This post is part of a From The Archives series I am doing to move my posts over from LinkedIn. This was originally posted on October 10, 2025.
Over two decades working for organizations ranging from small non-profits to several Fortune 50 companies (including 7.5 years at Amazon), one truth keeps revealing itself: team culture is the foundation of technical and operational excellence.
The difference is stark.
Healthy teams share a common vision. They have clearly defined goals and roles. They embrace ownership, disagree constructively, and find alignment. They look around corners, communicate, and plan ahead. They develop mechanisms that earn stakeholder trust.
The result? Exceptional execution and technical success.
Unhealthy teams operate in the opposite mode—lurching from one poorly planned project to another with no articulated goals or defined roles. Communication is sparse and they don’t intentionally earn and maintain stakeholder trust. The outcomes are predictable: poor execution, employee burnout, technical debt, and a lack of operational excellence.
So where does team culture come from?
To borrow Jack Welch’s words: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Healthy team culture starts with leadership. Full stop.
As a leader, YOU are responsible for looking around corners, planning strategically, defining roles, and modeling a healthy culture of communication and trust building.
Deflecting culture-building to your subordinates is an abdication of your core responsibilities as a leader. If you aren’t actively building team culture, you aren’t really leading.
Over two decades working for organizations ranging from small non-profits to several Fortune 50 companies (including 7.5 years at Amazon), one truth keeps revealing itself: team culture is the foundation of technical and operational excellence.
The difference is stark.
Healthy teams share a common vision. They have clearly defined goals and roles. They embrace ownership, disagree constructively, and find alignment. They look around corners, communicate, and plan ahead. They develop mechanisms that earn stakeholder trust.
The result? Exceptional execution and technical success.
Unhealthy teams operate in the opposite mode—lurching from one poorly planned project to another with no articulated goals or defined roles. Communication is sparse and they don’t intentionally earn and maintain stakeholder trust. The outcomes are predictable: poor execution, employee burnout, technical debt, and a lack of operational excellence.
So where does team culture come from?
To borrow Jack Welch’s words: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Healthy team culture starts with leadership. Full stop.
As a leader, YOU are responsible for looking around corners, planning strategically, defining roles, and modeling a healthy culture of communication and trust building.
Deflecting culture-building to your subordinates is an abdication of your core responsibilities as a leader. If you aren’t actively building team culture, you aren’t really leading.