• Speaking for myself, I've had the good fortune to come to my current job when the company was very small, so I had both the role of DBA and SQL Developer. There was some really ghastly code in SP's that I was able to quickly correct, having extraordinary gains in performance with very little effort.

    That helped establish my credibility with my boss and the upper management. So, when we started to grow and hire more developers and a proper DBA, I was looked upon as an authority figure. That has helped me establish development policies and best practices that help the junior developers avoid the most common mistakes. We also conduct regular code review sessions that have helped me a lot (I always learn something, even from the most junior developer) and our development policies and best practices are regularly updated.

    This situation has helped me grow professionally, while also helping all other developers grow.