Teamwork

At Level 5, teamwork becomes cultural stewardship. You help define and reinforce how collaboration works across the entire organization. Your influence isn't just felt in your presence—it's embedded in the habits, systems, and mindsets that shape how others work together. You make collaboration more humane, more inclusive, and more scalable. You invest in others' ability to build great teams, and you leave behind not just strong results—but stronger relationships and norms.

Key Behaviors

  • Shapes collaboration strategy across engineering and partner functions
  • Mentors senior leaders on building healthy, high-performing teams
  • Codifies best practices for teamwork and scales them via rituals, training, or documentation
  • Ensures that inclusion and equity are embedded in team structures
  • Anticipates organizational friction and addresses it proactively

Common Struggles

  • May be stretched thin across too many team touchpoints
  • Risk of being seen as the single source of collaborative health
  • Can overlook subtle cultural regressions while focused on broader structures

Success Indicators

You know you're successful when you:

  • Leave a lasting impact on how teams form, operate, and thrive
  • Influence organizational structures that support psychological safety, trust, and inclusion
  • Develop others to lead collaboration at scale with confidence and empathy
  • Are trusted to navigate and shape team dynamics at the most complex levels

Mindset Shift

From:

"I lead collaboration systems."

To:

"I enable others to lead collaborative cultures."

Questions to Ask Yourself

  • Where am I still too central to collaborative health?
  • How do I invest in the next generation of cultural leaders?
  • What norms or rituals might need to evolve as we grow?

Build These Habits

  • 1
    Document patterns and principles others can build from
  • 2
    Create mentorship structures around team leadership and collaboration
  • 3
    Champion collaboration in hiring, onboarding, and team design

Seek Feedback

  • "Where is collaboration breaking down—and what can we learn from it?"
  • "What's helping us work well together at scale?"
  • "Who's ready to take more ownership of this cultural work?"

Signals You're Ready to Level Up

  • Collaboration norms reflect your influence even after you've moved on
  • Teams report higher trust, inclusion, and shared ownership across the org
  • Your guidance is sought in moments of strategic or cultural transition

Focus Summary

  • Mentor the builders
  • Shape the culture
  • Leave it better than you found it

At Level 5, teamwork is scale and soul. You help people do great things together—not just once, but repeatedly and sustainably.