Why Purpose Matters? A Real-Life Story

Why Purpose Matters? A Real-Life Story

About 10 years ago, our CEO, Richard Ney, witnessed something which became a key trigger for what Aldemis is today.

Richard had been brought into a large organisation (£250M+ ARR) as they faced significant business issues that were deeply impacting their bottom line. It was perceived that one of their main reason was due to one of their software teams underperforming. The quality of the software was low, releases were going out the door late and running over budget, and the team experienced an extremely high level of turnover.

Those facts were accurate, and the reason for it was apparent; the resolution was straightforward. The result was mindblowing!

The team, about 50 people across product, development, testing, release & support, was working on an end-of-life product. The software was old and complex; few new features were being worked on, and the work consisted mainly of BAU bug fixes, which were uninteresting to work on. To top it up, although it was not official, everyone knew the product was going to be retired within a few years. The team was simply unmotivated, and the performance was very poor.

After a month into the business, Richard asked the CEO and CPO if they could spare 30 minutes to talk to the team and explain where the product fit within the organisation. What happened was truly extraordinary.

The 50 people were packed into the boardroom (there wasn’t any realistic way to do it at the time), and then the CPO arrived, followed by the CEO. They spoke to the team and explained that the system was indeed a ‘cash cow’ type of product, planned for retirement within 3 years. They explained that a new product would be introduced as a replacement and that the team would transition to it afterwards.

In the meantime, the business needed the current software to remain stable, as it was generating 80% of the revenue. 80%!

They explained that most people in the office were being paid thanks to that product, and therefore, the work the team was doing to keep it stable was truly appreciated. Every time the system failed and had to be turned off, 80% of the revenue for that period was lost. It was simply the best product the business had until the replacement came in.

That view on the position of their work and its importance to the business made the team realise the extent of their contribution. They now understood why someone had to maintain that system.

The situation changed literally overnight. Turnover stopped, productivity increased, and the team became very proud of their work. They understood their purpose and value!

Of course, such a significant business problem wasn't caused solely by one team, so once the software team's issue was fixed, Richard went on to help identify and resolve many other issues within that part of the business. But that's another story...

This real-life story was a realisation for Richard, and we’re now using some of those principles (and others) to boost business productivity within our customers’ team.

Across the years, we’ve learnt some DOs and DONTs when it comes to team motivation, and we’re sharing some with you here:

The 5 DOs

1. DO: Foster a Sense of Purpose and Impact
Engineers and developers are, at their core, problem-solvers. While they enjoy tackling complex technical challenges, their motivation skyrockets when they understand why they are solving a particular problem. It's not enough to assign a ticket from a backlog; you must connect their work to the bigger picture. Clearly articulate how the feature they are building will alleviate a customer's pain point, drive business growth, or contribute to the company's mission.

Regularly share customer feedback, business metrics, and success stories. For example, instead of saying, "We need to build an API for data export," try, "Our enterprise clients are struggling to integrate their data, which is a major blocker for renewals. By building this API, you'll be directly enabling our top 10 customers to succeed and securing millions in revenue." This transforms a technical task into a meaningful contribution, giving them a clear line of sight from their code to real-world impact.

2. DO: Grant Autonomy and Trust
Once the "what" and the "why" are clear, the best thing a leader can do is step back and trust the team with the "how." Technology professionals are highly skilled experts who thrive on autonomy. Micromanaging their technical decisions, dictating specific implementation methods, or requiring constant status updates erodes trust and stifles creativity. Empower your team to make decisions about their architecture, tools, and processes.

This doesn't mean a complete hands-off approach. It means setting clear goals and constraints and then giving them the space to figure out the best path forward. Encourage debate, let them experiment (and sometimes fail), and support their technical choices. When you show that you trust their expertise, they will take greater ownership and pride in their work, leading to more robust and innovative solutions. This sense of ownership is one of the most powerful intrinsic motivators.

3. DO: Invest in Growth and Learning
The technology landscape changes at a dizzying pace. What is cutting-edge today is standard tomorrow and legacy the day after. For this reason, top tech talent is deeply motivated by opportunities to learn and grow their skills. Stagnation is a career-killer, and a team that isn't learning is a team that is falling behind. Actively investing in their development shows that you value them as professionals, not just as cogs in a machine.

This investment can take many forms: provide a budget for online courses, books, and conferences; allow "hack days" or "20% time" for experimentation with new technologies; and encourage knowledge-sharing through tech talks or brown-bag sessions. Furthermore, create clear career paths that allow for growth as an individual contributor (e.g., Staff/Principal Engineer) as well as a manager. When team members see a future for themselves at the company, they are far more likely to stay engaged and motivated.

4. DO: Protect Their Time and Focus
One of the biggest demotivators for a technical team is constant context-switching. Deep technical work, like coding or system design, requires long, uninterrupted periods of concentration, often called "flow state." Every unplanned meeting, shoulder-tap, or urgent Slack message can break that flow, costing significant time and mental energy to regain focus. A great leader acts as a "shield" for their team, protecting them from this chaos.

Be ruthless about scheduling. Question the necessity of every meeting and ensure it has a clear agenda and only the essential attendees. Funnel external requests through a single point of person (like a product manager or team lead) rather than letting stakeholders approach developers directly. Establish "no-meeting" blocks of time and respect the team's need for focus. By fiercely guarding their most valuable resource—their time—you enable them to do the deep, satisfying work they were hired for.

5. DO: Recognize and Reward Both Effort and Outcome
Recognition is a powerful motivator, but it must be applied thoughtfully. It's crucial to acknowledge not just the successful launch of a major feature but also the "invisible" work that makes it possible. This includes recognizing the engineer who spent a week refactoring complex legacy code to improve stability, the person who wrote excellent documentation that unblocked the rest of the team, or the one who patiently mentored a junior developer.

Make recognition specific, timely, and authentic. A public shout-out in a team meeting or a private message highlighting a specific contribution can be incredibly meaningful. While financial rewards are important, don't underestimate the power of acknowledging the craft, effort, and teamwork that often goes unnoticed. This builds a culture where quality and collaboration are valued, encouraging the behaviors you want to see repeated.

The 5 DON'Ts

1. DON'T: Micromanage the "How"
This is the direct counterpart to granting autonomy and is perhaps the fastest way to demotivate a skilled professional. Micromanagement sends a clear message: "I don't trust your judgment or your skills." Questioning every technical decision, demanding to be included in every pull request review, or dictating the exact way a problem should be solved strips engineers of their agency and creativity. It turns them from creative problem-solvers into typists who are simply executing someone else's commands.

If you have concerns about a technical direction, frame it as a question to foster discussion rather than a directive. For instance, instead of saying "You must use a NoSQL database for this," ask, "Have we considered the scalability trade-offs between a relational and a NoSQL database for this use case?" Trust that you hired smart people, give them the context and the goals, and let them demonstrate their expertise. Your role is to guide and unblock, not to control.

2. DON'T: Ignore Technical Debt
Technical debt is the implied cost of rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer. Every engineering team accumulates it. However, consistently forcing the team to build new features on a shaky or poorly-architected foundation is profoundly demoralizing. It's like asking a chef to cook a gourmet meal in a dirty kitchen with broken appliances. It's slow, frustrating, and the results are often subpar.

Ignoring technical debt signals to the team that management prioritizes short-term speed over long-term quality and stability. This leads to burnout as engineers fight the same fires over and over again. A motivated team is one that is allowed to take pride in its craftsmanship. Actively budget time for refactoring, paying down debt, and improving infrastructure. This shows the team you respect their craft and are invested in the long-term health of the product and their own sanity.

3. DON'T: Tolerate "Fire Drills" and Constantly Shifting Priorities
While business needs can change, a constant state of emergency or "fire drills" will burn out your team. When priorities shift daily and the project they’ve poured their energy into is suddenly de-prioritized or canceled without clear reason, it creates a sense of futility. Their hard work feels wasted, and they begin to question the value of starting any new project with dedication. This "whiplash" effect makes it impossible to plan work, maintain focus, or feel a sense of accomplishment.

As a leader, your job is to create a stable and predictable environment. Work with product and business stakeholders to establish a clear, prioritized roadmap and communicate changes with transparency and a strong rationale. Protect the team from reactive, "flavor-of-the-day" requests. When an urgent issue does arise, clearly define its priority relative to existing work. Predictability and stability allow a team to build momentum and derive satisfaction from completing what they start.

4. DON'T: Treat Them as a "Feature Factory"
A technology team is not a vending machine where you insert a specification and a feature comes out. They are your company's greatest source of innovation and problem-solving. If you treat them solely as implementers and exclude them from the discovery and planning phases, you are missing out on their most valuable contributions. This approach is also deeply demotivating, as it reduces their role to that of a "code monkey" and ignores their analytical and creative skills.

Involve your engineers early in the product development lifecycle. Bring them into brainstorming sessions, have them participate in customer interviews, and ask for their input on feasibility and alternative solutions. They often have a unique perspective that can lead to simpler, more elegant, and more technically sound solutions than what a product manager might have initially envisioned. When they are partners in solving the problem, not just builders of the solution, their engagement and ownership increase dramatically.

5. DON'T: Foster a Culture of Blame
When a production issue occurs, a deadline is missed, or a bug makes it to a customer, the worst possible reaction is to ask, "Whose fault is this?" A culture of blame creates fear, which kills psychological safety. When people are afraid to make mistakes, they stop taking risks, stop innovating, and start hiding problems instead of raising them. This is toxic to a high-performing technology team, where experimentation and learning from failure are essential.

Instead, cultivate a culture of blameless post-mortems. The focus should be on understanding the systemic causes of the failure, not the individual who made the error. Ask "What went wrong?" and "How can we improve our processes to prevent this from happening again?" not "Who did this?" When your team knows they can report a problem or admit a mistake without fear of punishment, you create a resilient, transparent, and continuously improving organization where everyone feels responsible for collective success.

Are you wondering what this means, in practice, for your business?

Contact us to discuss.