Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 267. Why Soft Skills Matter as a Developer

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267. Why Soft Skills Matter as a Developer · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Soft skills like communication, empathy, leadership, and coachability are often key to a developer's career.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yet they're also often overlooked by those same developers.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode of Dev Questions, we're going to talk about why soft skills matter as a software developer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the DevQuestiPast with Tim Corey.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Software development is more than just writing code.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically, let's talk about why soft skills matter and how you can build them up.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to focus today on just four soft skills.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about why each matters.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about how it's going to impact your job.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to talk about how to build up that skill.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with communication.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, why do we need to know how to communicate?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's hopefully pretty obvious because this is the biggest one that developers have to do.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to gather requirements.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have to show our value.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last week.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have to coordinate with other developers.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: If we're working on a team, then we need to know how to work with other people.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to have a boss.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: We need to know how to talk to the boss.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We need to talk to other people in the organization who are stakeholders and others.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We need to know how to not just say the words, but the right words at the right time in the right manner.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then not say the wrong words, keep your mouth shut sometimes at the right wrong time, and make sure that we know when to communicate, what to communicate, why, and so on.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the impact of good communication skills versus bad?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's really the success or failure of your projects, of your employment, and on your team.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's really the most important soft skill a developer can have.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And often developers say, Well, I'm an introvert.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to, you know, do my own thing.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to struggle.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know people who may be good developers, but they can't get a job because of their soft skills in communication, especially.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you can't communicate what you can do, if you can't communicate with someone how to what, you know, to gather requirements and to get buy-in and so on, then you're going to have a hard time doing your job because your job is not to just write code.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Very few developer jobs, if any, are just writing code.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Often that's actually the minority of what you do as a developer.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: We we talk about and complain about being in meetings all the time, but there's a reason why we're in meetings all the time.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, they're overdone.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But meetings are about communication.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're about gathering requirements, talking about communicating what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, how you're going to do it, and then why you didn't do it because you're in meetings, and so on.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But the success or failure you will see in your career will be partly because of your ability to communicate.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you build it up?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna give this answer once, but it really applies to all of these.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So just you know my first response.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's practice.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Practice is really important.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But let's go a little bit deeper.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do you practice communication?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, be intentional about your communication.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you might say, well, what do you mean by that?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Schedule it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So schedule talking to people, schedule following up, schedule having a conversation about projects, schedule talking to your coworkers and making sure you're on the same same page.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: It should become natural at some point.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: But until it does, put a reminder on your phone that says, check in with coworkers.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that we do here at DevForge is we have something that every day sends a message out on teams that says, hey, what's your one big thing you're working on for today?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a scheduled thing because it reminds us to communicate with each other what we're working on.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're a small company, and yet by doing so, what we're doing is communicating with each other.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes those communications lead to conversations and lead to better communication about, hey, I saw you're working on this, but I'm working on this, and I think they overlap.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about that, and then every Friday at 3 p.m.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: we have another one that goes off that says, Hey, what was your win for the week?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because we often forget to communicate what we our successes or or how we have made something better in the company or for the organization or just for ourselves.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And by communicating that, we're again opening up those communications and allowing for others to interact, to be able to say, hey, that's cool.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know you did that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it opens up those lines of communication.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So practice and be intentional about your communication.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: After a while, it becomes second nature to just communicate.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But by doing so in an intentional way, you build up that muscle memory.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the other part of this is self-evaluate.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get in a doom spiral and don't think of yourself more highly than you should, but try at the middle of self-evaluating.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: How did I do it communicating?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We just went through a project and did I communicate well?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did the stakeholders feel like they knew what was going on?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did I meet their requirements?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Did I, you know, do the right things to at the right times and think that through and maybe even ask.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, you know, now we wrap this project up, did that meet what you your expectations?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Did I communicate clearly what I was meaning to do?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And how could I do that better?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So building up that idea of self-evaluation is important as far as communication.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, number two is coachability.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this kind of follows in dovetails with that previous one is you need to be coachable.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna make mistakes, it's going to happen.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is perfect.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I have made a lot of big mistakes.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of my favorite things to do is talk to database developers.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is there's one thing that almost every database developer has done that every other database developer can relate to.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really one of those things where you're almost not in the club until you've done it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that is destroy a table or a database or multiple databases or a whole server.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, made a massive mistake.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You did a delete statement without putting the where clause on, delete every record.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: You did an update statement again without the WERE clause and changed every record to the last name of Corey.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I may have done both of those.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But you're going to make mistakes.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to happen.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is when you do it, you feel awful.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you feel like either one, you want to lash out and protect yourself by being on the offense, or you want to curl up and die.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is we all make mistakes.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so by working on being coachable, you're going to improve your skills as a developer.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, also, you need to constantly learn new things.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know everything.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people no one's born knowing C sharp.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has to start with what is a variable, what is an if statement, the very foundational building blocks of C sharp.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has to start there at some point.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to have to learn new things.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, software grows and changes, it's constantly evolving, and you have to evolve with it, which means you're not going to know everything about everything you work on, which means somebody else is going to know more, and you're going to need to learn from them.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So coachability is a really important skill.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how does this impact your career?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one big thing is it changes how others view you.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever known someone where every time you say, hey, you know, you've got a shoelace untied?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I meant to do that.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a simple, stupid thing.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just tie your shoe.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, admit that your shoe's untied, but they won't even admit that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're like, how do you feel about that?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're like, I don't want to talk to them.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to coach them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to tell them when they did something wrong.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I kind of want to see them do it wrong and then find out in front of everybody.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I feel bad thinking that, but that's kind of how I feel, right?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's how you feel when someone isn't coachable.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, how do you feel when you say, hey, you know, you made this mistake in your code.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you could change this if statement out for a four statement and improve the performance of your application.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that person says, Really?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they go and they implement it that way and they may even test it and say, hey, that was awesome.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It saved 15% on my not my car insurance, my speed of my application.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really helpful.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you see them using that new thing over and over again, that new thing they've learned.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now they're starting to implement in their other code.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: How does that make you feel?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can you share with them something else that they can improve on?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, because you know they're going to take it well.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to, so your coachability is going to impact how others view you.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's also going to impact how much others help you.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, think of that through.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: If others are going to help you less, if you're less coachable, what does that mean about your job?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're not going to improve as fastly if as fast at your job if you're not getting help.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: If others aren't going to help you out and you know, say, oh, hey, the that file is over here in this file share.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or here's the process for doing that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then you're not going to figure that out as easily.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have a harder time doing your job, which means you're going to fall behind.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Being coachable has a huge impact in your career.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you build up your coachability?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: This one's hard.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is one of my struggle areas, right?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to hear, because when I first hear someone say, you know, you could have done this better.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: What I hear if I don't work on it is I hear you were wrong, you were stupid.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what they're saying.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I can translate that in my brain sometimes, and it's hard to not get defensive and say, no, you don't understand.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing that I do is I pause.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the first step of how do you build up your skills?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Pause.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you get feedback, whenever you get coaching, whenever you get correction, pause.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just respond.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if the moment they stop talking, you start talking, or maybe even right before, um, you're doing it wrong.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Take time.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pause.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Put a beat in there.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Think.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe take your first response, throw it out the window, look for the next response.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Start with thankfulness.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So pause and then start with thank you for letting me know.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you taking the time to let me know.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for pointing that out.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank them.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you think they're wrong, they're still trying to help.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pause, start with thankfulness.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: As they're talking, take notes.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just go, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Especially since it sounds like what you're doing is you're not really listening, you've already disengaged, and you already think about your response, which happens, right?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of engaging your brain in, I'm gonna get them, I'm gonna think through the best response to get back.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Write down notes.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Say, you know, okay, I didn't do this right now.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, got it.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Write it down.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: That allows you to pause more.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: It allows you to compose what they said, make sure you understand it, and then then respond, then talk through, you know, I don't, I didn't realize that a for loop would make things faster than an if statement.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, it doesn't.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an example.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: But and you could even say, you know, I didn't think that was true.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can we can we test that out?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or where do you find that information?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to just lay over, you know, roll over and die because someone had a different opinion than you.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you should at least acknowledge what they said, be thankful for their willingness to help, repeat back what they said or or summarize what they said, and then say, here's what I'm going to do about that.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: After all of that, follow up.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say that they were right and that thing was helpful, and you did that thing, and it helped you do your job.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Follow up afterwards, thank them again.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So say, hey, you know, I did that and it helped me get that job done.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your help.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Follow up.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you practice, that's how you build up those skills.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Pause, start with thankfulness, take notes, and follow up.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right, number three is empathy.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, soft skill number three, we're gonna talk about is empathy.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And again, sometimes you might think, well, that's squishy, right?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's why I need to know about empathy.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the motivations of others is important.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: It helps you better understand where they're coming from.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It helps you better gather requirements by understanding why, not just what, and by understanding their motivations behind it, it will make a big difference.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a somewhat related example to this.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I get a lot of YouTube comments, and I love the YouTube comments, keep in coming.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're watching this video on YouTube instead of listening to the podcast, we have both, by the way, um, leave a comment down below.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's talk.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to respond to as many YouTube comments as possible, but there's one category of comments that's difficult, um, and that is there are people on the internet that are unhappy.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be shocked by that, I'm sure.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: But there are people who are frustrated and they lash out, and sometimes they're downright rude and they're mean and they start off that way.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the the first interaction that I have with these people is a miserable comment.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And my first response is I don't think I've ever put my first response on a YouTube comment for a for a negative comment because I've typed them out before.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've typed out a whole comment, deleted the whole thing and started over.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I paused, right?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I took time to think it through.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: But empathy is important.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I had one commenter who went on a rant up and down about how this particular project type was just stupid and wrong, and how you know it was just the biggest piece of junk, and why would I ever show off this piece of junk?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they were wrong.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: They were totally wrong.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I decided to, and I don't always do this, but I decided, you know what?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to try to look past the top level, which the top level is just anger.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Scrape that away.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look down a layer deeper and look at what they're actually saying.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I figured out that they had fundamentally misunderstood how something worked.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, they couldn't get their work done.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just a misunderstanding.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so instead of responding in anger and just escalating the situation and making a person even more mad, I responded by saying, hey, I might be misunderstanding, but I think this might be what you're saying.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, that's a misunderstanding of how this works.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain how this works.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I did so in a calm manner.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had empathy for that person, because I squeezed it out, um, I was able to figure out that there was more to the story than just they're an angry person.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when that person read the response, they realized, oh my goodness, this is actually really helpful.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they became one of my biggest fans.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not a pat tip on the back kind of moment, but what this is, is because I was able to practice that skill of empathy, I was able to get past the initial layer of anger and actually address the root problem.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: In your job, if you can do that, it's not always anger, but when a person says, you know, this product doesn't work, get down, understand their frustration.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes what you find out is the product does work, but not for them.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, an example of this is I had a lady that was upset at me because I was rebuilding their product, I was making it better, I was making it faster.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she was frustrated at me.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted the old system, it was slower and clunkier.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm making it better, but I wasn't for her.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because she never used her mouse.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: She had to put in data very fast because the more data she put in, the more she got paid.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So she didn't use her mouse, she used, she typed out things and hit the tab key, typed out and hit the tab key.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I had messed up the tab order and I had put things on multiple pages.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it made the process slower.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So even though the end result was the data went in and it was processed faster, it wasn't faster for her to input.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So by understanding that and getting to the root problem and not just getting my defenses up, I was able to understand what she really needed and actually create a solution for her that worked better for her than it used to.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: She was a huge fan of mine after that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: But because I listened to her and I was empathetic and understood and didn't just say, no, it's better.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So understanding the impact is it helps reduce frustrations, it helps reduce miscommunications, and it makes communication easier.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you friends.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you can actually feel what they feel and put yourself in their shoes, you are better able to provide solutions to them that make them better.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the impact.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you build up the skill of empathy?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ask more questions.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you think you know it enough, ask more questions.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just go right to a solution.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Stop.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Identify what's going on and then eliminate your assumptions.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So pause, identify if you have assumptions, and then work to eliminate those.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's usually by asking more questions.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: So explore before you respond.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just respond.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Empathy is a really big soft skill to have as a developer.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, number four in the soft skills category is leadership.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: So why?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna be called on to lead things even if you don't want to be a leader, even if you're not in management, you're gonna lead something.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's you're adding a new feature and you're working with another coworker, or you're leading a project, or maybe you're leading a team, but whatever it is, you're gonna be called on at some point in your career to lead.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that adds value to the team.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: So leadership doesn't always have to be that you have subordinates.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can lead with just yourself because you can lead others.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can you know identify that, hey, there's an intern that started working for us.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the things that I used to do, and I love doing it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I'd be the one that would train the intern.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you hire a new intern or a new intern starts working for you.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: What's what do they do?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: They walk in wide-eyed.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh my goodness, you know, I've never actually seen a real software project in action.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they look at your code and go, oh my goodness, does it not look like the code from my school?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It never does.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So my thing was, hey, I can help you along.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I would help guide them and teach them and show them the ropes, help them get better at their job.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's leadership.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you can add value to your team by being a better leader.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the impact is it improves the team, it grows others around you.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So your ability to lead yourself and others will have a big impact on your team.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you build up your leadership skills, especially if you're an introvert?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, lead yourself first.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you think about giving advice to somebody else, you should have given yourself the same advice and taken the advice and run with it.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: So lead yourself first.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: When I learn something new, because there's always something new in software development, I lead myself first.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I teach myself first.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then I start, you know, being empathetic to others and what they might be feeling and say, you know, if I'm putting myself in the shoes of a new learner, what do I need to know in what order I need to know at?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm learning how to teach myself in order to teach somebody else.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with leadership.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lead yourself first.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then start small.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I love to see people do, and this is important because it builds leadership, it builds communication, it builds deeper understanding of products and new products, it encourages more training is lunch and learns.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know most developers who are introverted go, I don't want to do that, I don't want any part of that, but it's really important.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: I just mentioned three or four soft skills that are grown by participating in lunch and learns.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's a lunch and learn?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once a month, twice a month, you get together and one person on a team presents something half an hour that they've learned.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't have to be directly relevant to the job.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: They might have learned something new in JavaScript.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: They might have learned something new on the web or with Docker or something else that might not have a direct correlation with their doing at work, but they're just sharing, hey, this is what I learned, this is how it works.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that right there is leadership.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you could also, and this is a super introverted way to do it, you could write a guide for a task.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: You are leading the person who is reading.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So write a guide for here's how we, you know, backup the server and restore it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how we test the backups, um, here's how we onboard new developers.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So many other things you could do that you can write a guide for.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can also mentor someone less experienced than you.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't have to be formal, doesn't have to be a huge deal.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a you stop by their desk and say, hey, can I show you how to you know work with a ticketing system to make your life easier?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I've rearranged these things to make it faster to go through, or here's a filter for uh looking at just the tickets you need to.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's mentorship, even if it's a tiny little thing.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at somebody else and saying, hey, how can I help them?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: How can I give them the knowledge that I have to make them better?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can be a junior developer and mentor somebody else.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just have to be somebody that doesn't know as much as you do in an area.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, be careful not to be puffed up.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful not to act like a know-it-all, but learn how to bring somebody else up, lift somebody else up.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on them, not on you.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's leadership.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the four that I want you to practice and try out because soft skills are critical for the growth and success as a developer.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I know that some great developers struggle in their whole career because they did not learn the soft skills or did not practice soft skills.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also known developers who have worked on their soft skills, who did have great soft skills, who worked at it, who kind of grew beyond what they otherwise would have because of their soft skills.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: So build up your soft skills.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamTimCorey.com and enroll in a course.