How to deal with arrogant developers?

5 pointsby _RPM12 anni fa11 comments

I find myself realizing that some peers of mine in the workplace do not take constructive criticism well. They jump to immediate defense if someone else questions their idea / technique / implementation.

Have you dealt with arrogance?

How did you deal with an arrogant developer?

9 comments

MalcolmDiggs12 anni fa

My way of dealing with an arrogant developer was simply realizing that it was ME! From my perspective I had always thought: "I'm senior, you're junior, you should appreciate my advice and not do XYZ in your old way any more. You're being arrogant by not accepting my criticism well".

But in reality, I wasn't allowing the junior dev to grow at his own pace, to explore and understand and evolve his way of doing things. I was just cramming process and procedure down his throat...which was not only arrogant, but an extremely ineffective teaching tool.

So in the end, it was I who needed the lesson in humility...not the junior dev. Funny what a perspective change can do.

_RPM12 anni fa

I hate to say this, but sometimes I have to prevent myself from being perceived as arrogant. My passion sometimes takes over, and my expressions may be perceived as other people as being extremely arrogant. I feel strongly about things because I am passionate for them but it comes off as arrogance to some.

bjourne12 anni fa

Don't waste time and energy trying to teach people who doesn't want to learn. Providing constructive criticism is a valuable service you are giving them for free. If they do not want it, you are an idiot for trying to force it upon them.

catmanjan12 anni fa

Nothing, you're obviously in a place of lesser power if you're asking for tips on the internet - rather than calling them out on it then and there!

ozuvedi12 anni fa

Not sure if it's arrogance but my team mate always tries to win (i might be wrong). For example, if we are talking about topic A, as soon as she realizes what she's saying isn't correct, she jumps to another topic or starts to say " Yeah , Yeah I know that... but.... ) haha.... As a friend she is good with all..... professionally i wish I wasn't working with her....

ptrckbrwn12 anni fa

Humbleness is an important quality of someone who is ready to learn: If someone is arrogant they've agreed that they're the best they can aspire to be. Fire accordingly.

Zergy12 anni fa

He said they were "peers of mine". For all we know they are arrogant around peers they don't respect but are willing to learn from more capable or senior developers.

chrisbennet12 anni fa

Change jobs.:-) But seriously, look for this sort of behavior in the job interview. Interviews are a 2 way street.

xpto12312 anni fa

You would get more replies by giving a couple concrete examples. This is culture dependent, but the feedback that is most well received is the one someone asked for. Are you providing a lot of unsolicited feddback on other peoples work?

That might come accross wrongly, ask yourself how you would respond if someone told you the same things you are telling them. Trust takes time to build.

kphild12 anni fa

Programming is hell as it is. Why make it even worse with your smarty pants "advice"? As long as the boss does not mind, their code is good enough.

vishalchandra12 anni fa

Step 1. Make sure that I am disagreeing in the right spirit and communicating in the right way. See disagreement diagram: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graham%27s_Hierarchy_... Typically this should ensure that the following discussion is done in the right spirit because I would guess developers tend to be logic driven.

Step 2. In the scenario that even this does not work or cannot be applied easily, then ask that "If we wanted to test out which option between these two, three approaches will work better, than what test could we conduct ?" Focus on defining a test to validate assumptions, rather than arguing for or against an option.