Best practices to build an engineering culture where everyone can thrive 💊

Culture is the “why” behind every action taken by anyone. Those infinite, small actions are what ultimately determine success.

Alvaro Moya

Sep 16

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I left the startup I co-founded at the best moment (Accelerated in 500 startups, sales record) because of a toxic culture.

Four years ago, when I co-founded a startup and things started working well, my co-founders and I had to leave the country. They moved to San Francisco, and I moved to Finland to join an acceleration process.

We made many mistakes in this shift of becoming a distributed team in different time zones.

The main one: Not working well enough with the team to maintain effective communication.

The fact that the founders and the team were in different time zones without being prepared caused communication to be lost.

We lost trust in the team, and they lost it in us, as we were no longer talking on a personal level – getting the work process to suffer.

The planning, prioritization, time management, everything was affected, and therefore the delivery of the team was slower and with less quality.

How did we act?

We blame the team instead of understanding that the problem came from us by not helping them to adapt to this new way of working.

We fell into a vicious circle of blaming them when expectations were not met; getting job resignations from some team members, and dropping motivation.

Big mistake.

We returned to the country, and the work environment was completely different.

Low energy in the team, less risk-taking, more conservative estimates, and a lot of frustration.

I needed to change that situation, that toxic culture of blaming we were living. So, I proposed a solution of doing the opposite of what was being done.

I wanted to focus on finding the root of the problem and work from there, applying the motivation model 2.0 to each team member.

But what I proposed was doubted.

My cofounders doubted this system could be functional, and I never could at least “try it”.

I was criticized for my leadership style (more empowering, more ownership), so I had to leave the startup too.

I gave up EVERYTHING.

Stock options, time invested, etc.

And I had to start over from scratch.

My values were above any financial reward, and working in a way where I didn't love what I was doing.

I no longer felt I could care and help people grow. — what I really love about leading.

A toxic culture is easily noticed.

Communication is not assertive, teams are not synced, managers spend much time micromanaging, and the trust and motivation of the team are reduced.

But…

A good engineering culture is extremely valuable!

Besides keeping your developers close, It sets everyone up for success and holds the team accountable for its stated goals.

Culture is a set of practices and behaviors in a company's operation.

It's something you experience daily; it's the air you breathe in the company; it's your engineers working happily and healthily, doing meaningful work, and growing professionally and personally.

However, achieving a good engineering culture is not something simple, nor is there a single way to achieve it. It all depends on you and the company.

But, what exists are good practices you should keep in mind when implementing a culture within your team.

Practices I implemented when building an engineering culture in the next companies I joined as CTO and that helped everyone to thrive.

👉 Reflect on your company values

Fostering a good engineering culture is part of the values and beliefs of the company and the team members.

Reflect on the most important beliefs to your team and opt for actionable values. — i.e., collaboration, transparency, continuous improvement, etc.

And here’s something important: If you say something is important to you and you’d like the rest of your team to care about it, be the first person to live that value. Otherwise, don’t be surprised when nobody else does either.

👉 Start with you

Culture & Values are all about living them. Walk the walk, and lead by example.

If you want to ground a certain culture, you must always be the first to lead by example. Your behavior must align with the behaviors and values you would like your team to adopt.

— If you want people to have a good work-life balance and you don't want them to work late, you can't send them an email late.

— If you want your direct reports to be well prepared and run their 1:1, you must be the first to prepare YOUR 1:1 with your manager.

You are a referent for your team, and you will be imitated whether you are a role model or not.

👉 Foster autonomy

The most effective leaders build a team culture based on autonomy to achieve their expectations.

Fostering autonomy in your engineers will make them go from being accountable for their responsibilities to wanting to be accountable, as they will begin to acquire and own their initiatives.

e.g., at LIDR, we encourage each manager to be the CEO of their own department. It gives them a sense of belonging, and autonomy to establish their processes and build awareness.

Your role as a manager is to facilitate mastery, so they can put it into practice autonomously. As well as facilitate an environment in which they can make decisions and accept failure as part of the learning and process to be more autonomous.

👉 Trust & Transparency

Transparency by default, is a key value. Try to keep everything as open as possible with the team.

In our case, we use Notion as our documentation center. We have our entire operation there, and everyone can access it, thus fostering trust and transparency.

Another example of transparency is to have your engineering career ladder accessible from a well-known location.

It should NOT be a mystery how to get promoted in the company, and the standards should be universally applicable. It hurts your culture if someone can be promoted by achieving less in a different group; it can create a "toxic" culture that you definitely don't want.

👉 Encourage assertive communication

Last but not least, encourage communication as effective and assertive as possible.

It has a HUGE impact on your team's experience, motivation, trust, and commitment.

When teams communicate effectively, they can create goals and outcomes that more members agree on, promoting better teamwork.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Keep it as one of your key priorities at all times

Culture is the “why” behind every action taken by anyone. Those infinite, small actions are what ultimately determine success.

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