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While strong skills and knowledge of the latest trends and tools are essential if an IT team is to succeed in today’s tech-dominated, fast-evolving workplace, they alone won’t guarantee the highest levels of performance. A blend of soft skills and growth traits is essential for an IT team to achieve the best results.
While it’s ideal if new team members walk through the door with these “extra” qualities, that doesn’t always happen. Fortunately, with thought and smart strategies, tech leaders can cultivate these traits within their teams. Below, 19 members of Forbes Technology Council share some key qualities they believe IT teams need to perform at a high level, as well as strategies tech leaders can leverage to develop them.
1. Attention To Organization And Detail
All high-performing IT teams are highly organized and have detailed guides explaining how things should be done. Creating internal standard operating procedure manuals will help keep your team on the same page. If everyone has access to the same tools, resources and processes, you’ll cultivate a culture of organization and preparedness. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
2. Autonomy
It’s most important to create an autonomous and self-organizing team. That starts with building a high level of trust within the team so that they can challenge each other respectfully and hold each other accountable. As a tech leader, the best way to cultivate a high-performing team is not to instruct team members on what needs to be done but to put them in charge of developing their own mission and delivering value. - Simana Paul, SumUp
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3. ‘High Alignment’ Combined With ‘Loose Coupling’
“Highly aligned and loosely coupled” is a key quality of high-performing teams that tech leaders need to cultivate. High alignment comes from having a clear, well-understood team strategy where everyone follows priorities and knows their role in the bigger strategy. A loosely coupled culture demands a deep level of trust between peer organizations that enables teams to move fast. - Vishwas Manral, Cloud Security Alliance
4. A Problem-Solving Mentality
A problem-solving mentality is essential for a high-performing IT team. Tech leaders can cultivate a problem-solving mentality in their teams by sharing the broader business context around customer pain points and needs, rather than dictating solutions as tasks. This allows IT teams to demonstrate ownership and deep expertise to solve customer problems. - Wendy Johansson, MiSalud Health
5. A Balance Of Patience And Impatience
There are certain things you should be impatient about: the urgent and important priorities, such as building an awesome core product and delivering the best experience to customers. There are other things that require patience. These can include moving markets, changing the world and carrying out your long-term vision. Balancing patience and impatience is hard, but it’s necessary for execution. - Chet Kapoor, DataStax
6. Resilience
Resilience is an essential trait of a high-performing IT team. Tech leaders can cultivate it by fostering a culture of experimentation, providing opportunities for skill development and encouraging collaboration to solve complex challenges. - Avani Desai, Schellman
7. Proactivity
High-performing IT teams are proactive. One thing great IT team leaders do is instill the willingness and ability to act immediately on tasks and make updates before they become a “fix.” Great IT teams aren’t necessarily “looking” for things to fix all the time, but they are monitoring whatever they can to stay ready. - Jordan Yallen, MetaTope
8. Inter-Team Cooperation
Cooperation is essential for teams confronted with multiple pressures and responsibilities. Communication and collaboration are crucial within and between teams in siloed organizations. Effective leaders nurture inter-team transparency and establish strong communication channels for optimal outcomes. - Jennifer Gold, Apollo Information Systems
9. An Exploratory Mindset
High-performing IT teams possess an exploratory mindset, constantly seeking opportunities to learn and innovate. Leaders can cultivate this by encouraging “experimentation days” in which team members have the freedom to explore new tools, technologies and creative solutions without the pressure of immediate results. This fosters a culture of curiosity and growth, fueling performance and innovation. - Andres Zunino, ZirconTech
10. A ‘Winning’ Attitude
Individuals who have a “winning” attitude create high-performing IT teams. While the right skill sets are also needed, leaders shouldn’t underestimate the power of employees who align with their vision and company goals, bring a strong work ethic and support one another. Listening to and acting on their feedback helps foster their development while creating a strong and inclusive company culture. - Gene Fay, ThreatX
11. Strong Communication Skills
A high-performing IT team must possess effective communication skills. To cultivate these skills, tech leaders can encourage regular team meetings, promote an environment of openness and transparency, use collaborative tools and encourage active listening. By prioritizing communication, IT team members can work together more effectively, leading to better outcomes and greater success in their projects. - Namrata Sengupta, Stellar Data Recovery Inc. dba BitRaser
12. Agility
High-performing IT teams need effective communication and agility. Combining these qualities helps teams quickly adapt to changing business needs while maintaining transparency and collaboration. Leaders can foster communication through openness, collaboration and clear channels, and they can promote agility by using Agile methodologies, encouraging experimentation and providing regular feedback. - Cristian Randieri, Intellisystem Technologies
13. Curiosity
Curiosity is essential for a high-performing team. With the constant development of new tools and technologies, an IT team needs to retain the curiosity that many of us have about technology and how things work. Often, team members have that curiosity initially, but the regular grind of work dulls that curiosity, which can lead to burnout or low performance. - John Bruggeman, CBTS
14. Attention To Metrics
IT teams have to be metric-driven. Many tools can measure a project’s or final product’s success. Some key metrics are sprint and release burndown, team velocity burndown, control charts, cumulative flow diagrams, release frequency, and delivery speed. These metrics can provide incredible insights into a team’s performance and provide measurable goals to strive for. - Nacho De Marco, BairesDev
15. Strong Collaboration
High performance can be achieved when teams have strong collaboration skills. When leaders foster an environment of trust, respect and open dialogue among team members, it becomes easier for the team to work together in a productive and efficient manner. Additionally, socializing with each other outside of meetings is the best way to build relationships and strengthen collaboration. - Sandro Shubladze, Datamam
16. Effective Teamwork
Just as in sports, an essential trait of high-performing IT teams is effective teamwork. Leaders can cultivate this by assigning roles that leverage each member’s strengths—in the same way that in soccer, playmakers pass the ball, defenders tackle and strikers score. Encourage collaboration, open communication and goal alignment to foster a united team working toward shared objectives, resulting in overall success. - Anton Abyzov, Softgreat
17. Adaptability
One essential trait of a high-performing IT team is adaptability. Tech leaders can cultivate this by fostering a growth mindset, encouraging continuous learning and embracing change. By empowering team members to experiment, learn from failures and iterate on solutions, leaders nurture an environment that drives innovation and quickly responds to industry shifts. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
18. A Culture Of Continuous Learning
Tech leaders should foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within their teams, which results in higher levels of team performance and success. They can do this by encouraging open communication and knowledge sharing; clearly defining team goals, roles and responsibilities; and cultivating adaptability, customer centricity and collaboration. - Neelima Mangal, Spectrum North
19. Open-Mindedness
Effective IT teams demonstrate open-mindedness and inquisitiveness. While we all love a reliable methodology that works, IT teams should be wary of getting too comfortable with regimented systems. As time goes by, there will always be a better, faster way of doing things, and IT teams must be completely comfortable with finding ways to challenge the status quo. - AJ Abdallat, Beyond Limits
