Why do some engineering teams consistently outperform others?
What makes a great team stand out? It’s not just technical skills or years of experience—it’s something deeper. Over two decades, I’ve seen how some teams thrive while others struggle, and the difference often comes down to how people interact, communicate, and support each other. Building a high-performing team requires more than just assembling talented individuals—it’s about creating the right environment for them to succeed together.
In this article, I’ll share lessons from leading and observing exceptional teams. From psychological safety and intentional communication to practical habits and leadership practices, these insights can help any team grow stronger and achieve more.
Let’s explore what truly separates great teams from the rest.
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During my 20-year career, I have been part of some bad and good teams. At the start, it was hard to understand why the team was terrible, but it was obvious that things were not going well. I learned a few important lessons when I discovered how good teams work.
And we will start with the most crucial thing…
The surprising role of psychological safety
Teams with high psychological safety show stronger collaboration, better communication, and more consistent output. They handle disagreements without fear, knowing that tough conversations lead to better decisions. When engineers feel safe, they solve problems faster, share ideas more openly, and commit to higher standards. It’s not about removing accountability; it’s about eliminating fear. Our job as leaders is to create a team environment with high psychological safety, where people feel they belong and have fun.
Google also researched this phenomenon in Project Aristotle and revealed something surprising: the most crucial factor in team performance was psychological safety, not technical expertise or experience. Harvard organizational behavioral scientist Amy Edmondson introduced this concept, which refers to the shared belief that team members can take risks without embarrassment.
Also, we want to handle disagreements well - not ignoring conflicts and staying in an artificial harmony, but having healthy and effective conflicts. This is important because when we have productive conflicts, we get new value from here and spark innovation. Teams that don’t have this cannot progress much.
➡️ Learn more about how Google builds great engineering teams:
➡️ And about physiological safety in this Harvard Business Review article.
Leadership role in building a great team
While psychological safety forms the foundation, leadership is crucial in building and maintaining high-performing teams. The best leaders I've worked with understand that their primary job isn't to manage people—it's to create an environment where engineers can do their best work.
Leaders set the tone. They ask questions and listen without judgment. They create space for everyone to talk, not just the loudest voices. They encourage direct feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable. Leaders who invest in psychological safety see it pay off as teams become more focused, creative, and resilient.
Great leaders help teams understand what they're building and why it matters. They connect daily technical decisions to business and user impact and help engineers see the significance of their work. This clarity of purpose drives better decision-making at all levels.
📚 Become a better leader by checking one of my best leadership books:
The power of intentional communication
Communication in high-performing teams goes beyond daily standups and code reviews. These teams develop "communication consciousness"—an awareness of how information flows and affects team dynamics.
I witnessed this transformation in a distributed team spanning three time zones. Initially, they struggled with misunderstandings and coordination challenges. The key improvement came when they developed a communication framework that included different needs and styles.
Their approach included several key elements:
First, they established "communication channels with purpose." Each channel had a specific role:
🤝 Synchronous discussions for complex problem-solving
📜 Documentation for decisions and technical details
🎥 Regular video sessions for relationship-building
💬 Text-based channels for quick updates and daily coordination
For example, they implemented what they called "communication preferences passports." Each team member documented their preferred:
⏰ Time of day for focused (deep) work
🚨 Method for receiving urgent updates (text, call, ping)
💬 Style of feedback (direct vs. nuanced)
🗣️ Learning approach (visual, verbal, or hands-on)
This information helped the team adapt their interactions to each person's needs, leading to more effective collaboration.
Creating meaningful connections
One common misconception is that professional relationships should remain purely work-focused. However, the highest-performing teams I've worked with understand that creating space for personal connections improves professional collaboration.
A team I advised implemented what they called "connection rituals," which were opportunities for team members to build strong relationships. These weren't forced social events but somewhat organic opportunities for connection.
Their "Learning Journey Shares" became particularly powerful. Every few weeks, one team member would share their professional journey – successes, struggles, and lessons learned. These sessions helped team members understand each other's perspectives and experiences, building empathy and trust.
They also developed "Technical Bio Sessions" where engineers would share their history with different technologies, including:
💻 Their first programming language - Which language did they start with, and what skills or habits did they pick up early?
💡 Projects that taught them the most - Which projects offered the most valuable lessons, and what did they learn from working through real challenges?
🤔 Technical decisions they regretted - Which choices turned out poorly, and how did they handle mistakes and learn from them?
📖 Moments of significant learning - Which events, discussions, or breakthroughs had the most significant impact on their knowledge?
These sessions helped create an understanding of each person's technical background while building personal connections at the same time.
Maintaining team health
Teams face constant change – new members join, others leave, technologies evolve, and business requirements shift. High-performing teams develop resilience through what I call "adaptive team practices."
One efficient approach I've seen is the "Team Health Radar." Every month, the team would assess various aspects of their functioning:
💻 Technical practices - Are we using reliable coding standards and tools, writing maintainable code, and following efficient development processes?
🗨️ Communication effectiveness - Are we sharing information openly, having clear and timely conversations, and ensuring everyone knows what’s happening?
📚 Learning and growth - Are we improving our skills, sharing knowledge within the team, and staying up-to-date with what’s happening in our field?
🏡 Work-life balance - Are we staying healthy, avoiding burnout, and ensuring that people have time for life outside of work?
📊 Project progress - Are we meeting deadlines, delivering what we promised, and doing what’s needed to move forward?
😊 Team morale - Are team members feeling motivated, valued, and generally good about their work and place on the team?
This regular check-in helped identify potential issues before they became problems and celebrated areas of strength.
📰 Learn more about building great teams and measure their performances:
Practical team building tips you can use today to build an exceptional engineering team
Over the years, I’ve seen what works. Consistently strong teams have certain habits baked in.
🏠 Strong ownership. Treat the code like your house. Be the owner of certain pieces of code and the person who knows it best. Ensure your code is the best and least buggy in the app. Leaders should make engineers trusted to make technical decisions within their domains of expertise.
🤝 Great collaboration. Do a great partnership and support each team member you work with utmost respect. Communicate in an open, balanced, and transparent way.
🙌 Help others. Help one another within your team to learn; everyone’s at different stages.
✅ Quality mindset. What will your code look like to someone in a year? Will it say, "Kudos to whoever wrote this," or maybe something else? Each line has its writer. Think about it.
💻 Customer focus. Ask yourself: "How will what I'm doing now affect the end user?" Will he be satisfied? We do all this for the user!
📝 Code reviews are not a formality. Look for and participate in them, learn from the feedback, and iterate.
♻️ Refactor constantly. Don't ask for permission. Let's not let "it's good, this works" be our standard.
🧪 Write tests for (almost) everything. When you do something, write the test first and only then the implementation. Don't let a single scenario in code go untested.
🗒️ Document the essentials. Is there anything not in the code that we will need tomorrow? Include it in the documentation. This is ideal for helping new hires.
🔎 Look at the logs and use monitoring as your ally. Create a process for constantly doing this.
📋 Have a checklist for everything. Use it for code reviews, commits, deployments, and other essential tasks. What is necessary must be in your head and on paper!
🐞 Maintain a zero-bug policy, no matter what! Keep the quality bar high. Everyone wants many features, but no one wants to use software with bugs.
🚀 Learn new things and apply them constantly. New knowledge leads to new insights and quality. We should give regular technical presentations on system components, make ADRs for major technical decisions, attend conferences, and read books.
⚡ Be proactive. Don't leave stuff unfinished. Catch the dropping ball.
🎉 Celebrate small wins. Broadcast what your team achieves to showcase your wins.
Creating a consistently high-performing engineering team is not easy. It requires strong technical practices and a supportive, respectful team environment. Start by enabling psychological safety, empowering your team through ownership and quality standards, and implementing the above practical tips.
Complement these with strong leadership that values communication, conflict resolution, and a sense of belonging. Over time, these combined efforts will lead to fewer mistakes, better products, and a team that excels regardless of its challenges.
Is your Trust Battery 🔋 full?
We all know that trust is essential in creating great teams, but how do we know our team's level of trust? The trust battery metaphor is a brilliant way to consider and explain the value of trust in your corporate culture. It can also help you have some tough talks.
But how does this trust battery work? In a team setting, a "trust battery" is often used to describe the level of trust between team members. Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, popularized this concept.
In this metaphor, each team member has a trusted battery that is charged or depleted based on others' actions. When the trust battery is high, there is a high degree of trust, and communication flows easily. When the trust battery is low, there is less trust, leading to miscommunication, misunderstandings, or conflict.
Various factors can influence the level of charge in the trust battery:
🤝 Reliability. Consistently delivering on commitments can charge the trust battery, while failing can deplete it. Walk your talk.
💬 Honesty and empathy. Being transparent and truthful can boost trust, while dishonesty can quickly drain the trust battery.
🗣️ Communication. Regular, transparent, and open communication can maintain high trust, while poor or infrequent communication can lead to mistrust.
🎯 Shared goals and values. Trust increases when team members share common goals and values. Conversely, trust can be eroded if team members have conflicting goals or values.
🙌 Mutual respect. Trust grows when team members respect each other's skills, knowledge, and contributions. Disrespect or disregard can lead to a loss of trust.
Maintaining a high level of trust within a team is crucial for its overall performance. Trust can facilitate collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation. However, other teams in the organization can also affect this battery. Therefore, leaders must pay attention to the trust battery and actively work on charging it.
Is there an interesting story about maintaining high trust in your teams? Feel free to reply to this email; I’m always eager to hear and share it with my audience.
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It is always complex to define success. The safety factor tho is key for longevity of a team.
This articke is good timing and lots of fresh info. I've just started reading the book "Right Kind of Wrong* by Amy Edmindson, such discusses how elite teams use failure to to succeed.