Too many team players result in too many meetings that decide nothing and make no progress.
yep, and to prevent that you need good team leaders.
in several companies i encouraged a regular developer meeting once a week. what i had in mind was a short meeting
where everybody said in two or three sentences what they're working on, and if they have something important which
concerns all developers, or most of them.
unfortunately it often happened that the meetings lasted way too long because several developers were giving
lengthy descriptions of the problems they had what would have
better been talked about in a team meeting with only
the people directly concerned. the others were bored, so nobody
really looked forward to the meetings any more.
i'm not a fan of hierarchies where hierarchy means power.
but hierarchies where the people with the best communication
and organizing skills moderate meetings and delegate work
are invaluable.
there are companies which try to attract applicants
by saying that the hierarchy is low (flat?). but the
more employees you have the more you need a bit of
hierarchy. only that the bosses should not be seen as
the ones who
make decisions but try to hear the
arguments of their team and lead the decision
process.
update: so i'd also say do not weight team skills
too high but also search for people who can be team leaders.
if they are good they can lead also loners into a good team.