It's Called a Team for a Reason

Listen, I'm not much of a team sport enthusiast myself, but one thing that's very clear is what makes the team in team sport. It's not just high performing individuals, not the one coach making a difference, it's a combination of all of these working well together.

Let's paint the picture quickly. In soccer, a team of 11 super qualified goalies wouldn't win you matches. The same with any other position. Or let's say you do find the right mix of positions you need, but you place them the wrong way around your forward is now goalkeeper and defender is on a forward position. Again this most likely won't yield the best results.

So let's fix that. Now we'll place all 11 best people for the job on the right positions. Does the team perform well? Nope, not yet. And why you may ask? Because they're all still doing what they're good at in isolation, and it doesn't work. The forward tries to steal the show and do everything alone. Meanwhile the defending team doesn't have the best players, but they communicate and work together. They easily steal the ball and manage to score.

And here's the thing about the coach their goal isn't to stand on the sideline and yell where to shoot the ball. It's to give the team the tools and knowledge to make those decisions on their own, in the moment.

What this actually looks like at work

I've seen this pattern play out more times than I can count. You get a team of individually high performers, all working on leveling up their own skills, grinding away at their piece of the puzzle. But nobody's looking at the bigger picture the product they're building, the company goals, whether any of this actually fits together.

Or you get everyone going hard on a specific task, heads down, making great progress. Then you try to combine what everyone built and realize it doesn't fit. Nobody checked in with each other. Nobody asked "hey, are we building the same thing here?"

It's like having world-class players who've never practiced passing to each other.

The control trap

Early in my EM career, I was under the impression I should just chew everything into biteable pieces so the team had all the info they needed to perform. Breaking down tasks, spelling out exactly what needed to happen, making sure nothing was ambiguous.

And it was "ok". Yes, "ok" at best. Nobody was feeling empowered or motivated to go further. These were the tasks I described, and they were completing them as told. We were getting work done, but something felt off.

Then we had a face-to-face gathering. Day one was exactly what I expected status updates, planning, the usual stuff. Day two started with a brainstorming session on shaping a new feature we were planning to build. But this time, the team didn't get a ready-made answer. They were asked to brainstorm. I sat on the side and watched and listened.

It started slow. Really slow. I was almost eager to step in and steer the conversation. My hands were practically twitching to grab the whiteboard marker and lay out "the right approach." But I decided to wait a bit more.

Then one guy who'd been silent so far stepped up and quietly said, "What if we go more in this direction?" He sketched out an approach we hadn't considered.

The team stopped and thought about it. Then everyone jumped in on this idea. Building on it, poking holes in it, refining it. Eventually we ended up building it like he suggested something completely different from what we were doing at the moment. It improved our workflow and is something we still apply to this day.

That's when it clicked for me. I wasn't helping by having all the answers. I was getting in the way.

What changed

Nowadays I prefer to let the team come up with ideas. They know what the company's north star is. They know what metric we're improving. But giving them this much freedom? We get really unique and out-of-the-box ideas to improve it.

Not everything ends up in execution. But it always sparks others to have ideas based on someone else's. That's exactly the kind of teamwork and leverage that works well.

Look, there's still a place for top-down decision making. Sometimes you just need to make a call and move. But when that becomes the default? When every pass needs manager approval? It eats away at motivation and eagerness. People stop bringing ideas. They stop thinking ahead. They just wait to be told what to do next.

But giving freedom isn't just flipping a switch either. You need people who can adapt to this mindset and communicate clearly. Without that, people get lost in translation or start chasing the wrong goals. You still need to steer you're the coach after all but you're steering the direction, not calling every play.

What makes it work

Here's what I've learned: you need people who can see beyond their own work. Who can say "I'm working on this authentication piece, let me check with the team building the API to make sure we're aligned." Who can flag when something doesn't make sense for the bigger picture.

This was always natural for me as an IC I wanted to be a proper team player, leverage other people's great skills but enhance with what I'm good at. But not everyone operates this way by default, and that's okay. That's where you come in as a manager.

You create the space for this communication to happen. You make it clear that checking in with teammates isn't a sign of weakness or not knowing what you're doing it's exactly what you're supposed to do. You reward the person who stops and asks "wait, should we be building this?" as much as the person who ships the feature.

And you get out of the way when people start doing it. Because imagine me as a manager standing on the sideline telling people who to pass to I'm not on the field. I can't tell you how tired that developer is, if they can take on another task or not. They can though. And they can communicate with the person next to them about it.

This decision-making perception is really powerful in teams and makes great teams work even better.

What you can try tomorrow

Next time you're about to break down a problem into perfect bite-sized pieces for your team, stop. Give them the problem and the context instead. Tell them what you're trying to achieve and why it matters. Then shut up and listen.

It's going to feel uncomfortable. You're going to want to jump in. Your hands might twitch toward the keyboard like mine did.

Don't.

Because that quiet person on your team? They might have the idea that changes everything. But only if you give them the space to say it.

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Let's connect on LinkedIn—I'm building what I wish I had back then, and I'd love to have you along for the journey.