How to be a great team player
The not-so-complicated ways to level up your peers and take your engineering team from good to great.
When you're in a band, there are moments when everything just clicks. You're all in sync, in tune with each other and each other's pockets. Every note, every beat, just falls perfectly into place. It's like you're all speaking a secret language, effortlessly understanding each other's musical cues.
These moments are what make all the practice, the late nights, and the dedication worth it. It's a feeling that words can hardly capture. The entire band is at its peak performance.
Achieving peak performance isn't limited to music bands or orchestras alone. We can observe this in a soccer game as well.
When you see a strong soccer team play at its best, each pass is crisp, each movement is calculated, and every player seems to anticipate the others' actions perfectly. It's as if they're all connected by an invisible thread, moving as one cohesive unit.
There's an undeniable sense of camaraderie and understanding among the players. The passes go smoothly, and each player knows their role. The goalkeeper stays in their position and does their job. The strikers, midfielders, and all other players do their jobs, trusting their teammates to do the same. It's not just about individual talent now; it's about the collective effort and the shared vision of victory.
People have used different words to describe this state a team can be in for a while. Words like "flow," "team sync," "teamwork," and "flow state" are not uncommon to describe this state.
I like to refer to it as synergy.
Synergy occurs when the sum of a team's impact or outcome exceeds the total sum of its individual parts.
You have synergy when 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = greater than 4.
Synergy defies the logic of mathematics. There's an element of impossibility you observe when there's team synergy.
Over the last decade, I've had opportunities to work in teams as well as lead teams. Through those years, I've come to believe that what makes a team great is not only the talents in the team but also a function of how they work together.
Great team = Talents + How they work together.
It's better to have a great team than a team of greats
– Simon Sinek
A team of greats has strong skills. They are masters of hard skills, but they lack the ability to work well together. They lack the harmonious way of working together that makes 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 greater than 4.
Building a great team is a two-way street! Leaders have their part to play, but so do you! This post dives into what you, as a team member, can do to supercharge your team. Essentially, the not-so-complicated ways to level up your team and achieve amazing things together. Let’s dive in.
Help each other feel psychologically safe
The power of a team lies in the diversity of their experience, opinions, and how they view the world. Everyone of us has something unique that others don't necessarily have. Our experiences are different, and the lens through which we view things is different. This diversity of opinions fuels innovation.
Research has shown that psychological safety is one of the most important variables for creating innovative teams. When a team is psychologically safe, they're more open to sharing opinions, taking risks, and exploring better ways to approach problems rather than just going with the flow.
As a senior engineer in a team, there are various ways you can help others in the team feel psychologically safe
Let's look at an example:
During a code review, Sarah (a junior engineer) proposes a solution that David (a senior engineer) doesn't initially agree with. David notices Sarah seems hesitant to defend her approach or to push forward to understand why David disagrees with the approach.
Let's look at what David can do to help Sarah build more psychological safety:
Focus on understanding:Â Instead of directly criticizing Sarah's solution, David can ask clarifying questions. "That's an interesting approach, Sarah. Can you walk me through your thought process behind it?"
Positive framing:Â Even if David ultimately disagrees, he can acknowledge the value in Sarah's thinking. "Thanks for sharing that, Sarah. It highlights an interesting perspective I hadn't considered before." This validates Sarah's contribution and encourages her to participate further.
Collaboration:Â David can turn the situation into a collaborative effort. "Let's explore both options together. Maybe we can find a way to combine the strengths of both approaches." This demonstrates that David values Sarah's input and wants to work together for the best solution.
Focus on Learning: Â David can frame the situation as a learning opportunity. "Sometimes the best solutions come from diverse perspectives. Even if we don't go with your approach this time, it's valuable to consider different options." Highlighting the learning aspect reduces fear of failure and encourages exploration.
Share knowledge
The saying goes, "knowledge is power." But true power lies not just in possessing knowledge but in either acting on it or sharing it with someone who can do something with that knowledge. Unutilized knowledge is powerless.
In some teams, individuals hold onto knowledge for personal gain, believing it gives them an edge over others. This fosters a stagnant environment and hinders collective progress.
Great teams, on the other hand, thrive on knowledge sharing. They understand that information is only valuable when it's used. Knowing something holds no weight if it doesn't contribute to improvement.
To maximize the value of knowledge, share it with those who can truly act on that knowledge. Below are some ways you can make your team great through knowledge sharing.
Utilize code reviews to share something on how something can be made better.
Pair programming. If someone is struggling with a specific technology, offer to help grow that person.
Regular internal workshops or knowledge sharing are another part of this.
Coaching others and helping them grow. Â Mentorship provides guidance and support to less experienced engineers on the team.
Have you seen a course that can be of help to another person? share it.
Support and advocate for engineers to attend conferences, workshops, or online courses to acquire new skills and stay updated with the latest technologies.
Encourage one another
Even the strongest soccer teams experience missed plays or unexpected fouls. Players put in a tremendous effort, but sometimes things slip through the cracks. It's in these moments that a teammate's supportive words like "Don't beat yourself up" shine. They acknowledge the effort, accept the mistake, and move forward as a team.
As an engineering team, there will be bugs, experiments that didn’t go according to plan, feature development riddled with blockers and so on. When these happen, they're the moments when you should pat yourselves on the back, encourage each other, extend a hand to other colleagues, learn from it, and keep moving.
A team that does this encourages trust and bonding and fosters a sense of camaraderie. It validates efforts and assures they’re on the right track with confidence.
Provide regular feedback
Feedback is one of the most effective ways great-teams use to level each other up. Feedback is so important because, as humans, we’re wired to learn through the feedback we get from interacting with our environment. When we touch a hot stove, it burns us, and from that moment on, we learn never to touch it. One great difference between a great team and others is that feedback flows freely from top to bottom. See my previous post on how to get good at giving feedback.
Unblock others where you can
When starting out as software engineers, one of the basic things we learn is how to unblock ourselves and know when to reach out for help. We learned to use Stackoverflow, read blogs, search Google, and now ChatGPT to unblock ourselves. Where most people stop is learning how to unblock others, not just ourselves. Great teams have mastered the act of unblocking each other through pairing with others to solve problems and injecting themselves into conversations to help resolve external blockers.
During standup, if you notice someone is struggling with a task or finding it hard to get alignment on something, try to offer help and see how you can help them unblock.
Hold each other accountable
Being a great team member means following through on commitments. When things slip through the cracks, peer accountability steps in. In high-performing teams, members hold each other responsible for actions, behaviors, and commitments.
This creates a stark contrast to weaker teams:
In low-performing teams, no accountability exists. When someone slacks off, no one speaks up, allowing mediocrity to fester and hinder overall results.
In mediocre teams, managers become the source of accountability. When issues arise, a manager intervenes, taking responsibility for holding individuals accountable.
Great teams stand out: Peers manage the majority of accountability. Peers have mastered how to hold each other accountable, keeping each other focused on the shared goal. This collaborative approach helps everyone stay focused on the shared goal, fostering a supportive and productive environment.
Conclusion
Becoming a great team doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens because everyone is invested in making the team great. Everyone shared the responsibility of making the team better and better each time. By embracing these simple ways, you can become a catalyst for growth within your team. Remember, being a great team player isn't about individual glory; it's about fostering an environment where everyone feels empowered, supported, and challenged to reach their full potential. When you elevate your peers, you elevate the entire team, and the collective brilliance is what propels you from good to great. So, put these tips into action, watch your team flourish, and celebrate the shared success you've helped create.