How to avoid a conflict with the team leader?

Question

We are currently facing some problems with our team leader regarding the hierarchy of work assignments and responsibility for the work performed. As a rule, if some teams are not executed by the team, the team leader openly begins to blame the team, and sometimes points to some of the developers. In addition, when distributing work to developers, the team leadership does not properly explain the work that we plan to carry out, but expects us to complete it completely.

The worst part is that the project manager and team leader are real cousins, and the project manager always takes on the lead team when developers have such problems.

Read what developers can do best to create a healthy work environment.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, personal relationships should not be related to professional life. Developers must first arrange a meeting with the group’s management and ask their problems in a healthy and explanatory way. Also keep the Project Manager in a loop with your views. Do not wait for someone to create a healthy environment for you ... start in that direction.

Everyone should be able to adapt to different environments and cultures that are different in different organizations. Always be with the flow.

Answer 2

It is two-sided and very objective. This may depend on who the team leader is and if they are open for discussion / questions.

The team leader should talk about this openly, BUT also, if the developer does not know what to do, they should ask.

Never be afraid to ask questions; you will be amazed at what you can find out.

Answer 3

If possible, schedule a meeting with the project manager and team leader. Openly discuss issues in a mature and positive light. Tell the team management what you like (as a group) and tell him what you think can be done to improve quality, expectations, deadlines, etc. If critical requirements are not available, let him know. Although his cousin is the project manager, his answers can be protected and he can be protected regardless of real circumstances.

Ultimately, in my opinion, the PM / TL ratio is a formula for disaster. If the problem is with the team, and the project manager is part of this problem, then the next logical step will be the transition to the PM manager.

Answer 4

I'm not sure you can avoid conflict! The challenge is to decide what to do so that everyone can learn, and not many people get hurt.

A well-managed team should work on its own. That is, the leading role of the team should be to create a good structure so that the team can decide priorities, methods, methodologies and even process, communicating.

So good managers will ask the team members "Okay, so what would you do?" They will then receive appropriate support for this to happen.

I would suggest that as a group you

• Get together regularly (maybe weekly) to review progress and learn about mistakes made during implementation.
• Make sure that all tasks are assigned to the team as a whole, and not to individual developers. Everyone should know a high-level job summary.
• Get together daily to take stock very quickly. Keep this meeting limited to 10 minutes.

In these meetings it is better to avoid blaming people. Instead, blame the code or process, but don't get personal.

And if your company's culture allows this, try reading some of the literature around flexible project management: there are many parts of this process that are designed to avoid this kind of conflict. However, for some organizations, a shift can be quite complex in order to give developers enough power ...