"Proceeding calmly, valuing their words, Task accomplished, matter settled, The people all say: We did it naturally!"
– Tao Te Ching, Chapter 17 (Derek Lin translation)
Engineering teams don't want to be told what to do. They want leadership. That's a difference that matters, especially when you are joining a new team.
This team in the previous article wanted answers and a path forward. That didn't mean we didn't need to make connections, find common ground and build trust before we could work together to build ideas and solve problems. And until I worked that out, there was a lot of friction.
Let me tell you a second story about arriving, where it was very important that I used my energy to bring the team and their voices to the front.
Story: From the ashes
I was asked to join a team that had imploded. An important large-scale technical delivery had failed. Leaders gone dark, burnt out. The remaining engineers were skilled, experienced engineers, but were not in a great place. Forward momentum had stalled, there was little left in the tank.
The big problem they had tried to solve was still there. An exit plan from critical but unscalable software. There was a strong need to find a route forward.
I was new to both the company and the context, I didn't know the domain and what a well-suited solution might look like. I did have good form as a facilitator and consultant engineer. To do well, I needed information and orientation. My first instinct was to hold a post-mortem. Establish what went wrong. Reveal clarity. Make sure everyone understands.
I paused and paid attention to where these people were. This team was left carrying the weight of a long term project that had failed to launch. Feelings were raw. There was learning, there was wisdom, but it was still being processed and it wasn't going to appear on a whiteboard that month. A post-mortem would keep them where they were, and a new senior engineer asking questions about the failed project would most likely feel like blame-storming.
Instead, they needed an escape hatch. A positive story that could grow from what happened. We still needed to escape the old tech that stopped us scaling. But we weren't going to start another massive architectural gambit, so what should we do? We were presented with key business demands: a need to present new external APIs to win business. Perfect.
The team focused on the immediate challenge and I worked on how this could progress the big architectural challenge. When it fitted, the team folded in pieces of the failed project. Code, hard-won understanding of the domain. But migration of ideas only when it fitted.
We delivered, and this moved the architecture forward. We progressively solved problems that the old system had, using our API solution as a frame for the next and the next. Slowly escaping the legacy code. The team delivered really well in a complex environment. More importantly, they were engaged and they owned. They had found their footing again.
Principle: Inject Positive Focus
In my story, I centred on the team and then the challenge. My immediate need was to know what happened (so I could avoid that mistake), and to take control and give direction (to show that I had got this), but I surrendered those needs for something better. A team that was able to return to power, and the potential to use what they learnt to get us out of a hole that I couldn't do alone.
I listened and provided breathing space, structure, and a path to success. I held on to the big mission, allowing them to focus on recovery.
A good team needs positive focus to move them forward, especially at the worst times. Your job is to help them find it. Not show them who is boss.
How do we do that?
1. Create positive energy
Positive energy sounds simple and almost banal. What's that going to do?
My favourite VP of Engineering taught me a great lesson. Make the team comfortable, like a warm blanket on a cold day, and you'll create more than safety and comfort. You'll create the possibility of something new, something great.
My first step with the engineers in the story was to accept them as engineers with expertise and experience. I didn't take that away, nor did I demand explanation or justification of what happened. With no blame to allot, they could focus on the future.
2. Create a story of success
In the story I met a desire: escape from the failed state, without a demand to understand or to make everything magically whole. Every team will have a different need. Understand what would bring them together to drive towards somewhere new, somewhere better.
Point back to the problem as much as you need. But show them how to succeed, make it a small enough leap, they can see how to do it.
3. Hold the bigger picture
The parts of this journey to success the team aren't ready to hold and own, need to be covered by you. In the story, I held the strategic moves that would make the new service a solid legacy-exit strategy, whilst the team built enough to solve some immediate business needs. Later I could bring the bigger problem to them, which gave them the opportunity to take domain design and code from the failed work and use it to bring a new solution to life.
Active surrender creates space for positive focus
To provide for the team, I surrendered my need for control and knowledge. Instead I focused forwards and we flowed like water finding the space through rock.
I needed to trust them and they needed to trust me. The Tao Te Ching says "Those who show no trust will not be trusted." It was my job first to ask them how they would solve the problem, and then let them trust me to frame it into a step towards a greater solution.
Listen first
Listen first, especially at points where it feels control is needed. Your position provides you with authority — it's said that leaders carry an invisible gun. Your curiosity can sound like a command and your ideas can stamp over others — leaving a feeling of powerlessness or passivity. Let their ideas speak first. You can provide space, steering, and direct positively — so all flow forward.
That doesn't mean you don't have input to give, but you also have limited time and energy. Use it wisely and without ego. Find the best ideas from you and the team. Bring focus to where it matters. Adding your voice when it matters is a much more powerful way to operate. You conserve, you assemble, you bring focus.
Find the team's truest voice
By respecting the engineers as the experts, they were able to bounce back from the failure. My job was to create that space and opportunity, ask good questions, and help stitch ideas into a forward moving fabric.
A true voice doesn't overpower others, but naturally orients. A voice that got that way by listening most carefully. Ask where the team is at, and use their wisdom to move forward.
Bring comfort and then bring attention. Listen. Use the truth that surfaces to move forward.