If you told 25-year-old me that one day I’d be managing a team of PHP developers, reviewing performance metrics, and negotiating deadlines with stakeholders, I probably would’ve laughed and gone back to refactoring some poorly written legacy class. I didn’t start my career with “leadership” in mind—my focus was all about clean code, fast queries, and squeezing every ounce of performance from my scripts. But as with most senior devs, leadership found me.
Now that I’m here, managing people instead of just code, I’ve learned a few tough lessons I wish I knew earlier.
1. Communication > Clever Code
Back then, I thought writing elegant, clever one-liners was peak engineering. What I didn’t realize was how often that code confused other developers—and future me. As a leader, I’ve learned that readable, maintainable code isn’t just nice—it’s essential for team velocity and collaboration.
More importantly, I learned that communicating expectations, tradeoffs, and context is more valuable than implementing the “best” technical solution in isolation.
2. People Don’t Scale Like Code
In development, you can add a caching layer or horizontal scaling and see results fast. With people, it’s different. Some developers are quick learners. Some need structure. Some thrive on feedback, others on autonomy. Treating everyone the same just doesn’t work.
One lesson I learned too late: your job as a leader is to understand each person’s motivators, blockers, and working style—then tailor your support accordingly.
3. Leadership Is About Multiplying Output, Not Just Delivering Work
As a dev, your value is tied to your output. As a leader, it’s not about what you do, but what your team can achieve. That shift was hard for me. I had to stop measuring myself by how much I was coding and start measuring by how unblocked, focused, and motivated my team was.
When I stopped jumping into PRs and instead spent more time helping people prioritize or pairing with junior devs, the team’s performance noticeably improved. Leadership isn’t about writing less code—it’s about writing code that enables others to write more.
4. Feedback Should Be Frequent and Unemotional
I used to avoid giving feedback because I didn’t want to come off as critical. But silence is not kindness—it’s confusion. I now give feedback early, often, and kindly. That includes positive feedback too! Telling someone “you handled that bug triage really well” costs nothing and builds trust.
The trick? Detach the feedback from emotion and ego—yours and theirs.
5. Process Matters—But So Does Trust
I went through a phase of trying to overprocess everything—task templates, sprint rituals, exhaustive documentation. Some of it helped. Most of it didn’t. What I’ve realized is that a little structure and a lot of trust goes a long way. You don’t need rigid rules if your team feels ownership and accountability.
6. You Still Need to Learn—Just Differently
When I stopped coding full-time, I worried I’d fall behind. But leadership has its own learning curve. Now I read about team dynamics, org structure, motivation theory, and even psychology. I still tinker with side projects to keep my PHP skills sharp, but most of my professional growth now happens in one-on-ones and retros.
7. Your Energy Sets the Tone
This one surprised me. On days when I showed up tired, stressed, or distracted, the whole team felt off. When I was calm, focused, and upbeat—even if things were tough—the team leaned in. I didn’t sign up to be a cheerleader, but as a leader, your mood is contagious.
Final Thoughts
The jump from PHP dev to leader wasn’t linear or obvious. It involved growing out of my technical comfort zone and embracing ambiguity, people dynamics, and the responsibility of building a culture—not just code. If you’re a PHP developer eyeing leadership or recently thrown into it like I was, know this:
You won’t be perfect. You’ll make mistakes. But if you lead with humility, empathy, and clarity—you’ll grow. And your team will, too.