What Great Leaders Know About Team Formation That Average Managers Miss

Many organizations still anchor their team-building strategies on technical expertise and immediate availability, often overlooking the nuanced interplay of interpersonal dynamics, adaptability, and collaborative potential that drive high-performing teams.

After coaching dozens of struggling teams across various industries, I’ve developed a framework that significantly increases your odds of success. This approach focuses on five essential elements that create teams with complementary strengths – teams that are greater than the sum of their parts.

In my experience working with both successful and failing teams, the difference rarely comes down to technical prowess alone. Instead, it’s about creating balanced teams with the right mix of capabilities and mindsets. The most effective teams I’ve encountered weren’t necessarily staffed with the most technically skilled individuals, but with people who collectively covered all five elements of this comprehensive framework.

The Five Elements Framework

Here’s how the framework works:

Skills (Balance technical and collaborative abilities)

The first and most obvious component is skills, but not in the way most leaders think about them. Effective Scrum teams need both technical and soft skills distributed across members.

While technical capabilities are essential, don’t make the common mistake of stacking your team with specialists who excel in just one area. Instead, look for T-shaped professionals – those with deep expertise in one domain but capability across multiple disciplines. These team members can flex beyond their specialization when needed, reducing bottlenecks and dependencies.

Collaborative skills are equally critical. Team members need to communicate effectively, resolve conflicts constructively, and share information openly. As one VP of Product at a financial services company told me, “We hired the best engineers we could find, but the team that delivered the best results wasn’t our most technically advanced – it was the one where people actually talked to each other.”

Commitment

Commitment in Scrum goes beyond showing up to daily stand-ups. It reflects a genuine dedication to team goals, sprint outcomes, and the continuous improvement mindset.

Look for team members who demonstrate accountability for results, not just completing assigned tasks. The best candidates show patterns of seeing things through to completion and focusing on team outcomes over individual achievements.

During team formation, explicitly discuss what commitment means. One effective approach I’ve seen is having teams create their own “commitment contract” during initial formation – a shared document outlining how they’ll hold themselves accountable for results and to each other.

A Director of Engineering at a healthcare technology company shared, “When we started measuring commitment not by hours worked but by whether the team consistently delivered what they promised in sprint planning, our entire conversation around performance changed.”

Roles

Effective teams need clear roles with distinct responsibilities. When everyone understands their primary accountabilities, teams can move faster and with greater autonomy.

When forming teams, assess whether candidates can operate within a clear role framework while still being flexible enough to support others. Look for people who can take ownership of their areas while still supporting the team’s overall objectives. Great team members understand exactly what they’re accountable for while still being willing to help wherever needed.

Role clarity doesn’t mean rigid boundaries. The best teams I’ve worked with have clear ownership areas while still supporting each other across responsibilities. As one team leader told me, “We know who’s accountable for what, but nobody ever says ‘that’s not my job.'”

Understanding of principles and values

Technical knowledge isn’t enough. Effective team members need a solid understanding of core principles, practices, and the “why” behind your approach to work.
When forming teams, assess candidates’ comprehension of key concepts like iterative development, customer-centricity, and continuous improvement. Even experienced professionals can struggle in dynamic environments if they don’t grasp these fundamentals.
Invest in training for new teams, but don’t stop at certifications. Create opportunities for deeper learning through practice. The most successful teams I’ve coached maintain a learning mindset, regularly discussing how principles apply to their specific challenges.

One CTO explained their approach: “We don’t just follow processes by the book. We make sure everyone understands why we work this way and how our framework creates value for our customers. That shared understanding has been crucial when we face tough trade-offs.”

Mindset

The final element of the framework might be the most powerful predictor of team success. Mindset encompasses adaptability, resilience, and product-centricity – qualities that can’t be taught through training alone.

Look for people who demonstrate comfort with ambiguity, openness to feedback, and enthusiasm for learning. The ability to pivot when new information emerges is essential in Scrum environments, where plans constantly evolve based on customer feedback and changing requirements.

Product thinking – focusing on customer value rather than just technical implementation – distinguishes great Scrum teams from merely good ones. Include people who naturally ask “why are we building this?” and “how will this benefit our users?” regardless of their formal role.

A Product Owner at a retail technology company noted, “Our breakthrough moment came when everyone on the team, including developers, started thinking like product people. Technical excellence matters, but it’s worthless if we’re building the wrong thing.”

Putting the Five Elements Framework Into Practice

To apply this framework when forming your next team:

Assess your current state: Evaluate existing or potential team members against all five framework components, not just technical skills.
Identify gaps: Determine which elements need strengthening. Most teams I’ve worked with are overweighted on either technical skills or process knowledge, while lacking in the other framework components.
Balance the team: Add members who fill gaps or invest in developing existing team members in weaker areas.
Create alignment: Facilitate explicit discussions about how the team will embody each framework element, creating shared expectations.
Review regularly: Use team retrospectives to assess how well the team is functioning across all five dimensions, making adjustments as needed.

A Success Story

When I helped form a product team at a healthcare technology company, we deliberately balanced team composition using this framework. The team included:

A senior developer with strong technical skills but also excellent communication abilities
A quality engineer with a deep commitment to continuous improvement who constantly encouraged the team to raise standards
A business analyst who understood their role deeply and could translate stakeholder needs effectively
A junior developer who brought strong facilitation skills and helped keep meetings productive
A subject matter expert with a healthcare background who excels at translating customer needs into product requirements

This team wasn’t the most technically advanced in the organization, but they consistently outperformed other teams by delivering high-value features that actually solved customer problems. Their balanced composition allowed them to navigate ambiguity, overcome obstacles, and maintain momentum even when facing significant challenges.

After six months, this team had delivered three major features that fundamentally changed how healthcare providers interacted with patients, while other, more technically skilled teams struggled to complete their work on schedule.

Conclusion

Forming effective teams requires looking beyond technical capabilities to create balanced groups with the right mix of skills, commitment, role clarity, understanding, and mindset. This five-element framework provides a practical approach to team formation that addresses the most common reasons teams struggle.

As you build your next team, remember that the most successful implementations aren’t about following processes perfectly or hiring the best individual contributors. They’re about creating teams that work effectively together, understand their shared purpose, and consistently deliver value to customers.

The framework won’t guarantee success – no approach can do that. But it will significantly increase your odds by addressing the fundamental team composition issues that derail so many initiatives before they even begin.

Is Your Team Ready? A Practical Assessment

Theory is one thing – practical application is another. How do you know if this framework can help your specific situation? Let’s find out with a simple diagnostic test.

Context Assessment Questions

First, take a moment to answer these questions about your current team or the team you’re planning to form:

What specific outcomes is this team expected to deliver?
What timeline constraints exist for these deliverables?
How complex are the problems the team will need to solve?
What existing skills and roles are already on the team?
What’s the biggest challenge your team has faced in the past?

Team Composition Diagnostic

Now, rate your current or planned team on each element of the framework from 1-5 (1 being a serious deficiency, 5 being an exceptional strength):

Skills: Do team members have the right balance of technical and soft skills?

Technical capabilities to deliver requirements
Communication and collaboration abilities
Problem-solving and analytical thinking

Commitment: How dedicated are team members to team goals?

Accountability for outcomes
Focus on team results over individual achievements
Drive for continuous improvement

Roles: How clear are responsibilities within the team?

Well-defined accountability areas
Clarity on decision-making authority
Cross-support across role boundaries

Understanding: Does the team share knowledge of core principles?

Grasp of iterative development concepts
Understanding of customer-centric approaches
Knowledge of quality practices and standards

Mindset: Does the team demonstrate adaptive thinking?

Comfort with ambiguity and change
Focus on customer value over just completing tasks
Openness to feedback and new approaches

Interpreting Your Results

If most scores are 4-5: Your team has strong foundations for success. Focus on maintaining and enhancing these strengths.
If most scores are 2-3: Your team has moderate risk. Identify the lowest-scoring elements and create specific plans to strengthen them.
If any element scores 1: This is a critical risk area. Address this immediately before proceeding with important initiatives.

Specific Interventions for Quality Improvement

Quality is often the first casualty when teams aren’t properly balanced. If your team scored low in any area, quality practices are likely suffering too. The hidden costs can be enormous – from rework and technical debt to customer dissatisfaction and lost market opportunities.

This is particularly true when teams lack the proper testing expertise. Without the right quality mindset and practices, even technically brilliant teams can produce disappointing results. Testing isn’t just about finding bugs; it’s about ensuring the right product is built in the right way.

Take the Next Step in Your Team’s Quality Journey

If you’re ready to strengthen your team’s quality practices and ensure that testing becomes a strategic advantage rather than an afterthought, I invite you to explore our “Software Testing Mastery” course.

Check the DEMO!

This comprehensive program is designed for busy professionals who want to transform their approach to quality in iterative, team-based environments. The course covers:

Practical, real-world testing techniques that work in fast-paced environments
Strategies for both manual and automated testing (no prior coding experience required)
Methods for integrating testing seamlessly into your development cycle
Approaches for clear communication around quality with all stakeholders
Career advancement strategies for quality professionals

The course includes hands-on assignments, downloadable templates, and access to a supportive community of practice. With bite-sized lessons designed to fit into busy schedules and lifetime access to all materials, you can learn at your own pace while immediately applying concepts to your daily work.

Learn More About Software Testing Mastery →