The Leadership Playbook: 10 Rules for Building Great Teams

Great leaders aren’t just managers - they shape culture, drive performance, and inspire teams.

Here are some key leadership behaviours that separate exceptional leaders from the rest:

1️⃣ Giving Autonomy, Not Just Assigning Tasks

Weak leaders micromanage. Strong leaders empower. Instead of controlling every detail, they trust their team to make decisions and own their work. If your team needs constant permission, you’re the bottleneck, not the solution.

2️⃣ Taking Accountability, Not Just Credit

A great leader takes the blame when things go wrong and shares the success when things go right. If your first instinct is to protect yourself over your team, you’re leading out of fear, not responsibility.

3️⃣ Cutting Through Bureaucracy

Bad leaders build layers of unnecessary approvals. Great leaders remove obstacles so their teams can move faster. If your team spends more time justifying decisions than executing them, something’s broken.

4️⃣ Listening to Understand, Not Just to Respond

Real leaders seek to understand perspectives, not just wait for their turn to speak. If your team isn’t sharing problems with you, they either don’t trust you or don’t think you’ll listen. Either way, that’s a leadership failure.

5️⃣ Making Decisions with Context, Not Just Authority

Leaders who make top-down decisions without talking to the people doing the work are making uninformed choices. The best leaders stay close enough to the work to understand its realities, but far enough away to give their team space to execute.

6️⃣ Setting High Standards, But Not Perfectionism

Strong leaders demand excellence, not burnout. They push teams to do their best work but balance urgency with sustainability. If everything is “ASAP,” nothing is.

7️⃣ Challenging Ideas, Not People

Bad leaders shut down dissent. Great leaders encourage healthy debates and question assumptions. A team that agrees with you 100% of the time isn’t aligned - it’s just scared to push back.

8️⃣ Being Consistent, Not Unpredictable

A leader who changes priorities every other week creates chaos. Great leaders set clear expectations and stick to them, while still being open to adaptation based on real insights, not knee-jerk reactions.

9️⃣ Hiring Smart People - Then Letting Them Be Smart

If you’re hiring great engineers but dictating every decision, you’ve wasted your hiring process. True leaders bring in top talent and then trust them to lead in their domain.

🔟 Leading by Example, Not by Authority

Telling people what to do from a distance doesn’t work. If you expect accountability, take accountability. If you expect innovation, embrace new ideas. Your team will follow what you do, not just what you say.

The Bottom Line?

Great leadership is earned, not given. It’s about removing barriers, building trust, and creating an environment where smart people can do their best work.