Building Strong Bonds with Your Engineering Team(s)
Tags: engineering, leadership, teams, bonding
Published: 2023-02-10 19:21:20

While leading a decent-sized team for the last 2 years or so, I have learned the importance of building strong relationships with my team members. In my experience, managing a decently big team requires a lot of effort, patience, and the right approach. In this article, I would like to share some of the strategies I have used that have been effective for me and my team. These approaches are based on my own personal experience and I believe they can work well for others, although every leader has their own unique approach. I prefer staying connected with my team and these strategies have worked well for me. Please feel free to offer criticism and share your feedback(if any).


**Respect the Skill**

One of the most important things I have learned as a leader is to respect the skill, not particularly the seniority level. It doesn't matter if someone is junior to me, but if they have higher skills, they have my immense respect. This has helped to build trust and credibility with my team members, and they have become more confident in their abilities. When there are such cases, I don't shy to tell them upfront about this. 


**Hiring for Competence**

When hiring for any position, I look for someone who is more skilled than my current team members. If I need to hire someone at my level, I'll make sure to find someone even more skilled than myself. This is because I think it's important to surround ourselves with people who are more knowledgeable and capable than we are. That way, we can learn from them and they can help us grow as leaders. "Skills and experience are important." 


**Trusting Your Team**

One of the most important things a leader can do is to trust their team. When you trust your team members, you give them the confidence to perform at their best. Even if someone has failed once or twice, if you continue to trust them and vouch for them, it can push them to do even better. I've seen this happening in real-time and people do well even if they have some mental support from their leader. In today's rush, we kinda miss these things, but this sort of trust can go a long way in building a strong and motivated team.


**Being Empathetic**

Being an empathetic leader is crucial to building strong relationships with your team members. Work is not just about getting the job done, it's also about how you are being treated. As a leader, it's important to remain empathetic towards all of your associates and to encourage them to do the same. Not everyone might follow, but if you as a leader set the bar right, it becomes the culture.


**Reward Often**

Rewarding and recognizing your team members often can give them a lot of motivation. Whether it's a simple thank you or more formal recognition in email, this can help to boost morale and increase job satisfaction. I sometimes feel that I kind of miss out on appreciating people and in fact got this feedback from someone that I missed appreciating him for some good work done. So it's evident that your peers would love even the smallest of appreciation. So, don't hesitate to recognize people and also don't miss out on appreciating your low performers, they need it the most :)


**Giving Ownership**

When assigning tasks to your team members, it's important to give them a sense of ownership. This means giving them tasks that they can lead and make their own. By doing this, you are giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills and take ownership of their work. I always believe that once you identify the potential in a person and sense even a minimal potential to take ownership, make them feel responsible and give them full ownership of the task/program. At the start, you might need to just oversee but in most cases, they will do beautifully well and you'll feel awesome about their achievements.


**Minimizing Interventions**

it's important to minimize your interventions when your team members are leading processes. You should just oversee their work to make sure everything is running smoothly, but avoid micromanaging. This gives your team members the space and freedom they need to take their work to the next level. Otherwise, it's more or less the same you are executing on your own terms and your peers are just helping you run the show. So, be all ears to their ideas and let them implement them with some validations.


**Succession Plan**

As a leader, it's important to make sure you don't slow down your team's progress. This means sharing your responsibilities and making sure someone else knows what you do. This way, you can build a stronger team that trusts each other and works well together.


**Quality Over Quantity**

When it comes to team development, it's important to focus on quality rather than quantity. A team of let's say, N+ members could be a big achievement, but it's more important to have a team that is high-performing, motivated, and skilled. By focusing on quality building (like asking your team members to develop new skills), you are investing in the long-term success of your team and ensuring that they are equipped to meet new challenges that might come their way.


**Open Communication**

Finally, being open and transparent with your associates is crucial to building a strong and successful team. Whether it's about salary, the quality of work, or any other concerns, it's important to be open and to set up a transparent culture. This makes things easier for everyone, and it helps to build trust and credibility with your team members. Some folks, might not like it but it is okay you need to think from a perspective of a person who wants very transparent, open and detailed communication because that's how you'll make them feel connected and bring transparency.


In conclusion, managing a large team can be very challenging, but with the right approach, it can also be one of the most wonderful experiences of your career. These approaches make you more human and well-connected with your team, it creates a bond and I strongly feel such teams can achieve much more.