Jumping on a management position on a dev team for the first time can be tricky. Maybe you already had some experience leading large projects or being a scrum master, but taking on the challenge to lead a team is a whole different business and you might be a little unsure as where to start.

One of the most important things you should do is be intentional about finding your management style. Leading a team is not something you can just wing, and finding your style will help drive the decisions you make, but how to start?

Looking all around

I found that one of the best ways to figure out my management style was reaching out and talking to people with different levels of experience.

Look back

A great place to start is looking for some of the past managers you had that you admired and reaching out to them. This can be someone at your current company or not. Make sure to come to these catch-ups prepared with some questions in mind. You can ask things like how do you run 1-1s or how do you deal with someone that has low performance. Not only will this be a great help but it will also help you create a mentor-mentee relationship that can be very useful in the future.

Look up

Your boss is your ally. Maybe you got this position because your he/she put their faith in you or maybe it just fell on your lap. Either way, don't be afraid to ask questions or share doubts with your manager. At the end of the day, the management of your team is also their responsibility. Another thing that might help is to try to find someone if your company with some years of more experience than you. If you don't know anyone reach out to your HR representative and they might help facilitating this connection.

Look to the side

Just as you are going through this change, there are probably other people in your organization or in your network that are as well. Reach out to these people as well to catch-up every so often as you might have tips to share like books, articles, podcasts and conferences that are good resources for first-time managers.

Look below

Lastly but not least important, talk to the people you manage. They know that it is your first time in a management position and that you are still figuring out how to do it. Make your relationship a partnership in which you both learn from each other and help each other grow. Ask for and be persistent about getting constructive feedback, and when you get it use it to your best advantage.