Running a company is not just about overseeing a team of people but it's also about really motivating and guiding everyone to move towards the same direction.
Organizations grow and expand and leaders must adapt their strategies to meet new challenges. Whether navigating the complexities of remote work, leading teams through the scaling process, or hiring the right talent at the right time, the key to success lies in understanding the dynamics of team culture and organizational evolution.
In this article, we’ll explore how companies can translate the engineering skills that work at small scale into the practices that help them grow. After all, if a small company wants to become a big one, it has to get a few key things right.
Getting From Individuals into a Unified Team
A team is fundamentally different from just a group of individuals. While individuals often default to focusing on their own interests, leadership’s role is to help people work toward something bigger than themselves. A strong team puts the shared mission, at least some of the time, ahead of personal priorities.
There’s both science and art in how leaders motivate people to align around a larger goal. One advantage is that humans are naturally social and we often want to contribute to something greater, even if we don’t always say it out loud. Leadership is about creating an environment where that altruistic instinct can come forward, where people feel part of something meaningful.
Engineering organizations, though, add another layer of complexity. Within engineering, you have different teams, skill sets, and personalities. Communication becomes critical. How do you make sure each smaller team and each individual understands the bigger direction?
As organizations grow, people hold multiple identities. For example, a team based in Texas might work alongside a smaller team in Europe. Are the European engineers simply part of the broader team, or do they define themselves first as a local unit? Geography, function, or even mindset can shape how people see themselves within the organization.
Take, for instance, the relationship between SREs (site reliability engineers) and developers. Both groups are working toward the same mission: delivering a great product to customers. But their perspectives differ. SREs focus on stability and what’s proven to work; developers push for speed and innovation. Leadership’s job is to balance these tensions and to fine-tune how local and global identities fit together, how different functional roles complement one another, and how all of it serves the business’s goals at that particular moment.
Remote Work Has Changed Things Drastically
Accelerated by the COVID-19 epidemic, one of the most important changes in recent years has been the growth of remote work. For leaders running teams remotely, the difficulty is not only about adapting to new technology but also about knowing the changing identities of their team members and preserving unified communication despite physical distance.
Before the epidemic, companies had structures that supported in-person interactions. Leaders could feel the mood of the room, catch up with team members in person, and walk the halls. Remote work has eliminated certain informal communication channels, reducing the ability to assess team dynamics.
Without those in-person interactions, it’s easy to miss subtle cues whether someone is disengaged or struggling with a particular issue. The ability to "read the room" has become far more complex. The struggle is even more apparent when comparing remote work to the dynamics within larger organizations. In large companies, employees may still be physically in the office but remain disconnected. With multiple floors, buildings, or even campuses, employees might be dialed into meetings from their desks just a few feet away from one another.
The question is: how does remote work differ from these "disconnected" in-office setups? The challenge is less about the mode of communication (in-person or remote), and more about how organizations manage and make communication effective. As remote work becomes more common, leaders must find new ways to see that communication remains strong and team identities are fostered, even in the absence of face-to-face interaction. This could include more structured communication tools, regular check-ins, and opportunities for team members to bond virtually, all while acknowledging the importance of asynchronous communication.
Small vs. Big Companies: Leadership Approaches to Scaling Challenges
A frequently asked question is whether small-company leadership tactics can successfully transition to larger companies, and vice versa. At small companies, people worry about becoming “too big” and losing their agility. At big companies, teams sometimes wish they could operate with the speed and mindset of a startup. But much of this comes down to misunderstanding the natural constraints that come with scale.
The dynamic of managing a small team versus a large organization can feel very different. A small company typically places a higher value on speed, flexibility, and the ability to wear multiple hats. Larger organizations, on the other hand, add complexity meaning more layers of management, more teams, and, in many cases, more bureaucracy.
However, the core goal of leadership is the same in both environments and that goal is to move the company forward. The difference lies in how you achieve that goal. Small businesses, particularly startups, face intense pressure to move quickly. There is often a sense of urgency to achieve product-market fit, acquire users, and meet revenue targets quickly. Leaders are expected to be highly prescriptive, setting clear goals and making sure that the team works together to achieve them. The leadership style is more hands-on, with leaders actively involved in day-to-day operations.
In larger organizations, leadership styles shift from prescriptive to facilitative. As an organization grows, it becomes necessary to distribute responsibility across a larger group. Leaders in larger companies are more concerned with enabling their teams, ensuring the proper processes are in place, and empowering others to make decisions. It's no longer just about achieving a single goal, such as acquiring customers or meeting revenue targets, but about managing a diverse portfolio of initiatives while maintaining team alignment.
Regardless of the leadership approach, the ability to scale benefits both perspectives. Small businesses frequently envy the speed and agility of larger organizations, while larger organizations seek ways to retain the nimbleness of startups. However, even in large corporations, the infrastructure and resources enable teams to move more quickly, not slower. Engineers in larger companies typically have better tools and infrastructure, allowing them to spend more time solving problems rather than dealing with logistical issues such as testing infrastructure or building systems.
For leaders, a key lever is to adjust the size and scope of the problems they assign. Breaking down challenges into smaller, more manageable pieces can help teams move faster, regardless of company size. Another powerful tool is simplifying communication. While many companies celebrate collaboration, true speed often comes from creating autonomous teams with clear, well-defined interfaces. In this sense, building a high-performing organization mirrors good software engineering: define the APIs and minimize unnecessary cross-team dependencies.
The Value of Hiring for the Future
One key theme is the importance of hiring leaders who can adjust their perspective and know which tools, approaches, and strategies fit the company’s stage and size. There’s often a bias where some hesitate to bring in leaders from large companies into startups, fearing they’ll be too rigid or process-heavy. Others avoid hiring startup leaders into big organizations, worried they won’t handle scale or complexity.
But diversity of thought is a strength. Whether someone comes from a small company or a global giant, they bring different and equally valuable perspectives. The key is that everyone aligns around shared goals and brings their unique skills together to move the organization forward.
Importantly, it’s smart to hire “ahead” and not just for today’s problems, but for the challenges the company will face in one or two years. Hiring only for the immediate need creates a vacuum down the line, where leadership lags behind growth. Leaders with experience from more advanced or larger settings can help pull the organization forward, provided they know how to adapt and apply the right tools for the job.
This also raises a deeper point: how do we evaluate what someone has truly learned over their career? Too often, hiring focuses on surface-level achievements—like building big systems or managing large teams. But the real transferable skills run deeper: knowing how to evolve organizations, how to connect business needs with technical growth, how to lead teams through scaling. Recognizing these deeper capabilities helps companies hire not just for where they are today, but for where they want to go.
The Danger of Frameworks
A common mistake in leadership is relying too heavily on one framework or set of tools. This can be particularly problematic when transitioning from one environment to another. For example, a leader from a large company might be used to operating within a set of frameworks and processes designed for scale. But those frameworks may not be applicable, or even beneficial, in a smaller company setting. Similarly, a leader from a startup might struggle to operate effectively in a larger, more structured environment.
The key to success is adaptability. Leaders must be able to interpret and adapt their past experiences to fit the current company culture and environment. This requires understanding that the tools and approaches that worked in the past may not be the right ones for today. The ability to pivot and adapt ensures that leadership remains effective at any stage of a company’s growth.
The Takeaway
Businesses need leaders who can adapt to the changes that happen. The problems you face as a manager of a small business or a big company are different but just as difficult. Leaders need to find a balance between speed and flexibility and structure and scalability. They also need to make sure that as the company grows, communication, culture, and team dynamics stay in line.
Leaders can make organizations that do well in any setting by hiring ahead of time and encouraging different points of view. It's not important to repeat what has worked in the past. Instead, it's important to change and find new ways to help the company grow and be successful.
How Solwey Can Help
Solwey is a boutique agency established in 2016 focusing on customers' success through excellence in our work. Often, businesses require simple solutions, but those solutions are far from simple to build. They need years of expertise, an eye for architecture and strategy of execution, and an agile process-oriented approach to turn a very complex solution into a streamlined and easy-to-use product.
That's where Solwey comes in.
At Solwey, we don't just build software; we engineer digital experiences. Our seasoned team of experts blends innovation with a deep understanding of technology to create solutions that are as unique as your business. Whether you're looking for cutting-edge ecommerce development or strategic custom software consulting, our team can deliver a top-quality product that addresses your business challenges quickly and affordably.
If you're looking for an expert to help you integrate AI into your thriving business or funded startup get in touch with us today to learn more about how Solwey can help you unlock your full potential in the digital realm. Let's begin this journey together, towards success.
