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Whether a tech team includes three or 30 members, “All for one and one for all” would likely be a great motto. A tech team needs a unifying vision to work toward and to provide focus for their innovative, creative instincts, and they won’t be able to tackle long to-do lists or ambitious new plans unless they are supported by their leader and each other.
Tech leaders who proactively work to build a culture that maximizes both individual strengths and community efforts are likely to see enhanced productivity, an ownership mentality and increased job satisfaction among their team members. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share their experience and tested tips to help tech leaders build healthy, innovative team cultures.
1. Encourage Diverse Thought
Leaders often reward behavior and opinions that mimic their own, reducing the opportunity to find the best solution. Instead, leaders should encourage diverse thought, reward employees for taking the initiative to implement and prove a solution’s merit, and reward the team based on outcomes, not perceptions. – Mika Newton, xCures
2. Connect Day-To-Day Work With A Clear Purpose
Tech leaders can inspire an innovative culture by connecting day-to-day work with a clear purpose. When teams don’t see how their efforts drive meaningful impact, motivation wanes. Leaders should regularly share the “why” behind initiatives. From my experience leading cross-functional projects, empowering teams with a clear understanding of their impact inspires engagement and risk-taking. – Xingjian “XJ” Zhang, Apex.AI
3. Equip Employees To Contribute More
Innovation thrives when a company creates a culture that elevates and equips employees to contribute more to the business and customers. When employees feel seen and supported, they are more engaged and innovative. The way leaders treat and inspire their team differentiates the company, as customers recognize the passion and mission-driven contributions of employees. – Amy Gilliland, General Dynamics Information Technology
4. Trust Your Team Members
Tech leaders undermine innovation by micromanaging and stifling autonomy, creating fear instead of experimentation. Instead, they should trust their teams, encourage calculated risks and reward learning from failure. Fostering ownership, psychological safety and collaboration empowers teams to innovate boldly, take smart risks and drive meaningful impact. – Naveen Pitchandi, Apple
5. Lead By Example
Avoid micromanaging and imposing rigid processes that stifle creativity and risk-taking; instead, enable team members to tap into the benefit of their battle-tested technical expertise. Lead by example—stay hands-on with innovation, draw from real-world experience and empower your team with autonomy and iterative learning to drive sustainable progress. – Lalit Lal, Keye
6. Give Team Members Space To Seek Answers On Their Own
Tech leaders should give their teams the space to seek answers on their own. Often, leaders provide answers and high-level direction, which can leave team members feeling diminished and nullify their ideas. The better approach is to pose thought-provoking questions that lead them to the solutions they seek. – Vibhor Kapoor, NextRoll
7. Avoid Micromanagement
Nobody does their best work with someone constantly looking over their shoulder. The magic happens when you step back and let the talented people you hired run with their ideas. When they feel trusted to make real decisions, they’ll get energized about their work and its outcome. Plus, there’s nothing like seeing your team light up when they know you believe in them. – Eric Giesecke, Planet DDS
8. Promote Creativity And Reward Fresh Ideas
Tech leaders can hinder innovation and creativity by micromanaging projects, unintentionally discouraging risk-taking and preventing the team from implementing new ideas. Instead, they must promote creativity, reward fresh ideas, provide necessary resources and encourage experimentation. A classic example is Google’s 20% rule, which led to innovations like Gmail and News—showcasing the value of empowering teams. – Namrata Sengupta, Stellar Data Recovery Inc. dba BitRaser
9. Prioritize Clear Communication
Tech leaders must do more than listen—they must act. Otherwise, their culture is at risk. Engagement surveys often reveal a top desire: Employees wish communication were better. Tech leaders must foster psychological safety, make employees feel heard and prioritize clear dialogue. Strong communication isn’t just nice—it’s the backbone of trust, collaboration and innovation that drives outcomes. – Andrew Higashi, ChangeEngine
10. Make Discovery A Core Part Of The Culture
Tech leaders can undermine a healthy, innovative team by failing to make discovery a core part of the culture. In a fast-evolving industry, rigid workflows, risk aversion and perfectionism stifle progress. True innovation requires fearless iteration and experimentation. An effective leader balances business goals with a culture that encourages curiosity and embeds discovery into the team’s DNA. – Daniel Zhang, Datacurve AI Inc.
11. Treat Innovation As A Priority
In many cases, tech leaders get caught up in the daily grind and business-as-usual activities and fail to recognize or celebrate innovation. Innovation then gets treated like a “good to have” feature rather than a quality that’s ingrained in the organizational culture. Tech leaders should embed innovation in performance metrics, rewards and recognition programs to ensure that it is always treated as a priority. – Mohit Prateek, Anakin Technologies, Inc.
12. Provide The Tools And Support Needed To Reach Goals
Leaders should empower their teams by setting clear goals and providing the tools and support necessary to achieve them. Foster a culture of trust by encouraging open communication, recognizing individual strengths and allowing team members the freedom to experiment and learn from failures. Innovation flourishes when employees feel supported and valued. – Mammon Baloch, Starlight Retail Inc.
13. Treat Failures As Learning Opportunities
Tech leaders who punish failures undermine innovation and ultimately squash creativity. Leaders should foster a healthy culture by encouraging experimentation, seeing failures as learning opportunities and praising bold ideas, whether they’re successful or not. Celebrating effort and embracing collaboration empowers teams to push boundaries and drive innovation. Trust fuels creativity and growth. – Matthew Jones, Greenhous Group
14. Recognize And Reward Innovation
Tech leaders can undermine team culture by not recognizing and rewarding innovative efforts, leading to demotivation and stagnation. Instead, they should actively celebrate successes and encourage learning from failure, establishing a positive reinforcement loop. This encourages ongoing innovation and maintains high engagement levels across the team. – Rohit Anabheri, Sakesh Solutions LLC
15. Set Aside Time For Trying New Ideas
If every moment must be spent on billable work or pushing toward a specific deliverable, then teams will never have the time and space to innovate. Creativity is difficult when your time only allows for an existing plan to be executed. Leaders have to provide flexible time in a schedule for trying new ideas. Budgeting for innovation can be done, but the spark has to be found in its own time. – Luke Wallace, Bottle Rocket
16. Try Reverse Mentoring
When initiatives ignore ground realities, they often create unproductive environments. To foster cultural change, try reverse mentoring. Just as technology evolves, so do human generations. Embracing diverse perspectives across generations, regions and languages can drive innovation. Instead of traditional mentoring, where seniors guide juniors, listen to insights from junior and mid-level team members. – Koushik Sundar, Citibank
17. Take Ownership Of Your Actions
Team culture can be severely impacted by a lack of accountability and ownership at the leadership level. It is critical to ensure that the team can trust their leader’s commitment and vision. Create an environment where leaders take ownership of their actions, irrespective of the impact of the outcome. – Farooque Munshi, Ernst and Young US LLP
18. Take A ‘Tightly Aligned, But Loosely Coupled’ Approach
During tech transformations, well-intentioned over-transparency and visibility on key metrics may cause decision-making to become too centralized and overbearing for the architectural direction, which in turn stifles innovation. The best approach for a growing global tech organization is to stay “tightly aligned, but loosely coupled,” with each value stream operating like a mini startup. – Venkatesh Jayaraman, ModMed
19. Focus On Value-Driven Tasks
A common mistake that undermines a healthy, innovative tech team culture is assigning low-impact tasks. This leads to frustration and disengagement. Instead, set a high bar, and make it visible. Focus on value-driven tasks, empower team members to prioritize impactful work, encourage skill development and recognize contributions. This fosters a positive, innovative culture. – Ramnath Natarajan, Johnson Controls
20. Foster A ‘Best Idea Wins’ Culture
Building exclusively around tenured employees while dismissing fresh perspectives from newcomers undermines innovation. When leaders only trust their inner circle and avoid acknowledging failures, it creates fear around sharing new ideas. Instead, foster a true “best idea wins” culture and openly reflect on failures to show that taking innovative risks is valued. – Marina Miller, Etsy
