At the Resilience Institute, we know that the lifeblood of any thriving organization is its teams. Harnessing the full potential of your teams is essential. High-performance teams drive innovation, productivity, and sustained success. This article provides key insights into the characteristics, importance, benefits, and challenges of high-performing teams, along with actionable lessons from sports. Our goal is to help leaders build and maintain teams that drive business excellence.

1. What is a High-Performing Team?

A high-performing team is a group of individuals with specific roles and complementary talents, committed to a common purpose. These teams show high levels of collaboration and innovation, producing superior results. Key characteristics include:

• Clear Objectives: Well-defined goals understood by all members.
• Open Communication: Honest and transparent dialogue.
• Mutual Trust and Respect: A culture where team members trust and respect each other.
• Diverse Skills: A mix of skills that complement each other.
• Accountability: Members hold themselves and each other accountable.

Insights from Experts in High Performance
Follow our High Performance Series on the Resilience Podcast to listen to full interviews with High-Performance Experts.

2. Why High-Performing Teams Are Essential

Team performance determines your organization’s success. Research shows that high-performing teams drive superior business outcomes. According to McKinsey & Company, organizations with high-performing teams are 1.6 times more likely to lead in their industries and see a 25% increase in productivity (Carrier Management). These teams work smarter, foster innovation, and enhance employee engagement.

Google’s Project Aristotle revealed that psychological safety is crucial. Team members need to feel safe to take risks and express ideas without fear of retribution (AIIR Consulting). Gallup reports that companies with highly engaged employees see 21% higher profitability (Carrier Management). Focusing on high-performance teams not only improves financial results but also fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration.

“A high-performance team never stands still. It goes from one learning curve to the next one quite naturally. This means that it’s a team that doesn’t take pleasure in staying where it is and tapping yourself on the back and saying great.”

Explore the full episode and other High-Performance Series interviews on the Resilience Podcast.

4. The Benefits of High-Performance Teams

• Increased Productivity: Efficient and effective teams accomplish more in less time. By leveraging strengths and fostering collaboration, productivity soars.
• Better Employee Engagement: High-performance teams create a culture of engagement where employees are motivated, committed, and aligned with organizational goals. This leads to higher retention and reduced turnover costs.
• Innovation: Creativity flourishes in high-performing teams. Empowered team members share innovative ideas and solutions, leading to continuous improvement.
• Improved Business Outcomes: High-performance teams contribute to better financial performance, higher customer satisfaction, and a stronger market position.

5. Warning Signs Your Team is Underperforming

• Lack of Communication: Poor information sharing and collaboration can lead to misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
• Missed Deadlines: Consistently failing to meet deadlines signals deeper issues like poor planning or lack of accountability.
• Low Morale: Disengagement, increased absenteeism, and dissatisfaction indicate suffering morale.
• High Turnover: High turnover suggests the work environment is unfulfilling or unsupportive, which is costly and disruptive.

6. Measuring and Benchmarking Team Performance

Effective measurement and benchmarking are essential for monitoring team progress and identifying areas for improvement. The Resilience Institute’s Resilience Assessment provides a comprehensive view of the human experience at work, highlighting strengths and risks. This tool helps team members and leaders close gaps with targeted tools and learning resources.

• Benchmarking vs. Competition: Compare your team’s performance against industry standards to identify strengths and areas needing improvement.
• Monitoring Progress: Regularly assess team performance to track progress, address challenges, and celebrate successes.
• Leadership Intelligence: Use data from assessments to inform leadership decisions and strategies.

Key Metrics for High-Performance Teams:

• Resilience and Well-being: Understand levels of physical, emotional, mental and social fitness across the team.
• Engagement Levels: Measure how engaged and committed team members are to their work and the organization.
• Productivity Metrics: Track output and efficiency of the team.
• Turnover Rates: Monitor employee retention and turnover to identify potential issues.
• Feedback Scores: Regularly gather feedback from team members about their experiences and satisfaction.

Learn more about the Resilience Assessment

“It’s about who you have on the team.”

Explore the full episode and other High-Performance Series interviews on the Resilience Podcast.

7. Common Challenges to High Performance and How to Overcome Them

8. The Power of a Coaching Mindset for Leaders

Adopting a coaching mindset can transform team dynamics and performance. Leaders who coach their team members foster growth, resilience, and engagement.

9. Could Values Underpin High Performance?

Values play a crucial role in underpinning high performance within teams. By aligning team values with organizational goals, teams can create a strong foundation for trust, motivation, and collaboration. In my forthcoming book, Start with Values, I explore how values influence team dynamics and performance. Key takeaways include:

• Shared Values Foster Trust: When team members share common values, trust is built more naturally, enhancing collaboration.
• Values Guide Decision-Making: Clear values provide a framework for decision-making, ensuring consistency and alignment with organizational objectives.
• Motivation and Engagement: Teams unified by shared values are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work, driving higher performance.

The Navy SEALs, one of the most elite military units in the world, exemplify the power of values in driving high performance. At the core of the SEALs’ training and operations are unwavering values such as honor, courage, and commitment. These values are not just abstract concepts; they are ingrained in every aspect of the SEALs’ daily routines, decision-making processes, and mission execution. By fostering a deep sense of honor, SEALs are driven to maintain the highest standards of integrity and accountability, both individually and as a team.

Courage and commitment further underscore the SEALs’ approach to their demanding and often perilous tasks. Courage enables them to face extreme challenges head-on, pushing beyond their physical and mental limits. Commitment ensures that each member is fully dedicated to the team’s success, prioritizing collective goals over personal interests. This strong value system creates a cohesive and resilient team dynamic, where trust is paramount, and every SEAL is motivated to perform at their best. The Navy SEALs’ reliance on core values illustrates how deeply embedded principles can inspire exceptional performance and unwavering teamwork, even in the most demanding environments.

10. The Future of High-Performing Teams

The landscape of high-performing teams is evolving with advancements in technology and data analytics. Here are some key trends and innovations shaping the future.

11. Ten Tough Thresholds to Team Flow

How great it would be to be part of a high performance team? Cruising through work with like-minded good friends. Admired by the organisation and the media. It is so critical to your role that you have made it. You have arrived. You are safe. Let’s go to a workshop on high performing teams and team flow. Just what we need to get up to scratch and sort this mess out.

Not so fast. Take a moment before you sign up to examine the reality.

Building high performing teams is a long, bumpy, and tough journey. Each member has to invest thousands of hours to develop and perfect the skills they contribute. The people who develop such deep expertise are awkward, intense, and socially irascible. Cajoling the right mix of skills together involves conflict and endless patience. Finally, the team must coordinate divergent skills and styles to meet very difficult goals.

When you find your flow in the team flow, it is fulfilling and energising. You will never forget it. Successfully winning against the odds is a bonus that fires the team up for the next challenge. Your physical, emotional and mental reserves will be tested again and again.

1. The high performing team is for a hardy minority: Whether sport, special forces, entrepreneurship or business teams, only a very small percentage make it. Most of us will not accept the gruelling training, exhaustion, conflict, constant failure, risk and intensity. Your relationships and life outside of work will be diminished and sometimes broken.
2. Specialised expertise and thousands of hours of practice is an entry fee: Flow is good but it does not come from micro-dosing mushrooms. Team flow requires specialised skills that take years to develop. Each member of a high performing team contributes part of the expertise required. Plan your journey long before you seek the job.
3. Expect demanding selection processes: Organisations that understand team flow will grill you to assess whether you have the right skills for the job. Interviews can be a nightmare—confrontational, overwhelming and exhausting. They are testing your ability to perform under pressure. You will feel panic, shame and soaking sweat.
4. You will find yourself with rebellious, challenging misfits: Team flow requires diverse skills. These come with difficult people. Hyperfocus, ADHD, introversion, extroversion, risk-taking, autism and “touchy-feely” are part of the mix. Survival in this environment takes excellent self-control and empathy. Bonding into your team will test your emotional intelligence to the limit.
5. Defining shared goals and purpose is crucial: Team flow requires shared goals and a common purpose. This is much harder than individual flow. The objectives must be close to impossible. Multiple failures have to be examined in depth to find solutions.
6. Prepare for conflict, dysfunction and exits: Building up to team flow brings out conflict and frustration. At times it triggers the worst behaviours. Expect that a number of the team will leave or be dismissed. This may be you. Regulate your emotions and tolerate different—and sometimes crazy—perspectives.
7. A team leader has to emerge and drive action: Every team needs a leader. The leader focuses on clear goals and getting the right skills into the project. They will be counsellor, coach, cheerleader and bully. Once they get the team working in flow, the job requires them to step back, support and give the team autonomy.
8. Progress demands extreme intensity of focus: Team flow is radically demanding. Skills are pushed to the limit. Hyperfocus, consistency, speed, radical honesty, fast communication and flexible creativity will be in the mix. Sleep and life come later.
9. Eat failure for breakfast: High performing teams operate in ambiguous, unchartered territory. You will fail repeatedly. Things will break, money will be lost, and investors will despair. The team has to identify failure fast and generate fast, creative solutions.
10. Smart recovery and meaningful celebration: Most high performing team members fail to recognise the importance of smart recovery. You have to hack your biology to master the long hours, sleep deprivation, unrelenting pressure, conflict and crappy food. There is no perfect way to sustain your performance, but you must find a way for the sake of the team.

Dr Sven Hansen is one of those challenging misfits who has sought out team flow as captain of a winning water polo team, in a special forces team, and as an entrepreneur. He has also had the privilege of working with many elite business teams, high performance sport and professionals in leading global firms.

12. Real-World Impact of Resilience Training

Learn More

From Insight to Action with Resilience Assessment

Imagine being able to understand burnout risk at your organization before it becomes a reality. With our fifth-generation Resilience Assessment, you can. With real-time insights into your team’s well-being, you’ll be equipped to foster a culture of care and high performance. Our new “Lenses” feature enables you to view data from the lens of:

• Resilience
• Engagement
• Burnout
• Well-being

Learn More