10 things you should know about ... leads and managers

The more you tell me your point of view, the better I can understand how to make good use of you.

Our role is to find solutions that benefit the project and the team – sometimes this may cause you more work in the short term, but ultimately you’ll benefit too through team and game improvements.

I find it difficult to respect and accept people who refuse to understand the above, and insist on having a solution for them, at the expense of other people.

We may not agree with the decisions we ask you to implement but we have to support our managers and respect their instructions.

If you are asked to do something difficult it’s because we trust you to figure it out and deliver; not because we want to make your life difficult or cause you to fail.

We don’t succeed unless you succeed. Every time we assign work we trust that you can deliver.

We have been making games for a long time and it can be disheartening to see make the same mistakes that we have already solved on another project. This may lead us to lose our temper: it’s not personal, just a way to vent our frustration that our past efforts are not helpful to you.

Assume that everyone is as good at their jobs as you are at yours. If someone does something incomprehensible, go and ask them why before making the assumption they are incompetent.

Part of our role is to look calm whatever is going on, at times we can be anything but inside.

I have accepted the position of Lead because that was the only option for promotion. I don’t know how to provide the leadership you expect from me and I don’t enjoy the responsibility of making decisions. Management shouldn’t be the only career path.