In my soon-to-be 15-year career as a professional software engineer (and several more as an amateur) I've noticed that the common trait of the high functioning

In my soon-to-be 15-year career as a professional software engineer (and several more as an amateur) I've noticed that the common trait of the high functioning teams I have had the distinct pleasure to work with was always the same thing – a great leader. (In one case, there were two, working sort of in tandem.) Trying to sum up these leaders' qualities is difficult, but if I try to distill it I think it comes down to primarily these two aspects: 1. Strong vision and ability to clearly communicate direction 2. Mutual trust They wouldn't tell people what to do, and certainly not how to do it, but they'd always – every single day – point in the direction they wanted you to go and course correct where necessary. It wasn't like it was an all-hands meeting every morning either, it was more like gentle nudging or little reminders, but not unsolicited. It's difficult to explain frankly, but the result was that we as a team never felt unsure as to where we were heading. The most important thing however certainly was the mutual trust. You could trust these leaders to have your backs, no matter what, and these people would trust you to get things done. That sense of trust created an immensely palpable sense of loyalty, you really did feel like your input and efforts mattered, and you always wanted to bring your a-game for the team. Again, difficult to explain, but you know when you're in it. Not one of these teams worked like the other, in terms of methodology, yet things worked and they worked very well. We had issues, for sure, but I've also worked in dysfunctional teams and the same kind of issues in those teams were amplified by terrible leadership, leading to constantly worsening morale and in some unfortunate cases abject failure to deliver.