Patterns on the most effective teams I’ve worked on:
- high degree of trust and emotional safety between team members. The team can safely share feedback and risk sharing our crazy ideas
- high degree of care for the craft. We hold each other accountable to quality
- ships, regularly, to real customers
- little status seeking - goes with emotional safety - few individuals on the team need to be “in charge” or hold arbitrary titles.
- the individuals are more than fairly compensated and the company shows their love for the team in big and small ways
- the team talks to their customer and has a lot of empathy for their problems. They want to be accountable to them
- the team has a lot of empathy for new team members and works hard to make on boarding easier
- some willingness to “get in trouble” with the broader org because you know what you’re doing is right ultimately for the customer
- high self starters: instead of complaining, people feel empowered to solve problems or prototype ideas without a permission structure
- not too much catering to “super stars”. 1-2 heros does not a team make, the senior people make it their job to lift everyone up. The team doesn’t obsess over their high performers.
There’s a lot more emphasis on emotional intelligence and empathy in an effective team than on any specific process.
- high degree of trust and emotional safety between team members. The team can safely share feedback and risk sharing our crazy ideas
- high degree of care for the craft. We hold each other accountable to quality
- ships, regularly, to real customers
- little status seeking - goes with emotional safety - few individuals on the team need to be “in charge” or hold arbitrary titles.
- the individuals are more than fairly compensated and the company shows their love for the team in big and small ways
- the team talks to their customer and has a lot of empathy for their problems. They want to be accountable to them
- the team has a lot of empathy for new team members and works hard to make on boarding easier
- some willingness to “get in trouble” with the broader org because you know what you’re doing is right ultimately for the customer
- high self starters: instead of complaining, people feel empowered to solve problems or prototype ideas without a permission structure
- not too much catering to “super stars”. 1-2 heros does not a team make, the senior people make it their job to lift everyone up. The team doesn’t obsess over their high performers.
There’s a lot more emphasis on emotional intelligence and empathy in an effective team than on any specific process.