Thiago Avelino

Motivation is Personal: Leading Large Tech Teams

Posted on Oct 9, 2025

Newsletter about software engineering, team management, team building, books and lots of notes I take after reading/studying (mine or yours)… :D

Talking about motivation might seem simple to those who have never led a large team. From my perspective, running the day-to-day technology of a Brazilian startup with over 260 people, it’s impossible to ignore how motivation is diverse, fluid, and deeply personal.

Motivation on the technology floor

Nothing is more valuable than recognizing the real context of each team member. This is not just LinkedIn talk. Here at Buser, working with multidisciplinary teams makes it clear: what drives a backend engineer doesn’t necessarily inspire a frontend engineer; a product manager seeks a sense of belonging, while an SRE developer is motivated by radical autonomy.

📖 Peopleware sums up the essence of this challenge:

“The biggest mistake managers make is to assume that everyone is motivated by the same things that motivate themselves.” — Peopleware, Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

Recognizing that each person is searching for something different is a basic requirement for anyone leading technology at scale—ignore this, and you’re aiming only for mediocre results.

Leadership experience: how I personalize motivation

When I became CTO, I thought technical skills were everything. I quickly realized culture, rituals, and listening weighed even more. The real work is in understanding nuances:

In my daily routine, the feedback that brought the most development almost never came from formal meetings—but from honest conversations, over coffee, while cycling, or during retrospectives where the team risks showing vulnerability.

Discipline’s role when motivation swings

Motivation is necessary, but not sufficient. I had to adapt and learn that discipline is what sustains the journey https://avelino.run/quote/lifestyle/transformando-dores-musculares-em-amor/. Not every day is the best day to innovate, implement, or debug. From sports—and I bring this to management—I learned that routine and consistency amplify results. Early in my career, I sought motivation in the adrenaline of delivering features. Over time, I realized the true value is creating an environment where people grow regardless of the “motivation peak” of the moment.

“Projects fail not for lack of techniques, but for ignoring human factors. Motivated and respected teams avoid waste and deliver better solutions.” — Peopleware, Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

Customizing culture and goals: real startup cases

Buser’s engineering culture evolved to embrace multiple motivational styles. A few practices that have proven effective:

  • I allow engineers to propose their own challenges, rather than only accepting top-down goals;
  • Celebrating both small and big wins, creating moments of authentic recognition;
  • Giving frank feedback, including the need to reinvent processes when we notice collective demotivation.

None of this works unless the leader is willing to be vulnerable, correct course, and make room for others’ vulnerability. There’s no recipe—just trust.

References and further reading

Leading tech in a startup with hundreds of people is, above all, a constant exercise in humility, attentive listening, and adaptation. Motivation is personal, it shifts—and the only certainty is that no book or technique replaces hands-on experience with the team on the ground.