How to disarm a defensive tech team
A defensive tech team is a team that forgot how to win. Winning is:
- Launching features, products, or services and getting fantastic feedback
- Reducing annoying work by improving internal processes and tools
- Helping the business achieve key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Solving complex technical challenges
If you push them too hard for too long, don’t provide enough vision, and keep them siloed, it’s easy to alienate them.
They become slow.
They push back on all feature requests, even those with a high business value!
Most leaders apply the wrong fix.
They put more pressure on the tech team. Stricter deadlines. More planning meetings. A project manager to micromanage them.
And it doesn’t work.
The tech team retreats more.
But there is another way. Instead of pushing, try pulling. Let’s break this concept down.
How to pull the team out of depression?
Give them a compelling vision. They need a why—a reason to come to work every day beyond the salary.
Then, remind them what winning feels like.
Reduce the amount of manual work. Fix your development environment. Automate your deployments. Look at your processes. Is there something to remove?
It’s less of a tactic and more of a mindset shift.
Set achievable goals, foster a positive culture, celebrate all wins, and the tech team will open up.
Best regards from Slovakia,
Taj