Team Culture

It is a sunny Sunday, even here in Ireland. While my wife is going through articles to find her next career path, I find myself wanting to write down some reflections about a few reports I have been reading lately, and how clearly they mirror what I experience in my daily working routine. McKinsey’s State of Organizations 2026, published in May, makes something very explicit that most senior leaders already sense but rarely act on: middle managers are the primary carriers of organizational culture. They are the ones who translate strategy into daily behavior. They decide, in practice, what gets celebrated, what gets tolerated, and what gets ignored. No amount of executive messaging overrides what an engineer experiences in their one-to-ones, in sprint reviews, or in the way their manager handles failure. ...

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? ...

It’s summertime in Europe. I’m just back from my summer holidays, and I want to restart the blog with a different kind of post: my journey from Senior System Engineer to Team Leader. I’ll share how I transitioned between these roles and outline my leadership principles for the team, focusing on delivering the highest level of service to our customers while maintaining a positive working environment. This includes balancing high standards, thorough documentation, continuous learning and improvement, and, importantly, having fun, all in a fully remote environment. There’s a lot to explain, so let’s start from the beginning! ...