How do you deal with team members who's not open to criticisms as a TL

You don't.

@-red I have to it's responsibility!

You go over their head; if they don't listen to criticism and the issue is a high priority, fixing it sooner rather than later is a good idea.

Also if they dont listen in a group setting, try pulling them aside one-on-one

@cha-m-ra
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Disclaimer: I'm a tech lead for a large team (30+ devs). You can always find people to help you stand your ground. YMMV.

1. If you need the developer to be open to criticism, start with yourself by validating your opinion with others.

2. Assess if it's critical technically; if it'll fuck up the project. Can you let the developer do its own way and be able to fix (learning) when it's not working? (Maybe you're in for a surprise)

3. Assess if it's critical "socially"; is it the first time or is the dev always closed to criticism? Did it end up bad before?

2/2

4. Give or take ownership: who will take the extra time to fix things up? (This one... saved me from a unbearable amount of poitless debate. « if you accept to try my way, I'll be responsible » (you are responsible anyway...))

5. Technical workshop to lay out every structure and flow of both ways. Pinpoint the culprit.

6. Let it go and assist the dev through the feature by pair programming. If you see it'll really not work it's easier to discuss.

@Cultist thanks! Really good advice!

If it's code review related - make sure it's 2 way. Some of the best TL's I know gain their respect by asking their juniors to review their code and listening to their suggestions, just as those juniors are expected to do the same.

(Someone put a -- to my responses, I'm genuinely instersted to know why... for self improvement)

I misread it and thought you were asking for advice to share criticism with a team _lead_ who isn't open to it.

In case anyone's interested in that part, you try to show them your point with concrete examples, whilst also starting your job hunt because your TL will discard your examples and stick to what they know best and sooner or later you'll realize this place is too toxic for you and certainly not worth the hour long commute and you need to fuck off to a somewhat better place and hope that it'll be a long time till this same shit starts again.

@Cultist 30+ people sounds like an awful lot for a development team. Is that a scrum team or devs in multiple teams?

@Elfocrash non-fixed teams and a hell lot of projects. We are three tech leads, one for 15ish assigned devs.

Yes, it's a lot to handle.

I have a similar issue with one of our Senior Developers. He takes all constructive criticism as a personal attack and comes up with silly excuses to justify them.

He's not even on my team but I help that team out as they have no formal Lead Developer.

I just try to stick to the facts and give examples of the potential risk he is bringing to himself and the rest of the team. He sometimes tries to make it personal so I just stay focused and rise above it.

@LMagnus same here! I get attack for pointing their issues! They don't understand that we are a team and we need to work together