[ramon156]

Only thing I can say is that, what doesn't work for me, is leads that just tell you how to do things. I completely agree with my tech lead, but also it just includes only his opinion and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Is this my ego? Maybe.

[FroshKiller]

I'm a technical lead, and I often tell my teammates exactly how I want them to implement something. I am not looking over their shoulders at every line of code, but I will tell them plainly that I want an interface, a concrete implementation of the interface that is up to them, and a configuration option for substituting a different concrete type.

I don't do this because I don't trust them but because I have different requirements. What matters most to them is completing their work items according to specifications. What matters more to me is long-term maintainability of our projects for the rest of the team.

Some of them have the long-term needs in mind. Some of them just don't think that way. I try not to make them feel like their work can't be trusted or like my demands are arbitrary. I think they are more receptive to my demands when I can at least provide context for them. That seems absolutely necessary to me.

I ask myself all the time whether I'm insisting on too much control. I appreciate you asking of yourself, "Is this my ego?" It can definitely go both ways.

[9rx]

> I often tell my teammates exactly how I want them to implement something.

Ugh. I recently found myself working with one of those people. What a horrid experience. We waste days trying to reverse engineer out of him what the business problem actually is, and then, once we finally figure that out, even more going over all the things he failed to consider.

Software isn't the technical Olympics. It sole purpose in life is to solve human problems. You must work from understanding the human problems. "This is how we are going to do it" obscures all of the information that is necessary to write good software. I have no qualms about pushing back to ensure that we start from the right place, but it is so draining when it happens over and over. Building software doesn't have to be so stupid.

Don't be that guy.

> I ask myself all the time whether I'm insisting on too much control.

No. You're not. Someone has to wrangle those who are not providing positive contributions (without a forceful hand). But your job is to figure out why they are not providing positive contributions and solve for that problem, not to continually tell them how to do their job. You are no longer in a technical role. "Lead" means you are now in a people role, solving people problems not suitable to be solved with tech.

If you'd rather be a software developer, consider doing that job instead.