We've talked about parts of technical leadership in the past, but my wife has gone one further and written a 3-part series of articles on how to be a good software development lead.  Those of you who know me no doubt find it odd that my wife would be dispensing advice on leading software development teams, considering that my wife is:

• not leading a software development team
• not *part* of a software development team
• not a software developer

In fact, the closest that my wife has come to programming would be the day that I attempted to explain binary addition and subtraction by telling her the story of The Kingdom of 1 and the Kingdom of 0.  However, like me, my wife *is* incredibly good-looking, and as we've discussed before, good looks == credibility.  Thus, not knowing programming didn't stop her from writing a fantastic series of articles that I am linking below.   

There are a couple of things I either re-confirmed or learned as a result of reading my wife's articles:

• I talk entirely *too much* about work to my wife
• My wife is an excellent writer
• My wife is horribly, *horribly* biased
• Her articles are *FAR* better guides to leadership than I could ever write.
• Apparently the Igloo Coder has been her second husband for the better part of the last several years
  

Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of my wife's guide to being a good leader can be read by clicking on the appropriate part.  She believes that effective leaders:

• do not assume superiority over the team
• do not see their team members as threats to their position, but as measures of their own success in leading
• believe that every person on the team has something valuable to offer to the project
• demonstrate respect and restraint in the way that they speak to others
• give credit where credit is due
• take advantage of every opportunity to put in a good word for their team mates
• work actively as a part of the team
• do as they say at all times

Of course, we all know that being a *good* leader also involves the following attributes, which my wife apparently forgot to list:

• having a wild, lustrous head of hair
• being the best-looking member of your team (or in the case of some of us, your entire organization)
• owning a Macbook Pro
• making posts chock full of bulleted lists

I do try to follow the principles my wife describes, even if they aren't as important as the four I just described.  I am not the fabulous leader my wife believes me to be - I do the best job that I can but I, like anyone else, am always learning.  But her articles are definitely a good starting point for anyone who wants to get into the wild sex and cocaine sniffing that is obviously part of being a technical lead!