Humble Team-First Attitude

There’s a silent killer on the loose. It’s the killer of productivity which results from low team morale. It takes on many shapes and it’s often reincarnated in the form a self-serving team member who puts individual needs and desires before the needs of the team. It knows not the boundaries of gender, race, religion, nationality, or technical competency.

The behavior of self-serving engineers causes resentment and unrest on software teams. The behavior manifests itself in a number of the following ways.

• Opportunity hoarding – an attempt to own a majority of tasks that create personal growth opportunities, such as tasks that involve researching new technologies. It’s usually coupled with a failure to take ownership for the tedious or unglamorous tasks that aren’t particularly interesting.
• Credit hoarding– an attempt to claim credit for every good idea ever produced by the team, a failure to recognize other team member’s contributions, and an over-emphasis on the contributions of self.
• Insincere flattery- Attempt to ingratiate and curry favor among leadership while speaking negatively about other team members behind their backs.
• Unchecked ego- arrogant and condescending comments to other team members.
• Insecure - inability to be vulnerable or admit when they’re wrong or don’t know the answer.
• Dominate discussions– during technical discussions, these engineers often shut down the ideas of other engineers and create an environment that lacks psychological safety.

These traits are more difficult to recognize when disguised in the form of a highly competent software engineer. I’ve worked with multiple who had the potential to be extremely valuable, but were continually held back by their counter-productive behaviors.

Their inability to be vulnerable made it more difficult to connect and influence other team members. Their failure to admit fault caused other team members to become resentful. These negative behaviors significantly reduced both their overall personal effectiveness and the overall effectiveness of the team.

The importance of hiring engineers with a team-first mentality can’t be overstated. These types of engineers exhibit the following behaviors.

• Helpful extremely willing to help team members with issues.
• Level-up team – constantly educating and assisting other team members to grow and develop their skills and talents.
• No task is too small– a willingness to take on any necessary task, regardless of the associated glamour or level of interest.

These behaviors result in a more educated and knowledgeable team, and improves the team morale while fostering a psychologically safe environment.

Sample Interview Questions to Assess Humble Team-First Attitude

Tell me about a time when you helped skill-up or coach a team member on a particular technology. I am looking to learn about a candidate’s propensity to help others and better leverage their skills to help improve the overall effectiveness of the team.

Talk about a time you experienced conflict and how you handled it? Some conflict exists on every team. A certain amount of conflict is healthy, as it fosters discussion around technical choices, decisions, and direction. However, it’s extremely important that team members can handle conflict in a professional and appropriate manner that doesn’t negatively affect team dynamics.

Talk about a time you had to give constructive feedback to a member of your team. This is an opportunity to learn how open a candidate is to providing feedback, as well as learning about the approach they take when providing it.

Talk about a time you received constructive feedback from a member of your team or your manager. I am interested in how a candidate handles feedback. Do they take responsibility for their actions, or do they continually deflect blame to others.

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