A few months ago, I shared my story about transitioning from Senior System Engineer to Team Leader. In that post, I talked about the foundations: setting up the team, establishing routines, and the importance of documentation and collaboration.

But once the machinery is running (once the daily stand-ups are smooth and the Jira tickets are moving), a new, more subtle challenge emerges. How do you keep the flame alive? How do you ensure that your brilliant engineers don’t turn into “ticket movers,” purely executing tasks without passion or context?

The answer lies in shifting your mindset from delegation to ownership.

The Trap of the “Feature Factory”

In the tech industry, it is very easy to fall into the trap of the “Feature Factory.” This happens when a team focuses entirely on output (shipping features, closing tickets) rather than outcomes (solving problems, creating value).

As a leader, if you only hand down technical specifications (the “how”), you are effectively turning off your engineers’ creative brains. You are treating them like code compilers rather than problem solvers. Over time, this leads to disengagement. They might do the work, and they might even do it well, but they won’t care about it. And when they don’t care, quality drops, and burnout creeps in.

Context is King: Start with the “Why”

One of the principles I mentioned in my previous post was delegation. But true delegation isn’t just about assigning a task; it’s about sharing the problem.

Engineers are, by nature, solvers. They love a good puzzle. To motivate them, you need to involve them before the solution is defined.

Instead of saying:

“Please add a Trivy scan step to the pipeline that fails the build if any Critical CVEs are found.”

Try saying:

“We are finding too many vulnerabilities late in the production cycle, and manual security reviews are slowing the customer down. We need a way to catch issues automatically during the build process so developers can fix them immediately. What is the best way to integrate this into our workflow?”

By doing this, you give them context. You explain the business value and the constraints. Suddenly, they aren’t just editing a YAML file; they are solving a DevSecOps efficiency problem. Often, they will come back with a solution that is technically superior or more efficient than the one I would have dictated.

From Tasks to Outcomes

This shift leads to ownership. When an engineer helps design the solution, they own the outcome. They are no longer just responsible for writing the code; they are responsible for the success of the feature.

This is critical for high-level involvement. I want my team to feel that the project is theirs. When they feel ownership:

  • They obsess over quality: They won’t cut corners because their name is on the architecture, not just the commit.
  • They anticipate edge cases: Because they understand the “why,” they can foresee problems that a simple spec sheet wouldn’t cover.
  • They are proud: There is a massive difference between “I built what Matteo asked for” and “I designed and implemented the new Zero Trust SSH access.”

The Leader as a Spotlight, Not a Gatekeeper

If we want engineers to take ownership, we must also give them the credit!

Visibility is a huge motivator, especially in large organizations where individual contributors can feel invisible.

As a Team Leader, my job is to be the sponsor. If a team member builds a complex new integration or refactors a critical piece of legacy infrastructure, they should be the one presenting it at the company All-Hands or the technical demo, not me.

I encourage my team to write the documentation, author the internal announcements, and demo their work to stakeholders. My role is to set the stage, ensure they are prepared, and then step back and applaud. This validates their seniority and proves that their work has a direct impact on the company.

The Safety Net: Psychological Safety

Pushing engineers to take high-level ownership can be scary. What if they make a wrong architectural decision? What if the solution fails?

This is where the “Safety Net” comes in. You cannot ask for ownership if you punish failure.

To make this transition work, the team needs to know that I have their back. We validate designs together. We do code reviews. We discuss risks. If a decision turns out to be wrong, we treat it as a learning opportunity (a “Blameless Post-Mortem”), not a reason for punishment.

When engineers feel safe, they take calculated risks. They innovate. They speak up when they think a requirement doesn’t make sense. That is the level of involvement that distinguishes a high-performing team from a group of individuals just working in the same Slack channel.

Conclusion

Leadership isn’t just about managing resources; it’s about unlocking potential. By moving from simple delegation to fostering true ownership, we respect the intelligence and creativity of our engineers.

We hire smart people to tell us what to do, not the other way around. Give them the context, give them the problem, and then trust them to build the solution. The result isn’t just better software; it’s a happier, more motivated, and highly skilled team.