Thirteen Rules for Building Strong Teams

Great teams are not defined by talent alone. They are shaped by clear expectations, shared responsibility, and leadership that shows up consistently.

In this episode of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership, I had the great pleasure of welcoming Jason McKerr, Engineering Leader for Management and Automation at Red Hat, to discuss his Thirteen Rules of a Team.

A practical leadership framework

I first encountered these rules during a mentoring conversation with a member of Jason’s team. What struck me immediately was how practical and grounded they were.

They are not aspirational slogans. They are decision rules — principles leaders and team members can rely on when things get difficult.

My objective for this episode was simple: to have Jason explain where these rules come from and how he uses them in practice.

The Thirteen Rules of a Team

Here are Jason’s thirteen rules for team members and team leaders:

Have fun.
Do good work. Make some money.
Take care of the people who work for and with you. The team comes first.
Take care of the user or customer.
Take care of the people you work for.
Rules 3 and 4 will do most of the work here. The boss always comes last.
It is the team’s obligation to challenge its leader.
You won’t get smacked down, you’ll get more respect. Do it appropriately and respectfully. In private.
Once the leader has made a decision, even if a team member disagreed before, it is now their responsibility to support that decision externally as if it were their own.
There is no such thing as a bad team, only bad team leaders.
If the team is struggling, it is still the leader’s responsibility to make it better.
It is the team leader’s job to protect the team from the outside so they can do their work.
Don’t ever say, “That’s not my job.”
Passing knowledge on is a core part of leadership.
Teach others. Share what you know.
It is a leader’s job to push power and loyalty down, not up.
See rule number one.

Rules that guide everyday leadership

What makes these rules powerful is not their originality, but their consistency.

They:

clarify responsibility
make expectations explicit
remove ambiguity when tensions arise

Jason also explains how he reviews these rules with new team members during onboarding, using them as a shared reference point from day one.

A final thought

Frameworks don’t replace leadership. But the right framework can support it.

If you are leading a team and looking for principles that are both demanding and humane, this episode offers a clear, actionable reference.

Listen to the episode to hear Jason walk through the rules, explain how they play out in real situations, and share how they support strong, self-managing teams.

As always, I would love to hear what resonates with you.