I had a chat today about motivating dev teams. I was rushed so I gave a pretty basic answer about communication and being approachable. You need to understand what problems people are facing and what they actually want to achieve - even if it's not work related.
But there's more to it than that.
Small wins matter
Think about sales people. They work on a deal for two weeks, and either it dies or they close it. When they close, there's celebration - bell ringing, drinks, commission coming their way. A developer works just as hard and gets an automated email saying their code got merged.
At my old job, we started having all the team leads and managers meet every Friday to talk about what their teams accomplished that week. It started as a way to keep everyone informed about what different teams were doing. It turned into something bigger though.
Suddenly all the boring stuff our junior devs were grinding through - stuff that didn't seem to impact the business directly - was getting recognized by everyone. We made sure to highlight the good work and explain why it mattered. You could see how happy the dev team got when the whole company was backing their work.
Unexpected bonus: the sales team started talking about "optimized deployments" and dashboard rebuilds in their pitches. Now they had new ways to show we weren't just another CRM - we were actively improving.
You could call this "celebrating small wins" and "communication" but now you've got something concrete you can actually do.
We're a team, not a family
A few years back everyone started calling their teams "families." You still see it in job postings. The idea was to show unity and support beyond just being coworkers. Some say this creates tribal behavior where underperformers get pushed out instead of helped.
My issue is different. If you really think of your team as family, how do you fire someone who's not cutting it? It doesn't work in a business that needs to survive and just sounds fake to people who take it seriously. For everyone else, it's just corporate speak.
We're not random people thrown together, but we're not family either. We're a team. We know our jobs and what our teammates do. Good team players help when needed. Good managers notice this and do the same.
Autonomy is everything
A lot of people think they can work independently, but real autonomy in a team setting is different and often misunderstood.
Team autonomy means someone can work on their own while still being part of the team. They can handle tasks, make important decisions, and solve problems without constant hand-holding. It shows they're competent and committed to what the team is trying to do.
They need less support and validation. They can figure out project requirements and constraints, come up with their own approach, and execute. It doesn't mean working in isolation or not collaborating. It means they can navigate their work independently while staying engaged with the team, asking for help when needed, and contributing to shared goals.
Some might say traditional management works fine, but I believe in autonomy. When you foster it, you build a culture based on trust. Team members take ownership, get better at problem-solving, and drive productivity and innovation.