Inheriting a team should feel like a promotion. Instead, it can feel like stepping into a slow-motion train wreck where everyone’s wearing noise-canceling headphones. You show up ready to lead, but quickly realize you’ve walked into a mess that no one’s been willing-or able-to clean up.
What you’re handed isn’t just a tech stack or a Jira board. You’re inheriting years of unspoken grievances, band-aid solutions, passive-aggressive rituals, and a culture that rewards survival over excellence. It’s not just dysfunctional-it’s demoralized. And now it’s yours.
This is where most leadership advice turns saccharine. “Empathize. Empower. Inspire.” But here’s the hard truth: empathy without clarity is just enablement. Inspiration without structure is theater. You don’t need motivational posters. You need tools. And a spine.
Let’s get real about what it takes.
Start With Reality, Not Reform
The instinct is to fix. You’re an engineer; systems are meant to be optimized. But people aren’t pull requests, and teams don’t transform just because you updated a process doc.
Your first job is to understand the operating system underneath the dysfunction. Who holds quiet influence? Who gave up two managers ago? What fights are still playing out in code reviews?
Don’t launch a 90-day plan. That’s performative leadership theater. Instead, audit the emotional architecture. Ask the uncomfortable questions. What have we all silently agreed to ignore? What are we pretending is working?
Start by mapping the terrain:
- Who speaks openly-and who watches them when they do?
- What topics go untouched in meetings?
- Who’s checked out, and who’s quietly keeping the lights on?
Dysfunction Is a System – And Systems Protect Themselves
No one on your team woke up hoping to underperform. Dysfunction isn’t the product of laziness – it’s the natural outcome of neglected leadership.
Every habit you’re observing – missed deadlines, passive standups, zombie sprints – is a coping mechanism. Someone somewhere gave up, and the team adapted.
Dysfunction isn’t just broken code. It’s broken context. You’re inheriting emotional residue: projects that collapsed without closure, promises made and broken, conflict swept under the rug. Every process that seems pointless likely came from a time someone felt powerless.
You cannot brute-force new norms into a system that doesn’t trust leadership. Until trust is earned, every improvement looks like disruption. Every new process smells like risk. Don’t lecture about accountability if you haven’t yet proven reliability.
Engineer Cultural Repair Before You Engineer Culture Fit
The fastest way to kill credibility is to replace half the team before understanding what broke. And yet, that’s exactly what many new leads do.
Yes, some people need to go. But that’s not your starting point. Your starting point is the question:
What would this team be capable of if it didn’t have to flinch first?
Rebuild with the people you have before hiring replacements. Avoid the hero hire trap (bringing in a “savior” too early). Cultural repair isn’t a slogan. It’s slow. It’s subtle. And it’s measurable in micro-moments:
- A developer speaks honestly in retro for the first time in months
- A junior dev asks a question they used to Google out of fear
- Someone volunteers – not because they were assigned, but because they believe
These aren’t wins you post on Slack. But they’re the foundations you build on.
Trust Isn’t Promised. It’s Measured in Predictability.
You’ll be tempted to give speeches. Don’t. Your team doesn’t need promises. They need to see if you’ll show up when it’s hard.
Say what you’re going to do. Then do it. Relentlessly. When something breaks, own it. When they deliver, recognize it. When you screw up, say it first.
Trust is cumulative. But so is distrust. If you want the team to stop hedging their behavior, you have to stop hedging yours.
In your 1:1s, go deeper:
- What’s something this team used to care about but doesn’t anymore?
- What do you think leadership misunderstands about your work?
- If you had a magic wand to fix one thing, what would you use it on?
- What’s something we’re all pretending is fine-but isn’t?
These questions disarm. They unlock the deeper emotional truths. And they tell your team: I’m here to understand, not just direct.
Quick Wins Aren’t About Speed-They’re About Signal
A true quick win isn’t about shipping fast. It’s about shifting belief.
Find the unresolved pain. The bug that’s been open for 18 weeks. The script no one touched because the last person who did got blamed.
Fix it-not because it matters on paper, but because it matters to the team’s psyche.
Quick wins can include:
- Cleaning up flaky tests
- Killing noisy bots
- Unblocking long-stuck PRs
They’re cultural signals that say: We’re not ignoring the rot anymore.
Stop Managing Energy – Start Rewiring Expectations
If your team has been underperforming for a while, don’t assume they’re lazy. Assume they’ve calibrated to survive.
The real work isn’t getting them energized – it’s changing the underlying math:
Will trying harder actually matter this time? Or will it just get me blamed faster?
Redefine what good looks like:
- Team values (that actually mean something)
- Clear definitions of “done”
- Norms for PRs, standups, retros
Then celebrate behavior over heroics. Praise thinking, not just output. Let them surprise you.
Cynicism Is a Symptom-Consistency Is the Cure
You’ll meet resistance. Engineers who’ve “seen this before.” People who’ve stopped caring because caring is risky.
Don’t fight the cynicism. Absorb it. Then outlast it.
You don’t beat it with speeches. You beat it with Tuesdays. Dozens of them. Quiet consistency beats empty enthusiasm every time.
Sometimes you’ll have to make hard calls. Letting someone go doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’re protecting the team’s future.
You Can’t Coach a System You Don’t Understand
There’s a temptation to get tactical: to run retros, tweak sprints, or copy whatever worked at your last job. But if the team doesn’t share your baseline of safety, none of those rituals land.
Before you implement, observe. Before you coach, understand. Before you teach, unlearn your assumptions.
That’s not weakness. That’s design thinking – for humans.
Manage Up Without Blaming Down
Your leadership is watching. Don’t throw your predecessor under the bus.
Give visibility into:
- The complexity you’re navigating
- The wins you’re already unlocking
- The plan for sustainable change
Set expectations early: We’re not just fixing delivery – we’re fixing culture. That takes time.
Engineer Culture Like You Engineer Code
Culture isn’t a vibe. It’s a system. And just like code, it needs structure, feedback, and iteration.
Design:
- Rituals that reinforce trust (celebrations, demos, roundtables)
- Feedback systems (surveys, 1:1s, team health metrics)
- Visual cues of change (dashboard updates, rotating leads)
Culture is just the set of behaviors that get repeated. Start designing the ones you want.
You Are Not Here to Be Liked. You Are Here to Be Useful.
Real leadership is lonely. Especially here.
Some days, you’ll be resented for holding a mirror to a broken system. Other days, you’ll be the one picking up the pieces no one else wants to touch.
But if you stay the course-if you choose usefulness over popularity, service over performance-you won’t just lead a team.
You’ll revive one.
And that is what real engineering leadership looks like. It doesn’t start with a promotion. It starts the moment you decide to stay, when leaving would’ve been easier.