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If you are the boss, being a strong leader is vital, but gaining the respect of your employees is even more important. Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone based on their personal qualities, character, and achievements. Respect is not the same thing as obedience, and it cannot be required of someone in an employment agreement. It must be built slowly. There are several ways to stand apart from mediocre managers and become a rockstar one instead.

Increase Communication

Communication in the workplace is important because it helps foster a good relationship between the employer and employee. If a boss is not proactive about getting to know those on the team, the subordinates will not have much admiration for their leader. When you are able to correctly explain what needs to be done, the efficacy of the workflow is increased. There are some ways to increase your communication skills. For example, SHRM suggests that you should make sure to listen to employee feedback and concerns carefully and frequently. Practice active listening. Active listening is an essential life skill. If mastered, it will take you far. The art of this type of listening involves paraphrasing what you’ve heard and repeating the same message in different, more concise terms. When conveying ideas and thoughts to your workers, make sure you are direct and clear about the objective.

Take Action

One of the best ways to build a program of respect is to not let “things” sit unresolved. The often hidden end of strengthening communication is knowing how to do something with what is communicated. Your team doesn’t always need a yes, but they do need some kind of clear and reasonable response from you that illustrates not only that you heard what they are saying, but that you value the interchange regardless of the outcome. Ignoring that request or side comment may seem harmless to you in the big picture, but to the person who raised it, I can assure you it isn’t.

Take Care of Your Employees

Another method of gaining respect from your employees is to treat them well. If you make your workers feel valued and appreciated, they will not only respect you but also do a good job with their workload. There are several ways to take care of your employees. For example, one thing you could do is furnish them with reasonable benefits. Give them perks for their valuable contributions. Provide incentives and rewards for doing a good job and taking pride in the work. Implement an effective employee-of-the-month program that will motivate workers and boost morale. You can also take care of your employees by making sure they have a safe place to perform their work. Employees are more productive when they are given a clean and secure working environment. According to Cagle Law, employers should provide employees with everything they need to remain safe during all their work tasks.

Be Humble

Humble employers are those who have a realistic opinion of their own strengths and limitations. Modest leaders are respected because they put the business and others ahead of themselves. These are leaders who respect their workers regardless of position or role. When workers are acknowledged as equals, they will be able to work together collectively with greater success. Make sure that what you have to say has integrity. Workers typically do not feel inspired by cocky, flashy pep talks. They want a leader who backs up everything that was promised with immediate action. After all, actions do speak louder than words. Reputable employers do not need to brag about anything.

Respect is given when respect is earned. Always work vigilantly to gain the respect of your employees, and you will have rewarding long-term relationships with them.

Here’s another article you might like: 3 Important Aspects of Developing a Strong Team

Few fields of technology move or evolve as fast as the software industry. Commercial creativity doesn’t get more complex or requires as many industry-specific skills and areas of expertise. Careless companies that don’t build teams with care can see their projects fall apart nearly as soon as they seem to come together. Even in Agile-driven development environments, any software development endeavor is a dynamic, unpredictable undertaking subject to unexpected shifts in schedules, priorities, and budgets seemingly at any time. You may still need to pull rabbits out of your hat to deliver a finished product on time, but the right team at least keeps plenty of capable hands ready.

Finding the Right People

It isn’t unusual for newly formed in-house teams working on custom software development to eventually realize their project’s needs exceed their know-how. Developing software is a time-consuming undertaking that should be framed by a shared vision of the decisions that will best provide value, generate revenue, and make life easier for a client. Project leaders, managers, developers, and investors need to agree on a vision for functional and non-functional requirements, problems the software should solve, decisions about how the system should perform, and interactions between the software itself, human users, and internal hardware and modules. Any team members whose expertise and ability to communicate clearly at all times with clients and collaborators at every level can provide timely, valuable feedback throughout the process.

Choosing a Training Strategy

Agile is one of the most popular methods of software development yet. This development life cycle hinges on daily scrum and sprint reviews and retrospectives to maintain clear channels and to keep everyone pointed in the same productive direction toward delivering a tailor-made product on time and geared toward the client’s needs. In the end, your team has a better chance of consistently producing top-notch working software with minimal project overhead and optimal business value by emphasizing individuals and interactions over tools and processes, prioritizing working software over comprehensive documentation, placing customer collaboration ahead of contract negotiation, and responding to change instead of following a plan. Local speaker and writer, M.David Green wrote a great kindle book on Scrum: Novice to Ninja: Methods for Agile, Powerful Development that addresses the use of Scrum, as a popular agile project management methodology used in web projects today. David also hosts one of my favorite podcasts Hack The Process, which I have had the pleasure of guesting on in the past. You can hear my episode by visiting my Visual & Audio Me page and scrolling down or clicking here on SoundCloud.

Poor Cost Control

Difficult as a custom software package’s development can be to assess, all parties can best obtain a realistic estimate from the beginning by working closely together to build in room for additional costs and contingencies. Along the way, nothing will drive up costs quite like delays, but diligent planning and an emphasis on 360-degree honesty are the cornerstones of a flexible timeline with room to adapt to necessary changes while remaining on schedule. Establish timelines for each feature. Commit to a delivery date for a beta version. Be honest with yourself and all parties about the necessary duration of software quality testing. When everyone remains engaged at each step, the entire team can more smoothly pivot if priorities change, if schedules for implementing features shift, or if you unexpectedly must drop or add elements from the solution. Consider using a software methodology like DevOps, which offers end-to-end automated testing and catches software defects before they can become a major issue.   

Creating value through software development means embracing a fluid process of evolution, adaptation, improvement, and innovation. That entails weathering a perfect storm of technological advancement, shifting customer needs, unpredictable industry standards, and ever-present market pressures throughout teams full of valuable moving parts. No matter the obstacles, everyone will have to run the gauntlet and address every challenge together to minimize the impact your unique hurdles will have on your product. The stronger your team is at the beginning, the more confidence you can bring at every level.

Looking for more tips on how to build an effective software development team? Check out MentorSF Workshops.

Note – none of the links listed on this page are affiliates. They were included simply as examples and favorites of mine.

It’s not easy to job search at any stage in life, but for older workers, it can feel like a long, drawn-out battle. Although discrimination based on age is prohibited, it’s no secret that companies can and do favor youth over maturity. Many older people find that they can’t even get their resumes reviewed, much less get an interview invitation or a job offer. Here are some tips to help you get your foot in the door and allow your experience and commitment shine through for prospective employers.

Make Your Resume Age-Proof

You’ve probably heard the most common resume tricks for older workers: don’t list dates and only include the last ten years of your employment history. However, some simple details can trip up even the most polished resume. Consider your email address, for example. If you’re still using a service like AOL or Hotmail, that’s as much of an “older person” flag as stating you graduated from college in the eighties. Get a Gmail account for business purposes. Another tip-off of age? Believe it or not, using double spaces after a period is a dead giveaway, as two spaces after a period are an outdated trend leftover from the typewriter age. Run your resume through a word processing program and replace all of them with single spaces—you’ll be glad you did.

Know How to Answer Age-Related Questions

Federal law makes it illegal to age-discriminate against anyone over 39, but that doesn’t mean that interviewers won’t try to get that number out of you by casual-seeming questions such as “When did you finish college?” or “Do you still see yourself working in ten years?” Of course, you don’t want to lie, but at the same time reinforce your qualifications and interest. Many people ignore traditional “retirement ages” and intend to keep working for as long as possible. If you enjoy what you do and have no plans to give it up anytime soon, let the interviewers know that upfront.

Stay Up to Speed on Technology

It’s not enough to keep abreast of current technology in your field–you need to be savvy about social media and general office apps as well. Maybe you’re not a twenty-something who spends his or her life on Instagram and WhatsApp, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how they work. Communicating through email and texts have given way to software such as the instant-messaging program Slack, and being able to navigate those—or perhaps, more importantly, being willing to learn—helps greatly to dispel the myth that older workers balk at acquiring new skills. Pay attention to particular programs mentioned in job descriptions, and make sure that you at least know what they do if you’re not familiar with them and express a desire to explore them further.

More and more employers realize the benefits that older workers bring to the table, such as experience, wisdom, reliability, and loyalty, so be confident that you have a lot to offer a potential employer. Keeping your skills sharp and showing enthusiasm for going in new directions will attract your next job no matter your age.