Why prioritizing teams over individuals is key to engineering leadership success

As engineering leaders we often face the challenge of balancing individual talent with the collective strength of our teams. Over time I’ve developed a leadership philosophy centered on prioritizing teams over individuals—and it’s made a real difference in how my teams operate, grow, and deliver. Furthermore, by focusing on teams, engineers can maintain a healthy work-life balance, take PTO without guilt, and grow their careers while keeping projects on track.

I want to share why this philosophy matters, what it looks like in practice, and how it can help you build durable, high-performing engineering teams.

Defining “teams over individuals” in engineering

At its core, this philosophy is about trusting that everything we need is already in the room. The combined skills, knowledge, and creativity of the team are enough to solve any problem the team faces. No single person can (or should!) hold all the answers. Starting from this assertion provides confidence to the team and also elicits creativity and insight in to difficult problems.

In addition to trusting that the team is greater than the sum of it’s parts, I also keep three key values for a team-first approach:

• Knowledge is democratized. It belongs to the team, not siloed in individuals’ heads. Documentation, shared repositories, and open communication are essential to success.
• Teams persist, individuals move on. People come and go, but a well-functioning team persists. We build systems and cultures that keep projects moving regardless of turnover. Individuals should be free to grow their careers, ideally at their current company, without negatively impacting the team.
• No “load bearing employees.” A “load bearing employee” is someone whose expertise and advice is required (or is believed to be required) to make progress or troubleshoot issues on particular critical systems and/or for a large proportion of a team’s work. Engineers who become single points of failure ultimately hurt everyone, especially themselves. The team should be able to function even when losing key employees.

Team effectiveness and collaboration

The benefits of a team-first mindset

When a team’s success takes priority over individual achievements the results speak for themselves. Teams can tap into their collective knowledge and diverse experiences to produce more resilient architecture, cleaner, more maintainable code, and better documentation. This not only makes the codebase easier to work with but also accelerates the team’s velocity because everyone understands the conventions and decisions behind the work.

Another powerful benefit is durability. When a team is designed to succeed as a unit, it can continue delivering smoothly even as members come and go. This approach eliminates bottlenecks caused by over-reliance on a single expert. Instead, expertise is shared, and work moves forward regardless of who’s available. Plus, when team members can hand off responsibilities confidently, they open doors for growth and mobility within the organization. In other words, if you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted!

How teams drive collaboration and knowledge sharing

Emphasizing the team naturally fosters a culture where collaboration and knowledge sharing flourish. When knowledge is democratized, documentation becomes a priority, and engineers are encouraged to share what they know openly and regularly. This environment invites engineers to explore areas beyond their usual expertise, creating opportunities for learning and innovation.

Because success is defined by how well the team operates, individuals are motivated to improve collaboration and communication. They take pride in helping the team grow stronger, whether that means updating documentation, cleaning up code, or mentoring others. This shared ownership creates a positive feedback loop that benefits everyone.

Building a culture that supports the team

To motivate engineers to support team goals, transparency is key. Leaders should clearly communicate quarterly goals and the reasons behind them, repeating the “why” often so it sticks. Celebrating success publicly and highlighting everyone’s contributions builds a positive atmosphere.

A blameless culture, where failure is seen as an opportunity to learn and improve, helps reduce fear and defensiveness. Giving everyone chances to lead, in ways that set them up for success, fosters growth and engagement. Regularly acknowledging good work and the reasons it matters keeps the team energized and aligned.

Psychological safety: the foundation of team success

Psychological safety is the bedrock of a thriving team. When the team’s long-term health is valued over short-term perfection, individuals feel less pressure to be flawless. This reduces defensiveness and ego, opening the door to vulnerability and honest communication.

Constructive conflict becomes possible, allowing the team to surface the best ideas, commit to decisions, and deliver results together. Without psychological safety, none of this works.

Risk management and resilience

Mitigating risk and avoiding single points of failure

One of the biggest risks in engineering teams is relying too heavily on a single person for critical knowledge or decisions. Prioritizing the team helps mitigate this risk by encouraging transparency and shared responsibility. Clear code conventions guide where and how updates are made, while documentation like Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) or RFCs keeps everyone aligned.

Rotating project assignments and having multiple people involved in key projects further spreads knowledge and reduces dependency on any one individual. This resilience ensures the team can adapt and keep delivering, no matter what changes come their way.

Onboarding, mentoring, and skill development

A team-first approach makes onboarding smoother and skill development more intentional. Since knowledge is shared openly, new hires can easily find onboarding buddies and access up-to-date documentation, helping them ramp up quickly.

Shared leadership opportunities through rotating project leads give engineers a chance to build new skills. Encouraging team members to work in unfamiliar areas broadens their expertise and strengthens the team overall. Avoiding “load bearing employees” prevents bottlenecks and burnout, keeping the team healthy and progressing steadily.

Individual and team alignment

Balancing individual recognition with team success

Recognizing individual contributions is important, but it’s equally vital to keep those achievements connected to the team’s success. When individuals tap into the collective intelligence of their teammates—even when they are leading—they produce better results. Encouraging engineers to attach their pride to the team’s accomplishments rather than just their own helps maintain motivation and humility.

This balance fosters a culture where everyone strives to bring out the best in each other, knowing that the ultimate goal is shared success.

Aligning personal and team goals

When someone consistently puts personal success above the team’s, it often creates ripple effects that harm the entire group’s performance. When individuals focus primarily on their own achievements, they may withhold knowledge or avoid sharing important information that could help others, either to maintain a competitive edge or because they see collaboration as less valuable than personal credit. This behavior leads to knowledge silos, making onboarding new team members much harder because critical context and insights aren’t readily available or documented. Without shared knowledge, new hires struggle to ramp up, and the team becomes less adaptable when people change roles or leave.

Additionally, when personal goals are prioritized over team goals, engineers may focus on tasks that highlight their individual contributions rather than those that best serve the project or team’s priorities. This misalignment can slow delivery because work isn’t always coordinated or optimized for collective progress. It can also reduce the willingness to help others or invest time in mentoring, training, and improving team processes—activities that don’t always yield immediate personal recognition but are essential for long-term success.

By consciously aligning individual goals with the team’s objectives, we foster an environment where collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership thrive. Engineers feel motivated not just to succeed personally but to elevate the entire team. This alignment reduces bottlenecks caused by “load bearing employees,” encourages knowledge democratization, and ultimately leads to faster delivery, smoother onboarding, and a more resilient, high-performing team.

Leadership and decision-making

How team-first leadership shapes decision-making

In complex projects, a single person should be responsible for technical design, delivery, and quality to ensure accountability, but they are never expected to go it alone. Their role is to harness the collective wisdom of the team by seeking input from teammates and stakeholders early and often. The burden of work is shared amongst the team, even when one person is responsible for delivery.

Decisions are documented and reviewed collaboratively through ADRs and RFCs, creating a shared understanding and alignment before development begins. Those decisions, and importantly the context in which they are made, persist long into the future. This approach not only builds ownership for the project lead but also empowers the whole team to move faster and make confident decisions independently, knowing the “why” behind the design, even years after the design was agreed upon.

Measuring and scaling success

Measuring success at the team level

Ultimately, success is about what the team delivers and the quality of that work. Team-level metrics reflect true productivity, while individual metrics often encourage activity over productivity.

When teams commit together to delivering projects and maintaining high standards, velocity improves naturally, and morale stays high.

Scaling teams with a team-first philosophy

As organizations grow, this philosophy scales beautifully. Because knowledge is democratized, conventions are followed, and decisions are well documented, new members can onboard quickly and contribute meaningfully.

Engineers are incentivized to help each other succeed, creating a strong foundation for sustainable growth and continuous improvement.

Final thoughts

Prioritizing teams over individuals isn’t about diminishing individual talent—it’s about harnessing that talent in a way that creates durable, resilient, and high-performing teams. When engineers share knowledge openly, support each other, and align on team goals, amazing things happen.

If you’re an engineering leader looking to build teams that last and deliver, I encourage you to embrace a team-first mindset. Trust that the strength is in the collective—everything you need is already in the room.

Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash