I've been told that I am to be a team lead of an upcoming project. I've not ever been team lead before but the responsibilities are what you would typically expect, with revolving door of 3 to 4 other developers through the 8 or 9 months it takes to complete the project.

My problem is this: one of the developers who will no doubt be working on this project will be a problem. He has more experience than me, has called me an idiot several times in the past, and has told me that he has taken this job because he is a natural leader. He has expected to be promoted to a leadership position with every new project (which has not happened to date), and even once told me that I was to report to him, even though the actual team lead was under no such illusion. Moreover, I've both observed and heard from others that he is extremely unprofessional (watches non-work videos at client sites - with no head phones, dresses unprofessionally, comes to work late, makes inappropriate jokes, etc.) He took or attempted to take credit for my work or insights multiple times while I worked with him as a peer. My current team lead told me that she threw out 1/2 of this guy's code once he left her project because the quality was no good. I could go on.

My fear is that this guy will actively work against me, because he will resent having to report to someone that he considers an inferior, especially since I have been given this opportunity before him. I've successfully dealt with this type of personality as a peer or even reporting to managers like this in the past. I've not dealt with, or ever thought about, having to deal with this type of character who is reporting to me. 

My question is: what kind of strategies can I use to effectively and professionally deal with this? Especially now, before it has become a problem, is there any way to cut it off before it gets out of hand etc. If anyone has a similar experience how did they deal with it?

The other answers I'm seeing here ("short leash!", "document everything!", "be professional!") are nice and all, and they're superficially correct, but they fall short in that they fail to consider the human aspect of the situation. 

The thing is, everyone is a human, and humans are different, and their motivations and thought-processes and skills are all different. And while the somewhat algorithmic answers I'm seeing here are technically correct, they do not seem to take into account the nature of the way that human beings work and the nature of what true management can be.

You can't begin to solve someone's problem until you understand them. Which means, understanding their motivations. Which is why, in fact, good people management can be a lot more like psychoanalysis than you'd think.

Here's an example of how the thought process might go.


Joe thinks he should be leader because he has more experience than me, but he's delusional.


OK, what does that tell us? Is Joe unusually concerned about status? Is he bothered by the lack of respect? Does he chafe at being called Joe instead of DOCTOR Joe in recognition by his PhD? Where is this insecurity coming from? How can you address it?


Joe's code is not very good. Half of his code had to be thrown out.


Why? How? Is he sloppy? Rushed? Just not very smart? Is he cocky, thinking his code is awesome? Why? Is this that insecurity again?


Joe is unprofessional and watches videos at the client site.


Again... why? Is it because he thinks he's a rock star, and should be indulged for wearing hoodies and watching collegehumor videos because his work is sooooo amazing? Or is it because he is not very self-aware, and does not realize the image he is portraying? Does he genuinely not GET what it means to be professional, or is he actively rebelling against the idea of professionalism? I'm not sure. The answer is there to be found.

How do you manage this?

Again, you start looking at the human/emotional problems, and address them as such. One thing I'm sensing strongly from the description you've provided is insecurity. It seems like Joe may be genuinely insecure, and he's hiding behind a veneer of arrogance. Where does that come from? Maybe he didn't go to a highly selective university? Maybe he's a VB developer in a world of C++ developers? 

I don't know, you didn't tell me. I'm not even sure if insecurity is the issue here, because I don't know this guy. But bear with me for a bit--I just want you to see what it means to look at the human issues of management, not the superficial, "how do I enforce my will on this guy" issues of management.

So where would this lead us? Suppose you think about it, you have a few long conversations with Joe, and you decide that he is feeling insecure about something. How can you make him feel more comfortable? Will that make him happier and better adjusted? Maybe he needs some specific training to be great at something. Maybe he needs to pair program with someone who can encourage him. Maybe he needs to feel more loved. Actually, that last one is almost always true.

I've dealt with a lot of difficult management solutions, and the answer has always differed dramatically depending on the individual. A lot of times, they can't be fixed. But as a manager, you have to understand the individual as a human before you can start thinking about fixing them and fixing the situation and acting correctly in the situation in order to get the best outcomes.

So, here's what I recommend you actually do as a course of action.


Meet with his peers and former managers. Have a conversation that tries to get to the heart of what his human/emotional problems are. Is he immature? Just generally unintelligent? Unhappy? Depressed? Insecure? Arrogant? Emotionally unintelligent? All of those are different diagnoses for the real cause of the problem and all of them have different prescriptions.
Talk to him personally and privately, at length. Let him do most of the talking. Ask open questions. A good one is "How did that make you feel?" It uncovers a surprising amount of stuff. You would be shocked to learn how much better I got at managing human beings when I learned to ask people "How did that make you feel?"
Form a hypothesis of the root causes of his issues. Pick a course of action based on what you think the core problem is. 
It may work. It may not. If it doesn't, that's too bad, but life is too short, and you're not paid to solve his problems, only the company's problems, so follow whatever advice you see elsewhere in this thread to get rid of him.


Once again, and I apologize for going on soooo long here: the other answers I'm seeing here are mostly summarized as "You need to be very strict." Well, being strict works well in one situation and one situation only: an emotionally immature person. If, indeed, his problem is emotional immaturity, that's the way to go. If his problem is depression caused by a cycle of learned helplessness, strictness will have the exact OPPOSITE effect than the one you want. Life, and management, and people, is just not that simple. There are many "diseases" that make a person be a bad employee and each one has it's own medicines. Some of them have cures. Some don't.
