What do you think makes for a good leader / owner of a Development team?
Communication is crucial! Although after working with someone for a long time you get a grasp of "what they mean", until then you need to be VERY specific with your requests. Ask for their understanding of what you said.. A "yes, I understand" can easily lead to "oh, I thought you meant _______".
Welcome feedback and ideas. Although some are just "skills for hire", many developers work far better when they have some sort of passion and personal interest in what they're doing. So get them involved, and make sure they know that their opinions (not just on technical issues) actually matter. A passionate developer will work much harder, get much more done, and in many cases do far more work that required just to accomplish and take pride in it.
Patience and understanding(even if you don't actually understand). this takes a certain level of trust that many have a hard time giving, and for good reason. Delays happen, and methods of accomplishing what may seem to be a very simple task can turn into exactly the opposite. Many people feel the need to check status often, and maybe even nag. From my experience this is usually because they have been "screwed" by a developer in the past(it happens all the time), but if you hire a developer you need to trust them. I have had projects near completion in the past and dropped the client simply because they treated me like a child, and acted as if I hadn't cleaned my room in a week
Don't get me wrong, it's important to know where things are, progress, etc.. But a good developer will let you know what's going on as much as possible. you're likely to go through a few thought to be "good" developers before you find the right one. When you do don't let them go! Also the level of how good/bad/amazing a developer is depends on much more than their actual programming skills.
Best of luck!
