A good manager knows what resources they have at their disposal, and how they can exchange those resources for other things. The most basic resources are budget and headcount. But a creative manager can find a lot more:
- Offering interesting projects and opportunities
- Letting developers work from home (less driving is good for the environment too!)
- Offering your time to hear out the devs.
- Opportunity - If a dev is interested in a certain new technology, consider offering that if they research this task on their own, then potentially the team can leverage it - which means they can learn a ton more about it.
- Work hours - to avoid rush-hour, or coordinate with work-life balance, let the devs come in an irregular hours (like 6am-3pm).
- Offer encouragement - some developers are motivated knowing that their boss supports them and publicly appreciates the good job they've done.
- Permit devs to install safe games on their laptop.
- Give them a "free" PTO day to go to an in-town conference (Yes, time is money, but for some reason, mgrs and bureaucracies are more apt to give you time than money).
Even a little money can be stretched a long ways:
- If they're working overtime at the office, consider at least buying them lunch or dinner. I remember on a death-march consulting gig when my manager kept bringing us lunch. He explained that if we're working 4 hours of overtime (say $400 billable dollars), he could at least help by getting us a $10 lunch. I thought he was a really good manager. Sure, he got the better end of the deal, but it was still a nice gesture.
- Buy a book to encourage them to learn. Yes, it's ultimately the developer's responsibility to learn, but if they're going to spend 20 hours pouring over a book to learn a technology that helps the company, a $30 investment is a no-brainer.
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