Spotting a High Performance Team

I often get invitations to join early stage startups. Now, it’s very important that I analyze the team very well because I am betting my career upon the success of this venture.

In my 8 years of software development, had the privilege to work with quite a few software development teams across the world. Even helped in building three teams from scratch. Still learning, but am able to spot these three common patterns in a high performance team (HPT) now.

Less talking more coding

In average teams, there is a lot of talking about a proposed solution.
In HPT, members usually build a solution first, then maybe talk about it.

Nothing wrong with team meetings on a proposed solution. Technical discussions do help to understand the approach and get insightful feedbacks but IMHO the reason there is too much discussion going on is because team members don’t have a lot of faith on the technical aptitude of other team members. Each discussion ends up being a lot of teaching, preaching and convincing.

Whereas in HPT, just a slack message is good enough. Usually, the team members already know about the approach or will research it’s Pros/Cons on their own. They will send an article link or discussion thread if something demands attention. Most of the times I got to know about a new approach was through an article link, GitHub PR request and POC implementation links. Sometimes it’s messed up but it’s way faster. Communications are completely asynchronous and even presentations are recorded, edited and shared on Slack.

Presence of Tech Wizards

In average teams, there may be a strong Technical Lead but
In HPT, there will be Tech Wizards who are revered.

Even a strong technical lead in an average team may not receive such reverence, eventually leading to pushing the team.

Strong developers are attracted to other strong developers, its a natural process and usually there are domain experts in a high functioning team. Their recommendations are taken seriously by the team members. These wizards lead by example, and when the team sees their commits then respect is automatically generated.

Having Fun

In average teams, communications are quite formal but
In HPT, members speak freely putting aside formality and correctness.

Average teams don’t have that chemistry and bonding established which helps with that free flowing fun conversation in meetings. Usually, we find dedicated sessions to have those fun meetings.

In HPTs, members chat/talk freely and to the point. Sugar-coating and context building are rarely observed. It’s like you’ll either love it or hate it kind of feeling. No mediocrity in emotions. A person working in an average team for many years might find such environment extreme and provocative. It’s not bad because it acts like a natural filter and only the A-Players with strong convictions will thrive here.

Ending Notes

I have a vision, that I partner with the Tech Wizards around the world.

If you feel

• That no one is able to challenge you and things are becoming dull
• Your horrendous daily standups are sucking the life out of you.

Then it’s high time that you think about finding a stronger tribe. Strong tribes hunt for bigger projects and take away bigger shares too.

If you are interested in joining this tribe then fill out this form.