On challenges - How to effectively lead an inexperienced team of junior developers

Leading a team of inexperienced juniors is challenging but rewarding.

Many leaders struggle and eventually throw in the towel when being placed in charge of a team full of inexperienced members. They often become overwhelmed by the lack of skill available to their team. Like pushing against a rope, they make no progress towards goals and may even may even make negative progress.

Leaders stuck in this situation may blame their team, forgetting the mantra that “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” Though often well-intentioned and otherwise talented, these leaders end up flailing in their role.

Eventually they either burn out or are replaced due to their poor performance.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Inexperienced teams can perform incredibly well when guided by the right leadership. They can even perform better than a team full of experienced members under poor leadership.

Good leadership requires good planning

A lot of leads simply go with the flow, performing ad-hoc interventions on an as-needed basis to lead their team. They call out mistakes as they see them, give pats on the back here and there, and otherwise wonder why their teams fail.

Their freewheeling attempts to tackle problem as they come results in a lack of focus, reducing the effectiveness of the team as they work on efforts that don’t synergistically build on each other.

A failure to plan is a plan to fail. Good leadership requires planning and follow-through, while understanding that no plan survives contact with reality. As a leader it’s your responsibility to create a solid plan and be prepared for any contingencies, adapting accordingly to changing conditions.

The plan below should help you.

Figure out what kind of team you have

The terms “inexperienced” and “junior” can be incredibly broads labels.

A person can be great at one thing but junior in another. Identifying where your team’s individual strengths and weaknesses lie is therefore the key first step in leading them.

Make a skills matrix, listing the various skills an individual would need to succeed in your endeavor. Be sure to list soft-skills like communication, the ability to work with others, and whether they encompass the values and traits of your organization. These are just as important as hard, technical skills.

After you rate them, you’ll notice that the juniors can fall into certain categories.

Some juniors encompass all of the categories, while others may only need work in one or two areas. These categories aren’t mutually exclusive, and it’s important to understand what kind of junior you are dealing with so you can appropriately alter your approach.

The technical junior

The technical junior is a person that lacks the hard skillsets of the industry or role. It’s a fresh college graduate starting their first job, or someone making a mid-life career change.

Technical juniors do not have familiarity with the tools, techniques, and skills needed to perform competently. They require very conscious effort to do things that may otherwise be simple or subconsciously perform by more technically experienced members. They’re unable to make tradeoffs and good decisions because they don’t know what they don’t know.

The process junior

The process junior lacks the experience and skills working within a team. They may not understand the team culture, structure, dynamics. They lack context into the history of the team and how the team collaborates, coordinates, and communicates. Working with them is an act of friction.

The end result is chaos for the team.

The behavioral junior

The behavioral junior has personal character or behavioral deficits that keep them junior, despite how good they may otherwise be.

They may lack the initiative to take on work after they are done with their current work. They may not care to learn, only doing the barest minimum needed to complete their task. They may lack follow-through or have issues communicating. They may not have attention-to-detail. They may be unable to take constructive criticism. They may lack drive, initiative, or good judgement.

Whatever the issue is, it prevents them from operating at the level they need to operate at.

Develop your team

Once you’ve conducted an honest assessment of your team’s individual strengths and weaknesses, you can make plans that take their strengths and weaknesses into account as individuals and as a team.

Developing technical juniors

Developing technical juniors is a matter of focused, targeted training. The goal is to build up their knowledge and experience of the fundamentals until it becomes unconsciously known.

Develop a training program that conducts focused, targeted instruction on the various technical aspects of the role. Provide real-life examples when possible. Conduct drills, leverage the power of repetition, and ensure the fundamentals are mastered.

Developing process juniors

Developing process juniors is a matter of ensuring two things are understood:

• The process itself

• The reason why the process exists

Some process juniors simply don’t know a better way, and once exposed to it are eager to follow the process.

Other process juniors may have a difficult time following any process, seeing them as unnecessary friction to accomplishing their goals. So-called “cowboy coders”, they likely haven’t experienced the pain the process prevents.

Describing why the process exists and the consequences of not following the process in detail can help align their behaviors. If they still fail to follow the process, establishing checkpoints, boundaries, and penalties can help align behavior.

Process juniors are often a source of tremendous initiative. With a fresh pair of eyes, they can bring in new efficiencies that challenge the status quo. However, their idealism must be balaned by the reality of the situation. Ensure they can follow the existing process first and appreciate why it exists before allowing them to introduce new processes and refinements.

Developing behavioral juniors

Developing behavioral juniors is the most challenging. Change comes from within, and asking someone to change their behavior can be a fool’s errand.

The behavioral junior can lack the self-awareness to recognize their flaws, exhibits defensiveness when criticized, or allows pride or ego to prevent them from making progress.