Several people here have made great suggestions and I just want to reiterate some of them and add a few of my own. I have been a manager for 5 years and was a f

Several people here have made great suggestions and I just want to reiterate some of them and add a few of my own. I have been a manager for 5 years and was a full time dev for 12 years before that. I have managed upwards of 40 people during my time. 1. A good leader takes less than their fair share of the credit and more than their fair share of the blame. Your team will trust and respect you when they know you're not just trying to look out for yourself. Your perspective needs to be, when things go right, THEY did great a great job. When things go wrong WE messed up, let's learn from it and move forward. 2. Set clear expectations. I make sure my teams know that I'm ok if we mess up, I'm ok if we miss a deadline but I'm not ok if I'm the last one to know about it. Rule #1 Don't surprise me. If you see a problem, let me know. I can't have skin in the game if I don't know what's going on. 3. Stay technical. I was formerly a full time dev but now manage full time. I schedule 4 hours a week off hours for myself to code to keep my skills sharp. I see that as investing in myself and my career. Technical decisions need to be made by the team and you should have technical leadership on the team but you also need to be able to spot someone BS'ing you or people being overly optimistic. It also instills trust in the team to know that their boss can keep up in a technical conversation. 4. Invest in testing. No one likes writing tests but they pay dividends. You trade a little bit of speed up front for massive speed and scalability down the line. Don't skimp. This was the single greatest driver of predictability when I was a full time dev. 5. Lead through principles. A lot of people get hung up on particular ceremonies or particular things to try but no two teams are alike. I've managed several different teams and things that worked on one didn't work on another but through it all I maintained the same principles. They hang on my office wall: A. Do the right thing B. Be honest C. Invest in others D. Invest in yourself E. Demand quality