Maybe your team has sloppy Git workflows. Perhaps everyone is frustrated because the team’s chat client lacks important functionality. If these kinds of problems exist, you can usually find out about them in casual conversation with your co-workers.
Be the person to grab one of these problems and find a solution. Introduce a new Git workflow or lead the charge to get the team's tooling solutions changed. People will be grateful and it’s a great opportunity to show your co-workers that they are heard and that change is possible if someone is willing to take initiative.
2. Be the expert in a niche area
Do all the other developers in your company hate CSS? Become the expert in CSS. Find a space that nobody else is occupying and become to go-to person for that thing. Soon, people will seek you out because they know and trust your expertise and you will have the opportunity to guide and set the direction for others in this particular area.
3. Be kind to others, especially when they’re learning
Empathy is one of the most important qualities in a leader and as a junior dev, you no doubt have already experienced the crushing feeling of imposter syndrome. If you’re interacting with another developer (junior or otherwise) through pair programming or some other means, be humble and don’t make them feel inadequate.
Sometimes developers get into the mindset that the journey to a code solution is more of a race to be won. Don’t give in to that mindset. Slow down and make others around you comfortable. Remember that you are here to learn, not to prove you know everything there is to know about programming, because you definitely do not. And when you eventually do hit the intermediate or senior level, don’t ever forget what it felt like to be brand new to programming.
4. Speak up and show up
It’s tempting when you’re brand new at something to stay silent when someone is asking for your input. It’s scary to put yourself out there and then find your approach was wrong. But people respect others who aren’t afraid to try. So much of the success of a leader is pure courage to take a stand and be seen when nobody else will step up. Even if you’re wrong, be humble and next time you try, showcase what you learned from the experience.
In that same vein, say yes to things and take every opportunity that comes your way to demonstrate that you are accountable. If you commit to something, do it properly. It is impossible to be a leader if you cannot be relied upon. In order to be relied upon you must first commit yourself to deliver something, and then you must own the outcome, good or bad.
5. Pay attention to culture
There are many aspects to the work of a leader and one of the most important is team culture. Maybe you’re thinking that’s completely unrelated to programming. As you progress your career, your work will inevitably become less about technical acumen and more about people acumen. And that can be a much harder skillset than learning to write code.
Work hard to foster bonds in your team. Workplaces are scrambling in this post-pandemic world to figure out how to keep their team culture alive when their teams cannot be face to face. Go out of your way to create social ties with the people you work with. You can start by organizing team socials. Perhaps a charity drive or even a hackathon. The first person to find the solution to preserving team culture in a virtual world will be sitting on a goldmine.
Remember that your teammates are humans who have their own stories and are on their own personal journey. Understanding who they are as people will help you better communicate with them.
To conclude
Look around you and you will see people at all levels of your organization doing the things discussed in this article. These folks are the leaders you can look to for more inspiration on how to lead, regardless of your job title.
