Great Teams Are Built, Not Managed

Introduction

Great teams are built over time with effort. They're not made overnight.
A leader invests in the team and encourages continuous growth.

Deadlines and project goals are essential, but investing in the team should be as important to a leader.

The Goal of Leadership

A leader should aspire to make a team greater than it found it.
If the team does not advance for a set period of time and the level of knowledge remains unchanged, then there's something that should be examined and enhanced.

Why Build a Team?

Why should a leader make an effort to make the team better?
Let's set aside everything other than the pure benefit that comes from the growth of the team and examine it. Is it worth it from a business perspective? Is it beneficial to the organization in general?

An imaginary development team:

How does this fictional team function?
The seniors are responsible for both developing the platform's main features and providing production support.
While the junior developers are taking on smaller tasks and the occasional main feature.

Let's assume there's no growth happening, no mentoring, and no coaching for the team.
The senior developers become the bottleneck. Why? Because if one leaves, you need to urgently hire a replacement. You cannot sustain the platform without them.

But you can just hire more senior developers, right? Wrong.
The issue is not the experience. The issue is in the culture and the environment.

If the environment does not encourage people to grow and learn, they will never do so.
Because they have to manage deadlines and expectations, if you, as a leader, don't give them the time to share knowledge, learn, and grow, then they can't.

Team Growth

A leader should not only focus on managing tasks and finishing the project, but team growth should be a priority as well. The team will only be able to grow if they're allowed to do so.

Encouragement is important, and you as a leader need to provide it to the team.

But if they want to learn more, they should do it on their own time.

That expectation is unrealistic. You cannot expect people to do more outside of work.
Of course, it would be good and beneficial for them. But it should not be the expectation.

As a leader, you need to allow them to grow and provide the time to do so. Your investment in them today will yield many benefits in the future.

In a year, your team will transform into:

Senior → Architect / Lead
Junior → Mid
Intern → Junior

In the previous section, we looked at the business value of investing in people, and even from that perspective, the return is clear. But leadership is about more than maximizing business value or delivering projects. A leader should aspire to leave the team stronger than they found it.

How to Build a Team?

The previous sections explained the benefit of building a team and growing it into a stronger version over time. But how can you, as a technical leader, grow your team? What are the steps, methods, and techniques that can be utilized to achieve this goal?

There are multiple methods that, if implemented correctly and revised periodically, will produce great results. The methods might differ depending on the team member, but in general they are mostly the same.

I will not assume or pretend to know all the right answers, but I do believe that these methods will either work or give you insights on how to approach this better.

Communicating and understanding the team members is essential before starting to implement the steps or methods needed for their growth. If you don't understand your team's capabilities, limitations, and career goals, you will not be able to help them grow.

Building a Great Team

Building a team requires effort. Don't assume the task is easy, but the effort spent on it will benefit you and the team in the future.

• Coaching: Coaching the team will open up a lot of paths for improvement and growth.

Coaching will differ a lot based on the level of experience of the team member, but not always.
I have seen juniors who understand and know exactly the path forward they want to take, and I have seen seniors who are stuck in their comfort zone and don't know how to proceed forward.

Scheduling regular sessions to coach the team members and understand their motivations will benefit them a lot. Because not every team member will understand or know how to proceed forward and grow in their career, it's your responsibility to coach them through this journey if you want to build a great team.

Understanding how to proceed forward with their career is important.
I once struggled with this dilemma. I was stuck in my comfort zone and didn't think of the next step for a long time. I still regret the amount of time wasted because of it. Coach your team to avoid the comfort zone trap.

• Creating Opportunities: People grow through opportunities, not only through courses.

Once you understand the level of experience, the limitations, and weaknesses the team members have, you can start by assigning and providing the proper training for each individual. The training can be separated into three different categories:

• Technical skills.

• Soft skills.

• Leadership.

The type of training required for each team member will depend on their skills and level of experience.

But providing the employees with courses, certifications, and books to read is not enough.
Experience and real growth do not come from constant learning, it comes from opportunities to grow.

Instead of assigning courses, which adds another task on top of their own tasks, provide training differently.

• Ownership: Give them ownership of a feature or a project. Let them handle every part of it.

Support them through it, but let them take the lead. That way, they will get the real-world experience and understand things on a different level than just theory.

• Knowledge Sharing: Arrange for sessions where you and the team share knowledge.

Technical discussions between the team members and you can be very beneficial. Alongside the knowledge that gets shared and gained from them, you also get to bond with the team and learn more about their thought process.

You can also arrange sessions in which one team member gives a presentation on a specific technical topic. That way, you're covering both soft skills and knowledge sharing.

• Confidentiality: Confidentiality is important if you want to earn your team's trust.

As a leader, you need to earn the team members' trust to be able to help them grow and achieve their goals. The team members should trust that anything said during the coaching sessions will be confidential and will not be used against them in the future.

If the team speaks honestly about their shortcomings and lack of experience, it should not be used against them in the future.

• Review and Adapt: Review and monitor the plan regularly and adjust it based on the findings.

Starting team development is not enough. Just assigning training courses and certifications is not enough to actually grow your team. You need to monitor their progress and regularly review it with them.

Adjust the plan based on the results you find during the review to enhance it and get better results.

• Consistency: Team development is not a one-time thing.

You need to be willing to spend time with them, regularly checking the progress and always providing your feedback on how they can improve.

Conclusion

Great teams are not built easily or overnight. They're built through effort and over time.
Spending the time and effort today will bring a great deal of benefit in the future.

In the end, as a leader, don't only think about the benefit for yourself.
Aspire to become an example, build confidence, and encourage growth. Your achievements are not only marked by projects, but by the teams you help grow.