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”What advice do you have for addressing the insecurity of…”

In response to yesterday’s email, Dan asked, “What advice do you have for addressing the insecurity I feel that my team can’t see the value I’m adding?”

Dan, I understand exactly how you feel. I often worried that my team would think I wasn’t adding value. That since I wasn’t coding, I was just a ‘waste of space.’ 🙂

Some conditions which created my insecurity were:

  1. My (somewhat) recovering addition to the daily dopamine hits that programming gave me.
  2. Imposter syndrome and the secret worry, “Am I suppose to be here?”
  3. Absence of explicit, direct feedback loops about my work
  4. Very long feedback loops, often taking months or years before I saw the outcomes of my efforts. Or maybe, never.

The conditions might be different for you, though the result is similar.

What helped me was:

  1. Finding new sources of feedback
  2. Finding ways to get feedback quickly
  3. Understanding the impact (value) of good managers on the team

Before I share what I tried, let me ask y’all:

  1. What are three new sources of feedback you could tap into?
  2. Which of them might provide fast feedback loops?
  3. What is the impact of BAD managers where you work? Does that help you see the impact of GOOD managers?

Write me back, and I’ll share ideas out to the list.

Take care,

Marcus

About Marcus Blankenship

Where other technical coaches focus on process or tools, I focus on the human aspects of your Programmer to Manager transition. I help you hire the right people, create the right culture, and setup the right process which achieves your goals. Managing your team isn't something you learned in college. In fact, my clients often tell me "I never prepared for this role, I always focused on doing the work". If you're ready to improve your leadership, process and team, find out how I can help you.

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