Bill Gates is perhaps a good example in this sense: Microsoft during the early 70s was but a mixture of their programmers, but they selected Bill Gates to coordinate and organize their efforts because they saw him as the best prepared among them. This is also what named him chief software architect at Microsoft (besides the fact that he owned the company at that point) and he retained the respective function even after he was no longer CEO.
There are other particularities of leadership in the software development industry as well.
Because the work activity is based on the existence of development teams that generally incorporate developers, testers and writers and which are led by a team leader or project manager, there is a distinctive importance attributed to the project manager or team leader. His or her job is many folded, which means that he probably needs to have all the traits identified with the trait theory.
He needs to be not only technical and intelligent, to understand specifications and clarify any additional misunderstandings that the developers might have, but he also needs to have the entire social and collaboration background that is required. Even if at a smaller scale, he is still a very important leader in the activity of the organization and, as previously mentioned, he also assured the connectivity with the upper management. Finally, one of the particularities of the software industry is also related to the fact that this industry tends to be a very collaborative one, with the developers generally exchanging ideas about their activities, about how things can be completed, about the new developments on the market and in programming theory etc.
II. In order to discuss the different proposals for developing leadership competences in the software development organization I have investigated and referred to previously, it is important to emphasize some of the particularities of leadership in the 21st century, on a wider scale, not necessary just in the software industry.
First of all, some of the characteristics that leaders will need are less likely to change in time. A leader will still have to be intelligent and sociable, to communicate with people and use different sources in the decision making process, to identify the appropriate ways by which the followers can be stimulated, etc. At the same time, the 21st century organization is probably going to emphasize more the social leader rather than the one where intelligence background matters most.
The explanation for this perhaps best resides in the characteristics of the labor market in the 21st century. This is much more volatile than in the past decades and people are much more likely to move around and change jobs with an easiness that was not characteristic in the past. You also have a greater competition on the labor market, which means that people are more willing to change jobs, to move around and find better condition and better pay.
With this also comes the fact that there is now a vast and diversified portfolio of needs that has to be taken into consideration in order to have a satisfied employee. Money is no longer the only motivational factor for an individual. More and more employees now look at additional motivational factors such as the working environment, the way the leader expresses himself in the working environment etc. This is why the leader is no longer revolving around similar motivational factors: he has to expand his horizon in order to include all these new different elements.
Following this introduction and still taking into consideration that usually very little of the theoretical background taught in a class will actually be used as a leader, it is still important, in my opinion, to have some leadership classes in the organization. However, these can be adapted to the needs of our organization. First of all, it does not have to be a college management/leadership course - it needs to present leader personalities, the way they acted and made decisions in certain situations etc.
Second, this can be an interactive class which would mean that there would be certain case studies based on different presented actions that can be solved within the team and that the participants in this seminar can practically exercise their leadership skills. Third, it would also be interesting to have speeches and presentations from other leaders in the software industry, people who have succeeded etc.
The seminar can also have a strong motivational, but also social goal. From a motivational perspective, this would be an opportunity for would-be leader to be selected in an inner circle...
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