Knowing how to build a high-performing team is crucial to a company’s success. Teams build the very foundation of businesses, companies, non-profit organisations — everything!
So, how do you build high-performing teams? In short, this complex process requires strong leadership skills, effective communication, and extensive knowledge of team dynamics.
As WA’s top-rated team-building provider, we’ve spent years studying the dynamics of building strong teams. In this post, we’re sharing our insider knowledge on why effective team-building is so important and how to implement innovative, effective team-building initiatives.
What Is a High-Performing Team (and Why Does It Matter?)
Why High-Performing Teams Matter
Teams are the key to the success of organisations. Teams are dynamic, meaning they are fluid and in a constant state of change. In the last decade, we’ve seen dramatic shifts in the workplace environment, such as:
- New technologies and software
- Labour outsourcing (State of Teams)
- A growing shift toward remote work
A study of 20,000 people by Wiley found that individuals spend 60% of their time collaborating (across emails, phone, and in-person). 73% of respondents reported working with more than one type of team. This complexity demands a focus on knowing how to build high-performing teams.
You May Also Like: The Dynamic State of Teams in Today’s Workplace
What Sets High-Performing Teams Apart?
The word ‘team’ often gets floated around, but what defines it? High-performing teams are distinguished by their shared purpose, trust, accountability, and commitment to collective outcomes.
A group may seem like a team on the surface, but if you look deeper, it may just be individuals interacting. If everyone in the group has individual goals, they will assist only to the extent of furthering their progression on their own individual jobs and tasks (Lunenburg, F. C., & Lunenburg, M. R. (2015).
A true team is a group of people connected by a shared purpose or goal and committed to working together to reach that goal.
High-performing teams display these traits:
- A collective sense of leadership
- Accountability
- Shared outcomes
The Value of High-Performing Teams
High-performing teams enable organisations to succeed through a variety of measures. Research found that organisations with high-performing teams experience 23% greater profitability and 18% higher productivity (Gallup, 2024).
Strong teams also display greater resilience and adaptability to disruptions in the market, or any changing trends (Edmondson, 1999).
Other benefits of high-performing teams include:
- Increased productivity
- Improved quality of work
- Higher employee morale
- Better job satisfaction and loyalty
- Improved company reputation
The Foundations of High-Performing Teams
Operating Rhythm
“The operating rhythm is the business heartbeat, ensuring smooth operations and alignment toward goals.” — Corporate Rebels
An operating rhythm is a team’s structured cadence of activities, meetings, and communication processes that ensure alignment, efficiency, and progress toward shared goals.
A successful operating rhythm requires regular meetings, a clear information flow, and defined processes for handling tasks. A good operating rhythm promotes:
- Productivity
- Enhanced collaboration
- Individual and group accountability
- Consistency
- Flexibility and adaptability in the face of changing priorities
At Rapid Teams, we have experienced the highs and lows on this. When we have been at our very best, we have stuck to the rhythm like clockwork. In instances where we fell behind, it has been due to being too busy to do a certain meeting or pushing things out.
We’ve experienced firsthand how a strong operating rhythm is the glue that holds all the moving parts together.
Shared Purpose and Vision
A clear, compelling mission gives employees, staff members, teams, and leaders a shared outcome to work toward.
Katzenback and Smith (1993) found that the performance of teams comes down to several factors, including:
- The values they embody for their performance
- The discipline they enact in their performance
- The time invested in “exploring, shaping and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them both collectively and individually”.
This defined purpose is then translated into a set of shared performance objectives or goals. Together, the shared purpose and performance goals can elevate a team’s performance.
Key practices:
A shared purpose and vision involves the development of a mission statement unique to the team. The mission station should incorporate the overarching goals of the organisation and be:
- Specific
- Actionable
- Concise
- Inspiring
Translating the vision into measurable goals helps maintain focus and build momentum. This precise vision and purpose also helps:
- Facilitate clear communication
- Enable ‘constructive conflict’
- Define a true team compared to a group of individuals team as it “involves building commitment to the cause and to each other”
- Help the team achieve and remain accountable to the shared objectives (Katzenback and Smith 1993).
“Goals help a team keep track of progress, while a broader purpose supplies meaning and emotional energy”. (Katzenburg & Smith, 1993)
Team Culture & Environment
The Challenges: Teams face hurdles that can derail their performance, as outlined in Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. These dysfunctions include:
- Absence of trust
- Fear of conflict
- Lack of commitment
- Avoidance of accountability
- Inattention to results
Patrick Lencioni identified the foundation for building a cohesive team: Trust. Defined as a “willingness to be completely vulnerable with one another, trust enables us to let down our guard, admit our flaws, and ask for help.” (Lencioni, 2002) Trust contributes directly to a productive learning environment which defines a team’s development.
An excellent way to encourage a strong sense of trust between team members is team-building activities. View our list of our favourite Team Building Activities for Small Groups for some inspiration.
Diverse and Complementary Skillsets
One of our favourite quotes at Rapid Teams is, “Our differences are what makes us stronger”.
Diversity in experience, background, and thought fuels innovation, creativity, and problem-solving (Fernandez & Valsquez, 2023).
Roth’s Strengths-Based Leadership emphasises:
- Teams thrive when members complement each other’s strengths
- Teams where individuals focus on their strengths daily are 79% more engaged
The Process: How to Build a High-Performing Team
Team Formation Stages (Tuckman’s Model)
In the process of developing and learning together, we recommend the Tuckman model as a clear framework. This model considers the dynamic nature of teams and how they can change and shift over time.
The Tuckman model indicates five stages of team development:
- Forming – Establishing foundations, building trust
- Storming – Addressing conflicts and defining roles
- Norming – Achieving clarity and aligning on goals
- Performing – Focusing on outcomes and becoming more efficient and effective
- Adjourning – For temporary teams
Clear Roles and Responsibilities
Role clarity reduces conflict and improves a team’s efficiency by aligning individual and team outcomes. Seamlessly blending individual and team outcomes results in shared goals and increased success.
Tools like the RACI matrix and Team Charters can define roles, expectations, and accountability. Check out our blog on how to create a Team Charter here: What Is a Team Charter?
Communication and Feedback Loops
Open communication is a cornerstone of team effectiveness. In his 10 Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish discusses establishing a ‘communication rhythm’ to ensure frequent touch-points with teams.
This serves as an essential way to move information quickly and accurately through an organisation.
Establishing systems for continuous feedback and improvement is important. In systems link Agile, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives – engaging the customer and team in reflection and iterative improvement, respectively.
Harnish emphasises prioritising one-goal and ensuring everyone is aligned and on board with achieving it.
We often reference this simple equation from Verne Harnish:
Clear vision (goals) + Discipline (Routine) = Success”
In Pat Lencioni’s 4 Disciplines model, three out of the four are related to creating, communicating, and reinforcing clarity of the who, what, why and how shared objectives can be achieved.
Delineate from Mechanics and Dynamics
Teamwork is a broad brush, consisting of the technical elements of the work the team is delivering (team mechanics) and the interactions between each individual (team dynamics).
We find that many organisations focus all their efforts on team mechanics. However, team dynamics are equally important to your organisation’s success.
Team dynamics can be measured through:
- Surveys (trust, collaboration)
- Productivity tools (efficiency, task completion)
- Assessments (communication, strengths)
Tools like our Ways of Working workshop can help identify and address gaps in team dynamics. Regular feedback sessions, psychological safety assessments, and conflict resolution tracking are fundamental to improving alignment, performance, and innovation within teams.
Leadership and Team Empowerment
Leaders set the tempo for operating rhythms and team dynamics.
The best leaders understand how to balance guidance with delegation to empower autonomy.
Key leadership practices to build a high-performing team include:
- Foster an environment of trust and accountability.
- Encourage innovation by celebrating successes and learning from failures.
- Adopt leadership styles that resonate with team needs (e.g., servant or transformational leadership).
Conclusion
Investing in your team development can boost employee morale, increase productivity, increase profits, improve company reputation, and improve adaptability to change.
Is your team reaching its true potential or do they need assistance getting to the next level?
Invest in your team’s success by booking your next workshop or browsing our range of innovative, engaging team building activities and team development workshops for more inspiration.
Enquire now to book a workshop or for personalised guidance on which of our programs would benefit your team the most.
